Saturday’s been and gone, and with it part 4 of the 5 part Breen storyline.

Things have hotted up now, with the ruins on Defera coming back into focus.  As you return to investigate the possibility of some ancient information being left there.

Of course, the puzzle relating to this episode has actually been in the game since this weekly series launched, so many players had previously discovered the star map fragment earlier, but it was nice to see how it actually worked in with the plot.

The rest of the mission then brings to mind the Next Generation episode, The Chase, as you run from system to system across the sector trying to find the other pieces of the star map before the Breen can get to them. As with previous missions there’s some nice visuals in these systems, especially the system with the ringed planet and all the asteroid debris.

My only real complaint with this week’s mission is that I didn’t find all the running around that involving. There’s some nice stuff in the previously mentioned system with the stellar debris for example, but it was crying out for another puzzle or bit of thought, rather than my bridge officers always telling me where to go and what to shoot. The opening puzzle was great, but slightly spoiled by being found in the first mission, so with that in mind a second, similar puzzle would’ve been the icing on the cake.

I guess I was slightly spoiled by last week’s episode really getting me to stop, read things properly and think, and having already completed the opening puzzle didn’t help.

There is some nice combat though.  The devs have nicely balanced the encounters out, so that some of them are actually pretty easy, whereas others provide more of a challenge.  And it all builds up to a confrontation on an ice planet against a pretty tough Breen boss.

The weekly reward is quite amusing too.   Its a freeze grenade, but unlike the previous ones, this one is more for the role players, as it only targets friendlies and doesn’t do anything beyond a visual “freezing” effect (so if you get hit, it doesn’t stop you moving or getting on with your gaming).  I daresay though there’ll be a few people complaining about it being used a lot around the Sol starbase, but I don’t mind it as some harmless fun :)

Next Saturday, its the final part, wherein we’ll finally face off against Thot Trel and discover the secret the Preservers have hidden away.  I can’t wait :-)