Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force Preview

Raven Software is about to become one of the first developers to release two successful first-person shooters in the same year. Hot on the heels of the company's popular Soldier of Fortune is Raven's Elite Force, a Quake III-powered shooter based on the Star Trek Voyager television series. And if the latest build sent to us by Activision is any indication, then Raven looks as though it has another winner on its hands. Earlier this week, we played through the entire game, and even though certain gameplay elements are still missing from Elite Force, the game is completely playable, and it gave us a good idea of how the final product will shape up.

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Like the TV show it's modeled after, Elite Force initially takes place aboard the Federation Starship Voyager as it continues its journey back to Earth from the Delta Quadrant. Upon receiving a distress call from a derelict alien probe, the Voyager finds itself under attack - the victim of a trap - and is forced to return fire. Voyager manages to destroy the alien ship, but the resulting shockwave from the explosion causes a rift in the space-time continuum, sending Voyager into a mysterious starship graveyard with no way to escape. It's revealed later on in the game that an alien species known as the Reavers constructed a massive space station called the Forge, which creates a dampening field that prevents escape from the graveyard. Any race advanced enough to defeat the derelict probes are sent to the graveyard, and their technology is then assimilated into the Reavers' own, much like the way the feared Borg operate. But even the Borg can't seem to adapt to the Reavers' technology, as they too took the bait and now find themselves trapped within the confines of the graveyard.

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Voyager's Captain Janeway puts into place a series of plans to get her ship back into operational status and find a way to break the clutches of the graveyard. One of the key elements of Janeway's plans is the Hazard Team, an away team that comprises the ship's most elite Federation officers, who have been handpicked by Tuvok, Voyager's head of security. You assume the role of Ensign Alex Munroe, the levelheaded second-in-command of Hazard Team. As you jump from ship to ship, you rally the aliens who've also fallen victim to the graveyard against the Reavers and the Forge. Most of the missions are played as part of a squad, and while you won't be able to control your team members, the other Hazard Team officers are competent enough to not accidentally shoot you in the back or to keep themselves from getting stuck behind walls. During some of the later missions, you'll even be joined by some of the Voyager crew from the TV show, like Seven of Nine and Tuvok.