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Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force 

Score: 8.9 / 10

The last few years of games have not been kind to the Star Trek license. There’s been a slow shift recently to good Trek games and Elite Force continues the trend.

The back story is handled in the introduction so people not familiar with the story of Voyager won’t be flying blind. The game opens with a training mission on the holodeck against the Borg. (There is also a tutorial mode) Things quickly go pear-shaped when an alien vessel appears and starts firing on Voyager. The crew responds with a volley of photon torpedoes and destroys it. The resulting shockwave transports Voyager, and everyone in it, to a starship graveyard where an artifact known as the Forge is making life difficult. As part of the newly formed Hazard Team, (basically an intergalactic SWAT team) you are tasked with away missions that would make James T. Kirk nervous. It’s a story that could have been an episode on TV.

The graphics are great! The Quake 3 engine is put to good use. The levels against the Borg are the most fun to look at. The textures are good and the curved surfaces add eye-candy to many of the levels. Lighting is excellent, although sometimes things get really dark. The floor plans of the bridge and much of the ship is accurate, so says a Trekkie friend of mine. The character models are well done. There is enough variety in their look that you don’t get the feeling of "same enemy, different skin." The enemies seen on the TV show are depicted accurately. The enemy movement is fluid, which is a sharp contract to the way your character moves in some of the cutscenes. Most of the cutscenes are handled with the in-game engine but character movements are often jerky. And there are a few major clipping problems, most notable when a certain character bites the dust. The weapons offer enough variety in the looks department.

 

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Gameplay is solid for this kind of FPS. Jump, run, crouch, and even the ability to lean out around corners are included. The default control configuration isn’t very intuitive or easy to use so be sure to make adjustments that better suit your needs. The action can get very intense. Some battles take place in very enclosed areas like cargo bays, with wave after wave of baddies trying to melt a hole in your head.

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A highlight is definitely the attack on Voyager by a new breed of alien called the Harvesters, quick crab-like beings that get in close and start slashing away. It would have been nice to have a melee weapon of some kind in these situations but the hand phaser is a good substitute. Some situations require stealth, which is a good way to slow down the action without breaking the tension. Team members can also be lost during the course of a mission. They aren’t as bright as you and if you don’t single-handedly take out the enemy threat they’re likely to get vaporized or assimilated. They also like to repeat themselves, sometimes giving misleading information.

When enemies appear your fellow Hazard Team members will shout a warning or some other one liner. These can get tiring after the fifth straight time they’ve said the same thing. Especially when they shout, "Behind you!" You turn around, see nothing, and get shot in the back because two more bad guys have beamed in behind you. It becomes the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Then, the one time there really is someone behind you, you’ll ignore the warning. Overall, sound is very good to excellent depending on your audio equipment. The sound effects from the show are faithfully recreated and the new ones fit into the scheme. The music is a nice touch and runs throughout the game. The music never seems out of place, instead it adds to the experience in the same way as Jedi Knight. Voice acting is supplied by the regular cast of the TV show with one exception, Seven of Nine. Seven’s appearance is right on, but with a different voice it’s not quite the same. All the voice acting is good. And Tom Wilson returns to gaming voicing a character obviously modeled after Maniac from the Wing Commander games.

If you’ve ever played Quake 3 you will be very comfortable with the multiplayer setup. Getting into an Internet game is handled easily. Even the character model selection is the same as Q3. What impressed me was that the "mod" button is present, although of this writing (seven days after its release) there are no mods available. Hopefully someone out there will create a Next Generation episode. There are the typical CTF and deathmatch options. The bots in the practice arenas aren’t pushovers. Weapon balance is good and there are several different power-ups to collect. As with all Internet multiplayer games find a server with decent ping or you’ll be testing your psychic abilities trying to hit anyone.

There are few other niggling aspects that make this game a step shy of greatness. It’s too short! It took no time at all to reach the end and save the galaxy and everything in it. The bosses are on the easy side to defeat. The end boss doesn’t seem to register any hits. Pour it on with the personal photon torpedo launcher and the boss doesn’t even flinch or show any damage. I wasn’t even sure I should be shooting him! There’s a strange bug when you and your team encounter automated turrets. They’ll shoot you if you take out the turrets on your own. And they won’t just shoot you once, they’ll shoot until you’re a pile of goo. You don’t get the run of the Voyager either and there’s only the barest of character interaction.

All that being said I still liked this game a lot and had fun playing it. There was enough original action and story line to keep me playing right to the end and wanting more missions. The levels are well designed and everything is integrated enough to make this game feel like an episode of the television show, right down to the camera angles. The action is intense in some areas and, on higher difficulty settings, can be very challenging. Being able to choose between male and female characters doesn’t affect gameplay but it’s neat to see how the other half lives. There are references to a number of great science fiction movies and games (you’ve really got to pay attention to catch them all). Obviously, Trek fans will get more out of this game than the average gamer but it’s still a solid first-person shooter. This one will stay on my hard drive for awhile.

And in case you’re not having fun, switch the language to German and learn how to say, "You will be assimilated!" in a language other than English and Klingon.

- Omni

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