Mission Critical

The year is 2134. The earth is a war-torn, battle-scarred shell in a permanent state of interstellar war and the people aren't happy. They've been waiting for the latest version of Windows (the one that will actually do what everyone thought Windows 95 would do two centuries ago) for 13 years. By the time it comes out their P39 processor will need upgrading and they'll need to invest in another 1024MB of ram. Windows 2121 is now a bit of a joke.

(Worse, the United Nations has degenerated into an evil, repressive regime that is slowly squeezing the life out of what is left of the planet (hey, at least it's doing something!). A handful of independent states has had enough and want out. These rebels have secretly discovered activity on a far-off planet called Persephone,a mere 68 light years away, and their recent intelligence reports indicate that it could be host to an advanced civilisation. With nothing to lose and everything to gain they send out an interstellar posse to contact the planet in the hope that they will be able to supply vital technology that will help them defeat the UN. When they arrive at the planet their convoy is ambushed by the UN, who seems to have got there first. You awake to find that you are completely lost and all alone aboard a crippled ship. Bummer! Looks like it's going to be one of those days in space again.

So what's up Pussy Cat?

Well, a quick butchers at the screenshots (or a swift gander at the demo on this month's CD) should convince you that if there was an award for best looking thing on a cd, this would be a prime candidate. The svga graphics and rendered stuff is nothing short of gorgeous (Myst was never this nice), while Legend has gone to great pains to integrate the fmv footage as seamlessly as possible. The game 'stars' Michael Dorn (Mr Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation) in the lead role and while it is being hailed as a next generation interactive epic, team spokesperson Mike Verdu maintains that Mission Critical will not be yet another CD-ROMbo full of fancy graphics and window dressing: "We're particularly proud of the story in that it tries to answer big philosophical questions while also being entertaining. If bio-mechanical machines were ever to climb higher up the evolutionary scale than humans, would we try to stop them or peacefully co-exist?"

That's all very well, but just because a game is a bit 'deep' and features recognisable actors and a plot doesn't mean people will play it. So far very little has been made of the gameplay aspect, and nobody wants to waste 50 quid on a click-and-watch 'interactive movie' that occasionally asks you to tap the spacebar. Will Mission Critical be more 'interactive' than 'movie'?

Mike remains unfazed by this sudden outburst of scepticism. "It's true, there are a lot of people trying to design games and a lot of people trying to make it in Hollywood. We're from the latter group, so while there's a definite movie-like atmosphere to the surroundings, there's also enough gameplay in there to keep you happy. This is our most technologically advanced product ever." Crikey!