When I was younger I loved Star Trek: Away Team, but with age, my taste in games has changed – well, at least certain time-consuming mechanics, like games resting on endless save & reloading. It’s still somewhat of a charming experience playing it now, however, being a Commandos clone there is A LOT of trial and error involved. That is not all, as this title also has a bit of a quirky and archaic control system. It undeniably adds up when half of your attempts fail due to control issues. Yet, as mentioned, it’s still appealing since it’s set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation timeline (best timeline), has nice looking retro graphics, excellent voice acting and presentation, and a pretty good story to boot.
Commandos on a mission
Like the Star Trek: Elite Force games, you will be commanding a crack team of commando units, taking dangerous missions outside of normal Federation protocol. Very cloak & dagger where even phaser blasting unsuspecting allies in the back is fine if it gets the mission done. The ship under your command is also unique and is more than the usual cruiser. It uses holographic tech to disguise itself to slip in and out of sticky situations. A very crafty way to get around the ban on cloaking tech. However, I’m a bit surprised it works since a simple ship scan would probably reveal who has come to visit. Oh well, the tech isn’t explained with any more input than that, so you just have to go with the flow.
In this particular adventure (if you can call it that) you are called to investigate an incident involving the friendly and well-mannered Klingons and the Caesar larping Romulans. Things are never easy, or what the situation initially looks like. Soon you and your little crew of merciless murderers (that is how I played it, anyway) get dragged into something much bigger that involves all the popular factions of the show. You will be blasting everything from Federation space marines to emotionless Borg drones. And not to spoil anything, but the story does come together and makes sense. It feels like a long and fun mystery episode from the TV show, and if the gameplay alone doesn’t do it for you, the narrative just might. It has serious stakes, which makes your team go through some truly heroic actions, considering what will happen if you fail. This is a Picard level of crisis event.
Picking your crew
Unfortunately, all things come with a price, and in the case of Star Trek: Away Team, it was the gameplay. That is not to say it’s a complete failure, especially if you like Commandos type of games. As I said, I’m not into that type of gameplay anymore. What it got though, that is missing from Commandos clones in general, is that you can play it as an RTS (somewhat). Funnily enough, just running up behind enemies and blasting them with your phaser is one of the most effective ways of dispatching them. It does not always work, as some missions require stealth with no killing allowed.
One problem with the gameplay comes from its genre roots, surprisingly. In Commandos for example, you can always take care of sentries with your old trusty knife when you are out of bullets or want to be a sneaky murdering bastard, but in Star Trek: Away Team, you don’t have anything like that. You do get close combat weapons, but they are limited in their use of ammo and class. The one infinite close-quarter takedown, the Vulcan nerve pinch, only temporarily stuns enemies. It’s a weird gameplay decision because even when I wanted to stealth the missions, I couldn’t. And some missions, like when captured by the Borg give you absolutely nothing in defense. I made it through that one by overdosing on stims while eating green lasers like it was Ferengi-made candy. Probably not the intended way to go about things, but the game didn’t leave me much choice.
Another issue is hiding bodies. You can’t carry corpses, but what you do get is a transporter-based container that collects bodies with the help of beaming tech. However, this is restricted to the tech specialist, and only a handful of them come with this equipment. It’s an oddity, yet I guess it works in a gameplay sense since it plays into the team selection aspect. From the perspective of realism, it does not. Unless the Federation has a mandate that says you are not allowed to drag corpses around.
Between missions, beyond being told what to do, and providing important story bits, you will get to pick who you want on your away team. There are requirements since the missions always demand certain pieces of equipment – which limits your choices somewhat. Regardless, it still leaves you enough freedom to go into combat however you like, and the five different classes to pick from all come with their own special gear and weaponry. A good recommendation is to go with the security officer Sinjin Kirk who comes with seven deadly sniper rounds. He will make those annoying far-away targets so much easier to take care of. Another reason to pick him is that he is related to James T. Kirk by being his grand-nephew. Just a cool thing to ponder.
It’s Star Trek
From a visual standpoint, Star Trek: Away Team sure looks lovely in its top-down viewpoint, just like the Commandos games. It has an artistic style that never gets or feels old. It’s rich in detail, and there is no denying that this is Star Trek: The Next Generation. The visuals are not all it has going for since the music and voice acting are also of superb quality. It even has the actors of Data and Worf voicing their iconic characters. Beyond the celebrities, the voice acting is a class act, which makes the briefings a joy to listen to. It feels very authentic to the TV show. Nothing to complain about here, as it lifts the presentation when the gameplay falls a bit short.
In conclusion
However, gameplay is the most important part of any game. While the visuals and the general presentation of a game can be great, the gameplay is what makes or breaks any title. Otherwise, I could just as well read a Star Trek book, or watch an episode on the TV. This makes it incredibly hard to recommend Star Trek: Away Team, unless you really like the Commandos genre, or are just a huge Trekkie that must consume it all like the Borg (I’m one myself). The gameplay, in combination with its somewhat wonky control scheme, makes it a hard game to enjoy for long periods, especially if you are like me and are allergic to the trial-and-error style of mechanics. So, with that, I can only recommend it on two conditions, you like the genre, and you like Star Trek. If you don’t, stay away since I doubt you will find much enjoyment in Star Trek: Away Team.
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
Tom's Gaming Vault 