Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

I'm a big fan of the Star Trek Franchise as well as first person shooters. This game delivers on all fronts. It's a story taken from the perspective of the Voyager series. Tuvok has trained up an elite unit of starfleet officers to handle the harder situations. Voyager finds itself stumbling upon a shipwreck and coming head to head with a rag tag group of scavengers, with aliens from multiple different races. There's a lot of nostalgia in this game and I certainly liked that they utilised the original cast, which adds to the authenticity of the gameplay and narrative. They need to make a part 3!

This has to be the best Star Trek game yet to arrive on any console. Its graphics and gameplay are totally superb, not to mention it has all the original cast members voices. If you like Unreal Tournament you will love this! Its just like being a member of the cast in a TV episode of Voyager. That means any Star Trek Fan out there will absolutely adore this title!

The Star Trek merchandising bandwagon has been kicking around for a while now, and Voyager - Elite Forces is the latest in this long line of inter-galactic offerings.

The plot in Elite Forces is typical Voyager fare. Ship breaks down, ship needs new parts, parts located on a dangerous planet/space station/mysterious alien ship... hijinx ensue... The story and game settings are well varied and reflect the complexity of the overall plot. Indeed, Elite Force's best feature is it's story line and adherence to the classic TV Star Trek "feel".

Written around the ID Quake 3 engine, the levels and enemies on this First Person Shooter are superbly detailed and generate considerable atmosphere. I was reminded of First Contact more than a few times battling the Borg in EF. Of course with such impressive eye candy comes a price. Don't expect to be sucking down the frames playing on full detail, although truth be told the action never became so furious that I was hindered by the choppy play.

The weapons on offer are fairly uninspiring. There is of course the standard Federation issue hand-held phaser, the heavier assault rifle, and a number of other grenade, rocket launching and lightning gun clones borrowed from Quake 3. The main problem with the entire spread of weapons is that they all basically do the same thing in the same number of shots. Given that there is very little tactical advantage in using a varied selection as one might in Quake 3.. inevitably you play the entire game using the same gun.

The game itself is far too short, the levels are designed in the most rigid linear fashion I have ever seen in an FPS. You _must_ follow the same path, any attempted diversions or branch offs are stymied by barred doors and unyielding containment field. Consequently level completion can be achieved in surprisingly short time as it is simply a matter of following the corridor from point A to point B.

The first few levels offer a respite to the "keep shooting till their dead" strategy that dominates FPS type games. The mission objectives are cleverly designed and interact with the storyline well. However in later levels the gameplay returns to the enemy swarming, click the fire button as fast as possible action that we know all too well.

Elite Forces is not a bad game, it has a strong story line and eye popping graphics. The levels in the first half of the game are uniquely different and clever in their approach. Never the less, I felt a bit cheated at the speed in which I was able to finish the game and consequently the replayability factor is quite low. Similarly, the game play wasn't all that I had hoped for, some more battles with the Scavengers who showed a decent amount of AI, taking cover behind crates and the like would have been nice. The swarming berserker rush of mechanoids and oversized bug creatures in the latter half of the game loses lustre very quickly.

The game stays true to the TV series, something the nerds will appreciate. If that kind of thing doesn't bother you.. well, it's still good for a couple of days worth of entertainment..

Yep, that's right, that is what this game is. At least it felt like that for me. Through the whole play-through I felt like I was taking active part in a real episode of the show. And one of the better ones at that.

However I wouldn't recommend the game to someone who is not a devoted Voyager fan, because that's the real value in it. The references to the show, and the characters that we became so fond of in seven years. And almost all the major characters appear in the game, voiced by the actor who actually played them in the series, so that's a big plus. Usually they don't pay attention to this in VG adaptations. Especially 12 years ago, when the budget of video games were a fraction of what it is today.

If you haven't played the game back when it came out, and you're a big fan of the show, I'd recommend that you give it a try, even though the graphics are dated. But hey, its a fair price to pay to be able to roam freely in voyager's corridors (this feature only becomes available after you install the latest patch for the game) Also if you can look past the graphics there is a very decent storyline, which would've made an excellent two-hour episode for the real show too.

Unfortunately as others mentioned before the game-play can be a bit boring at times towards the end, but its worth fighting your way through, for those very special Voyager moments.

Elite force is an absolute fantastic license game. Locations, designs, voice actors, and plot match the tone and scenery of the tv series perfectly.

On the other hand the underlying shooter is mediocre by today's standards. The AI is dumb, the maps are diverse but very linear, the gunplay doesn't feel or sound mighty and within just a few hours the whole experience is over.

All in all, when you're looking for a voyager experience it doesn't get any better than this. But don't expect any award winning shooter.