Stargate SG-1: Unleashed

Some Stargate games we cherish because they offer something nothing else does. Stargate SG-1: Unleashed, released in 2013 on iOS and Android, belongs to that rare family. It's an adventure game designed for touchscreens that brings together the original SG-1 team and, an incredible luxury for a mobile production, has them voiced by the original actors. Published by MGM and developed by Arkalis Interactive, it set out to tell an all-new Stargate adventure, split into episodes, right in the palm of your hand.

Behind Unleashed is Arkalis Interactive, a studio based in Andorra, working under an official MGM license. The game wasn't their first encounter with the franchise: it was their second mobile app set in the Stargate universe. The title was designed as a series split into chapters: the first episode arrived on March 12, 2013, followed by a second episode in November of the same year. A third and final installment was planned to wrap up the story, but it never saw the light of day.

Unleashed is a third-person adventure built for touchscreens. Arkalis mixed several styles to avoid monotony: firefights, stealth sections, dialogue choices and puzzles to solve, the idea being to push the player to alternate between combat, discretion and exploration. Technically, the studio had built its own engine, praised at the time for its character models, fairly polished for a 2013 mobile game. The result brought the atmosphere of the show to smartphones, somewhere between action and exploration.

Unleashed's real strength is how firmly it's rooted in the show's universe. The script was written by Sally Malcolm, known to fans for her Stargate novels published by Fandemonium, a guarantee of writing that respects canon. The story introduces a brand-new antagonist, Sekhmet, presented as the daughter of Ra, which ties her directly to the saga's great Goa'uld mythology. But the most precious gift remains the voice cast: Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge reprise their roles, while General Hammond is voiced by Richard Epcar, since Don S. Davis passed away in 2008.

Greeted with curiosity, Unleashed won people over mainly through its faithfulness to the show and the presence of the official voices, an argument that speaks instantly to any SG-1 fan. The first episode still holds a flattering 7.6 on IMDb today, a sign that it left a good memory with those who played it. The gaming press did point out a handful of technical flaws, without spoiling the essentials: for fans and for lovers of light adventure games, the experience was worth it. Hearing those actors again in a game was almost enough to forgive everything.

Sadly, the story of Unleashed ends like too many Stargate projects: with a disappearance. Shortly after the second episode came out, Arkalis Interactive shut down, taking with it the third chapter that was supposed to conclude the adventure. Worse, the game was eventually pulled from the iOS and Android stores: today it's practically impossible to buy or play legally. Unleashed thus joins the long list of fragile Stargate games, victims of their studios' small size more than of their own qualities. All that remains are videos, a few screenshots, and the memory of hearing the real Jack O'Neill on a pocket-sized screen.