Space Quest V: The Next Mutation

Superb! Brilliant! Awesome!
The fifth instalment in the popular Space Quest series seems to hit nearly perfection. That's it.

To follow a more thorough way of reviewing, let's see what The Next Mutation is all about. Roger Wilco, the accidental protagonist in the series, has moved on from his usual duties as a janitor and is one of the (worst) cadets in the StarCon Academy trying to become a captain of a starship. There's quite a leap from what he used to be, but in order not to repeat the formula endlessly, a promotion of sorts was probably the right way to go.

The game is a clear departure from the fourth game, which was basically a parody of Space Quest itself and in many ways the worst game in the series. The Next Mutation is very heavily influenced by Star Trek, most notably The Original Series, The Next Generation, and motion pictures. There are some other science fiction references too, but everything is centred around Star Trek so much that it is possible to recognise certain Star Trek episodes and even their dialogues in Space Quest V. That might make the game a bit more difficult to access for those who don't know Star Trek, but for those who do know it, and know it well, the game is a continuous stream of amusing situations and references with a Space Quest twist. There are also things lifted from Star Wars, Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and many other landmarks in science fiction.

The very starting point of the game is taken from the concept of Starfleet Academy as seen in Star Trek, as Roger Wilco is attending Star Confederation, or simply StarCon, exams. One can even spot the U.S.S. Enterprise decommissioned there, as it was in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. What follows is a combination of several Star Trek episodes, including cloaked birds of prey, beaming down to planets where a plague has killed the population, and shore leaves on space stations. Not forgetting transporter accidents, of course. All as totally laughable parodies of the real thing. Fantastic! There's no doubt that someone who knows Star Trek well is certainly going to be entertained and even gets a minor advantage on how to solve the puzzles in the game.

There is a big change behind the scenes compared to the preceding games this time. The game is not actually developed by Sierra On-Line, but by Dynamix, which may or may not be seen as the same thing, as Sierra bought Dynamix a while before this game was developed. A more notable thing is that Scott Murphy, the other half of the Two Guys from Andromeda duo, is no longer involved, leaving Mark Crowe the only active "Andromedan" developing this game. How these things are connected to the end result can only be guessed, but whatever the case may be, Space Quest V: The Next Mutation is better than its predecessors in almost every area.

That's right, almost. Some players are upset that this game doesn't have any voiceovers at all, which was the biggest innovation in the fourth game, along with point-and-click gameplay, which is of course the core of gameplay mechanics this time too. Much of the game dialogue is shown as comic-style speech bubbles, which works fine, but those who prefer to have actual audio with actors probably see this as a step back in game evolution.

Otherwise the game is a giant leap forward. Whether one prefers self-centred parody like in the fourth game or having clear reference points in outside material is a thing to be argued endlessly, but parodying known science fiction franchises seems to work much better – at least the end result is much funnier like this. The game has gotten rid of annoying deaths too. The keyword being annoying. There are actually more ways to die in the game than in the previous game, or in some of the first games combined, but deaths are mostly well motivated and fit the plot, and in many cases either give a fair warning or even give the player some time to react and avoid what in some earlier games would have been inevitable. Very good!

There are some minigames that provide some change to simply pointing and clicking. Among the best ones, although some might find it annoying too, is a sequence where the protagonist needs to pilot a space pod trying to retrieve a crew member floating out in space, very much like was seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unfortunately there are some bad design choices too, which keep the game a step away from perfection. Among these is a keycard puzzle, where the player is supposed to find out how a lock works, even before realising that such a thing is necessary at all. Another thing to complain about is a multi-deck maze inside a spaceship that not only is annoying and unnecessary but also breaks the flow of the game, which was up to that point great with a perfect mixture of humour and Star Trek adventure.

The weakest point of the game is, as usual, the plot. None of the games in the series have had a great plot, some had barely any at all, and while The Next Mutation is probably the best attempt to create one so far, it leaves a lot to be desired. Some parts of it were locked in with the ending of the previous game, some other parts are just excuses to go from one Star Trek parody scene to another, and in the end the resolution doesn't really explain what just happened and why certain things developed the way they did. Given how the game series has been all over the place, and the fifth instalment mixing the soup even further with new ingredients, the story holds together surprisingly well nonetheless.

If one wants to criticise just for the sake of doing it, there are some things which don't quite match up. For instance, the visual side in the game is influenced by Star Trek: The Next Generation, and one can see LCARS-styled computer displays in the game. But many of the audio elements are actually taken from Star Trek: The Original Series, such as opening and closing door sounds. This can be intentional for sure, but focusing more on one incarnation of Star Trek might have made the game feel, in a certain sense, better. Like when somebody is commenting on Roger Wilco wearing a red shirt on an alien planet, that works only in the TOS context, as the colour scheme for uniforms is different in TNG. But that is small and probably useless nitpicking. Anyone who knows the subject matter deeply enough to notice probably also chooses not to care and just laughs it off. Everyone else is probably not getting the joke anyway.

Space Quest V: The Next Mutation seems to combine most of the good points in earlier Space Quest games and drop out many things that didn't work. It's impossible to please everyone, but anyone who likes science fiction parodies or has enjoyed playing the earlier games in the Space Quest series should like Space Quest V a lot too. The developers have crafted the game in such a fine way that there's lots to see and do. Those who are heavily into science fiction will be ecstatic to find out about Space Quest counterparts of Harry Mudd and tribbles, as well as line-by-line replicated situations from Star Trek. Even people who are not consuming much science fiction might like the game simply as a collection of absurd situations. It's very hard to find reasons not to recommend this game to everyone who likes adventure games. It's not perfect, but it comes very close.

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