Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force

It's become an annual tradition: every new FPS engine ushers in a slew of independent titles that use the engine's technology (licensed) to deliver gaming experiences that are altogether fresh and innovative compared to the games the engines were originally created to drive.  That's the case with Monolith's Lithtech engine and Epic's Unreal engine, to name two; but the most consistently licensed 3D-engine technology has to be that of id Software's Quake engines, which also serve as the benchmarkers for a number of graphics-card measurements.  However, a "coattail" game's graphics engine alone does not determine its playability and enjoyment factors.  Accordingly, GameZone bases its review scores not only on graphics, but on elements unrelated to graphics, such as gameplay, concept, difficulty, and sound.

Looking back over the years, you'll come across plenty of titles that scored poorly despite being based on licensed 3D-engine technology.  Luckily, Raven Software, developers of the famous/notorious Soldier of Fortune, has put id's engine to extremely good use with their latest sure-to-be bestseller, Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force.  In STV: Elite Force, you play as ensign Alexander or Alexadria Munro, second in command of Lieutenant Commander Tuvok's Hazard Team, which was assembled as a sort of . . . elite force for sticky situations.  It just so happens that one of those sticky situations has just arisen.  After responding to a phony distress signal, the Voyager and her crew are mysteriously transported to a junkyard for starships, known as a hull space, where they're trapped without any clue as to what brought them there or why.  Their ultimate mission:  find the root of the gravitational dampening field that's trapped them there and eliminate it.

One of the unique features STV: Elite Force's single-player game is the presence of intelligent bots that serve as the additional members of your various away teams.  Combined with Raven's advanced scripting code, these team members take on a life of their own and affect gameplay in an unprecedented way.  On any of the missions, any of your team members could be injured or killed at any time.  If any of them do, there's code in place that activates certain in-game cutscenes in which that crewperson is teleported out of the combat zone.  Also, these members interact with you throughout the game, both in combat and during the exploratory R&R sections of the game which you spend onboard the Voyager.  The overall effect is an impressive seamlessness from the first mission to the fortieth.

While the single-player game is designed to move you smoothly from one mission to the next, hopping from vessel to vessel until you reach your final destination, the play is balanced well enough to keep you challenged regardless of the level of difficulty at which you play.  Unfortunately, the forty missions nevertheless seem to go by too quickly; diligent players will finish the single-player game in a day.  Another minor-but-noticeable irritation is that, as with Soldier of Fortune, the end of the game seems somewhat slapped together and not on par with the first three quarters.  The alien races you encounter later in the game seem more cartoonish than sci-fi based.  That's the case especially during the final missions, where the quality of the illustration declines to the point of resembling Japanese anime more so than something that could have possibly come from an episode of any of the Star Trek shows or movies.

For the most part, though, STV: Elite Force offers you that "you're in the movie" effect not only because you feel like you're part of a real team, but also because all of the TV show's original cast members lent their voices to their counterparts in the game (with the exception of Jeri Ryan, who plays Seven of Nine in the show).  The recreation of Voyager's layout—complete with bridge and holodeck—and a Borg cube add to the realism, as do the relatively lifelike, accurate representations of all the characters' faces.  Add to all this the nine two-mode weapons (among them a very realistic phaser) and fourteen different enemy races and you've got yourself the most involving Star Trek game made for the PC yet.

Installation:  Very Easy.  Not all gamers might appreciate this, but having no installation options (full install only) make for a quick installation.  Either you can load the game or you can't.  Also, the installation autodetects whether you have Direct X 7.0a, forgoing the stupid "Do you want to install DX anyway" question if it detects that you already have it.

Gameplay:  9.8.  First off, there are no noticeable bugs in the release version.  Once upon a time, that might not have been a big deal, but based on what's come down the pike the past few years, it's now a big deal.  But absence of bugs alone does not qualify for such a high gameplay score.  Everything else that STV: Elite Force has going for it is, basically, everything else.  The interface shows a lot of work:  it's colorful and filled with starship and Hazard Team trooper information; the controls are easy to master; there are more configuration options than you need; the cutscene transitions are done with the in-game graphics; and following the story line while moving through the levels, zapping aliens is—in the words of a certain famous Vulcan—fascinating, Captain.  If only the single-player game were longer. . .

Graphics:  8.2.  Never mind all the hoopla exalting the capabilities of the latest graphics cards and graphics engines; STV: Elite Force's graphics at once demonstrate how far computer-game graphics have come, and how far they still have to go.  The levels are beautiful and richly detailed, but the characters are still a tiny-bit blocky (that much more evident because they're unarmored humans and humanoids, vs. the bulked-up warriors of Quake and Unreal).  The worst aspect of the graphics is that it's too clearly evident where the heads and necks have been attached to stock torsos.  Lastly, while the mirrored sections of the ships are cool because you rarely get to see yourself in a first-person game, the windowed sections are lame because the spacey backdrops look so lo-res and washed out.

Sound:  9.4.  Excellent voice-acting, unobtrusive music, authentic sounds from the TV series . . . what more could you ask for?  The ambient sounds could've perhaps been a little more obtrusive, and there could've been more sound added on all fronts, but all in all what's in the game is very close to subtly perfect.

Difficulty:  8.9.  The game is nicely play-balanced, with multiple difficulty settings that adjust the challenge appropriately.  However, the designers got a little lazy toward the end of the game.  The final encounter involves very little strategizing.

Concept:  8.9.  Although there are probably more games based on Star Trek than on any other figment of pop culture, this game is based on Voyager, one of the most successful and unexploited of the Star Trek properties.  Add to that the fact that Voyager is in its final season, and the creation of STV: Elite Force comes off as somewhat of a bold move on Raven's part.  Most importantly, no matter what novel, professional sport, or TV show a game is based on, if it doesn't embrace the material its licensing, the effort will come off as half-cocked.  STV: Elite Force does embrace its license, although there's plenty more from the TV show that could've been brought into the game.  Hopefully there'll be an exceptional add-on.

Mulitplayer:  7.  While the multiplayer segment of the game also leaves something to be desired, it still manages to offer up some fun.  At first glance, the levels are refreshingly Star Trekkish, but they soon start to show a lack of variety or creativity.  Too many of them have wide-open spaces that aren't balanced out with enough places to perch, hide, or realistically snipe, and all of them seem too small.  Also, as with most FPS games, all of the modes (Capture the Flag, Free-for-all Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch) are too fast-paced, with little opportunity to do much team-based strategizing.  What's nice about the multiplayer play, though, is that the interface is streamlined and wait times are minimal.  Also, it's holodeck based, so you don't use realistic weapons, and when you die you don't really die (which should make concerned parents happy), you just reappear at another part of the level.

Overall:  8.6.  STV: Elite Force easily offers the most fun of any Star Trek game ever made for the PC.  It makes a decent FPS, too.  Multiplayer play is uninspired, but still entertaining because while the traditional multiplayer elements are lacking, the fact remains that you're playing in a creative universe, with characters you're familiar with and with "authentic" weapons and settings that come straight out of the television show.  While the graphics aren't incredible, being based on the Quake III Arena engine they represent the best that PCs are currently capable of in terms of 3D.  You absolutely will not be disappointed if you buy this game.