|
 - A real Star Trek gameEver since I first read about it, I knew I had to have it. This is one of those games you don't get tired of. If your a Star Trek fan, the idea of shooting Borg should be appealing enough to you. Rating:  - It would have been so great..._This was a great FPS game, by any standard. It's not just a shoot-em-up, it's part puzzle-solver too. The weapons and gameplay are excellent. The controls are a bit awkward, but that couldn't be avoided. _My only problem with this game is that after getting very far into the game, I encountered a glitch that wouldn't allow me to proceed further into it. The game just ends there, or might as well have. Unfortuantely, I saved the game just after the glitch was irreversible. What happens is that at one point, you arm up to defend Voyager from harvesters, run out into a hallway, and the man in front of you gets blown up by an explosion in the side of a bulkhead, where the enemy then starts flooding in from. However, in my save file, the bulkhead never explodes, and the guy just stands there like an idiot (I spent hours trying to get this all to work). So, according to the in-game clock, I wasted 11 hours and can't win the game. So why bother starting again? Frankly, I don't have the patience. Rating: - follow-up reviewThis 1st-person-shooter game has you taking on the role of Alexander Munro (or the lovely Alexandra) an ensign aboard Star Trek�s USS Voyager. When Voyager was catapulted into a distant corner of the galaxy � far beyond any hope of reinforcements � Tuvok, the ship�s executive officer, formed the Hazard Team, an elite corps of Starfleet commandos capable of facing any threat. Armed with a variety of weapons and trained to operate equipment on any alien starship, the team stands ready against whatever the Delta Quadrant can throw at it. Unfortunately, Munro is a bit too impulsive (as s/he proves at the end of the first level), and stands to be kicked off the team. Instead, fate intervenes and the team is forced to take Munro along when the ship is snared by an alien ship and brought through an �iso-dimensional� rift into a vast graveyard of other alien ships. With Voyager too severely damaged and drained of power to escape, the Hazard Team is pressed into duty - boarding other ships in a desperate attempt to learn the secret of the aliens that hijacked their ship, and to find the means to escape. The game relies on both alien races both familiar (Klingon, Malon, Hirogen and Borg) and new. The levels aren�t too long or complicated, and a tight storyline beautifully keeps the game running. Between the missions is a mix of cut-scenes (using the game engine, ala JK2) and interactive scenes in which you prowl the halls and lounges of the Voyager and mingle with its crew. There�s a lot to love and to be disappointed with in this game, which is nevertheless the king of Trek games (at least until EF2 debuts later this year). Level design is a mixed bag of great and bad � with my clear favorite being the Scavenger ship, a huge space station composed of salvaged starships like a Klingon Warbird and an early 23rd century Constitution class starship (that level excels because it�s such a mishmash that you never know what you�re going to see next). The game wisely starts its action aboard an Etherian starship, whose wondrous insides resemble less that of a space-going vessel than an acid trip. Unfortunately, those are the early levels. The game maintains its edge with an infiltration mission on a Borg cube, only to lose it afterwards, when you find you must infiltrate other alien ships manned by either sentry robots or the harvesters and reavers - vicious and robot-like aliens. The game also has a wonderful design engine that gives some of its non-player characters a wonderful individuality (whether it�s your team mates or the aliens). However, that tool, embedded within the �Icarus� engine, is barely relied on for the aliens � and most of the aliens you�ll meet are faceless and uninteresting hordes. (The exception being that set aboard the Scavenger ship � where we hear Klingons complaining about their food, Hirogen discussing their latest hunts and humans playing an unending game of 3-D chess). Gameplay is hampered at all levels by the game�s simplicity � though lightyears past �Wolfenstein� much of EF has you prowling the hostile corridors of enemy territory, pretty much blasting whoever you meet, and finding the exit. (Again, the Scavenger level is best because it�s a stealth mission, requiring extra precision; even so, you spend so much time hiding, that you can�t afford more than quick glimpses of the scenery). The designers probably felt like they could only make a game that was either a fragfest or a thinking man�s RPG, and that we�d be grateful whenever it was both, for even a second. This is actually my second review of this game, though I had to do a follow-up after having played �Jedi Knight 2� which is also based on the QIII Arena engine. Though older than JK2, Elite Force (EF) holds up pretty well. It�s not as long as JK2 (you can easily finish the game in a week after playing a level a night) nor as difficult (the enemies aren�t quite as overwhelming as in JK2, and the game relies on far less counterintuitive puzzles than that game). On the minus side, it�s not as challenging and the simplistic game play gets annoying really quick (instead of puzzles, you have to locate control panels, which your PDA will ID on any alien ship, and throw their switches). There are two genuine boss-levels in the whole game, and maybe twice as many true frag-fests. Echoing the differences between the Trek and SW universes, EF probably sees itself more as a thinking-man�s shooter, but won�t make you think too hard. Though you won�t need to be any kind of Trekkie to get through or even enjoy the game, fans will appreciate how the QIII engine renders their ship. I played this on my P4 (2Ghz) XP machine without any hick-ups. I haven�t tried multi-player yet, but managed to get by without downloading the 20mb patch (which I eventually installed for the heck of it � the only difference I�ve noticed is that Seven is actually voiced by Jeri Ryan). EF isn�t as finicky about your choice of accelerator cards, accepting my S3 Savage4 card. In short, a great Trek game, and one not to be missed before �Elite Force 2�. Rating: - The joy!!Although I am not really big into first-person shooters, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this game. The graphics are excellent, the game is stable, the story is interesting....and then we get to my favorite part....the "interaction", if you will, with the other Voyager crew-members. It is not every day that you get to single-handedly vaporize your favorite Voyager characters simply because they are so annoying. I am SO glad they allow this! Many games of this sort don't let you shoot your own team-members. (Even though you end up in the brig....if you have a good position you can hold them off for awhile and kill a whole heaping bunch before they take you down and the game ends.) I can hardly describe the joy and elation I felt when I fired granades into the galley and slaughtered many of the Voyager crew. I frequently killed Tuvok for being such a condescending know-it-all Sometimes I would fire my phaser at my team just enough to irritate them. (The lines they speak are really quite humorous.) Then I'd finish them off with a photon blast. They are such snobby individuals and they are also incompetent in the midst of the many fire-fights we encountered. My only complaint is that I haven't yet found an opportune moment to kill Janeway......well, maybe Elite Force 2 will afford me the chance! Rating: - ExcellentThis is one of the few Star Trek games that really kicks butt. Ironically, its based on one of the less popular Star Trek series. You can add the expansion pack also so you can hear the few lines of dialogue Seven of Nine has as well as fix some bugs. Fighting the Borg is a creepy experience and the graphics are beautiful. Definately worth it until Elite Force II is available.
|
