Tryzon?s Nostalgic Gaming Trips #18
Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (PS2, 2002)
*Disclaimer* Some of the images I used here are from the PC version. The PS2 has fairly lesser visuals, but you shouldn't care if you're a real gameplay-over-graphics type. */end disclaimer*
I certainly wouldn?t call myself a Trekkie, but I am a fan. I have watched many a Next Generation and most of Deep Space Nine. I?ve even dabbled in the original series, but I just can?t take it seriously, although I like most of the films a good lot. Except the whale one, which puts me to sleep. If I want a comical Sci-Fi romp, I?ll watch my Futurama or Red Dwarf boxsets once again, thank you very much.
As for Voyager, I have almost no experience. I know Janeway and Tuvok, but that?s where my knowledge ends. So looking back, I really have no idea why I bought Elite Force six or seven years back (and once again one of my reviews makes me feel old): I was not familiar with the series, my faithful magazine had basically lambasted it, and there were other, supposedly better games available. I must have been really bored, that?s all I can say.
Now so far my tone is an ominous one, and you probably think I?m about to tear into this game?s hull. But I?m not. Because I got a great deal of enjoyment out of Elite Force in the past, and after finding it for a knock-down price I can concur that despite its flaws, it remains a considerably fine shooter.
Most of you reading this are likely more familiar with the original PC version of the game. Released about a year earlier to critical praise, some considerate individual decided PS2 owners were missing out and set about porting the title to the still-young console. Amidst significant hype Elite Force came out for PS2 and was swiftly rejected as a piss-poor conversion of a once lovely FPS. The controls were slidey, the AI was dumbed down, the framerate was wildly inconsistent, the loading times were painful and the whole package felt unfinished. Focusing on how bad a job the developer had done porting the title, reviewers metaphorically ripped out the game?s spine and left it to die.
But I propose to you that a mass over-reaction occurred amongst the critical community. You know how highly anticipated games will often get good scores initially even if they?re not what they were cracked up to be (*cough* Black & White *cough*)? Well, I think the reviewers responded in the opposite manner on this occasion, looking past Elite Force?s good points and crucifying it simply because of its downsides. I?m not denying that the PS2 received a badly done and probably rushed adaptation, because it did, but what I am saying it still got a good game under all the bugs and lag.
Well after that overblown introduction, a plot setup should break some ice quite nicely.
Voyager is innocently cruising one day when they?re suddenly assaulted by a mysterious vessel (like every third episode of every Star Trek series ever, but I digress). After blasting it to little bits, a freakish portal thing opens up and gobbles them down whole. Nom nom, indeed. Emerging once more in an unknown part of space which is apparently even more unknown than where they were already, they find that their ship is paralysed by a magical anti-power field of sorts and countless other ships of every conceivable variety are nearby and suffering the same problem. All they know is that an ominous space station thing is generating the field, and escape won?t be possible until they figure out a means of kerblamming it. So they start investigating nearby vessels, and it?s from here on that you become a major player.
I?m stopping there because the enigma of the trap you?re stuck in is the driving force of the game: what keeps you going. Revealing more would sour the pleasure, and since I?m trying to recommend this game, giving away stuff might not be in my best interest, or yours. Just let me say that the story is revealed at a logical pace for the most part, and the final revelation is so suited for a movie or special TV two-parter it?s almost painful. Painfully good, mind.
Now we come to meat and potato town, and discuss the actual gameplay. First impressions were negative: I called the controls ?slidey? earlier and I stick by that description now, because that?s the only word which properly sums up how they feel. You just move like you?re ice-skating, or have a stick of warm butter on each foot. Also, I like my turning speed to be just right, and Elite Force makes you turn like a spinning top initially. However I was clever enough to work out that a tap of square lets you go into walk mode and move at a normal pace, and I tweaked the rotation velocity until it was just about what I?m used to, namely Timesplitters 2. Anyone who knows me should have seen that comparison coming a mile off.
Take this, vile...ah. Adapted, have you? So...yep, I'm smegged
So once you adjust the various settings to your liking you realise that the standard control layout is actually perfectly fine, with the R buttons being for shooting, L1 and L2 being jump and crouch respectively, and X taking up the role of your bog-standard ?activate? button. Of course, even if you don?t care for the controls, they?re entirely customisable! Many more recent games have failed to give players this option, and it?s entirely a conscious decision by the designer to act vindictively. Looking at Timesplitters again, the original was a PS2 launch title (which was rushed to meet the release date, no less) and they still gave you almost complete freedom to edit the input. The only real exception was turning speed, which was entirely fixed. Then again the turning speed was perfect, so what?s the problem? When a hastily released game from 2000 lets you customise the controls to your heart?s content, anything coming out years later has absolutely no excuse.
Anyway you start off with your classic phaser (which is quite pitiful but has a recharging ammo count, so you get what you pay for) and a laser rifle. Testing these out on the nearby Borg (oh yes, the opening mission is a simulation of a Borg Cube that turns out to be a Kobayashi Maru. You should have predicted that, really), you?re surprised to find that the shooting is genuinely decent. It might not be a Timesplitters-beater, but this was pre-?splitters 2, so that?s forgivable. Of course after a few shots all the drones adapt to your weapons and unless you?re quick on your feet or smash one of the totally unguarded nodes that render Borg in the area useless, you?ll be dead in seconds. You do get treated to a shot of you being assimilated, though, so it?s not a complete loss.
A console-based first person shooter from 2002 actually holding up after so long is immediately impressive. One need only glance at the hilariously awful Turok: Evolution to see what might have been. Things only get better once you start acquiring new guns. In fact, you get at least one during nearly every mission. I really approve of this because it means you always have something new to experiment with, although once you find your favourites you?ll stick with them. I am particularly fond of the Tetryon Disruptor: basically a minigun with lasers and a secondary fire that sends shots rebounding around corners. I dare you not to like the sound of that.
An adjustable auto-aim gives you as much or little help as you want, and the end result is a consistently satisfying experience. Ammo is never scarce until the closing chapters, so for the most part it?s a big gorefest of alien goo. Once again, who couldn?t like that?
So you take your bottomless bag of peashooters and embark on a grand journey through several varied foreign vessels. These include old faves like the aforementioned Borg Cube and a Klingon ship to crazy new ones like the biomechanical one where your first real mission takes place. Throughout the atmosphere is pure ?Trek, with all the authentic blips and bloops one expects to hear, anonymous low-ranking idiots who get picked off while the popular characters escape unharmed, multiple unexpected twists in the tale and other such things. Some voice talent from the telly got in too, with the Captain herself being the real deal, and a few others who I am simply too ignorant to remember. It?s as flawless a presentation as you could hope for.
Malicious manta-rays are the least of your worries, but still annoying unless you add some laser to their face
In between excursions you are tasked with wandering through the ship and either stopping a warp core breach, fixing some broken landing gear or fighting off a raiding party. It sounds dull, but it makes for a nice change of pace, and you can see the extent of the damage done to Voyager during her captivity: one scene in particular makes me laugh because some bloke suddenly limps towards you down a corridor, chased by an explosion and pleading for you to activate a force field once he?s through. You have three choices: do nothing and get an instant game over, let the man get to safety and then block the explosion at the last possible moment, or close the hall off immediately and giggle as he frantically asks what you?re doing and then promptly gets vaporised. The latter option has always been my default choice, and it?s amusing how none of the witnesses to your evil act say anything whatsoever.
Regardless of whether or not you?re constrained by petty morality, spending less than fifteen minutes bumbling around the ship doing menial work is actually interesting because it completes the ?lost episode? feel the entire game has. It might seem odd that one ensign saves Voyager from kerblitteration six or seven times, but would you rather sit in the mess hall eating replicator rations and playing that weird chess game until your next assignment?
The bridge of Voyager in all its blocky glory
The game quickly starts using the ?mission, break, mission, break? pattern consistently, and I found myself happy to conform. Such structure paces everything beautifully. You can tell when the final hour is closing in because all logical progression is quickly thrown out the window. Like I mentioned, the final adventure is the only one where you don?t find a new weapon. Still I can assure you that the conclusion is very epic indeed, even if the actual way you play through the last fight is less than stellar.
Of course, Elite Force?s main issue is that it doesn?t last that long. My review playthrough was maybe seven hours (I never remember to properly time it, so that could waver either way), and that really isn?t very much at all. Then again, with such a polished odyssey through endless discovery, what would you expect?
But now we?re getting into the negatives. These are mostly things unique to the PS2 version, but I think at least a couple could have been in the original as well: the loading times are a bit much, although not horrific, and at least whenever you reload it?s just where you left off, because you can save anywhere, much like Half-Life; the frame rate is mostly fine but can suffer significantly as things become more hectic. As you?d expect the climactic ending is the most affected by this; the AI is very simplistic, amounting to either just running at you or crouching behind a spot of cover and then never leaving it. It?s still much better than in Turok: Evolution, where dinosaurs would consistently get stuck running into walls, foes wouldn?t notice their comrades having their skulls ripped open by a tomahawk, and a select few opponents had mastered the ancient art of throwing a grenade and then running into the blast radius and being liquefied. It?s worth picking that up just to see the various antics the CPU gets up to, I promise you (hey, that rhymes!); jumping sections and FPSs don?t mix, full stop. Having one with iffy movement controls and introducing a few instances which require accurate springing is nothing short of madness; at long last, I find that you need to stand perfectly in the right spot to activate a button, otherwise nothing happens. Games like Half-Life are far more generous and prevent you from having to awkwardly fumble around until you get it right. A small issue, but a consistent one.
All in all, Elite Force on PS2 is a mediocre port of a great Star Trek game, but Elite Force can only be so bad, since the original was so good. I only got the PS2 version because I prefer using a controller to a keyboard and mouse for everything except real time strategies and the like, and I was lucky enough to find my copy in a bargain bin at well below what it costs online. On PC it?s a mere few quid, but on PS2 it?s nearly ten. I found my PS2 version for slightly less than the PC one with all the bits and bobs and nothing apparently wrong with it. I was massively lucky. Both editions have identical singleplayer campaigns except for a PC expansion that lets you wander freely around Voyager (how..thrilling?), and the PC is the only version with online multiplayer, although I have no idea what the community for that will be like by now. Any average person will probably prefer Elite Force on the PC, not least because it?s technically superior and comes a good bit cheaper, but if you stumble across a low-priced copy for PS2, I say pick it up. It?s fragtastic.
Tryzon out.
ADDITIONAL: I now own the PC version and can confirm it?s better in every conceivable way. I still way the PS2 one is perfectly good, but there?s little reason not to favour the keyboard and mouse.
