User Rating: 8.4 | Star Trek: Elite Force II PC
Star Trek: Elite Force II For PC Set phasers to Frag!... again. Star Trek Elite Forces was the first Star Trek game to come out that didn’t actually stink for a material that was found on TV. A lot of games based on movies or books, or TV shows rarely worked. In Star Trek’s case, this line has a host of games that failed until Raven came along and made a First Person Shooter based on Star Trek Voyager that actually paid off. Now a part two was on the way sans Raven and people wondered if Ritual (the new Development Team) could pull it off. They did and a lot more. As the first game played out in the Delta Quadrant with Captain Janeway and the Starship Voyager, this one takes place right here in the good old Alpha Quadrant with Captain Picard and the Enterprise. Although the first level does start off with Voyager, the rest of the game, you’ll find yourself running around Starfleet Academy as well as a refugee space station, a planet that’s up to no good, and an iceberg of a planet. You reprise the role of Munro (male version, female version has been done away with), and you’ll have the same team from last game with you – Chel, Murphy, and some new faces. After getting back from the Big D Quadrant, you find your team disbanded and now your stuck teach drills at the academy when Picard comes calling. He seems to be impressed with your record and the way you handled yourself in the D-Zone, asks you to come on his ship and restart up another Hazard Team. Reassigned to the Enterprise is Tuvok, who returns to captain your team, give you away assignments and keep you informed as to what Picard needs done next. Both Picard and Tuvok are voiced by the actors from the TV shows, and the voice of Munro returns, as well as Murphy and a few others. Absent from the Enterprise is everyone else. No Crusher, no Geordi, no one is around. In fact, Engineering is being run by Lt. Barcley who isn’t voiced by the actor who portrayed him. Once on the Enterprise, you’ll begin your first mission coming to the aid of the USS Dallas who’s been knocked out of commission. Once boarding the ship, you’ll find a whole host of problems. Bet you wish you stayed in bed, huh? Seems the ship has been taken over by an insect race who’s killed off most of the skeleton crew that remained on board. Well, where’s the rest of the crew? That’s where you’ll go next, and once from their, you’ll realize just how bad off things are going to get. Seems a planet has the ability to create these creatures, which is being controlled by… you’ll find out. Using an updated, stripped down, and redone version of the Quake 3 engine, this game still pulls off some fancy levels. The USS Dallas was done with some great detail. The levels themselves have nice lighting, nice smooth textures, as well as some fairly slick player models. Likewise, the sound itself isn’t too shabby either. When on the Dallas, you hear everything from the engine running to the power flowing behind the walls. Nice sound effects with EAX support. Creates an atmosphere that makes you believe you really are there. Though the other characters to seem to get repetitive after a while, usually shouting out one or two lines over and over. The game needs a little more voiceover to really do some justice. A lot of your old weapons return from the first outing. You have the Phaser, the Phaser Rifle, and the I-Mod (also known as useless). You do get more advanced weapons, two new types of Phaser Rifles which really do some damage. A ho-hum Grenade Launcher, as well as a new version of the Handheld Torpedo Launcher. Both seem decent, but miss that certain something to really make them shine through. The Tricorder also returns as well. But this little baby has been updated big time. No longer just a scanner you’ll use once or twice in the game – the Tricorder is now a useful tool you’ll employ quite often. It has several vision modes that allows you to see structural integrity (weak points in walls and various other objects), as well a Trace Gasses and Bio-Mode. At first, you’ll be taught to use these to pass certain puzzles. Later on, you’ll need to think with your head on how to get through waypoints, only your Tricorder as your guide. The fun doesn’t end there – you’ll also need to use this little futuristic Swiss Army Knife to bypass locks, reroute power on consoles as well as uploading instructions to computers to gain entry. A lot of these moments are thrown in and spaced far enough where they never get old, and keep the game somewhat fresh. The big selling point of this game, would have to be it’s portrayal of life in the Star Trek Universe. You do a lot of what’s seen on the various TV shows. You’ll be running around the Enterprise, going on Away Missions, as well as researching in the Library, practicing your killer moves on the women and in the Holodeck. But.. not everything is as perfect as it is in that universe. Quite often the Player shadows will shy away from their material counterparts or just beam out and reappear somewhere else altogether. The AI isn’t any better. More often than not, the Enemy will just run at you without using really any strategy. If their positioned behind a bulkhead or something to use for cover, they’ll pop out fire, and dive back down. That’s the extent of what they can do and it doesn’t get any better. The boss battles in the game aren’t any better. Only difference is the bosses have more life to take away. Also scattered around the levels are various secret areas and little golden starships, collecting them opens up secret maps for Multiplayer. Speaking of Multiplayer, it’s pretty much the same as the first game, but the levels themselves are done better and with a little more variety. Returning are CTF, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and a new addition – Bomb Difussion. Basically, two sides, both have to go in and drop off a bomb in the others base, and hope it explodes to win. The big difference with this one is you can specialize as a s****er or a medic or whatever. Nothing really ground breaking, but still breaks away from the norm. In the end, Ritual took this game, and made it their own – improving over what Raven had originally done and turning out a somewhat flawed but great game over all. If you don’t really care for Star Trek, you may find the Star Trek-isms boring. For you people this game gets an 8.4 But if you do enjoy the series, and another .5 to the score.
