Is it too much to ask that I review a Star Trek game that DOESN’T suck? Is it?
Far be it from me to criticize Bethesda for their “taste” in making Star Trek games, but come on now! Give me some credit for knowing the difference between a “good” Star Trek game and a “bad” Star Trek game! I have, after all, been a fan of Star Trek for years and years on end… odds are all that service as one of the many who are Trekkers should have endowed me with some ability to tell the difference between a well crafted slash well designed Trek game, and one thrown together more for a quick dirty buck over any real purpose that will, in turn, yield real gameplay value and thus real replay value.

It’s been awhile since I last criticized a Star Trek game, hasn’t it.
Not since I reviewed the not so sterling “Star Trek : Shattered Universe” (starring George Takei as Captain Sulu and Walter Koenig as Captain Chekov) have I felt so bummed out by reviewing a Star Trek game. It seems the only thing the Star Trek franchise is good for these days is space shooters and DOOM like first person shooters (with only the occasional “rare”game to come along to break the monotony between shooting people/Borg and blowing up mass tonnage of ships. Yeah, just what I needed, either a FPS or a Space Shooter that thinks it’s Rogue Squadron or something. Hooray for me.

But since it is the 40th Anniversary of Trek, and once again we have ANOTHER game to stare down at which promises the Delta Quadrant let’s see what we can make of the latest Trek game to grace store shelves… so, like it or not, let’s get to reviewing Star Trek : Encounters for the PS2.

Before I begin, however, let’s be perfectly clear about just what I would like to see out of a Trek game. I really don’t think this is too much to ask from one game, but you be the judge as to whether this is too much or not. Now, if I were to say what five traits I would pick to embody a good Trek game I would have to say the following five are on my list to be certain…

Trait #1 - The game must be intelligently designed and feature solid gameplay
And no, by that I don’t mean I’m looking for an entire gaming production staff that is primarily made up of Vulcans (or a fanbase who think like Vulcans). I mean to say that playing this game should be a rich, deep, engrossing experience that will keep me playing for hours and hours on end. There’s gotta be lots of depth here to keep me coming back for more, with lots of stuff to do that’ll keep me firing away at my 1001 Klingon Bird of Prey, Romulan Warbird, or Tholian ship.
I have to love this game, not like it or tolerate it, I MUST LOVE THIS GAME! Is that a hard concept to grasp? I don’t think so.

Trait #2 - This game needs to have extras that reflect the significance of it’s release year
Since this is a game coming out on the 40th Anniversary of the original Star Trek and all it stands to reason that unlockable content earned during the game is a must (moreso than in any previous Trek to date)! This content should include conceptual designs, interviews with Trek notables, unlockable bonus missions, bonus ships that reflect 40 years of history from the classic TV Series NCC-1701 to the NCC-1701-D briefly seen in the future era section of the final episode of Star Trek-The Next Generation, and anything else Trekky we needed but didn‘t know we needed. We need as much nostalgia as possble, which will make this game a must have if not just for solid gameplay alone.

Trait #3 - This game needs Trek Voiceovers
Another thing that’ll bring the fanbase in strong droves is the smooth vocal stylings of our favorite Trek characters! Seeing how this game takes place throughout the entire history of the Trek franchise we need to hear the vocal stylings of some (if not a good representation) of each series (slash “Generation”) of the franchise. If I were to prioritize though…

Trait #3/Priority #1 - The Captains is a must have voiceover talent for the game. Since this is a game where you are in command of the various vessels of the series then having the Captains of each ship do the Mission Overview as well as voiceover during gameplay seems like a no-brainer even to me.
That’d be voiceover work from William Shatner (Kirk), George Takei (Captain Sulu of the USS Excelsior), Walter Koenig (Captain Chekov of the “Shattered Universe” era NCC-1701-A Enterprise), Patrick Stewart (Prof -- cough cough -- I mean Picard), Avery Brooks (Sisko), …darn, I forgot who voiced Captain Janeway… what’s her name…, and Scott Bakula (…what‘s his name…).
If nothing else at LEAST these five need to be in this game in any depth of role.

Trait #3/Priority #2 - The First Officers. If not the Captain ranks at least the first officers, something still on the high end of the command structure. That, in turn, would be Leonard Nimoy (Spock), whoever was the First Officer from the Excelsior (who has seldomly been seen except for STVI-The Undiscovered Country and that one episode of ST-Voyager), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Uh… oh dear god

it wasn’t… Worf… was it? Was he First Officer on the Reliant?!?… uh, I mean to say I Am Worf… you know who… then there’s what’s his name who played Chakotay from Voyager and that lady Vulcan First Officer who was probably best remembered for gracing the covers (and insides) of quite a few men’s magazines during Enterprise’s run nearly naked at times… yeah, her. Ok. I’m just here for the Nimoy and the Frakes, sue me.

Trait #3/Priority #3 - If all else fails as backups I’d like to hear George Takei (Captain Sulu), Brent Spiner (Data), Nana Visitor (Major Kira) or what’s her name who played Dax from DS9, whoever played Tuvok on Voyager and … uh… somebody from Enterprise. (So I really got sick of Enterprise like almost immediately, alright?)

Trait #4 - How About Some Star Trek Cameoes!
Who wouldn’t love to have Ricardo Montalban reprise his role from Classic Trek lore for a balls to the wall maniac battle of wits starship vs. starship versus the mad would be conquerer Khan (which, mind you, should have been done for the “Shattered Universe“ evil Empire Trek game)! I mean.. uh… wait, is Ricardo Montalban still alive? I thought he was, isn’t he?
OK then, how about John DeLancie popping in as Q for cutscenes or Mission Briefings (which should be interesting in and of itself).
Alice Krieg reprising her role as the Borg Queen? An appearance by Gul Dukat (Cardassian)? The Klingon leader Duras (or those two curvy Klingon sisters from Generations)? Seven of Nine from Voyager? Something! Come on!

Trait #5 - Finally… the game must not suck!
I think I mentioned this above but the game must play good, which translates to the game must not suck! I must not have more buggy content than good content! The gameplay must not be ridiculously repetitive and lack any real focus or drive to make you want to get from mission to mission! The game must not feature a boring lackluster (or overall lacking) gameplay modes option that fails to entertain. In short the game cannot blow because if it does then the game fails, and that is no good since this is supposed to be a game that honors the 40th Anniversary of Trek… so act like it!

Now… let’s start digging into the game… heaven help us!

As the episode opens we focus on the Jewel Case, and take a look at the back.
Hmm… the graphic realization of the game looks hardcore. The look of the universe (from the ships to the space you travel through) has this detailed fineness which, from the back box art, makes it look like a promising venture already. From the design of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A), to the design of the USS Enterprise (NX-01) visually if the art is what the game promises then it promises a pretty picture.
But since a pretty picture is things only good in movies and animated series let’s focus on what the game does for you… and thus already from the first words out of the box the game nosedives into a kamikaze style crash and burn.

“Star Trek : Encounters is a shoot ‘em up arcade style space combat game…”
Whhhhhhhiiiiiiirrrrrrvvvvvvvv….. Crash.
Funny me. I’ve never heard anyone wax poetic about the joys of shoot ‘em ups before, have you!
Well, so much for depth of gameplay. Silly me. Maybe, however, arcade action is better than whatever the hell we did in Shattered Universe which, well, didn’t work. We’ll just have to play and see… though, to be honest, I am not all shivering with anticipation over the thought that I can “Take command of your starship and blast through the universe, defending your vessel and demolishing your opponents’ in fast action battles.”

I’m only glad Gene Roddenberry isn’t alive to see what they’ve done to his precious Trek. On the bright side if he wasn’t cremated then people should harness the power of his rotations as his remains spin endlessly in it’s final resting spot, providing a limitless source of renewable energy… yes, I know that’s a tad harsh but considering we haven’t seen a thinking man’s Trek since Star Trek-Judgment Rites (which guest starred the guy who played Trelane on Classic Star Trek) can you blame me for being a tad bit on the cynical side?

One promising moment is that the game promises to revive classic missions from both the TV Series’ and Movies, which should provide for quite abit of playable content as there are quite a few great episodes which feature quite a few grand battles (and I don’t just mean those knockoff ST-DS9 battles which were total ripoffs from Babylon 5’s Shadow War storyarc). I’m looking forward to digging through this mode to see if I can find the highlight battles of Trek lore (which MUST include STII-The Wrath of Khan if they want the best of the movie battles!)

Another promise is that the game, while it features “arcade style action”, also is supposed to feature a wide range of useable weapons including phasers, pulse cannons and photon torpedoes… I guess if you’ve seen it in Trek you can use it.

Gameplay modes is severely limited, which is another pending downer.
Three modes is promised. One is a possible (though I have to dig through it to find out) open sandbox of possibilities called “Skirmish mode”, the second being “Episode Mode” (storymode), and finally we have head to head multiplayer… what? No online multiplayer? One of the things

that could make this Trek shine bright is not here? You gotta be kidding me!

OK. Before we sink further into the review let’s make or break some hearts… let’s divulge the voice talent of Encounters!

The Voice of the Future : Encounter’s voice talents
It’s Star Trek. It’s the 40th Anniversary. You’d think they’d go out of their way to bring Trek’s best out for this landmark Anniversary celebrating game to end all Trek celebration games… right? Right.
So now… the voices of Encounters.

Let’s see… Voice Talent.
Starring… hey! William Shatner! Cool! That’s one plus point for high powered voice talent.
What else… (looks)… ?
Uh, people? Just having the William Shatner doesn’t count as a well rounded voice talent cast no matter how solid we are with riding shotgun with Shatner in a Trek game. You lose a point for lacking initiative. Yes, the game does feature a ton of special collectible “Character” cards (which, in turn, as collected provide power-ups to each ship from each series depending on which cards you got), and it also features unlockable missions as well as multiplayer with a few different modes of gameplay featuring Battlefest and Onslaught but that doesn’t replace a well rounded voice talent section. Even Shattered Universe had TWO Trek talents (George Takei and Walter Koenig) as well as two other notable voices (backups).

Yes, Shatner is cool and damn it I hope the PSP version has Shatner too, but this is way too few powerhouse Trek talent for a game that promises five series in one play mode. They couldn’t have ALL been busy with other things to not have contributed to this game! Well, let’s hope Shatner didn’t lose his voice pulling voice acting duties in this game (considering he has that TV Show he has to do from which he‘s won a few Emmys for, and all that voice acting in those animated movies and all).

And now, the moment you’ve dreaded… the actual gameplay!
Believe it or not it’s actually better than Shattered Universe!
Using the left analog stick to control your finely designed ship (graphics wise this game sports some sweet rides both on your side and the enemy side) you use the right analog stick to control a conical sensor sweep, and (like Madden’s recent Football games) use this cone to target enemies (through either a “slapshot” freestyle shooting which sends all shots down the center of the cone or a lock on ability that can target for attack multiple ships at once… and yes, this time THE GAME DOES FEATURE A TARGET LOCK!)

But this is not just about shooting ships up and making them go boom. With the fine detail in the way you target ships you’ll find a rich palette of options at your disposal as can either blunt stick bash them to pieces with phasers or torpedos, or (as you hold the R2 button longer) can target specific systems of a ship which means you can disable an enemy ship with surgical percision (which is good as several mission specs will have you do just that). Also this time you can use the seldom in the past used Transporters in order to drop away teams onto ships to either capture them, in the case of enemy ships, or repair friendly ships damaged by enemy attacks and near critical. You also have the use of mines (which you can use to hinder an enemy’s advance or damage them on the run) as well as the all important tractor beams which you use to tow ships.

Power distribution to your four main systems (shields, weapons, sensors, etc) is as easy as tapping the d-pad in the appropriate direction, ditto with weapons and secondary abilities selection (which changes depending on which of the six Star Trek vessels you are operating). Add to that a smooth control system which makes it easy to navigate your ship even as your juking between mines laid out in your path and a easy to grasp weapons system that makes hammering down multiple enemies a challenge (but not an impossibility) and you have a well rounded control system that adds to the fun of the game.

The game sports two main gameplay options. Skirmish and Episode (storymode).
Skirmish features three modes of play, each with it’s own unique style of playing though without a second player you’ll soon grow tired of these as there is no benefit to playing these as far as I know (all the few unlockables is in Episode mode).

And believe you me, you MUST PLAY EPISODE MODE in order to unlock all the benefits of this game. As you start you only have the Enterprise NX-01 from Star Trek-Enterprise to pick, and if you want to play as any of the other ships in Skirmish mode you’ll have to unlock them one at a time by blazing through Episode mode. And blaze through Episode mode you will. Episode mode is, sadly, not the greatest in depth (which is sad from the lacking depth of Skirmish mode) because for a game that features all the generations of Star Trek this is so… lacking.

Also you cannot pick and choose the episodes you play, as you must go through each franchise series in turn by linear chronological order in order to get to every series (and unlock every major ship). Starting from Star Trek-Enterprise (and the NX-01) you’ll first have to go through three missions concerning a battle with the Xindi to stop their planet

killing Superweapons. After that you go into Star Trek mode and a war with renegade Klingons trying to stop peace from spreading between the Federation and Klingons… so much for TV Series era episodes, though the last chapter is a “Genesis” episode in title so maybe Khan might yet get in this one (though sadly there’ll be no Ricardo Montalban voice appearance).

After that it’s ST-TNG, Star Trek-Deep Space Nine (only two missions?!?), Star Trek-Voyager and finally a “new” mission called Star Trek-Soverign which uses the NCC-1701-E Enterprise (the Soverign Class).
This, in total, is 20 missions in totality. Short if you think about it, which means in total this game will barely occupy you as you’ll blaze through it from end to end in only a couple of long sittings (not good).

Worst than the shortness of the game (though it is a sweet game in the way it’s put together) is the voiceover work by William Shatner. Thanks, Bill, I have now finally found a person who makes David Duchovny sound emotional and living in his voice acting… and it’s YOUR voice acting that did it!
Narrating each episode’s chapter, William Shatner sadly doesn’t seem at all interested in bringing this game to life as he delivers all his voiceover work with a dull bored voice that makes me think he’d rather be anywhere else than doing voiceover work on a Star Trek game. At least George Takei brought the game he was in to life by providing a vibrant lively voice acting talent which made each Mission Briefing interesting to listen to… unlike William Shatner’s readings which sound as if he’s been drinking the blood of David Duchovny (and gained his power of sedated voice acting at the same time). Now I’m all regretful for criticizing George Takei because at least he put some real effort into his work (unlike Shatner).

Also at times you find yourself doing the same things over and over again (escorting ships, clearing mines, following warp trails, blowing up things in order to either clear objectives or find something, etc) so while the gameplay is sweet the fact that you do the same things over and over again (inflicted with the sad voice acting talent of a sedated William Shatner) will definitely drag you down. It also doesn’t help that the game is short as heck and lacks depth to keep you playing. Breakdown time.

Star Trek Breakdown Encounters
What’s Hot?
The gameplay is sweet. With a ship that controls well (and looks pretty doing it), a full platter of weapons and abilities that make neutralizing ships a difficult choice of how to make things go boom (or how to disable them), and a fluidic way to play which makes duking it out with a fleet of ships and fighters a challenge worth taking (as opposed to one you hate everytime you find yourself surrounded) makes this game fun to play.

What’s Not?
However the “fun” is crippled by the fact that the game is repetitive at times, lacks any depth in gameplay options on the main menu, has no online option, and the dull voice stylings of one William Shatner. Sure, the game is selling right now for $20, but just be aware that your getting exactly what you’re paying for (you pay less you get less).

Another downer is the fact that only some of the Episode missions have a nice selection of missions for certain series. While ST-Enterprise manages to scrape by with 3 missions, two under used series (ST-DS9 and the strangely named “Soverign” representing the NCC-1701-E Soverign class) only have TWO missions apiece! Talk about bare minimum content for each! So if you liked DS9 or the Next Gen movies you are… well… lacking here in content.

Moments to Remember?
The gameplay is the only bright spot. Not even the lacking “Character Cards” (with lackluster images of the stars for the cards without so much as any attempt to make for any depth with character info or anything) and the equally lackluster ship imager can provide any “oomph” in the memorable content dept. overall. No interviews, no fan service tons of info, no unlockable episode clips or comic slash novel covers, not even William Shatner complaining about how much work he did to sound so sedated and bored during voiceovers. This game couldn’t be more bonus content deprived than it is right now, which sucks since this is supposed to be a 40th Anniversary game and (dammit) I expected better!

What to Ignore?
Why did I ever think Bethesda would actually surprise me? Why? I do hope I am wrong about the PSP version, and that game proves to be better than this one… but somehow I doubt it.

Overall?
While the gameplay is a vast leap into warp speed improvement over the old relic that was the gameplay of Shattered Universe, the rest of the game does not come up to Mr. Scott’s strict and precise guidelines for a ship-shape ship of a game. Rental if you are looking for a Trek experience to sink your teeth into, purchase if you are die hard Trek who MUST have a game even if the game is lacking in so many ways, otherwise don’t hang your shining star on this so-so content game because the game fails to please me even if the gameplay is the best I’ve seen on a console.
Now all we have to do is find out how Star Trek-Tactical Assault merits out. Stay tuned.