Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: Activision

You can't review a Star Trek game without mentioning that most Star Trek games really suck. Go ahead, try and find a review anywhere that doesn't mention it. Aside from precious few exceptions Star Trek has proven extremely difficult to translate into good gaming, so you'd think that the weakest license in Trek-dom would yield the worst game. You'd be wrong, sort of. Despite the fact that Elite Force is based on the worst Star Trek has to offer (Voyager) it has the power of Quake III behind it and the other ace in the hole is the developer of the title, Raven software; they know 3D shooters.

Starting with the obvious, Raven made excellent use of its subject. Several missions feature action occurring throughout the USS Voyager, from the Bridge, to the Turbolifts, to a reasonable facsimile of Engineering. On a few missions you can even practice new weaponry on the Holodeck. A medieval and old west setting are available, to name but two. The entire cast of Voyager is available to talk to and each is voiced by the show's actor, except hold-out Jerri Ryan (Seven of Nine) who is impersonated well. All of this is so well handled, its only weakness is that it's Voyager, not the original cast or the Next Generation. Face it, we know the Enterprise better than we know Voyager, so Kirk or Picard's home would likely be a more interesting locale to play in.

But Voyager lends itself much better to the subject matter. How to make the normally staid and philosophical Trek into a violent shooter? Voyager is more of a natural for this because of the fact that Star Fleet isn't present. The idea is that Vulcan security chief Tuvok has formed an Elite Force Hazard Team commando group that specializes in dealing with violent encounters so the cast of the show doesn't have to. These guys are tough, expendable (they do wear red shirts you know) and are probably necessary on a ship lost in space and hounded by cosmic nastiness like the Borg.