Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force {CE}
And EXPANSION

Raven Software

Introduction

Star Trek and Computer Gaming have finally come together in something that works. But Elite Force is much more than a good game, it is an extremely good game!

Positives

The TV show format is definitely a great way to start off a great game. The people at Raven new exactly what people have been waiting for in a great Star Trek game. After the opening couple of levels, the music comes up and you get the opening credits and screens of the tv show! I was totally impressed! I can't say it enough, IT IS AMAZING, very nastolgic. You really have to see all this to really appreciate it, and of course you need to have seen the Voyager TV showt realize the similarities.

The details they put into the game are amazing. Various items like the "extra" creman from the show, such as the vulcan that works in engeneering. He is pictured in the game. There are other characters as well. All the special graphics and backgrounds of the ships are really good. The flow of play from the cinematics to the game and the game to the cinematics is very well done. Voyager maps are the best so far, the Etherian ship is strange and a little confusing, Although I have realized that there are transporter nodes that you can destroy in order to keep the enemy from coming at you at such great rates. They are similar to the distribution nodes in the Borg ship, except these are transporters and many enemies may come out of them. There are these stupid little "fire-flies" that repair everything you destroy in the Etherian ship, but they come in handy at onepoint when your shipmate "Chell" accidentally shoots and destroys a needed piece of equipment in the ship. The problem is you need to figure out how to get the "bugs" over to the right place to repair the wreckage.

The Klingon and alternate reality "old" federation ship maps look pretty good so far, and since this is part of a "stealth" mission I had to hold my fire as much as possible or I would get fragged by a thousand enemies at once.

In between some of your away missions, you have briefings and other such things. One of the best things I like, is the chance to practice with new weapons in the holodeck. They have some really neat programs. These levels are of course in the Multi-player game also. One was a wild west fort shootout and another was a camelot castle shootout.

Of course ALL the sounds of the TV show are were taken directly from Paramount's own sound archives. Even the computer voice is the same, the door wooshing closed and opening, the baddeeps of the computers, the warp engine sounds, everything.

There was a NASTY Hunter dude that I had to fight one on one! You could only hit him while he was NOT glowing! Pretty nasty even with my 200% health and 200% armor. (yeah, I played on the easy level).

I also had to reload several times (well I didn't have to this time but I did so anyway) in order to prevent my Squad leader from being assimilated! I think this was a mistake though because the Borg did not help me when I fought the final enemy of the game.

Oh, that reminds me, I got to tranquilize an Alternate Universe Federation Doctor when I was undercover in the stealth missions. Hmmm, I wonder what might have happend had I given him the truth serum that was lying nearby the tranquilizer? Oh, well, maybe next time I play the game I will have to try that. There are so many different paths one might take on during the game.

The most dreadful enemy ever, until the final alien in this game, Species 8472 was taking over a Borg cube that we were aboard. Thankgoodnes we have modified weapons now that can handle Species 8472 with relative ease. But they come at us almost as fast and sometimes faster than the Borg and Etherians (butterfly like creatures you meat near the very beginning of the game). Luckily we are "proffessionals now" and were able to desroy the Borg cube with all of Species 8472 on it (I hope!).

The weapons are varied. There was one weapon like a handheld photon torpedo rocket launcher. When a person is hit they sort of explode and vaporize at the same time, after glowing in a nuke like Yellow/gold color. I enjoyed practicing with it in the Holodeck.

You get to see your own quarters! You have a picture of Voyager AND the Enterprise 1701-D (obviously we know nothing of Enterprise-E unless Seven of Nine told us).

The few mirrors in the level/maps are great, you turn and you see yourself turn. you look up or down and you see your head move up and down. Awesome!

During one of the missions my team and I had to go after a huge gun ship, problem is there was low gravity when we first got there. I had to reload once because I accidentally stepped too far out into space Away I floated, never to return! I quickly realized that the low gravity meant I could jump a little higher. This came in handy!

The game just keeps getting better, but OUCH, I got hit really hard in one spot, where crewman Beissman gets killed! I had to reload about 10 times before I was able to stay alive myself, and this is on the easy level!

Before I ever got to these nasty Harvesters (the aliens that are supposedly worse than the Borg and Species 8472), I had to go through a bunch of robots! These robots were outragously FAST! Thank goodness I had my proton rocket launcher!

You have to remember that you have nine guns all with secondary fires, thus it feels like you have 18 guns. Some of them are really good! The normal Federation Rifle has a wicked secondary fire that takes out everything it hits with only one hit. Unfortunately it zaps a TON of ammo juice!

Negatives

At times though, you do seem to think that there is more cinematics than there is play time. The game could have been a little bit longer. A sequel would be much appreciated, but it would have to be a little bigger next time. A sequel would have a problem though with teh series coming to a TV end next Spring. Perhaps the Hazard Team could be adopted by the rest of the Federation once they get home, as the Captain tells Tuvok at the end of the game!

Conclusion

This game is very addictive, at least until you have played it clear through. After you have finished it it has a good multi-player game, but every body does multi-player, so it is no big deal.

Expansion Pack

Raven listens to the people that play its games. They recorded 7 of 9's voice and put it into the full game with a free patch and/or the expansion pack. They also made several new multi-player maps and a "Virtual Voyager Tour Mode" which had several more single player type holodeck missions, including ablack and white Capt. Proton mission. Best of all the price for this average sized expansion pack was not extremely high. After playing the game some more, I have decided to update the points in the review below.

Review Points (50 points = average game)

Min. System Requirements