Star Trek™: Hidden Evil

If you're a Star Trek fan and enjoy (or don't mind) tank controls, fixed camera angles, and an occasionally creepy vibe that are reminiscent of the early Resident Evil games, Hidden Evil is definitely worth a look. It's accessible to non-fans, too, but probably not as appealing. The game takes place after the events of the film Star Trek: Insurrection. Although the story could be improved (especially toward the end), the attention to continuity is definitely there. The sound effects, music, and dialogue all feel authentically Trek. Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and several other Star Trek actors such as Salome Jens and Greg Ellis lend their voice talents to the game. Plenty of little details, from Picard tugging on his jacket in a cutscene to the fact that the main menu looks like a tricorder, further enhance the Trek feel. As far as gameplay is concerned, it's a good mix of combat and puzzle-adventuring. Combat is really clunky due to the sluggish tank controls and a slow rate of fire, but that's balanced out by auto-aiming, well-paced health refills (which can be saved for later), enemies that usually don't hit too hard, frequent opportunities to avoid combat altogether if you're clever, and the ability to save anywhere. The puzzle-adventure elements are varied, decently intuitive, and well suited to a Trek game; my favorites are a mundane steam vent puzzle with a truly inspired solution, and the mission where you liberally administer Vulcan neck pinches while cloaked. The graphics are very much a product of their time, and the keyboard-only controls aren't configurable, so there might be an adjustment period if you're used to more modern games. The biggest issue is that the game is prone to hard crashes. I was booted out to the desktop two or three times when ending a mission, and my entire computer froze at one point during normal gameplay. Overall, I'm willing to put up with the rough edges because this is very much what I want out of a Star Trek game.

as a big fan of presto studios, (the journeyman series and myst 3 exile), and a massive star trek fan i thought this game would be right up my alley. Nope. But on the positive side i'd say that the game ties a bit into deeper star trek lore a bit. which shows a bit of love for the franchise. Team GOG did a great job getting this thing to work on modern systems although i did have one crash to desktop. Its voiced by the original actors. On the bad side, tank controls but the auto aim walks this back a bit. very little help in the way of controls, had to google to progress past the tutorial. very short story (mixed blessing tbh) uninspired plot, characters and motivations. Voice lines are purely fuctional. If this game were food, it'd be a large brick of unseasoned tofu. Its really boring. I played to the end but i really dont know why. At the end of the day this is a tie-in game and probably didn't get the budget or time the game deserved- like all tie in games.

Old-school Resident Evil style controls and gameplay but more of a "proper" Adventure game than Resi is. Story's okay. Well voice-acted, especially Stewart and Spiner. Short, about 4-5 hours. Ending's a bit dumb, but that's okay. I enjoyed it overall.

I used to have this game on CD rom (funnily enough I think I claimed it free through a breakfast cereal promotion or similar). Although I haven't played it for a long time I recall being disappointed by the length of the game, especially compared to other Trek titles like A Final Unity and the Elite Force games. This feels like a side note and not really finished properly. I also recall finding the final stage of the game being very frustrating as you run through random generated corridors and have to shoot enemies with a phaser. The point of view is a fixed camera off to the side at an angle where you can see Data at one end of the corridor and the enemy at the other and it's extremely difficult to judge the angle you need to fire at to hit them. In my view this would only be worth purchasing at a large discount even if you are a big STTNG fan like I am.