Episodes Best Avoided

[Arion]

Yes, this is absolutely because I suffered through a couple of these tonight.

So, in the process of leveling, or in the hunt for specific gear, we've all run across the odd episode we'd rather had never been inflicted upon the game...

In the highly unlikely event that anybody cares, spoilers follow.

My personal Hall of Shame?

1. Ghost Ship- This little delight is the 37th mission in the Federation's Romulan campaign (a sober look indicates it is merely the 11th in a series of 21). Points against it: It features the Hirogen, forcing me to remember that Voyager exists. Oh well. It ALSO, however, is a series of tedious repetitions- You scan some junk, fight a Hirogen ship, board a fed ship, scan some junk, fight some Hirogen. Then you beam back up, fight more Hirogen ships. Then you beam back down and fight Devidians. Then you beam back up, and fight Romulans while destroying Devidian portals. This process takes approximately five years, and in the end, you are rewarded with a level-appropriate kit and some XP. May very well be my least favorite... but the Federation's Romulan campaign has more gems to offer!

2. Divide et Impera- This is a rather different case. The mechanical aspects of the mission aren't that bad- sure, it's the usual Fed rinse and repeat- Fight in space, fight on the ground, then fight in space- but that isn't what sets it apart. Rather, it is the manner in which your character lovingly fondles the Idiot Ball while helping someone who is BLOODY OBVIOUSLY A SHAPESHIFTER lead you on a spurious murder mission. You bend over BACKWARDS to accommodate the Undine infiltrator's assassination mission, and in the process slaughter a bunch of medical researchers. Were this an episode of the show, and better written, it might have potential. But since we never suffer the negative consequences of our actions, it's just a way to make our characters look like imbeciles for the duration. I get through it, when I'm feeling enough of a completist to actually DO it, by saying aloud, eery time I mow down a Romulan, "whoops, their goes an Infant Meningitis cure! Oooo, there goes a cure for cancer..."

3. Night of the Comet-The culmination of the nightmarish "Devidians on Drozana" mini-arc for Feds, or for the "Spectres" campaign for everybody else, this one gets picked on for the sins of the "Spectres" series as a whole. Bonus points for some stupid bint requiring you to mix her a drink before she hands you a tool needed to save everyone's lives. Can;t I just shoot her and loot her supply? I'll set my weapon on stun, I promise...

4. Blind Men Tell All Tales- "Wasteland" is a remarkably unpopular campaign as a whole (Seriously, Nimbus would benefit from a couple of waypoint transporters a la New Romulus), but this one stands out to me... because it feels like what it is, an awkward bridge between the mission before it and the mission after it. Cut it in half, make those missions both longer, and it would make more sense.

5. Suspect- I actually like most of the Cardassian missions, but the Feds, as usual, get some friggin' turkeys added into the mix. This one is staggeringly pointless and tedious. I have no desire to play around on Section 31's stupid holodeck, thank you very much. Especially since the game treats my ship exploding as a very real event if I should botch my (pointless! Tedious!) space fights as I meander from one godawful fake spatial anomaly to another.

6. Of Bajor- Ugh. I get that it's meant to be a relatively combat-light "story" mission, but this damn thing is too lengthy for its own good. As we traipse around Bajor, quelling riots (the boring way) and running holodeck simulations, and repairing gear, seemingly at random, we cannot help thinking, "Man, I should just go shoot some Jem'Hadar for real..."