Review System:

Pentium III 650MHz

128MB RAM

Matrox G400 MAX 32MB

Sound Blaster Live! Value

 

Many Star Trek games have come and gone. Many, many, many and more of them. While quantity can be good, it isn't when it comes at the expense of quality. Almost every company that has taken the Trek license and churned out a game has NOT churned out a good one. There are of course exceptions, such as Klingon Academy (though bug ridden) and A Final Unity. They are far and few between, with titles such as Klingon Honor Guard, Pinball, and, more recently, New Worlds making gamers cry and ask why.

Well, boys and girls, this game is definitely not in that latter category. Elite Force is simply one of the best Star Trek games ever put together. It has all the elements of a great game. Raven took those elements and mixed them together to form a compound of great fun. Let's take a look at the positives of this game, along with its few shortcomings.

Elite Force is set in the well known Star Trek: Voyager universe. Voyager is attacked by a probe and is forced to destroy it. The destruction of the probe pulls Voyager into a rift and transports it to a far region containing a graveyard of captured ships. Voyager is trapped. It is up to you and your Hazard Team to save the day.

Graphics 4.5/5

Raven grabbed hold of id's Quake III engine and didn't let go. The team did their best to push the engine and they did a commendable job although it's not quite as pretty as Quake III. Still, this game seethes with atmosphere, beautiful effects, amazing lighting, and that smooth (yet demanding) Quake III feel. The engine adapts well to Star Trek, Raven built some amazing Trek sets with it and some awesome alien ships. Klingon areas feel Klingon, Borg ships and crew are completely believable, and Voyager is covered with that beige Federation style.

Elite Force has a wide variety of weapons. The ones you see on the series every episode are there, along with some new stuff. All offer stunning effects with some pulling a fairly amazing light show. You never feel a lack of effort on the part of the weapons models.

Characters are also well done. Several of Raven's marketing lines include bragging about their amazing characters. They are especially proud of the motion capturing, level of detail modeling, and facial animation. What this all means is that you get characters that move realistically and dynamically change detail based on your distance from them. Faces contort with different emotions and expressions. It's nice to see lips move, along with other facial muscles, when someone talks. 

Raven took the time to recreate every character from the series, you get to see them all. They aren't perfect but, heck, you can't have everything when you work with a limited number of polygons. Seven is sort of man-styled (at least when she's in spandex)....but she's not around much so you don't have to worry there. Janeway's hair reminds me of a styled brick. Tuvok, Neelix, the Doctor, Chakotay, and Paris are all relatively good. The voices are what make them though. 

Between missions you sometimes get short cut scenes which either use a type of full motion video or the game engine is scripted for some sort of meeting with the other characters. They add to the atmosphere and thus help carry the story. I would have liked more cut scenes but the number there are is perfectly adequate.

The only problem with the graphics is that they are demanding. My Pentium III 650 stuttered some at 800x600. If you have any sort of Geforce your T&L acceleration will likely help a bit. My G400 lacks T&L so I suffered slightly. CPU power is a necessity in this game in general, however. 

Gameplay 3.5/5

Raven has put together a Star Trek first person shooter. That is the simple truth behind this game. It's primary goal is to be a fun shoot'em up. The environments do definitely add some exploratory desire, however. I spent some quality time just looking around at the sets of Voyager, and the alien environments. 

One of the game's most impressive and noticeable elements are the scripted sequences. I'll bet that every 10 minutes or so you will run into a fairly complex, scripted scene. It really makes you feel like you are in an interactive environment. Unfortunately since the team dedicated so much time to developing these scenes, the game is rather short. You can probably beat it in around 2 days if you really push. I'd estimate about 20 hours of game play. Not bad but you'll wish it was longer. This is quite a lot of fun.

The AI is interesting to say the least. Your teammates are amazingly intelligent. They will run for cover, take point, and follow you religiously. If you jump on an elevator, they will too. I never had a problem with the AI getting stuck or lost, this is a first in the game industry. A downside to the AI is that their weapons are considerably less powerful and shoot slower. I suppose if they had equally powerful weapons, they could win the game on their own, yet it would be nifty if they could do some serious damage like yourself. Another problem with the teammate AI is that sometimes they seem to flip out and attack you. This may be because of you causing collateral damage to them through heavy weapons, or just a bug, I'm not sure. They will definitely turn on you if you attack them (you can have a ball doing this though, vaporizing the good guy has always been appealing :)

Unfortunately, the enemy AI is significantly less intelligent. It basically will stand in front of you and shoot. Except for a boss or two, the enemy does not dodge, strafe, or do anything fancy.  Another somewhat annoying point is the enemy AI will ignore your team for the most part and go straight for you. The only nifty feature of the AI is its tendency to run off and look for buddies to help defeat you. I'd try to hide behind my team at times, the enemy would actually stop shooting sometimes since it didn't have a clear shot at me. I suppose Raven didn't want you getting pulverized by the teammate AI. They want the general public to be able to handle this, not just the hardcore UT/Counterstrike/Quake III players.

One of the largest complaints I've seen in other reviews and opinions is that enemies all to frequently are beaming out of nowhere. This is accurate for the Borg in my opinion, but yes it may get out of hand at times. Sometimes the game almost turns into a massive blast fest, which while not really bad, does become tedious.

The game is completely linear. There is absolutely no branching of the levels. Also, there is only one route through each level, it's almost impossible to get lost or stumped. You can't make any choices other than losing a teammate. This is the largest negative point of the game. I really wish game developers would spend the time to make a game truly interactive. I suppose it gets more and more difficult to do this as games get more complex, simply due to the added variables. Still, we are definitely losing something here. 

Audio 4.5/5 

Raven had access to Paramount's collection of sounds for the game, just as all Trek game developers do. As such, you will recognize the sounds. They are all well done. Phasers sound really accurate with stun and vaporize sound different. You'll find that if you heard it on there show here or there, that's where it is in this game. Every sound was well translated into the game, crystal clear.

Since Elite Force uses the Quake III engine, you get A3D. Unfortunately EAX still isn't supported for Sound Blaster Live! owners. I don't really understand this, especially since Aureal is gone (though bought by Creative.) You can theoretically get A2D from Aureal's still in-operation http://support.aureal.com. A2D translates A3D to EAX and Directsound3D. However, the effect was disappointing. The translated A3D did not sound right at all. I just turned it off after about 10 minutes, it was too annoying. I settled for 4-speaker SBLive! without 3D enhancement. 

Elite Force takes an ambient stance on music. It's a real environment setter. I found the music to fit the locations admirably and certainly did not want to turn it off at any point. I believe it is all original composition, not from the show.  The Elite Force music changes according to the action, this reminds me of LucasArt's good 'ol iMUSE........ahh nostalgia.

The Voyager crew is there in its entirety. The entire cast, minus Jeri Ryan, reprise their TV roles to bring you believable voice content. The voice actor Raven used for Seven of Nine is actually amazingly similar to Jeri Ryan, I couldn't tell the difference at more than a few points in the game. Also, your character and teammates are also voiced well, impressive. 

Controls 5/5

The controls in Elite Force are just as customizeable as your average first person shooter, that is extensively. Actually, I believe the options are nearly identical to Quake III's. 

I have absolutely no complaints in this department. It will feel like Quake III, except by default you always walk. To people who haven't played Quake III or similar FPS, basically you have your mouse to look around and shoot; and forward, backward, left and right for movement, on the keyboard. Number keys or your mouse wheel select weapons. You also have a use-key to control panels, etc. 

Replay Value 2.5/5

With its linear nature the single player campaign will unlikely be repeated, except to check out the locations again. This is unfortunate but acceptable, most games these days have little replay value.

You can play holomatch, which is basically Quake III death match Star Trek total conversion. Unfortunately, Star Trek doesn't cater to the death match crowd as much as Quake III. Still, I'm sure you will be able to find plenty of servers to play on. Raven includes quite a variety of levels, each quite unique. Still, Star Trek death match just doesn't really appeal to me......

Overall 4/5

Sure, Elite Force isn't perfect. It is, however, the best Star Trek game of it's type, ever, period. You will not find a better Star Trek experience from the first person perspective. With competitors of the past such as Klingon Honor Guard, Star Trek Generations, and the ill-fated Star Trek: First Contact, this is a hands-down winner.

I enjoyed every minute of the game. I believe every person can glean some significant fun from this title. I recommend it to everyone from Trekkers to UT fanatics. Just don't expect it to last forever, all good things come to an end.