Star Trek: Encounters has a neat idea for ship to ship combat, but just doesent put it together well.
User Rating: 6.3 | Star Trek: Encounters PS2
Bethesda Softworks has created unbelievable games, like TES Oblivion and Morrowind, which makes it even more disapointing when I take a look at their latest game, Star Trek: Enounters. One look at the box and you will be able to tell this game is totally original. Arcade style shoot em ups just dont go together with Star Trek. Basically all you have to do is point a "targeting slice" at an opponent and fire. Thats it. You can lock on for better accuracy and fire, but it really isnt that neat. You never know what your or your opponents sheild strength is, so you do not know if you have to wait and recover or if you can just fly in guns blazing. Another disapointing thing is the controls. The control scheme is medocre at best. You just have to press to many buttons at the same time, so expect to get your fingers in a knot. Hitting square to lock on, Circle to fire, adjusting speed, diverting power to weapons, moving your targeting slice to keep firing, and finally adjusting your depth in space is just really confusing. The Graphics of the game are pretty good, but should be better for like a 4th generation PS2 game. The zoomed out camra angle is challenging to get used to, and you usually will never know if you are above or below your target until you are close enough to start kissing. All in all, Encounters is an ok game if you like pressing button after button never knowing how much damage you are inflicting, and enjoy being the winner because this game is very easy. You can take out like 15 ships of your same class by yourself. So if you think you would like all of that above, buy it. Otherwise stand your distance. -Dea7htrap
