Mission Critical is a first-person graphic adventure. It is 2134, and the human race has been at war for 50 years since the Alliance declared independence from the stifling rule of the UN and its anti-technology policies. The Alliance is losing the war to the UN's greater numbers, but recently, Alliance scientists discovered an alien artifact on the planet Persephone. You are onboard the USS Lexington on its top-secret mission to investigate the artifact, and hopefully change the course of the war to the Alliance's favor. But the UN's spies are everywhere, and before the introductory movie is over, the Lexington has been ambushed and Captain Dayna has been forced to sacrifice almost the entire crew of the Lexington to destroy the attacking cruiser Dharma, leaving only you behind, unconscious.
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Mission Critical is a first person point and click adventure with some minor RTS gameplay and a more hard science fiction focus and more logically designed puzzles. In the year 2134 you are part of an Alliance fleet who are in a war against the United Nations and are the last person on your ship after being knocked out by your Captain (Michael Dorn) after they surrender to an enemy ship and blow it and themselves up in the transport shuttle. It might initially be assumed that a primarily US lead Alliance of factions that have seceded from the UN due to the limitations placed on unrestricted AI research stating they would rather everyone die than limit freedom and research progress, and who just killed everyone by suicide bomb after their surrender was accepted after they invoked the Geneva Conventions while discussing the treatment of their crew, would probably put you firmly on the side of obvious bad guys, but the guide book that comes with the game (on GOG at least, don't know what was in the original game box) details the last 115 years of history of the UNs dealing with third world countries, population control, use of security forces, and nuking Atlanta and you can find a short narrative version of the history of the conflict on your ship narrated by Dorn, though you do find some of the negative view of your side and what banned research has created through some of the crew notes you can find.
You are left to attempt to repair the ship and to finish the mission of exploring an alien ruin which leads to you getting involved in events bigger than the war as your actions can save humanity and the galaxy as well as having your exploration on your ship reveal more about your crew and a spy that was on board. When you wake up you soon find a message left for you by the ship's second in command and notes from the captain that give you some guidance and codes to bypass locked doors into crew quarters, you also have the ship's messages telling you that you should probably deal with the hull breach on your current level.
The interface is simple and works well. You click on things to interact with them and to be given new options related to the object and can move by clicking when you have a forward arrow to advance or one to turn left or right. Moving has your character walking in first person to the next spot but clicking again will speed through the animation so you don't have to watch your character slowly walk through a corridor again and again if you are backtracking. Mousing over something in the environment can give you text near the bottom center of the screen that tells you what is is called or more information about it, and trying to interact with a screen to get a message to play might leave you with the helpful hint on that same text screen to interact with the nearby control panel instead, this helping to avoid pixel hunting or accidentally thinking that you can't do anything with a useful object.
The music is good throughout and it looks good for the time and fine now with one of the more important part of the look being that it is never an issue when it comes to finding things you can interact with. You can create as many save games as you want at a time when a lot of games were more limited in that regard. The minor RTS elements have you controlling drones against the drones of enemy ships in a 3D space battle with a unique look to it for the genre, though this is a minor part of the game and can basically be skipped with a difficulty setting that pops up and allows you to set it to being fully controlled by the computer if you aren't interested in that aspect.
Once you get off your ship things tend to start moving quickly, puzzles become more obvious and the areas you can travel to more limited. You also enter a much more dialogue heavy portion of the game where you aren't doing as much, the plot takes on more fantasy elements, and your interactions on the planet until the games end all seem a bit rushed. You also don't get to see that much of any of the actors, so those interested in seeing Michael Dorn's role aren't going to get much out of that element.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1738936486836494804
You are left to attempt to repair the ship and to finish the mission of exploring an alien ruin which leads to you getting involved in events bigger than the war as your actions can save humanity and the galaxy as well as having your exploration on your ship reveal more about your crew and a spy that was on board. When you wake up you soon find a message left for you by the ship's second in command and notes from the captain that give you some guidance and codes to bypass locked doors into crew quarters, you also have the ship's messages telling you that you should probably deal with the hull breach on your current level.
The interface is simple and works well. You click on things to interact with them and to be given new options related to the object and can move by clicking when you have a forward arrow to advance or one to turn left or right. Moving has your character walking in first person to the next spot but clicking again will speed through the animation so you don't have to watch your character slowly walk through a corridor again and again if you are backtracking. Mousing over something in the environment can give you text near the bottom center of the screen that tells you what is is called or more information about it, and trying to interact with a screen to get a message to play might leave you with the helpful hint on that same text screen to interact with the nearby control panel instead, this helping to avoid pixel hunting or accidentally thinking that you can't do anything with a useful object.
The music is good throughout and it looks good for the time and fine now with one of the more important part of the look being that it is never an issue when it comes to finding things you can interact with. You can create as many save games as you want at a time when a lot of games were more limited in that regard. The minor RTS elements have you controlling drones against the drones of enemy ships in a 3D space battle with a unique look to it for the genre, though this is a minor part of the game and can basically be skipped with a difficulty setting that pops up and allows you to set it to being fully controlled by the computer if you aren't interested in that aspect.
Once you get off your ship things tend to start moving quickly, puzzles become more obvious and the areas you can travel to more limited. You also enter a much more dialogue heavy portion of the game where you aren't doing as much, the plot takes on more fantasy elements, and your interactions on the planet until the games end all seem a bit rushed. You also don't get to see that much of any of the actors, so those interested in seeing Michael Dorn's role aren't going to get much out of that element.
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1738936486836494804