If you consider yourself a Star Trek fan, then you probably wouldn't expect the TV series to be very good material for a first-person shooter. After all, more so than other science fiction series, Star Trek has always taken a more cerebral approach as the courageous crews of vessels like the Enterprise and Voyager try to seek diplomatic solutions to conflicts with various alien species, prior to having to resort to their phasers and photon torpedoes. And so 2000's Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force was by all means a pleasant surprise--it was a high-quality first-person shooter that happened to take place in the Star Trek universe. Now, nearly three years later, Elite Force has a sequel, one that fans of the previous game will also enjoy. Like its predecessor, Elite Force II is a good, well-rounded shooter that should satisfy fans of similar games, as well as Star Trek fans looking to shoot first and ask questions later.

You'll play as Alex Munro and will get to gun down lots of buglike creatures, as well as the Borg, Romulans, and more.

The word "Voyager" is conspicuously missing from the title of Star Trek Elite Force II, and that's because most of the game has you stationed not on that ship, but on the Enterprise, with good old Jean-Luc Picard. Some of the Voyager cast reprise their roles in the new game, and ultimately the crossover works well. You play the role of Alex Munro (the male version--in the previous game, you could optionally choose to play as a female version of Munro), leader of the Vulcan security chief Tuvok's hazard team--a heavily armed and armored squad designed for situations too dangerous for a standard away team.

Munro, who looks a bit like John Travolta, is dismayed early on in the game when the hazard team is disbanded after yet another dangerous, but successful, assignment. He is relegated to teaching combat at the Starfleet Academy, where he catches the eye of Captain Picard, who reassembles the team under Tuvok. The game's story unfolds in numerous cinematic cutscenes using the game's 3D engine, and these sequences look reasonably good. Many of the characters closely resemble their television counterparts, and Patrick Stewart and other actors from the series lend their voices for the game's original storyline. Make no mistake, Elite Force II is a pure shooter at heart--but it does have plenty of story sequences and a good enough plot with plenty of twists to it.

Some puzzle sequences and other surprises help keep the campaign fresh and interesting.

The story revolves around the discovery of what appears to be an insectlike alien race, which has ravaged a Federation starship as well as a nearby space colony. Picard sends Munro and his colleagues to check it out. They eventually discover the nature of this threat, as well as who or what is actually behind it. Elite Force II's single-player campaign is of average length for a shooter, but it packs in plenty of variety, keeps you headed in the right direction, and is loaded with scripted sequences and surprises similar to numerous other shooters ranging from Medal of Honor: Allied Assault all the way back to Half-Life.

Elite Force II does pack in some of its own unique twists. It's got some pretty decent boss battles in it, as well as some sequences where you'll need to defend certain characters or lead them to safety. You'll also need to use your tricorder to scan for walls with weak structural integrity (you can blast them open), for hidden energy signatures, and for sources of gas leaks. The tricorder also comes into play in some puzzle-solving sequences where Munro will essentially need to hack certain systems. There are two basic variants of the tricorder puzzles, one that makes you match frequencies and another that makes you connect a circuit by rotating pieces around--this plays a bit like the classic LucasArts puzzle game Pipe Dream. The puzzles do seem a bit contrived, especially in the midst of all the shooting, but they successfully vary the pacing of the missions and sometimes effectively create tension.