Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity is an adventure game by Spectrum HoloByte, based on the Star Trek universe. It was released in 1995 for the DOS and later ported to the Macintosh. It puts the player in control of Captain Picard and his crew of the Enterprise D and features traditional point-and-click adventure gameplay as well as free-form space exploration, diplomatic encounters and tactical ship-to-ship combat.
The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation reprise their roles, providing the voices of their respective characters.
Plot
While on routine patrol of the Romulan neutral zone, the Enterprise intercepts a distress signal from the crew of a Garidian scout ship, seeking asylum in Federation space. After a brief confrontation with the commander of a Garidian Warbird (similar in design to a Romulan D'deridex Warbird except with a red starburst design on the nose), the crew of the scout ship is beamed aboard the Enterprise. One of the refugees mentions to Captain Picard that they are in search of the Lawgiver's legendary "Fifth Scroll", which could aid in preventing war on Garid. Picard agrees to assist them, and the crew of the Enterprise sets out in search of clues to the location of the scroll.
After searching various star systems and completing several away missions, the crew of the Enterprise realizes that the scroll points to the existence of an enormous and powerful ancient structure, known as the Unity Device, that was created by the Chodak, an unknown alien race, during the peak of their civilization. Further investigations reveal that both current-living descendants of the Chodak, as well as the Romulans, are both going after the Unity Device. (The Klingons, the Ferengi, and the Borg also make appearances in the game, although the latter only have an appearance as a Borg Cube in a later scene.)
The storyline takes place around stardate 47111.1, according to the opening sequence of the game. This would place the events of the game between the first two episodes of the seventh season of the series, "Descent" and "Liaisons". The non-canonical Chodak race first appear in Star Trek The Next Generation Future's Past and reappear in the Star Trek video games Star Trek Generations and Birth of the Federation.
Gameplay
Gameplay is mostly linear in nature, sometimes branching partially depending on choices made during various conversations.
Enterprise
On board the Enterprise, gameplay basically amounts to waiting until the ship arrives at its next destination, and occasionally conversing with various crewmembers for advice. There are various areas of the main bridge that can be interacted with to control the ship and consult with various people.
The conference lounge allows the player to ask advice from the Garidian refugees. The Conn can be used to change the ship's destination and speed. When a mission begins destination and speed are set automatically, but the player has the liberty to visit bases, sectors and systems at will, though this will not affect anything in the main scenario. Various information on planets, alien species, and previous missions can be accessed from the Ops console, operated by Lt. Cmdr. Data. The tactical console is operated by Lt. Worf. Accessing it automatically brings the ship to red alert status. During the occasional battle with an enemy ship, control of the tactical console can be delegated to Lt. Worf, or controlled by the player.
The turbolift allows for access to other areas of the ship.
From engineering, power levels can be adjusted and resources applied toward damaged systems can be designated. Control of engineering can be delegated to Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge. Players can manipulate engineering to such a degree it is possible to cause a warp core breach or eject the warp core. In the transporter room, an away team can be assembled and an inventory chosen, though each mission has an automatically assigned away team (except on "Captain" difficulty, where the player can choose the team and equipment). On the holodeck, any previous cutscenes can be viewed, as well as a brief tutorial going over the various controls of the ship.
Away missions
The majority of the gameplay takes place by controlling an away team on various space stations and alien worlds, which is the pure adventure game part of the game. The away team is selected by the player and is then controlled in a point-and-click manner by selecting the desired command from the interface in the lower area of the screen. Items in the inventory can be used to interact with the environment in much the same way.