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Star Trek: Elite Forces 2 PC Ritual Entertainment / Activision 2003 Wait, isn’t this game like 2 years old? Yes I know, shut up Hasn’t this game been in the clearance bin for forever? I KNOW SHUT UP! And a Star Trek game? Couldn’t you find any REAL games to review? Do YOU want to write this review?!?! Well technically, I AM!
Star Trek games are kinda like Star wars games, Finding a good one is hit or miss, without all that annoying hitting. And while this game is not a “hit” in is a good glancing blow.
This game is a FPS where you command the Hazard Team, an elite squad that is beamed down into a hostile situation to kick ass. Like marines in space. Yes I know I have whined about this cliché before, but Its STAR-FREAKING-TREK. The games starts off at (what I assume is) the finale of Star Trek Voyager, where you free Voyager from the Borg allowing her crew to return home. You then jump ahead two years, and through a series of events, end up on the Enterprise.
The game runs on a modified Quake 3 engine, which still looks good when the resolution is turned up. It also has plenty of Star Treker goodness. (yes, that’s right, I said ‘Treker” not “Trekie”, because I know the difference! I’m hardcore!) There are a lot of cool places to go to where you get to do a lot of cool things. You get to explore a Federation ghost ship, trying to find out the fate that befell her crew. You get to defend the Enterprise from raiders, on the exterior of the hull! Plus the typical alien ruins, enemy bases, and space stations thrown in. You even get to walk around the Enterprise between missions. This was a very cool aspect, except you always had somewhere you had to go to, so you could only explore the parts of the ship between where you were and where you needed to go.
The AI in the game is smart enough that the squad-base combat (and there is a good deal of it) is well handled. Teammates rarely get in your way, are useful most of the time, and never get them selves killed. Of course this might be because they are invincible. Enemies however will pass up a perfectly open teammate to swarm you. There are some weapons from the shows, but most were created solely for the game. They aren’t bad just a bit unoriginal. My favorite example is the ‘phaser’ shot-gun.
What I found just pain odd was the sheer amount of easter eggs in this game. I swear I have never before played a game with a higher Easter-egg to pixel ratio. And some of the stuff they put in was just bizarre. For example, behind one wall I found a big open pipe. I jump into at and I am taken to a Mario-esq side-scroller, complete with 8-bit music!
But unfortunately this game is not the ultimate Star Trek gaming experience, or anything close to that for that matter. To help you place where this game is in the Star Trek Universe, imagine the different Star Treks were family members. This game would be the dweeby 14 year old cousin, obsessed with girls, and watching too many action movies late at night. I say this because this game is (like most games in this male dominated market) derogatory to women, and has the plot of the typical Star Trek Novel. The kind I stopped reading long ago when I finally realized the authors didn’t care enough to write a book that didn’t suck, and would rather have a main character do something blazing stupid than take the time to think up a decent plot twist.
Let’s start with the back of the box. It states that you get to make decisions that affect both the success of your team and the personal life of the main character. Well since your teammates are invincible, the only affect you have on your teams success your own death. As for the person life of the main character, the only thing you can affect is who he is hugging at the end. And this is done through 4 questions.
Remember the raiders I mentioned you had to repel? Well they wait for the Enterprise to lowers it’s shields, then fire these slow-ass torpedoes at it. No one ever thinks to RAISE THE FRIGGIN SHIELDS back up! Never in the following fire fight did anyone explain to me why the shields couldn’t be raised. And I demanded an explanation from everyone! Then the neighbors complained at me for yelling at my computer…
At another point you are told that hundreds of people fled into the sewers, when you go after them you find four. FOUR!!
Then there is my favorite character. I like to call professor FanService. I call her that because that is obviously her sole purpose in this game. I mean look at her! She is supposed to be a doctor, so of course she has to run around wearing that alien bikini outfit the whole time, and never has anything interesting or lengthy to say. Ah, but the sexism does not end there! EVERY female in this game is hot. There is an alien species, were the males are 300 pound, round, pig-chipmunk looking things. And the females? Hot. They have the hot human body with a more flattering pig-chipmunk thing head. Now I have nothing against an attractive female body, but ugly people want to explore space too!
Then, like with any mediocre game, there are the things that just drive you nuts.
Remember when I said that your teammates were invincible? Well some enemies are too, against their own weapons, which didn’t bother me, until when I ran into one with a blast radius. It is a common trick, when an enemy has an area effect weapon (RPG, Rocket launcher, GRENADE, etc.) to charge them, the idea being that they will not use their weapon lest they kill themselves as well. This does not work if an enemy is immune to their own weapon. So I was a little upset when I ran toward a guy only to watch him drop a grenade at his feet and laugh over my charred, smoldering corpse.
Then there are the snipers the put a targeting beam THROUGH your head. They must! I mean I can SEE the targeting beam as if they were shining a laser in your eye, but after three or so deaths I finally turned around and THERE THEY WERE! If only the targeting beam had more power they would not need to snipe!
Finally the game suffers from the stereotypical out-of-time-and-money, quick ending that doesn’t make too much sense and is not satisfying at all.
What liked: Even though I ripped this game a new one (This IS I Hate This Game), I did actually enjoy most of it. I recommend this game for any Star Trek fan; especially for the price you are likely to find it now adays. This game might not rise to the surface, but it floats more than it sinks.
What disliked: All the crap I mentioned above. I just hate it when a developer has a good idea, but does not take the time to turn it into a good game.
What to expect: Lot of different and fun things to do in the Star Trek universe. A decent, if straight-forward plot for at least 3/4s of the game.
What not to expect: Women in an empowered role, or a great deal of plot twists or depth, or continuity for that matter.
What's so different from this and other games of it's genre: It is a game that combines Star Trek and First-Person Shooters, and does it without so much suck that the game in unplayable. It is a good game with a bad plot.
Ratings on:
Control: 7 – Keyboard configurable, but the weapons are laid out similar to the original half life. I found it hard to get to the weapon I wanted quickly enough.
Graphics: 8 – Even tough they are a bit dated, the game still looks good. The character models are still impressive.
Sound: 6 – The sound effects were good, including plenty from the original series. What I took off points for was the voice acting. There are a couple of actors from the shows, like Patrick Stewart, Tim Russ, and Dwight Schultz. Most of their work was obviously phoned in. However, all the actors for the new characters in the game did a decent job.
Style: 6 – This game starts off good with style but ultimately falls on its face.
1 Hour: Take that Borg!! What my unstoppable guns has been stopped? NOOO!!!!!!
2nd Day: Cool low-G exploration of a ghost ship!
1 Week: Ok, it is no longer scary if the monsters jump out of a hole in the wall EVERY TIME!!
10th day: Cool, a Klingon Space station! Wait, a Klingon is defending a Ferengi? Why? Oh, I see, the writers check must have just bounced.
15th day: Well that ends sucked, secret society? please…
#1 reason why I hate this game: I must say it would have to be Professor Fan Service. For most of the game I thought her shallowness and flirtious manner were a feign, that she was going to be secretly in charge of all the evil plans, and she was going to try to doom the Enterprise somehow but no, it turns out she was just there to be a pair of tits.
By Banthor
–“assimilation is futile”
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