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Star Trek Voyager: Elite ForceBy: Bill Stiteler Review Date: November 29, 2000
It's tough liking science fiction, if only because most people involved with it are lazy and reprehensible. Allow me to clarify that statement. It's kind of like religion. For some people, if you just stick God or a church in a movie or a book--or worst of all, a greeting card--that suddenly makes that movie, book or (sigh) greeting card a million times better. 'Cause see, now it's about religion. Likewise, some clowns think that if you put lasers or a space station in any piece of crap, it's a million times better, 'cause see, now it's about the future! As with anything else, there are a few pearls surrounded by a sea of crud. For every 2001, there are fifty films like Battle Beyond the Stars. Make a movie like the original Star Wars, and sure enough, some clown will make The Phantom Menace. The fan(atic)s don't help, either. I mean, I like Star Trek. It had solid stories and good acting, deservedly making it the pop culture phenomenon that it is. Yet I'm careful with whom I discuss it. Every hack comedian this side of the Catskills has a Trekkie routine (which you swing into after your "What was in those Scooby Snacks" bit) about the known obsessive-compulsive behavior of some fans, who basically ruin it for the rest of us. So I hope you'll understand that I'm a bit cautious with the statements I make about any aspect of Trek. Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force is the greatest first person shooter I've ever played.
You play either Alexander or Alexandria Munro ("Alex"), an ensign on the starship Voyager, a ship lost in space and trying to make its way home. Since the crew keeps running into strange and exotic races--who want to kill them--you have been assigned to a special security force, the Elite Hazard Team. As the game advances, Voyager gets taken prisoner by a mysterious alien race. Okay, no big innovation there. Video games, not to mention Star Trek itself, have used this plot line so much the game might as well open with "President has been kidnapped! Rescue President!" But Elite Force plays out like you're in a TV episode--you don't just get the hell-bent-for-leather action you expect in an FPS followed by non-interactive cut scenes (although Elite Force contains its share of those) to shuttle you into the next fighting sequence. Elite Force successfully recreates every geek's dream; the experience of actually taking part in a Star Trek episode.
The writing is up to the task as well. After you rescue one of your team, Telsia, she suggests making your way out of the base by pretending to be your prisoner, which Munro duly points out is "the oldest trick in the book." And it doesn't work! So, after shooting your way past the first set of guards, Telsia says, "That probably won't work a second time." "It didn't work the first time!" Munro replies. The game is full of moments like that and more detailing the characters' personalities. Chell, your technician, is a bit of a fraidy-cat, so you have to find alternate routes for him to travel. Beissman is a good fighter but a hothead, so he's not chosen for a critical mission. And Telsia... well, I had an odd conversation with Telsia which probably wouldn't have seemed so odd had I been playing Munro as Alexander rather than Alexandria. If you follow my meaning.
Elite Force is full of moments like that. Munro even has a room of his/her own that you can find, but the only thing that you find is that he/she knew Worf, and has a penchant for trashy fiction. Of course, the game is first and foremost a shooter, and it rocks on that level, too. I agree with the guys at Old Man Murray that a game should be fun in the first five seconds. Elite Force does that by dropping you in the middle of a Borg Cube on a solo rescue mission. And it only gets better from there as you use the nine different weapons (each with two types of fire, of course) in your continuing mission to encounter strange new races, and vaporize them. But when the mission recommends stealth tactics, you better freaking crouch and peak around every corner if you don't want your butt kicked. The level design in this game is so much fun I could hardly believe it--I haven't enjoyed a shooter this much since I was picking off stormtroopers in Dark Forces. There's even a level where you skulk about the remains of an original-series-era Federation ship, complete with a crew in the old uniforms. Of course, there is one jumping puzzle over lava. Every FPS must have a jumping puzzle over lava. Someone look this up; is this a federal law or is this covered state by state?
In addition to being the great shooter you'd expect from a game based on the Quake III Arena engine, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force finally gives us an FPS with a fantastic story. I'll go so far as to say that if you're even a casual fan of shooters, or if you're someone who just kind of likes the occasional Star Trek episode, this game will pull you in, not just with its great action, but with its carefully woven story and characters. Of course, hard-core Trek fanatics should buy this game so that they can live out part of their fantasy of living in the Star Trek universe. Then they can play online, where the rest of us get to live out our fantasy by shooting them.
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Why? What's so innovative about a game based on the Quake III Arena engine? Story. The game grabs you by the neck from scene one and drops you into an immersive storytelling experience. The game features more all-out action than probably four seasons of any Trek series put together (making for a good shooter), but the thing that will really stick in your mind, that will really make you love this game, is the story, or more accurately, the way the story is told.
How does it do this? The programmers have paid a lot of attention to this aspect of the design. First off, they got all the cast members from the TV show to voice their own parts. I remember once I did one of those "host a murder" things set in Next Generation, which came with a tape to set it up, but rather than Patrick Stewart, we got some voice-over dork working for scale telling us "the captain is busy, and has sent me to tell you..." But here you get Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan, et. al., with substantial, albeit supporting, speaking roles. And the main characters of the game are voiced by people who--dig this--AREN'T JUST PEOPLE THEY PICKED UP OFF THE STREET! What the hell is up with games getting decent actors? Did the actor's strike only affect people who gave us reads like, "Oh no. Here they come. Arg?"
Like I said, there are also cinematic cut scenes which advance the plot, but equal time is given simply having your character move about the ship, talking to the other characters or eavesdropping on conversations. I got a kick out of one of the mission objectives being "get your helmet from your locker," when the locker room is right next door. It wasn't pointless--by going into the locker room I walked in on a conversation between two other characters that had nothing to do with me directly. It was put there to make me feel that these characters had lives of their own, and to make me care about the game and their well being. I replayed a level set in the Borg Cube about five times so that I could rescue a crew member trapped there. I didn't get any points or power-ups for it, I just gave a damn about the character.
For more blasting action, there's the "Holomatch" game, a separate application where you and your friends (or the psychopaths you find on the internet) can run around various Trek sites and shoot the bejeezus out of each other. I found the initial levels a bit small, but support for mods is built right into the interface. The nifty part is that your characters include those from the game, as well as a few others from Trek's background.