Fox's Review: Another Star Trek Game (PS2)

[Fusion]

Why just 'Another Star Trek Game' and not Star Trek: Encounters like the game actually is?  Because that's what this game feels like: Yet another Star Trek game.

For a game that has the same level of annoyance as Star Trek: Shattered Universe, I can only praise this one for not having the same annoyances.  The Orion make appearances but they aren't the primary bad guys, nor do you fly pointless Federation fighters out of the rear end of one of the ugliest classes of ship yet attacking the evil version of one of the best Starships ever made.  Nor is your objective often impossible.  Another plus for -some- Trek fans is that William Shatner's voice graces Trek's presence once again, though in my opinion I didn't even recognize Shatner's voice at first, and I know how his voice sounds.


(Graphics 6/10):

Well, I have to say, this really looks like Star Trek.  The vehicles and such are decked out with the respective looks they've come to recieve, the proper colors are used for almost everything.  The ships' reflective maps are used well, but the only problem lies with how some of the ships are poorly designed.  The Nebula-class ships look too big, and the Galaxy-class ships just look plain incorrect.  Most of the other Federation ships are done correctly, the Defiant's easily recognizable visage is present in this game, and it doesn't look like they got Voyager, Enterprise-E, or the NCC-1701-A wrong.  I should also note that Deep Space 9 makes an appearance in this game, and yes you actually do missions with it.

The only things questionable are the graphics choice for the weapons.  They seem a little fat and misplaced.  The explosion graphics look kinda weak, too.  But one thing's for sure: Graphics weren't a high-flying standpoint.  As I always say: Graphics don't matter, it's how they work with the Gameplay.


(Sound 3/10)

Why, damn it, why!?  The most powerful part of every Star Trek game has been how accurate it has held on to the sounds.  While I'll admit hearing the same soundset is tedious, at least it had a Trek feel to it.  The game's crowning fanfare sounds horrible until it gets to the main riff.  Jeez, where is that theme most Trek fans are proud to hear?  You know, the theme that always plays when the Enterprise drops on screen?  I'd probably be brought to tears watching that big ship scroll by with such a theme playing.  But seriously, this theme is inexcusable.  Just like the Enterprise series.  But it's not all bad, the main theme picks up as it goes into the full orchestral, but damn if it wasn't trying to be too much like the Star Trek themes of old when it started.  I mean, I could've sworn that "alright, here comes the proper verse!" only to be shot in the face with a burst of Quantum Torpedoes.

Almost everything in the game has the proper sound, excluding the Defiant which has horribly inappropriate sounds for it's Pulse Cannons.


(Control 7/10):

The game actually has a decent level of control.  It takes some time to get used to, but you'll be able to bash Xindi\Klingons\Borg in no time after some practice with Head-to-Head mode.  You fly your ship and move it with the left analog stick, the right analog stick controls your targeting cone.  R1 fires your currently selected weapon or uses your tool, and the D-Pad has a function as well: Diverting power to specific systems.  While that's nice, it's only a 'preference selector' because there's little to no effect on what system you boost.  One drawback is that most of the ships feel the same, fight the same, excluding the Defiant which can fire it's guns sideways through it's own hull for some reason without blasting itself apart.

The menus, well... Work, I guess.


(Gameplay ?/10):

This one's a bit of a toughie.  You play from the top-down perspective, and your main objective as with every objective is to blow stuff up, because natural Star Trek stuff is too boring.  Yes, you can't have a game that's just like the show, excluding Bridge Commander.  You target a ship, or fire snapshots at it, and you either hit, or miss.  Certain ships have certain strengths and weaknesses, blah blah blah, problem is that one of the biggest ships in the game is also the most pathetically weak.

There are a variety of modes, Head-to-Head where you can take on an enemy starship of your choice with what you choose.  Feel like Kirk needs to teach Picard a lesson?  Feel free.  Archer getting a little overconfident when he meets the Borg?  Feel free.  There's also a kind of 'Team Battle' mode, though it's just Head-to-Head ala King of Fighters' team style.  You die, another ship from your team takes over.  There's only preset teams, no custom ones, sadly.  Plus, you can't get all those ships to fight all at once.

Then there's the Onslaught mode.  In this mode, you can just pretend that everybody's pissed off at the Federation for some reason, because you can only play as Federation ships.  Your job?  Kill everything.  Sadly, it's one of the easier modes of gameplay, because 20 ships swarming you just doesn't cut it for a half-rate novice like me.  I can't even keep a target lock with the phasers and I STILL beat them to a pulp.

Lastly, there's the last mode, the Episode mode.  This mode you play in 3 missions with 5 eras.  That makes... 15 missions.  With some bonus missions, I'm sure.  The first is the Star Trek: Enterprise era.  Then it's the movie TOS era, then it's TNG, then it's DS9, Then VOY, then some special bonus missions involving the Enterprise-E.  Sadly, most of what you do is following warp trails, which is freakin' tedious at best.  Come on, you can't actually give us the chance to play as the borg in the battle of Wolf 359?  That'd be cool.  Or how about give us alternative scenarios?  What if the Federation won the battle of Wolf 359?  What then?  Give us some creativity.  Hell, DBZ: Budokai did it, so why can't Star Trek?


(Overall 6/10):

I'm probably being graceful for this just being Star Trek mixed with Asteroids, but as any good (actually worth their opinion) reviewer will tell you: "You've got to know the game to review it."  And I'm saying that STar Trek: Encounters is a forgettable experience, but it makes a good timekiller.  Now if only they'd update this game, add some decent features (I dunno, like accurate Galaxy-class ship graphics?  Miranda-class refit?  How about a Wrath of Khan scenario?) and fix some of the things wrong, this could be one hell of a Star Trek game.

I want to love it more, but I can't because what I like it for already is all it has.