Techtite's PC Game Reviews!

"The bottom line is, this is a Trek game like no other. Not since Star Trek: Judgment Rites have I felt that a Trek game has not only met, though surpassed the Trek films currently in theaters."

---from the review

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Sidebar :

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If "based on a video game" is an insult, why is this game better than the past two Trek movies, combined? Consider this question when in between action scenes (all far more gripping than the past two films), you're given a slew of cinematics that are a hundredfold better than what the Star Trek live-action world has offered lately. 

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Star Trek Elite Force II

Click picture to order this game (PC/windows version)

A Techtite Review

When Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force was released, it quickly became known as one of the best Trek games ever conceived. It's only flaw --and this is debatable-- was in its Voyager storyline: couldn't Enterprise, itself, be in the forefront of this inspired Trek game concept? The answer to this question is a big "yes" in the sequel, Elite Force 2... making it one of the best games any Trekker --or anyone else-- could hope for in FPS games.

The first potential hurdle is easily resolved in the first mission: how can you have a sequel to "Voyager Elite Force," when that series' finale has already aired; a finale which had the U.S.S. Voyager returning home, end-of-story? The game wisely picks up at the time of that fateful final battle with the Borg, based on the series' smashing conclusion. In short, at the very start of the game, you are helping Voyager return home. It gets only better and better from there.

After completing this first mission, Monro (your character in the game) gets to enjoy some R&R at Starfleet Command, where you can talk with various NPCs walking about, plus snoop around a bit, in this rarely-seen location of Trek lore. The bad news? Starfleet is unamused with how unorthodox your Elite Force resolves missions, so your team is disbanded. After all, The Elite Force was conceived many light years from Starfleet, and as such, was taught to bend the rules if that's what it took to save lives; a trait few of the blowhards at Starfleet can respect. Fortunately, Picard leans of your former team, and decides to experiment with the use of this team, in a mission where Strfleet protocol might not be the best course of action. What this boils down to is: your whole team is now working, aboard Enterprise. Cooooool.

This leads to a nice template for the overall game. Prior to every mission, you can roam the halls of the Enterprise, visit your favorite areas of the ship, practice with new weaponry in the holodeck, learn about the latest mission, and so on. Then you're off to fight some bad guys, with gritty away team missions galore. It's a rare game indeed that can find time to develop a story within all the action. This game dodges this hurdle, by allowing you to explore at will, in between missions (a storytelling tactic not unlike the prior game). Of course, those who want action-only can simply jump right on to the transporter pad and jump into the next mission ASAP. It's all up to you.

The missions themselves are complicated, though that is the point. This is no mere "key hunt," where you shoot some baddies, find the key, fight more baddies, unlock a door, and <poof> end of mission. There are some very imaginative ways the level editors have made this more than a mere bug-hunt, particularly with the tricorder. See, The Elite Force Strike Team are injected with naonoprobe technology (think "bionics," for the non-Trek fan) which is linked to the tricorder's scanning functions. Alternating fields of view include normal vision, "structural integrity" (i.e., searching weak parts of the wall for possible secrets/alternate routes), thermal vision (for spotting laser traps, in particular), and an additional vision mode for detecting gas traps you should best avoid entering. In addition, the tricorder can decode computer short-circuits, in a mini-game that is sort of like the classic pipeworks-type game you may have played in the days of MS-DOS. In short, there's a lot to do here; not just "bug hunts."

It makes sense that a game design team that tries so hard to make the missions themselves thought provoking, would do the same for the main story, as well. Said story includes racism, a madman's lust for power, and an ancient technology that could threaten all humanoid life; everything a good Trek tale needs. In addition, your character is given a sort of romance subplot, and what's more, you get to decide which path this romance will take! Diehard fans of the prior game will want Monro to wind up with his estranged love interest, Murphy. However, Munro has also caught the eye of the alien female whose people you are trying to protect. Who Munro chooses is up to you, leading to at least two alternate finales, both of them a "happy ending." Most games consider the possibility of your character living or dying as two "alternate" finales. This game does them one better, with two alternate happy finales.

I guess this is the part of the review where I am to pretend to be part of "The Nitpickers Guild"; the league of so-called Trekkies, always trying to find something bad in everything Trek-related. In short, we're getting to the game gripes...presuming there are any. Okay, here's one: granted, this game is hardly the most graphically stunning game on the shelf these days. The Quake 3 game engine in use here is beginning to show its age, although Elite Force 2 pushes this envelope to its limits. Missions in use here include trying to prevent a warp core sabotage (with story arcs that include either a complete prevention, a core meltdown, or the need to eject the warp core). I don't remember story arc possibilities that elaborate in any Quake3-clone I've ever encountered. But, yeah, the graphics aren't better than, say, teaser pix of Half Life 2. It's still a truly extraordinary game, though. That much is certain.

However, it's the story arcs that make this game shine. In addition to choosing which of two lovely women Munro will be with in the finale, your actions in each mission also affect the outcome of the story. "Red Shirts" in each mission live or die depending on how careful you are in protecting your fellow crewmen, mission-to-mission. Conversations will then change as well, depending on whether a particular crewman lived through that mission or not. The choice is up to you...and how often do action games let me say that?

The bottom line is, this is a Trek game like no other. Not since Star Trek: Judgment Rites have I felt that a Trek game has not only met, though surpassed the Trek films currently in theaters. These days, that opinion goes triple than it did in Judgment Rites' day. The past three Trek films were so poorly received, word is that there will be no more Trek films until further notice, if ever. Some say this will also mean the end of Trek games as well. If that is the case, that is a severe tragedy, based on the gaming universe Elite Force has built for us. However, if Elite Force 2 is truly to be the last-ever Trek game...no Trekkie could ever hope for a better one to end with.