A Good Star Trek Game??
Where Encounters paralalles Legacy is the fact that you get to control the star ships from every Star Trek era. You start with Enterprise, because it's the first on the timeline, work your way to Star Trek, then Star Trek TNG, DS9, Voyager, and eventually there is sixth Star Trek Era? I'm not sure what the sixth is because I havn't gotten there yet, but it's interesting none-the-less to think about what they'll did with it. Also similarly to Legacy is the gameplay, where you get to be in the middle of starship battles and save the universe from the many scurges of the eras.
Now onto controls. When I picked up the controller and started my first mission. I was a little scared to see what they would do with controlling the Enterprise. You use the left analog stick, and surprisingly they did an incredible job on the controls. The ship handled exactly how I would have hoped it did. The ship is very easy to manuver. There are also 3 planes that your ship can fly on, there is a center plane, which is the default, a lower plane, which you press L2 to move down too, and a higher plane, which you press L1 to move up too. All in all it's very smooth. Weapons controls took a little getting used too, and here is where the controls for the game kinda start to go downhill. While you're moving your ship, many, if not all mission require you to use your sensors. Your sensors are the usual "slice" triangle that gets larger as it gets further from your ship (think vision for MGS enemies on map). The right analog stick is how you control it, and of course, it can go 360 degrees around your ship. So once you have a target in your sensor slice, you can either use phasors to shoot (also using right analog stick) or you can lock onto the target by pressing R2. Locking on makes battles much easier, and photon torpedos are awesome in this game. You can also lock onto multiple targets and shoot them simultaniously. The problem here is when you're surrounded with enemies and having to lock onto one or two at a time... while manuvering. There are also secondary weapons like mines, but those are easy to place.
There are some missions that will bore you. I think the second mission with Enterprise is using your sensors to locate a warp trail. So while moving you have to keep the sensors on (controls similar to Katamari).. but while you're moving your ship forward you may end up having to move your sensors behind you, which takes getting used too. This is by far the most difficulty that I've had with the game is the warp trail missions.
Similar to weapons, is the tractor beam, which you get when you start Star Trek TOS. I find it's actually fun to tractor a ship. You do have to be careful at what you're tractoring though, you may inadvertantly tractor a mine into your ship.
The sound in this game is great. You have your usual Star Trek instrumental music, but none of the themes are used, which I was kind of expecting them to be in the game. All the weapons and transporter activity sounds exactly the same as the shows/movies. And then there is one downfall in my opinion. The downfall is that every mission, regardless of era, is narrated by William Shatner (A.K.A. Captain Kirk). I think it would have been awesome if Bethesda Softworks was able to get all the captains from all the shows to narrate their own era. It simply would have added alot more to the game.
There is 2 player multiplayer in this game, which I havn't tried yet, but can assume that it's player vs player. On top of this there are few unlockables in 2 player mode.
The unlockables are unlocked by collecting "cards" while in Episode mode. I'm sure the unlockables are the ships for 2 player mode and Ship View mode, however collecting these cards will also add 20% to the given area that that person on the card is in, for instance, if you get Trip Tucker from Enterprise then your engine's get a 20% increase for the Enterprise of that era. If you get the captain's card then your ship from that era gets a 20% increase in all area so you have a potential 40% increase in the capabilities for the ships in each era.
All in all, this game is a great substitute for those of us unable to get Star Trek Legacy anytime soon. It plays nearly the same, I'm sure, but without the single storyline interconnecting all the eras. Also, one last positive note, Star Trek Encounters only costs $19.99 and it's a brand new game that was just released at the begining of this month.. (Oct. '06). If you're a Star Trek fan and are unable (for whatever reason) to get Legacy then I highly recommend this game. It's been a while since we've had a Trek game, not to mention a good one and it's the first where you can pilot the main ship from every series.
- Telekill -