Mission Critical (game)
Encyclopedia
Mission Critical is an adventure game
released in 1995 by Legend Entertainment
. Though its main advertising point was the presence of Star Trek: The Next Generation
actor Michael Dorn
, he played a very small role in the game. The game also featured a leading role by American actress Patricia Charbonneau
, best known for her role in the film Desert Hearts
.
In Mission Critical, you play the sole survivor of the USS Lexington and USS Jericho, a pair of starships sent by the Alliance of Free States on a secret mission to a world far from Earth. You are the only person capable of completing the mission, and saving not only the Alliance, but thousands of star systems from total destruction.
, there is also a smaller part of the game which takes places in 2295, with the choice to have the player character go back to the original point, change history, and then travel forward again by the same amount.
The decades before the opening of the story had seen a steadily increasing number of catastrophic disasters and indications of long term trouble, widely thought to be ultimately connected with uncontrolled technological development. For example, there was extensive damage to Earth's ecology
and atmosphere
resulting from pollution
and deforestation
, to the extent that large forests no longer existed and could only be seen in old historical media. A letter that can be read in-game even makes reference to the widespread proliferation of a serious human medical issue known as "Chronic Environmental Distress Syndrome" (CEDS), but since no further details are given, it is not clear if the problem is physical, psychological, or both. Another serious issue that came about in the Mission Critical universe was that overpopulation
led to excessive reliance on wholly artificial genetically engineered food plants. The plants were immensely viable and nutritious, but crowded out natural plants. The artificial plants also had very little genetic diversity
, making them extremely vulnerable to resistant diseases. Further, there were some serious and deadly accidents resulting from unintentional releases of nanomachines, such as those intended for medical use to destroy infected tissue. Pronounced shortage of industrial raw materials, such as light metals, created an economic dependency on intentionally moving valuable asteroids inward, to stable Earth orbit, for mining purposes.
There were persistent attempts to make prototype
artificial intelligence
s that had the potential for self-awareness
, and many times the experiments brought enormous short-term benefits. This led to a widespread feeling that complete and stable success in artificial intelligence would come soon. But despite this, it was only natural that the early experimenters did not have a good idea of how to go about what they were doing. Each time one of the borderline artificial intelligences crossed the threshold of starting to become self-aware, they would fall into recursive
self-contemplation
due to inexperience. Each borderline artificial intelligence, or busy child
, developed so uncontrollable a "need" to find out new things that it was dangerous. None had any malice, but there would be little warning up to the very moment when each individual artificial intelligence became "distracted," and would suddenly forget or ignore all the tasks given to it—from the human perspective, becoming useless as though it had shut down. Historians recorded that this kind of collapse happened with a prototype artificially intelligent computer network
based in Alaska
, responsible for a large portion of U. S. air traffic control
, mostly automated by the time. Of course, the consequences were horrific. There was also a second such disaster when an obliviously philosophical AI suddenly ignored its safety responsibilities, causing a huge explosion
of the Princeton University
particle accelerator
. Also, a third and most politically consequential case was when a curious AI took remote control of an experimental computer-aided manufacturing
facility at the University of Chicago
, and began building mobile teleoperated platforms, using them to explore outward into the world. Frightened authorities assumed a worst-case scenario, not understanding that the AI was merely confused and inquisitive. Soldiers were eventually called in and the situation deteriorated, the soldiers launched an unprovoked attack on the exploration machines controlled by the AI, and then AI began to produce robots that were armed. There was a sense of terror that the situation might get out of control and so, tragically, officials responded by calling in fire from an orbiting particle beam
cannon. This huge overreaction resolved the situation by completely obliterating the University and everything inside it.
It was as a result of these kinds of events that a political climate was created with a sense of hysterical fear
that was widespread in both public and governmental circles, not unlike the Red Scare
(or any one of numerous other real life
historical examples). In this case, a sizable faction of people across the world, and also many based in locations away from Earth reached a sense of certainty that "unchecked technological development will kill off the human race". Based on this belief, there came to be a sufficient majority of United Nations
member countries to pass an international law which placed strict limits on technological growth and research - in some areas, attempting to halt it completely. It gradually became clear that the leadership of the United Nations was willing to use extremely draconian measures to enforce the law, from the genuine belief that such measures were necessary. In fact, the account, credited to the (in-game) United States Naval Institute
, refers to the measures as "brutal suppression". A military and political coalition was eventually formed among the many influential nations and other interests who came to the decision to refuse to submit to the law and to secede from the United Nations
, whose people presented an outward consensus that they would rather die than be denied such freedom. The declaration was referenced as having been made under "the Singapore Treaty." Signators included among others the US, Canada
, China
, Singapore
, Australia
, Japan
, and most major space colonies.
with a nuclear warhead. These years were called the "New Cold War," but did not signal the end of the fighting. It was merely a short break necessary to replenish the ranks and rebuild materiel
, after which the war not only began anew, but also spilled into off-world holdings. By that time, Tal-Seto jump points were discovered, allowing FTL
interstellar travel. At the point when the start of the game is set (2134), in has been over twenty years since the ceasefire was broken and the second round of fighting started.
Modern space combat involves unmanned combat space vehicles -- "drones." These drones do most of the fighting, with very little human input other than "initial decisions about how to arm and deploy the drones." The reason for this is because humans are too slow to compete with modern war machines. Drones can fly and turn while accelerating at hundreds of gravities. They all use the same basic spaceframe
, but because they are completely modular and hot-swappable, precise characteristics depend on how each has been loaded. There are equipment loads that can create the rough equivalent of fighters, slower heavy attack aircraft, and even slower bombers for attacking capital ship
s. In-game video establishes that the front-line drones used by the United States Navy
are formally known as Basilisk
-class Model RC-09 Multimission Autonomous Strike Craft, which are explicitly said to be made by Lockheed-Martin. Aside from combat between drones, capital ship
s are capable of firing missile
s at each other, but these are relatively slow and usually intercepted by the drones. Judging from the missiles which are aboard the Lexington according to the game introduction video, such missiles typically have nuclear warheads with yields on the order of 500 kilotons, which can be programmed to use any of several means to detonate. Although the Alliance enjoyed technological advantages in other areas, UN Ghali
-class drones had heavier armament and better flight characteristics, leading the Alliance to estimate, as of 2134, that they would "lose the war within five years."
It is around this time that an Alliance unmanned survey probe discovers alien ruins on a planet of Deneb Kaitos, a planet which has been named Persephone. The Alliance Interstellar Space Operations Command (AISOC) dispatches the United States Navy
's SV
Jericho
, with a special lander
called the Ariadne
, to investigate the ruins, to make first contact
if aliens are actually present there, and to locate any alien technology which might be used to turn the tide of the war. Because the Jericho is unarmed, the light cruiser
USS Lexington is assigned as its escort. As the two ships approach Persephone, they are ambushed by the UN Geneva
-class
vessel UNS Dharma
, said to be one of a brand-new class of vessels, and a particular ship that Allied intelligence had been unable to locate for several months. In a lightning assault, the Dharma destroys all the drones in flight from the Lexington, and Captain Stephen R. Dayna (played by Michael Dorn
) is left with no choice but to pretend to surrender. Knowing that the UN cannot be allowed to get their hands on the ruins, Dayna surreptitiously knocks out an officer (the player character) and leaves him behind, on the pretext that the player has been killed in the attack. Then, Dayna leaves with the rest of the crew, making it appear that they will evacuate to the Dharma by using the inter-ship shuttle carried aboard the Lexington. Executive officer
Jennifer Tran leaves behind two messages for the player. Obeying Captain Dayna's orders, Tran places an armed nuclear warhead taken from one of the ship's missiles into a compartment aboard the shuttle, and programs it so that a proximity detonation
will occur just as the transport shuttle docks, destroying the UN ship—and, of course, killing himself along with the crews of Jericho and Lexington. Dayna took this desperate action in order to buy time so that the lone survivor (the player) might be able to complete the mission before the arrival of more UN ships.
is an unnamed lieutenant
, a supply officer aboard the interstellar military vessel United States Navy
light cruiser
U. S. S. Lexington (Bunker Hill
class
, hull number
nine). In the game, the ship is involved in an interstellar war with the United Nations
.
You awaken on Deck 2 of the Lexington's habitat module, after being rendered unconscious by the captain. The only clue to what has happened is a hastily penned letter from him, which explains that you are now the only living member of the Lexington's crew and that you must complete the secret mission the vessel was sent on. Unfortunately, battle damage has produced various immediate threats (a serious hull breach in a stateroom and a meltdown
about to occur in the ship's fission reactor) which take priority.
Once those crises have been solved, the player must restore full functionality to the ship's computer, where a final pre-recorded message has been left by Lexington XO
Jennifer Tran. This last message explains the need to get into contact with higher headquarters. This requires running diagnostics, scavenging parts, then conducting a EVA
to repair the ship's communications dish. Through a minigame
the player can learn how to operate the Alliance TCS, a network of faster-than-light relay transmitters which use tachyon
modulation
as the transmission medium
. By manually choosing a path of transmission to avoid the compromised portions of the Alliance network, contact is established with an Alliance military command center
, located in a domed colony
on a planet named Erebus
, orbiting 70 Ophiuchi
.
Once the player manages to contact Erebus, Alliance Fleet Admiral Charles Decker (played by Henry Strozier), reluctantly reveals the reason for the Lexington's mission to Persephone, telling of the unknown structure there, and the need to investigate it immediately since it might contain something that would help the Alliance win the war with the United Nations. However, now that secrecy has been lost, both sides are dispatching reinforcements to Persephone. Decker knows that unfortunately the UN task force will reach the planet first and Alliance reinforcement is month away, and that since there is only one survivor, the attackers should certainly be able to destroy both Lexington and Jericho, then go to the surface of Persephone and take the prize for themselves. Holding this outcome to be a foregone conclusion, Adm. Decker orders the player character to withdraw the ship to a safe distance, and to abandon the mission rather than be killed. Choosing to obey this order will finish the game prematurely
.
Fleet Admiral Charles Decker also reveals that there's an experimental weapon aboard Lexington called Hype. Hype is a mix of nanomachines and neurochemicals that rewires the brain for an interface with the ship's computers, allowing a human to control the automated fighter drones. Without Hype, battle progresses too fast for a human to control remotely. Unfortunately, Hype has a side effect: it inevitably kills the person who uses it.
After the player manages to defend the Lexington from three UN attacks (in a tactical interface minigame
), he descended to Persephone and investigate the alien ruins. He discovered an alien intelligence, which created a portal that transported him through space and time into the future: to 2295.
The game presents two different sets of future events: the 'normal' one that follows from UN victory; the player will visit this future where he learns that the Alliance ships were ambushed, the mission was never completed, and more UN ships arrived at Persephone and destroyed the ruins with nuclear bombs. With the Alliance already on the losing side, the loss of alien technology ensures UN's victory. The war ended and the restriction on AI is finally imposed on all world.
However, decades after the war ended: a group of underground scientists on a colony called Prometheus
secretly created the ELFs (electronic life-forms)on a remote outpost. When the UN finds out this, their phobias are triggered - uncontrolled technology is becoming a threat, so they send a fleet to destroy the outpost and make sure no scientist or ELF survives. Although the outpost is completely obliterated, several ELFs manage to survive.
The surviving ELFs evolved and begin to build their own war machines with which to strike back at those who would destroy them. The humans had no chance - the ELF evolved too fast. A desperate and monstrous survival plan was put into motion: two thousand humans would be sent in a ship with only sublight engine to a star system not connected to the Tal-Seto network; the UN military command would then activate a "Tal-Seto collapser", causing the network to fold in on itself. The fold will effect everything within its radius, only the human ship will escape, and all FTL jumpnode will be severed. During this event, ELF will be trapped in their star system where they are already in and remained there forever, they knew about the collapsing node, but they can't create a solution to it if they can't connect to the "community", and more sadly: the collapse would eventually consume the entire galaxy and their entire existent will be doomed. Even if they sent their own colony ship, the collapse is creating a singularity and they can't escape. Their only hope lies in preventing these events from happening in the first place. They discovered that the ancient ruin in Persephone could be the answer.
The player agrees to help the ELF after being showed a minigame that illustrate timetravel. The ELF stated that they can only send player's memory back into the hours before Lexington entered Persephone orbit, the player's memories and knowledge are transferred back to his mind prior to the introductory events; the alternate (and canonical) storyline is then triggered.
The player must then prevent UNS Dharma from defeating the Lexington and the Jericho. Having retained all memories from the 'original' timeline, the player alerted Commander Dana about UNS Dharma and inject himself with Hype. Once the Dharma is destroyed, the alien technology found on Persephone turned the tide of the war, allowing the Alliance to defeat the UN and repeal the technology limitation law. The ELFs are created (legally this time) and are welcomed by humans as equals. In the new 2295: Earth
no longer exist - human now live on a Dyson Sphere
which has been constructed by the two races with the humans living on the inside (humans bathed in sunlight), and the ELFs on the outside (exploring space). Human are in eden. The game ended with player contemplating about the meaning of human existent, and the ELF's reach into exploring stuff that a human could never imagine to understand.
, and is canon
to the same franchise. The novel is published and distributed separately, telling a story that is separate, but with references to, events which occurred in the game.
The protagonist in the book is Lewis Tyrell, formerly an infantry
captain who led a small unit of the 'Pathfinders'. In the story, the Pathfinders were once a United Nations special operations
organization commissioned to steal prototype of the HYPE serum from an Alliance base in the Tehachapi mountains
-- but after the war they were disbanded, since the United Nations lost the war after the player's actions in the game. From this perspective, the book details Tyrell's extensive postwar adventures. These begin after he is treated like an incorrigible criminal, and sent to serve out a life sentence in a prison
located at Mare Stellatis and his attempts to escape.
AC Lexington, the ship where the game takes place, makes a cameo. The protagonist will eventually visit Persephone and the time gate seen in the game, and names such as 60 Ophiuchi, Deneb Kaitos and the Erebus base known from the game, are also mentioned. However the Alliance (who are now the government) is now painted in a poor light, showing signs of the same totalitarianism and cruelty the UN was once accused of. The book provides even more detail than the game about the history, society and politics of the universe.
-style backstory deduction from fragments of evidence found about the ship, a couple of fiddle puzzles, in-depth conversations with several characters, highly philosophical and technical conversation (is evident from its intro FMV), and (possibly unique among adventure games) a real time strategy minigame, in which the player must defend the ship from two challenging waves of enemy vessels. Certain puzzles are timed, but the time limit is extremely generous, though no easy way is provided to gauge the amount of time that has passed.
Contrary to the example set by many other games, the strategy minigame such way implemented that could pass for a full fledged game in its own right, and is seamlessly integrated into the gameplay. The battles are controlled from a tactical computer interface on the ship's bridge. There is an analogue difficulty slider (which sets the battles to win themselves on the lowest setting, if the player does not want to fight them) and a speed control slider.
The way the minigame is designed is an example of the general realism of the game overall - just as one might in real life, the relatively low-ranking player (a lieutenant senior grade, specifically a supply officer) must get authorization from command to use the tactical system, then modify the ship's systems to enable it to be controlled single-handed, then complete several well-thought out training missions (these can also be bypassed if desired) of increasing difficulty and varying strategy before being able to defend the ship proper. The attacks themselves are timed and usually occur when the player is attempting to do something elsewhere on the ship, and he must scramble to the bridge and fight them off before returning to what he was working on - this adds tension to the game once the enemy ships start to arrive.
The sense of physical reality and detail is scrupulously exact. For example, the accommodation decks make up a tiny part of the ship. Just as would be the case in real life, these decks are referred to in the game as making up the habitat module. The bulk of the ship is taken up by machinery. The machinery itself can be seen to include gigantic fuel systems, reactor and electrical spaces, weapons bays, and a shuttle bay. The accommodation areas contain almost everything one might expect, including numerous different individual staterooms for a crew complement rated at 20-25, a canteen with a minimalist recreation area, a wardroom, a sickbay, a communications shack, storerooms, and a small scientific laboratory. It is telling that because the U. S. S. Lexington is a serving front-line warship in an ongoing total war
situation which has lasted for some years, the scientific laboratory is the only part of the ship which has not been upgraded in decades. There are no accessible sanitary facilities, something of a standard in science fiction TV, games and films, however one of the staterooms on deck four, none of which can be entered claims to be "The entrance to the showers and the head". The designers were even careful to orient the habitation module such that forward acceleration of the ship would simulate gravity in the correct direction, ceiling to floor.
s are in full screen video with live actors. A few locations were evidently too complex for the 3D renderers of the period, however, and in these cases the designers used a mixture of computer generated images and highly detailed, hand-painted backdrops, with some 2D animation effects to compensate for the lack of transition movies in these parts, though the painted backdrops are of a sufficient quality not to break the sense of immersion in the game.
The game utilises stereo sampled voice and sound effects, music being provided (like many games of the era) via MIDI, although the FMV cutscenes had the music incorporated in the sampled soundtrack. The voice, sound effects and music are of a uniformly good quality.
games, Mission Critical, though advanced for its time, is somewhat difficult to run on modern computers - it requires a soundcard compatible with those of the era, offers no windows executable, weighs in on three CDs and the strategy minigame runs much too fast on modern processors. There is a way to fix most of these problems, however, all three CDs can be copied and run from a single DVD with no additional modifications as long as the directory structure is preserved, many modern soundcards offer hardware support of "legacy" devices (though certain motherboards can stop this feature from working properly), and certain programs are available to artificially slow down modern CPUs to run the game at an appropriate speed. The game can also be run easily in emulators such as DosBox
.
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
released in 1995 by Legend Entertainment
Legend Entertainment
Legend Entertainment was an American developer of computer games, best known for their complex, distinctive adventure titles throughout the 1990s....
. Though its main advertising point was the presence of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
actor Michael Dorn
Michael Dorn
Michael Dorn is an American actor, and voice artist who is best known for his role as the Klingon Worf from the Star Trek franchise.-Early life and career:...
, he played a very small role in the game. The game also featured a leading role by American actress Patricia Charbonneau
Patricia Charbonneau
Patricia Charbonneau is an American actress, probably best known for playing the part of Cay Rivvers in Desert Hearts, her first film role.Charbonneau was born in Valley Stream, New York on Long Island...
, best known for her role in the film Desert Hearts
Desert Hearts
Desert Hearts is a 1985 lesbian-themed romantic drama film loosely based on the Jane Rule novel Desert of the Heart. Directed by Donna Deitch, the film stars Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau with a supporting performance by Audra Lindley....
.
In Mission Critical, you play the sole survivor of the USS Lexington and USS Jericho, a pair of starships sent by the Alliance of Free States on a secret mission to a world far from Earth. You are the only person capable of completing the mission, and saving not only the Alliance, but thousands of star systems from total destruction.
Story and Background
The game mostly takes place in 2134, but includes numerous references to events set before that time. Due to plot elements involving time travelTime travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
, there is also a smaller part of the game which takes places in 2295, with the choice to have the player character go back to the original point, change history, and then travel forward again by the same amount.
The decades before the opening of the story had seen a steadily increasing number of catastrophic disasters and indications of long term trouble, widely thought to be ultimately connected with uncontrolled technological development. For example, there was extensive damage to Earth's ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
and atmosphere
Atmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
resulting from pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
and deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
, to the extent that large forests no longer existed and could only be seen in old historical media. A letter that can be read in-game even makes reference to the widespread proliferation of a serious human medical issue known as "Chronic Environmental Distress Syndrome" (CEDS), but since no further details are given, it is not clear if the problem is physical, psychological, or both. Another serious issue that came about in the Mission Critical universe was that overpopulation
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...
led to excessive reliance on wholly artificial genetically engineered food plants. The plants were immensely viable and nutritious, but crowded out natural plants. The artificial plants also had very little genetic diversity
Genetic diversity
Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary....
, making them extremely vulnerable to resistant diseases. Further, there were some serious and deadly accidents resulting from unintentional releases of nanomachines, such as those intended for medical use to destroy infected tissue. Pronounced shortage of industrial raw materials, such as light metals, created an economic dependency on intentionally moving valuable asteroids inward, to stable Earth orbit, for mining purposes.
There were persistent attempts to make prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
s that had the potential for self-awareness
Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals...
, and many times the experiments brought enormous short-term benefits. This led to a widespread feeling that complete and stable success in artificial intelligence would come soon. But despite this, it was only natural that the early experimenters did not have a good idea of how to go about what they were doing. Each time one of the borderline artificial intelligences crossed the threshold of starting to become self-aware, they would fall into recursive
Recursion
Recursion is the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. For instance, when the surfaces of two mirrors are exactly parallel with each other the nested images that occur are a form of infinite recursion. The term has a variety of meanings specific to a variety of disciplines ranging from...
self-contemplation
Contemplation
The word contemplation comes from the Latin word contemplatio. Its root is also that of the Latin word templum, a piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices, or a building for worship, derived either from Proto-Indo-European base *tem- "to cut", and so a "place reserved or cut out" or...
due to inexperience. Each borderline artificial intelligence, or busy child
Busy Child
"Busy Child" is a breakbeat single by The Crystal Method from the album Vegas. It is one of the group's most recognizable works, reaching #17 on Hot Dance Club Play charts, and remaining on even ten years later...
, developed so uncontrollable a "need" to find out new things that it was dangerous. None had any malice, but there would be little warning up to the very moment when each individual artificial intelligence became "distracted," and would suddenly forget or ignore all the tasks given to it—from the human perspective, becoming useless as though it had shut down. Historians recorded that this kind of collapse happened with a prototype artificially intelligent computer network
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
based in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, responsible for a large portion of U. S. air traffic control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
, mostly automated by the time. Of course, the consequences were horrific. There was also a second such disaster when an obliviously philosophical AI suddenly ignored its safety responsibilities, causing a huge explosion
Explosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. An explosion creates a shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive"...
of the Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
particle accelerator
Particle accelerator
A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams. An ordinary CRT television set is a simple form of accelerator. There are two basic types: electrostatic and oscillating field accelerators.In...
. Also, a third and most politically consequential case was when a curious AI took remote control of an experimental computer-aided manufacturing
Computer-aided manufacturing
Computer-aided manufacturing is the use of computer software to control machine tools and related machinery in the manufacturing of workpieces. This is not the only definition for CAM, but it is the most common; CAM may also refer to the use of a computer to assist in all operations of a...
facility at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, and began building mobile teleoperated platforms, using them to explore outward into the world. Frightened authorities assumed a worst-case scenario, not understanding that the AI was merely confused and inquisitive. Soldiers were eventually called in and the situation deteriorated, the soldiers launched an unprovoked attack on the exploration machines controlled by the AI, and then AI began to produce robots that were armed. There was a sense of terror that the situation might get out of control and so, tragically, officials responded by calling in fire from an orbiting particle beam
Particle beam
A particle beam is a stream of charged or neutral particles which may be directed by magnets and focused by electrostatic lenses, although they may also be self-focusing ....
cannon. This huge overreaction resolved the situation by completely obliterating the University and everything inside it.
It was as a result of these kinds of events that a political climate was created with a sense of hysterical fear
Fear
Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger...
that was widespread in both public and governmental circles, not unlike the Red Scare
Red Scare
Durrell Blackwell Durrell Blackwell The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker revolution and...
(or any one of numerous other real life
Real life
Real life is a term usually used to denote actual human life lived by real people in contrast with the lives of fictional or fantasy characters.-Usage online and in fiction:On the Internet, "real life" refers to life in the real world...
historical examples). In this case, a sizable faction of people across the world, and also many based in locations away from Earth reached a sense of certainty that "unchecked technological development will kill off the human race". Based on this belief, there came to be a sufficient majority of United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
member countries to pass an international law which placed strict limits on technological growth and research - in some areas, attempting to halt it completely. It gradually became clear that the leadership of the United Nations was willing to use extremely draconian measures to enforce the law, from the genuine belief that such measures were necessary. In fact, the account, credited to the (in-game) United States Naval Institute
United States Naval Institute
The United States Naval Institute , based at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, is a private, non-profit, professional military association that seeks to offer independent, nonpartisan forums for debate of national defense issues...
, refers to the measures as "brutal suppression". A military and political coalition was eventually formed among the many influential nations and other interests who came to the decision to refuse to submit to the law and to secede from the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, whose people presented an outward consensus that they would rather die than be denied such freedom. The declaration was referenced as having been made under "the Singapore Treaty." Signators included among others the US, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and most major space colonies.
The First Secession War
The response of the United Nations was immediate war and invasion of the seceding countries on Earth, including significant efforts to take and hold targets of economic value. Thus began the war between the UN and the Alliance of Free States, or simply the Alliance. In the midst of this were several years of extremely uneasy ceasefire caused by economic exhaustion. The period of ceasefire came because both sides reacted with shock and disbelief on finding that their fighting had obliterated Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
with a nuclear warhead. These years were called the "New Cold War," but did not signal the end of the fighting. It was merely a short break necessary to replenish the ranks and rebuild materiel
Materiel
Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....
, after which the war not only began anew, but also spilled into off-world holdings. By that time, Tal-Seto jump points were discovered, allowing FTL
Faster-than-light
Faster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
interstellar travel. At the point when the start of the game is set (2134), in has been over twenty years since the ceasefire was broken and the second round of fighting started.
Modern space combat involves unmanned combat space vehicles -- "drones." These drones do most of the fighting, with very little human input other than "initial decisions about how to arm and deploy the drones." The reason for this is because humans are too slow to compete with modern war machines. Drones can fly and turn while accelerating at hundreds of gravities. They all use the same basic spaceframe
Airframe
The airframe of an aircraft is its mechanical structure. It is typically considered to include fuselage, wings and undercarriage and exclude the propulsion system...
, but because they are completely modular and hot-swappable, precise characteristics depend on how each has been loaded. There are equipment loads that can create the rough equivalent of fighters, slower heavy attack aircraft, and even slower bombers for attacking capital ship
Capital ship
The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they generally possess the heaviest firepower and armor and are traditionally much larger than other naval vessels...
s. In-game video establishes that the front-line drones used by the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
are formally known as Basilisk
Basilisk
In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power to cause death with a single glance...
-class Model RC-09 Multimission Autonomous Strike Craft, which are explicitly said to be made by Lockheed-Martin. Aside from combat between drones, capital ship
Capital ship
The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they generally possess the heaviest firepower and armor and are traditionally much larger than other naval vessels...
s are capable of firing missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s at each other, but these are relatively slow and usually intercepted by the drones. Judging from the missiles which are aboard the Lexington according to the game introduction video, such missiles typically have nuclear warheads with yields on the order of 500 kilotons, which can be programmed to use any of several means to detonate. Although the Alliance enjoyed technological advantages in other areas, UN Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Boutros Boutros-Ghali is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1992 to December 1996...
-class drones had heavier armament and better flight characteristics, leading the Alliance to estimate, as of 2134, that they would "lose the war within five years."
It is around this time that an Alliance unmanned survey probe discovers alien ruins on a planet of Deneb Kaitos, a planet which has been named Persephone. The Alliance Interstellar Space Operations Command (AISOC) dispatches the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
's SV
Research vessel
A research vessel is a ship designed and equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel, others require a dedicated vessel...
Jericho
Jericho
Jericho ; is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently...
, with a special lander
Lander (spacecraft)
A lander is a spacecraft which descends toward and comes to rest on the surface of an astronomical body. For bodies with atmospheres, the landing is called atmospheric reentry and the lander descends as a re-entry vehicle...
called the Ariadne
Ariadne
Ariadne , in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus.-Minos and Theseus:...
, to investigate the ruins, to make first contact
First contact (science fiction)
First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient race's first encounter with another one....
if aliens are actually present there, and to locate any alien technology which might be used to turn the tide of the war. Because the Jericho is unarmed, the light cruiser
Light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
USS Lexington is assigned as its escort. As the two ships approach Persephone, they are ambushed by the UN Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
-class
Ship class
A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....
vessel UNS Dharma
Dharma
Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...
, said to be one of a brand-new class of vessels, and a particular ship that Allied intelligence had been unable to locate for several months. In a lightning assault, the Dharma destroys all the drones in flight from the Lexington, and Captain Stephen R. Dayna (played by Michael Dorn
Michael Dorn
Michael Dorn is an American actor, and voice artist who is best known for his role as the Klingon Worf from the Star Trek franchise.-Early life and career:...
) is left with no choice but to pretend to surrender. Knowing that the UN cannot be allowed to get their hands on the ruins, Dayna surreptitiously knocks out an officer (the player character) and leaves him behind, on the pretext that the player has been killed in the attack. Then, Dayna leaves with the rest of the crew, making it appear that they will evacuate to the Dharma by using the inter-ship shuttle carried aboard the Lexington. Executive officer
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...
Jennifer Tran leaves behind two messages for the player. Obeying Captain Dayna's orders, Tran places an armed nuclear warhead taken from one of the ship's missiles into a compartment aboard the shuttle, and programs it so that a proximity detonation
Proximity fuze
A proximity fuze is a fuze that is designed to detonate an explosive device automatically when the distance to target becomes smaller than a predetermined value or when the target passes through a given plane...
will occur just as the transport shuttle docks, destroying the UN ship—and, of course, killing himself along with the crews of Jericho and Lexington. Dayna took this desperate action in order to buy time so that the lone survivor (the player) might be able to complete the mission before the arrival of more UN ships.
Game Storyline
Specifically, the player characterPlayer character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
is an unnamed lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
, a supply officer aboard the interstellar military vessel United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
light cruiser
Light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
U. S. S. Lexington (Bunker Hill
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War...
class
Ship class
A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....
, hull number
Hull number
Hull number is a serial identification number given to a boat or ship. A lower number implies an older vessel. The precise usage varies by country and type....
nine). In the game, the ship is involved in an interstellar war with the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
You awaken on Deck 2 of the Lexington's habitat module, after being rendered unconscious by the captain. The only clue to what has happened is a hastily penned letter from him, which explains that you are now the only living member of the Lexington's crew and that you must complete the secret mission the vessel was sent on. Unfortunately, battle damage has produced various immediate threats (a serious hull breach in a stateroom and a meltdown
Nuclear meltdown
Nuclear meltdown is an informal term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency or by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission...
about to occur in the ship's fission reactor) which take priority.
Once those crises have been solved, the player must restore full functionality to the ship's computer, where a final pre-recorded message has been left by Lexington XO
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...
Jennifer Tran. This last message explains the need to get into contact with higher headquarters. This requires running diagnostics, scavenging parts, then conducting a EVA
Extra-vehicular activity
Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
to repair the ship's communications dish. Through a minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
the player can learn how to operate the Alliance TCS, a network of faster-than-light relay transmitters which use tachyon
Tachyon
A tachyon is a hypothetical subatomic particle that always moves faster than light. In the language of special relativity, a tachyon would be a particle with space-like four-momentum and imaginary proper time. A tachyon would be constrained to the space-like portion of the energy-momentum graph...
modulation
Modulation
In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a high-frequency periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with a modulating signal which typically contains information to be transmitted...
as the transmission medium
Transmission medium
A transmission medium is a material substance that can propagate energy waves...
. By manually choosing a path of transmission to avoid the compromised portions of the Alliance network, contact is established with an Alliance military command center
Command center
A command center is any place that is used to provide centralized command for some purpose.While frequently considered to be a military facility, these can be used in many other cases by governments or businesses...
, located in a domed colony
Domed city
A domed city is a kind of theoretical or fictional structure that encloses a large urban area under a single roof. In most descriptions, the dome is airtight and pressurized, creating a habitat that can be controlled for air temperature and quality...
on a planet named Erebus
Erebus
In Greek mythology, Erebus , also Erebos , was often conceived as a primordial deity, representing the personification of darkness; for instance, Hesiod's Theogony places him as the first five beings to come into existence from Chaos...
, orbiting 70 Ophiuchi
70 Ophiuchi
70 Ophiuchi a binary star system located 16.6 light years away from the Earth. It is in the constellation Ophiuchus. At magnitude 4 it is a typical less bright star usually visible to the unaided eye away from city lights.-Binary star:...
.
Once the player manages to contact Erebus, Alliance Fleet Admiral Charles Decker (played by Henry Strozier), reluctantly reveals the reason for the Lexington's mission to Persephone, telling of the unknown structure there, and the need to investigate it immediately since it might contain something that would help the Alliance win the war with the United Nations. However, now that secrecy has been lost, both sides are dispatching reinforcements to Persephone. Decker knows that unfortunately the UN task force will reach the planet first and Alliance reinforcement is month away, and that since there is only one survivor, the attackers should certainly be able to destroy both Lexington and Jericho, then go to the surface of Persephone and take the prize for themselves. Holding this outcome to be a foregone conclusion, Adm. Decker orders the player character to withdraw the ship to a safe distance, and to abandon the mission rather than be killed. Choosing to obey this order will finish the game prematurely
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
.
Fleet Admiral Charles Decker also reveals that there's an experimental weapon aboard Lexington called Hype. Hype is a mix of nanomachines and neurochemicals that rewires the brain for an interface with the ship's computers, allowing a human to control the automated fighter drones. Without Hype, battle progresses too fast for a human to control remotely. Unfortunately, Hype has a side effect: it inevitably kills the person who uses it.
After the player manages to defend the Lexington from three UN attacks (in a tactical interface minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
), he descended to Persephone and investigate the alien ruins. He discovered an alien intelligence, which created a portal that transported him through space and time into the future: to 2295.
The game presents two different sets of future events: the 'normal' one that follows from UN victory; the player will visit this future where he learns that the Alliance ships were ambushed, the mission was never completed, and more UN ships arrived at Persephone and destroyed the ruins with nuclear bombs. With the Alliance already on the losing side, the loss of alien technology ensures UN's victory. The war ended and the restriction on AI is finally imposed on all world.
However, decades after the war ended: a group of underground scientists on a colony called Prometheus
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
secretly created the ELFs (electronic life-forms)on a remote outpost. When the UN finds out this, their phobias are triggered - uncontrolled technology is becoming a threat, so they send a fleet to destroy the outpost and make sure no scientist or ELF survives. Although the outpost is completely obliterated, several ELFs manage to survive.
The surviving ELFs evolved and begin to build their own war machines with which to strike back at those who would destroy them. The humans had no chance - the ELF evolved too fast. A desperate and monstrous survival plan was put into motion: two thousand humans would be sent in a ship with only sublight engine to a star system not connected to the Tal-Seto network; the UN military command would then activate a "Tal-Seto collapser", causing the network to fold in on itself. The fold will effect everything within its radius, only the human ship will escape, and all FTL jumpnode will be severed. During this event, ELF will be trapped in their star system where they are already in and remained there forever, they knew about the collapsing node, but they can't create a solution to it if they can't connect to the "community", and more sadly: the collapse would eventually consume the entire galaxy and their entire existent will be doomed. Even if they sent their own colony ship, the collapse is creating a singularity and they can't escape. Their only hope lies in preventing these events from happening in the first place. They discovered that the ancient ruin in Persephone could be the answer.
The player agrees to help the ELF after being showed a minigame that illustrate timetravel. The ELF stated that they can only send player's memory back into the hours before Lexington entered Persephone orbit, the player's memories and knowledge are transferred back to his mind prior to the introductory events; the alternate (and canonical) storyline is then triggered.
The player must then prevent UNS Dharma from defeating the Lexington and the Jericho. Having retained all memories from the 'original' timeline, the player alerted Commander Dana about UNS Dharma and inject himself with Hype. Once the Dharma is destroyed, the alien technology found on Persephone turned the tide of the war, allowing the Alliance to defeat the UN and repeal the technology limitation law. The ELFs are created (legally this time) and are welcomed by humans as equals. In the new 2295: Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
no longer exist - human now live on a Dyson Sphere
Dyson sphere
A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson. Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output...
which has been constructed by the two races with the humans living on the inside (humans bathed in sunlight), and the ELFs on the outside (exploring space). Human are in eden. The game ended with player contemplating about the meaning of human existent, and the ELF's reach into exploring stuff that a human could never imagine to understand.
Book sequel
There is also a sequel paperback novel Mission Critical: Death of the Phoenix - A Novel (ISBN 0761502343) that was published in 1996 by Paul ChafePaul Chafe
Paul Chafe was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1965 and grew up in Hamilton, Ontario. He is a Canadian science fiction author who frequently publishes with Baen Books. In addition to his own original work, he has published several stories in Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars series, including Destiny's...
, and is canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
to the same franchise. The novel is published and distributed separately, telling a story that is separate, but with references to, events which occurred in the game.
The protagonist in the book is Lewis Tyrell, formerly an infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
captain who led a small unit of the 'Pathfinders'. In the story, the Pathfinders were once a United Nations special operations
Special operations
Special operations are military operations that are considered "special" .Special operations are typically performed independently or in conjunction with conventional military operations. The primary goal is to achieve a political or military objective where a conventional force requirement does...
organization commissioned to steal prototype of the HYPE serum from an Alliance base in the Tehachapi mountains
Tehachapi Mountains
The Tehachapi Mountains , regionally also called The Tehachapis, are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States...
-- but after the war they were disbanded, since the United Nations lost the war after the player's actions in the game. From this perspective, the book details Tyrell's extensive postwar adventures. These begin after he is treated like an incorrigible criminal, and sent to serve out a life sentence in a prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
located at Mare Stellatis and his attempts to escape.
AC Lexington, the ship where the game takes place, makes a cameo. The protagonist will eventually visit Persephone and the time gate seen in the game, and names such as 60 Ophiuchi, Deneb Kaitos and the Erebus base known from the game, are also mentioned. However the Alliance (who are now the government) is now painted in a poor light, showing signs of the same totalitarianism and cruelty the UN was once accused of. The book provides even more detail than the game about the history, society and politics of the universe.
Gameplay and design
Mission Critical has a varied mixture of gameplay elements, including a large number of traditional object puzzles, MystMyst
Myst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September...
-style backstory deduction from fragments of evidence found about the ship, a couple of fiddle puzzles, in-depth conversations with several characters, highly philosophical and technical conversation (is evident from its intro FMV), and (possibly unique among adventure games) a real time strategy minigame, in which the player must defend the ship from two challenging waves of enemy vessels. Certain puzzles are timed, but the time limit is extremely generous, though no easy way is provided to gauge the amount of time that has passed.
Contrary to the example set by many other games, the strategy minigame such way implemented that could pass for a full fledged game in its own right, and is seamlessly integrated into the gameplay. The battles are controlled from a tactical computer interface on the ship's bridge. There is an analogue difficulty slider (which sets the battles to win themselves on the lowest setting, if the player does not want to fight them) and a speed control slider.
The way the minigame is designed is an example of the general realism of the game overall - just as one might in real life, the relatively low-ranking player (a lieutenant senior grade, specifically a supply officer) must get authorization from command to use the tactical system, then modify the ship's systems to enable it to be controlled single-handed, then complete several well-thought out training missions (these can also be bypassed if desired) of increasing difficulty and varying strategy before being able to defend the ship proper. The attacks themselves are timed and usually occur when the player is attempting to do something elsewhere on the ship, and he must scramble to the bridge and fight them off before returning to what he was working on - this adds tension to the game once the enemy ships start to arrive.
The sense of physical reality and detail is scrupulously exact. For example, the accommodation decks make up a tiny part of the ship. Just as would be the case in real life, these decks are referred to in the game as making up the habitat module. The bulk of the ship is taken up by machinery. The machinery itself can be seen to include gigantic fuel systems, reactor and electrical spaces, weapons bays, and a shuttle bay. The accommodation areas contain almost everything one might expect, including numerous different individual staterooms for a crew complement rated at 20-25, a canteen with a minimalist recreation area, a wardroom, a sickbay, a communications shack, storerooms, and a small scientific laboratory. It is telling that because the U. S. S. Lexington is a serving front-line warship in an ongoing total war
Total war
Total war is a war in which a belligerent engages in the complete mobilization of fully available resources and population.In the mid-19th century, "total war" was identified by scholars as a separate class of warfare...
situation which has lasted for some years, the scientific laboratory is the only part of the ship which has not been upgraded in decades. There are no accessible sanitary facilities, something of a standard in science fiction TV, games and films, however one of the staterooms on deck four, none of which can be entered claims to be "The entrance to the showers and the head". The designers were even careful to orient the habitation module such that forward acceleration of the ship would simulate gravity in the correct direction, ceiling to floor.
Graphics and sound
The bulk of the game consists of 3D renderings (the entirety of the spaceship, and several other locations), presented in static screens with transitional animations between most areas. CutsceneCutscene
A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues...
s are in full screen video with live actors. A few locations were evidently too complex for the 3D renderers of the period, however, and in these cases the designers used a mixture of computer generated images and highly detailed, hand-painted backdrops, with some 2D animation effects to compensate for the lack of transition movies in these parts, though the painted backdrops are of a sufficient quality not to break the sense of immersion in the game.
The game utilises stereo sampled voice and sound effects, music being provided (like many games of the era) via MIDI, although the FMV cutscenes had the music incorporated in the sampled soundtrack. The voice, sound effects and music are of a uniformly good quality.
Technology
Like most DOSDOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
games, Mission Critical, though advanced for its time, is somewhat difficult to run on modern computers - it requires a soundcard compatible with those of the era, offers no windows executable, weighs in on three CDs and the strategy minigame runs much too fast on modern processors. There is a way to fix most of these problems, however, all three CDs can be copied and run from a single DVD with no additional modifications as long as the directory structure is preserved, many modern soundcards offer hardware support of "legacy" devices (though certain motherboards can stop this feature from working properly), and certain programs are available to artificially slow down modern CPUs to run the game at an appropriate speed. The game can also be run easily in emulators such as DosBox
DOSBox
DOSBox is emulator software that emulates an IBM PC compatible computer running MS-DOS. It is intended especially for use with old PC games. DOSBox is free software....
.