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Gaming, In My Opinion
Those who like Star Trek are possibly the most ridiculed people in the world. Everyone assumes that they walk around in makeshift starfleet uniforms, performing Vulcan v-signs and doing poor impersonations of William Shatner. And so, everything with the Trek brand name is approached with prejudice and laughed at. But Elite Force is different.
There's nothing really to say about the visuals. EF, which runs on the Quake II engine, captures the look of the Trek Universe with impossible accuracy and yet looks very similar to the almighty Quake2. The cast is beautifully recreated in polygon-based form, especially the likes of Tuvok and Seven of Nine. The sounds are nothing special either. It's merely a collection of your usual phaser blasts and plasma shots, accompanied by irritating alien screams. However, this is redeemed by the superb voice acting by all of the original cast and new characters. Overall, it's your typical shooter. In each level you go from A to B, fending off ambushes from multiple aliens, with a few stealth elements injected, finishing with the activation of destruction of a computer/switch/object. But the way the levels are arranged is incredible. You play though the game in a very HalfLife-esque way; you live the character you play. Between missions, you chill out on the ship until called. Then you watch the briefing, kit up and make your way to the transporter room. None of this is done through cutscenes; YOU get to do all of that. This creates the sense of freedom (a freedom which is in fact limited) and really draws you into the Trek Universe. And the story, beautifully presented through in-game cutscenes, develops much like an episode of the TV series. You start off with the short fifteen-minute, totally irrelevant section, a crisis turns up and then you see the credits (actually ripped from the series) before hearing the Captain's log and proceeding with your missions. And, much like a certain Sierra game, each mission flows into the next, as do each of the little episodes within each level. Add to that a fantastic multiplayer (well, it had to be fantastic; it's based on Quake!) that will keep fragfest freaks more than happy, and you've got a pretty good package. Obviously it's more appealing to Trekkies than normal people (not that we aren't normal...I mean, they!!), but even FPS fans will enjoy the Quake/HalfLife-esque single player and the fragtastic multiplayer. Go on, beam up...I mean, buy a copy. VISUALS: Pretty good. It's looks like Star Trek should. 9/10 SOUNDS: Run-of-the-mill phaser sounds and alien screams. Loads of voice acting. 9/10 PLAYABLITY: Easy enough, especially the unique game structure. 9/10 LIFESPAN: You'll play it once, possibly twice, and the multiplayer will keep all Trekkies happy. 7/10 VERDICT:The definitive Star Trek game. Perfect for Trekkies and fans of Quake/Half Life. 85% |