The Daedalus Encounter

Story

The game follows a trio of Space Marines who have fought in an interstellar war: Casey (the player character), Ari (Tia Carrere) and Zack (Christian Bocher). The game begins when Casey is brought back to life by his partners. After a terrible accident in space, Casey's body has been irreparably damaged and he is now just a brain implanted in a life support system on their spaceship. The player can interact with the world through a small remote-controlled flying probe that is launched from the ship shortly after the game begins. In this new form, Casey has limited ability to interact with his environment. He can only communicate through a yes/no interface and by emitting light pulses. When Casey awakens, he learns that the war is over and that Ari and Zack aboard their ship, the Artemis, have become pirates, stealing salvage from the war to survive. During a salvage mission, the trio crashes and strands on an abandoned alien spaceship on a collision course with the star. It's up to Casey to help his partners and figure out the mystery of the Daedalus spaceship. To save themselves, the trio must explore the huge alien ship and solve a variety of puzzles, such as connecting colored laser beams with mirrors, unlocking a door with rotating shapes, an advanced form of "connect the dots" with a computer interface and a battle sequence in which they fight against aliens called Krin. The puzzles are mixed with acting sequences by Carrere and Bocher, who provide some light-hearted comedy through their interaction with the player. Numerous alternate scenes and clips have been filmed and edited into the game. The alternate scenes appear depending on how the player plays the game. While exploring the alien ship, Ari and Zack enter a central hub with six doors shaped like hexagons. They explore the areas of the ship behind each door, but find no navigation controls. Casey, however, finds six purple orbs (one in each of the six areas behind the six doors). The orbs cause the blue light beam and white light fountain in the center of the central hub to disappear, and a device in the shape of a diving suit with a cannon on its head appears. Ari and Zack put the bullets into it, Casey retrieves part of an alien's hand from the ship's infirmary (located behind one of the doors of the Central Hub) and puts it on the device. This activates an elevator that takes Ari, Zack and Casey up and out of the Central Hub. The alien ship approaches the sun and the temperature inside begins to rise rapidly. Outside, the remaining Krin flee the ship, but some of them are destroyed by the heat. The elevator takes Ari, Zack and Casey to a control room, where the device (in which the bullets were inserted) disappears, revealing a fish-shaped shell. Ari and Zack notice a live alien and Casey goes over to communicate with it. It's worth noting that three endings were filmed: The alien ship reaches the sun and the Artemis burns and explodes in the heat. The alien doesn't respond to Casey and Zack shoots him with his laser gun. The alien pushes Zack aside and attacks Ari. Ari kills the alien and the alien queen hatches from the shell. Ari kills it and Casey changes the course of the ship and steers it away from the sun. Ari assumes Zack is dead, cries over his corpse, and tells Casey he was wrong when he said there was no hopeless situation. The alien answers Casey, and as the alien ship reaches the star, a force field appears around the Artemis, protecting it from the intense heat. The fish-shaped shell turns out to be an egg from which a giant red alien queen hatches. The living alien, Ari, Zack and Casey bow to her. In a voice-over, Ari explains that the force field created by the creatures, who called themselves "Seddy," protected her and the ship from the intense heat. The Krin either fled or were destroyed, and the new queen possessed "racial memory" and could speak and know; she helped Casey's translation skills, answered many of Ari and Zack's questions, and repaired the Artemis. Zack receives a message from the Daedalus wishing them a safe journey and that their paths may cross again. Zack tells Casey that he was right about there being "no such thing as a hopeless situation" and tries to convince Ari to join him on the mattress in the station room. Ari says nothing and Zack mutters, "Or not," as the Artemis speeds off into space.