Star Trek: Elite Force II – Vengeance of the Xenos

Munro is back to kick alien ass, but this time in Federation Space. His part of being a crew member of Voyager is over, but does the more civilized Alpha Quadrant (well, more civilized than the Delta Quadrant anyway) need a Hazard Team? As it is, they do, but not until after some thick Federation red-tape has been cut through. So, is Star Trek: Elite Force II a worthy sequel? In the graphical, and presentation department, it certainly is. Unfortunately, they didn’t learn too much when it comes to the gameplay, and made alien bugs craving a fight in melee the main opponent once again.

Technical stuff
Before we get into the story, let’s talk about a technical issue I was having. At first, I couldn’t start the game, as it crashed immediately when loading up. This was fixed by downloading a small fix from Moddb that removes the intro movie files. Yes, the intro files crashed the game, which is quite a predicament. Thankfully, the intro can be found over at YouTube here, and it’s the only video file that breaks the game (from what I know.

The other is not an issue per se, mostly a question about taste. If you want to play Elite Force II in widescreen, head over here, and download the attachment file called: Star_Trek_Elite_Force_II.7z. It even fixes the aspect ratio for menus and such. Just follow the easy instructions on how to install. It’s all on the site.

Federation space
Star Trek: Elite Force II starts with the ending of the Voyager show, with Hazard Team helping the ship get free from the grasp of the Borg. After that hard worked victory, they make their triumph return to Federation Space. However, not everything is sunshine and lollipops. While Munro and his team want to keep Hazard Team as it is, a Federation leader decides a group like that was not needed in the friendly and wholesome Alpha Quadrant. The Hazard Team is disbanded, with everyone involved being re-positioned in new roles within the Federation. People are not happy, but everyone accepts the bureaucracy for what it is, even if some threats were made of resigning in the beginning.

Two years pass, and Munro is stuck teaching combat to young recruits at the academy in San Francisco. One day, by pure chance, the one and only Captain Picard watches a holo demonstration of Munro’s combat technique when visiting the academy. Picard, not being a stranger to danger in the form of weird brain-eating aliens, and superheated phaser beams, sees the value of a so-called “Hazard Team”. Things end up favorable for Munro, with Picard letting him put together a team of veteran warriors. And about here the game starts for real. Right when you barely have been introduced to your new ship Enterprise, a fellow Federation vessel is in trouble, and wouldn’t you know it? The situation over at the Dallas is exactly what you are specialized in – namely blasting lifeforms to kingdom come. 

Xenomorphs
While I think the presentation, and the initial setup of the story is pretty cool, and plays well into the Star Trek franchise. They have once again focused on some kind of alien melee bug as the main antagonist for at least 70% of the campaign. I would say that the story is okay, but the structure is a bit weird compared to the former game. In the first Elite Force, you had segments where you had to wander off alone, but the focus was still on the team aspect. Because, well, the group you are apart has “team” in its name (Hazard Team). Here, you are rarely with your men, as the scripting often requires you to run off alone, playing the superhero taking on hordes of hostiles of your own. This, I think, undermines the whole premise, and makes it feel very arcade, and “boomer-shooter”-esque, much more than the first game. Many combat segments end up in arena like locations, with you jumping around to dodge attacks and running backwards to blast approaching critters in the face.

The story by itself is fairly entertaining, except for what I mentioned above. Since the Elite Force franchise finally involves a few more fun races than just Borg and ugly xenos. It should also be noted that the sequel has a much more spooky “Aliens” approach to its atmosphere. They even have a factory planet zone that reminds me of Hadley’s Hope from the movie. It’s a cool setting, but it does feel a bit off for a Star Trek game. They also tried something new with the sequel by adding dialogue choices. But these are rare, and seem to mostly affect who your love interest will be. It’s a welcomed addition. However, it was very undercooked. At least, the crew doesn’t brush you off as an idiot anymore when talking to them on the ship between missions. So, that’s something.

It just feels like I have already seen and played all this before, especially coming into this game straight from the first. The novelty just isn’t there, and beyond the cool graphics, the story with the arena like combat just didn’t entice me as much. And it was a disappointment, considering we once again have to face off with alien critters…

Set phasers to disintegrate
On the gameplay, not much has changed. I actually think the tactical approach might even have been reduced, as it seems to play more like the Quake 3 style of combat. If you like that stuff, great, otherwise, it’s a little disappointing. I think the reduced aspect of this in the first game was much favorable towards the franchise it’s based off. That’s not to say the combat is bad. Overall, it feels even more satisfying blasting stuff this time around, as aliens, regardless of the amount of legs they have, die with pleasing screaming agonizing pain, with matching animations. However, the pretense of being authentic, or even slightly realistic, has been totally swept away. Man overboard, is all I can say. But they did add more “Star Trek”, outside of combat, as you now got a tricorder that you must use to solve puzzles. The puzzles are everything from environmental, having you scan to find your way forward, to mini-games that need the noggin upstairs.

Elite Force 2 also has a bigger focus on having boss fights for each map. I can’t remember many of those from the first game, but here you will fight plenty of odd creatures with a gigantic health pool. I didn’t enjoy this much, as for the most part, you will be alone when doing so. And all the fights involve dancing around until you have used every kind of weapon in your possession to finally be able to remove their large pools of HP. Once again, it feels a bit mismatched to Star Trek, but it’s still not bad. It’s just coming off as bland, and at points tedious and predictable – of course a giant xenomorph will be blocking my path, right at the end.

The platforming also returns, and it has a somewhat larger part of the gameplay this time, compared to Elite Force. It will even require you to perform the classic crouch-jump to get to places, a relic from PC FPS-gaming of the past. These segments were fun, with some increased danger, both from critters and the environment itself. The maps keep their linear fashion from the first game, but some effort was made to have some navigation puzzles. It’s not hard, though, but it breaks up the shooting a tad.

Major upgrade
When talking about the visuals, it’s hard to believe Star Trek: Elite Force II is on the same engine (Quake III Arena engine) as its predecessor. The upgraded fidelity is out of this world, especially when it comes to the character and weapons models. It just looks so damn crisp! The environmental stuff looks amazing too. Those three years between the games sure did wonders for the engine tech-wise. It’s a very pleasant looking game overall, and besides a few issues, like when it’s portraying something vast far away, since it looks a bit flat, I think the graphics hold up incredibly well. And a couple of textures look even better than some modern titles today that hide everything behind a blurry filter. It was an impressive looking engine back then, that still now, many years later, can wow someone as jaded as me. Talk about a nice piece of software. 

Music, sound, and voice are also fantastic. Most of the Hazard Team cast is back, and they all do a good job, especially Munro. He has a confident, heroic voice that is nice to listen to. But what really sells the voice acting is that Captain Picard is voiced by Patrick Stewart himself. If there is one voice that embodies Star Trek, it’s his. On presentation, the sounds and looks, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. This part of the game is just outstanding.

Conclusion
Star Trek: Elite Force II is not a bad game, but I would be lying if it didn’t disappoint me, as I have pointed out several times in this review. I can’t be the only one, even from back in the day, that got fed up with the hordes of melee critters of the first game? It’s so frustrating, since fighting Klingons, and all other assortment of humanoid aliens are fun. For some reason, that kind of enemy type is secondary to the endless droves of flesh-eating xenos. However, that’s not to say, once again, that the gameplay is poor, and the graphical upgrade alone makes it worth a playthrough. See it more as a warning, as this was my major complaint about the first Elite Force. If you love that style of gameplay, you will love the sequel, since you are getting more of the same, and it’s improved and faster. If you were looking forward to improved team mechanics, and more tactical shooting, you are unfortunately out of luck. I belong to the second camp, hence my feeling of being let down.

Regardless of my whining, it’s an interesting title, in a setting that doesn’t exactly scream first-person-shooter. Somehow, they made it work in large parts of both games. Do I recommend it? Yes, I do. But be prepared that it’s a shooter more than anything else.

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas