For fans of Star Trek and first-person shooters, this will be a entertaining experience.
This is a solid first-person shooter. It has its flaws, and it probably would not fall in favor with older gamers who are looking for something new and more sophisticated. But for those fans of Star Trek, and those who enjoy first-person shooters, look no farther than "star trek elite force II."
This is a direct sequel to "Voyager Elite Force." Events pick up after Alex Munro blows his way through the Borg mothership and the U.S.S. Voyager goes come. The Hazard Team is reassigned by a annoying Starfleet captain, and Munro is now a teacher at Starfleet Academy. Next think you know, Captain Picard spots Munro and asks him to join the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise E. The subsequent storyline consists of the Hazard Team fighting a new killer bug-like race, and mediating some kind of civil war between two alien races.
You get to experience all these storylines yourself. Between missions you get a deck or two of the Enterprise, which is a really fun and cool experience. But other than that, gameplay is linear. The only choice you have in the storyline is what girl you will end up with in the end, and I guess the number of hidden starships you find during missions. Collect enough starships, and you unlock multiplayer levels and holodeck programs.
The graphics are based on the Quake 3 engine. It looks good, but kind of dated now. The sounds and environment are good, and the voice acting is solid. Patrick Stewart lends his suberb voice acting to this game, which is a treat. No other TNG actors lend their voice. That brings up another point, the game does not really follow the Star Trek universe. Captain Picard would not be interesting in a Hazard Team, since he is a diplomatic captain. And the entire crew of the Enterprise E are new faces. I do not think that everyone left their positions at the end of Nemesis which was released before this game. So it is kind of a dissapointment, why not release a game featuring the TNG crew?
And that also brings up a weakness, the game is not that long and a lot of it is just mindless shooting, which can get tedious. This is not a revolutionary game, it is a stadard first-person shoot em up. You acquire more weapons as time goes on, and there are bosses at every level. A little variety is thrown in with the puzzles and such.
The best thing about the game for me, was the detail and quality of the Enterprise-E and the vision we get of Starfleet Academy. It actually was a lot of fun to wander around in those places and get caught up in the story. Federation people are everywhere, you can walk by and hear their conversations. There is a sense of wonder and magic in this. It makes me wish that the rest of the game was a little better.
So overall the storyline is not bad, the game is fun, and sometimes challenging, and there is nothing to like for me to recommend this game. This is one of the best Star Trek games ever made. Now all we need is a similar game set within the TNG universe. That would me heaven!