In DS9, you don't need to have the right object in the right place at the right time. What you do need to have though, is the correct information. Moving from place to place, you have to ask people the proper questions in order to dig up information relevant to your quest, which initially is finding out who killed Ambassador Karrig. There are rare moments where you do pick up items like a phaser or cloaking device, but their use is restricted purely to the relevant time. No choice is made on your behalf as to when to use it.
Pieces have to be manipulated in the right order to repair the device.
None of the problems are particularly taxing, but entertaining in their own right. At the very least they provide some more variance to the game. In all I found the process refreshingly interesting. It also allows you to concentrate more on the story in the game, which in a way is extremely entertaining. Actually I have even found it to be more interesting than many of the DS9 television episodes.