Has there been a space game that has come close to the quality of the sound design (those magnificent booms and cracks on impact), or the level of detail when it comes to the destruction of ship models, of Star Trek: Klingon Academy?
I never played that. Was it pretty good?
Oh yeah. Excellent, even. Live action cut scenes with Christopher Plummer as Chang, Michael Dorn as another ancestor of Worf’s (voice only), excellent space combat with capital ships that feel weighty, great use of space environments (fighting inside planetary rings!), etc. etc. It’s worth seeking out for sure. A great example of the sequel being way better than the original – even though I also love Starfleet Academy.
Sadly no, KA is still a unique gem in the genre. Still my favorite cap ship game of all time.
It is, I feel, the best Star Trek game ever made. Yes, I said ever.
Actually, no. Klingon Academy is a great capital ship space combat game (probably the best ever!), but it’s not the best Star Trek game. The best Star Trek game shouldn’t focus on combat, but rather on exploration, diplomacy, solving problems, etc. Therefore, the greatest Star Trek game ever made is obviously Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (and its sequel Judgment Rites, which is basically an expansion pack rather than a true sequel).
And yes, these are immutable truths.
I do that quite a bit in VO: here is a flowsheet I used when designing my latest (probably last) tree:
It’s kind of a Banyan. The longest thread is over 30 missions, but there is a fair bit of nonlinearity and choice-dependent outcomes. Sometimes things will go sideways mid-mission, causing objectives to change with multiple solutions (which sometimes open up entirely different ‘branches’), some missions are vague and broad, others are specific and tightly controlled, et cetera…
I have no idea if it’s best… it’s a pretty huge blind spot as I wrote most of what you see above. Parts are probably terrible (although everything was subject to peer review).
Elite Dangerous. The sound design is arguably the best thing about it.
Don’t know if they’re viewed as the coolest most epic, but I enjoy the space battles in Starsector more than most space games I’ve played.
Did anyone ever mod up and graphics and stuff for Klingon Academy or is it kinda unplayable at this point?
Still perfectly playable. On Windows 10 there was some screen flashing, but that’s been fixed (I don’t have a link handy; for this game, as a few others, I have a working installation that I copy whenever necessary). Also supports a (modern) joystick right out of the box.
The graphics are also still pretty good. I mean, no one will be fooled into believing the game was released in the last six months, but they’re good. The level of destruction is particularly impressive: you can blow holes in ship, knock of nacelles, rip wings from birds of prey, etc. etc. Excellent explosions, too.
Sure, those were good, but neither of them had Christopher Plummer or David Warner. So again, KA is the bestest.
I mean, General Chang is one of the best Star Trek characters ever.
Side note, I can barely believe that one, individual GIF exists, but I am so glad for it.
Very nice. Thanks for posting that. (Some of it is illegible though.)