Logan Booker may have prematurely blown an EPS conduit in excitement.
Star Trek fun for Star Trek fans. It's the easiest way to describe Star Trek Elite Force 2, the sequel to Raven's Star Trek Voyager Elite Force. With the names of both titles being considerable mouthfuls, you'd expect them to be chockers with cheesy show tie-ins and one-liners. And they are. While it might be Trekker-overload for the cliché-squeamish, it'll generate a warm flow of energetic plasma in the warp core of everyone else - if you can ignore the flaws.
Ritual, the company working on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, is behind this outing. Raven did some amazing stuff with the Quake 3 engine with the original EF, and Ritual has topped its effort with the sequel. Along with sharper, detailed textures and higher poly counts, Ritual has done significant work with the animation and polygon detail of the character models. Equipped with rudimentary deformable mouths, eyebrows and eyes; bendable fingers and more flexible limbs, characters can now convey a range of emotions via their faces and body language. It doesn't add much to the action, but it goes some way to breathing life into Picard, Munroe and his cohort during the in-game cinematics.
You heard right -- EF2 puts you at the helm of Lt. Alex Munro, the grizzled protagonist from the first game. Rather than continue where EF left off, EF2 opens with the player reliving the last episode of the Voyager series - with the ship and crew 'trapped' inside a Borg Sphere. Admittedly, it's funky to play out, and it also acts as the plot anchor to secure the player into their role as Munro, leader of the elite Hazard Team - which is promptly disbanded once the squad returned to Starfleet.
From here, it's a mixed bag of tribbles. There's no argument, Elite Force 2 is a run-of-the-mill first person shooter, with the standard selection of weapons replaced with futuristic counterparts, and the environments bright, shiny and colourful compared to the urban plainness of those in recent titles. Anyone after a revolution in gameplay or functionality in regards to weaponry and multiplayer will be disappointed. It's not surprising, and it's definitely not a requirement - the Star Trek universe is just a theme applied to the standard FPS format, just like Raven Shield or IGI 2 are applications of the covert ops theme. To criticise the game for this isn't fair - unless it does a poor job. Thankfully it doesn't, and players will be comfortable with the Starfleet Assault Rifle as a shotgun replacement, and the Enhanced Compression Rifle in place of an M16 with grenade launcher. These are just two of a variety of weapons, one of which is well hidden to prevent it being easily acquired - and it is worth finding.
As far as gameplay and storyline go, Elite Force 2 is a hybrid of Quake and The Dating Game. Between missions you'll be allowed the venture around the Enterprise-E and talk to crewmembers and other Hazard Team members. Munro is quite the lady's man, and on more than one occasion you'll need to make a 'choice' regarding your relationship with a female member of the crew. Or an alien. It's Kirk for Generation X.
You won't be able to ask Jonathan Frakes how his directing career is going, or find out if Wil Wheaton still gets molested, as the only Next Generation character you'll meet is Jean-Luc 'Xavier' Picard. Patrick Stewart's vocal presence, along with the other excellent voiceovers, movie-quality sound effects and music, adds some authenticity to the plot. But not even the support of psychic Patty could keep EF2's story in high orbit.
Sci-fi demands the suspension of disbelief. EF2 demands the complete and voluntary shutdown of your cerebrum. The plot holes are unforgivable, and some of the in-game cinematics will have you reaching for the cyanide. While the animation can be forgiven (it is Quake 3), the story should have had a serious proof read. On one mission, Munro stands in open view for a good minute -- right after his companion is shot by a sniper; while on another, stealth is 'required' to sneak into a Romulan base, but neither the guards nor Picard care if you just shoot everyone instead.
A side objective throughout the game is the discovery of 'gold enterprises', which when enough are collected, open secret levels. Trust me, they're not worth the effort to find - the extra levels are nifty, but hardly a just reward for the time you'll spend earning them.
Ultimately, Star Trek Elite Force 2 plays like a game where plenty of effort has been poured in, but the polish and final touches haven't been added - touches that are a little beyond what a patch could rectify. If you like Star Trek, it's a great play and you'll like the story. For core FPS gamers, it's just another shooter.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012