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Seriously the look on Siskos face when he has to do hopscotch is hilarious, it's like he wants to strangle whoever wrote the episode lol. Also the new aliens look terrible, as someone else has stated they clearly cheaped out on the costumes for this one. Fairly forgettable but not as bad as some people say.

I'm not sure why it's rated so low. I found it fun and suspenseful. Sure there's some cheesy acting but I notice this a lot in the first season of DS9. I'd give it slightly above a 7.

Allamaraine!

This episode has one huge plus: these aliens acted in a somewhat alien manner and seemingly without the station crew even understanding it. Most Trek aliens behave like humans usually with some exaggerated trait and it's known and loudly trumpeted. Proud Warriors, Space Romans, etc.

Here, it's true they appear to have the exaggerated trait of gamers, but ultimately nobody really knows. Maybe this IS how these aliens do first contact. But at the end of the day, they sweep in and sweep out and you never really know.

This sort of thing should have happened all the time in first contact situations.

Another plus is this one is VERY memorable.

The main downside to me is that this episode was too early. It's a bit like TNG's "Naked Now" in that respect, though not as severe.

Another problem is I can't even fathom how Quark figured out the missing staff was somehow inside the game.

I liked several of the scenes in this episode. For example the conversation between Sisko and Benjamin, the aliens when arriving at the station immediately asking about games, Bashir screaming thinking he is having a nightmare, Quark freaking out begging the game to stop and more. I don't agree with those who find the game concept unbelievable or unrealistic. This culture of aliens have taken the art of playing games to a completely new level because they are totally obsessed with games. Makes perfect sense and also makes sense that they would put the four highest ranking officers on the space station in the game to make it more serious.

DS9 makes first contact with a species from the gamma quadrant.

This is an odd episode that has a reasonably good premise, but when the final reveal comes it feels a rather pointless experience to me.

There are some positives, such as some of the character exchanges between Sisko and Jake, Sisko, Dax and Kira and Odo and Quark. You get a good sense of characters loyalty to each other from the situations they are seemingly put in.

Many visuals are a good standard, particularly the cave scenes that feel quite exciting and well made. Plus the general design of the game both internally and how it physically appears within Quark's.

The Wadi are not the most inspired of alien designs, particularly supposedly coming from the far reaches of the gamma quadrant. As a first impression of what DS9 would be serving up using the wormhole concept, it is quite poor.

There are a number of annoying moments such as the crew trying to stop the game with the 'we are not amused' attitude and making futile attempts to talk to characters who do not acknowledge them. The allarmaraine nursery rhyme sequence is (briefly) almost as painful as watching Captain Kirk and Spock's humiliation at the hands of Parmen. Dr Bashir (also briefly) is again poorly characterised.

When the final reveal comes it is exactly what you thought it might (but hoped it wouldn't) be.