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!

First things first.

Are you going to like this game more if you are a Trekkie? Of course.

Can it stand on its own merits and be enjoyable for those not indoctrinated by the Federation? Absolutely.

Elite Force has amazing graphics(no hiccups or hitches on a PIII 900), great musical score (reminiscent in places of the DS9 opening music) and a tight knit story. As a FPS it has both challenging exploration puzzles and fast and furious shoot 'em ups. For the Trekkies in the crowd it has the added bonus of being able to interact with Voyager regulars. The Bonus pack add-on only enhances this by adding the exploration mode, which lets you roam freely on 11 decks of Voyager.

The only severe drawback the game has is its length. Put bluntly, its way too short. For gamers used to Halflife it will seem like your just warming up by the time you finish off the final boss. It's a shame because there is a lot more potential here that goes untapped.

This drawback, however, is not enough to pull the game off your purchase list. This is especially true since it has by now made its way to the discount bins. (I picked up my copy for $9 US.) For all those who feel that there haven't been enough people reduced to orange light in recent Star Trek episodes, this games for you.

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.

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!

This game isn't that bad for a FPS. The graphics, courtsey of the Quake III engine, are really crisp and flow really well. The game designers also noted some good features from other games, such as the alternate weapon function of Unreal Tournament, the BEST FPS IMHO. The plot revolves around you being a member of the newly created Hazzard Team. Your objective is to protect the ship from dangerous aliens. Sort of like the Starfleet Marines. I do agree with the other posters here that the beginning is truly unique and has a fresh feeling, but towards the end, especially once you invade the station, it feels more like Doom than something with some sort of intelligence or challenge. It felt nice to have all the cast members voice their characters, even Chell, a small part that appeared in 2 episodes shows up as one of the major characters in the game.

I found one mistake the designers made was making the game WAY too linear. I wish you had to pay the consiquences for your actions. Say if you disentegraged Tuvok, which I did many times to see what would happen, how the plot would then change. Maybe you could join the pirates and take over Voyager, and then try and free yourself from the forge from there. I think allowing you a little more leway of what you can do and where you can go would have spiced this game up a bit more. I also found the reactions of the bots to be really rude. If I had a weapon I wanted to disintegrate them. So if the designers are thinking of making a sequel, they should try some of the above approaches. I think that could make a very interesting game. That and ditch the Quake III engine, which is nice but not as pretty as the Unreal Tournament engine.

As for the multi-player aspects of the game, they were pretty standard fare for a FPS. You had your capture the flag, free for all, etc. Commanding the bots on your team was a bit of a hassle. It was rare that they listened to you and managed to just stand around. These are some minor flaws however. Over all this is a nice game, and definately something to add to your collection if you're a fan of first person shooters (FPS).