Star Trek: Encounters

"Boldly go...to the bargain bin"

The first Star Trek game published from its new home at Bethesda turns out to be an action oriented budget game that surprisingly comes off better than expected compared to other games that launch for such a price (or even a tad more). Going the action route seems to be the standard for console Star Trek games, and while this is somewhat frowned upon by fans, this game does pull off many elements of Trek well within the "arcadish" nature of the gameplay.

Now, if you're familiar with names like Klingon, Orion, Romulan, Borg, Jem'Hadar, Species 8472, Kazon, and Xindi, then this game will tingle your Tribble – blow your friggin' mind. Fan service is on full display, especially for those who have followed all of the Treks. The developers at 4J have given the most races, ships, and shows ever seen in a console Trek game and they are mostly done to "nerdfection."

Through the five series of Star Trek, and in multiple series specific episodes, you will get to control the legendary ships that made legends of the captains who commanded them. While none of the captains or crew are seen or heard in the episodes, their ships are yours to pilot. William Shatner is the only familiar voice the game has, showing up to narrate the intro to each episode, and while his performance is rather by-the-book, it is kinda cool to hear him mention things in Trek that came after him and The Original Series (I don't think he entirely gets what he's reading though – it must be the mad cow). It's also kinda funny when he delivers the lines with his trademark pauses. For instance, the way he says: "The Species ... 8472." Yes shat-man, there are more alien species in Trek than just Klingons (Paramount should have realized this as well).

I have to say the fan service given is just great, and the display is an example of why I will walk away from Star Trek if "reboot" ever enters the thought process of the misguided idiot holders of Trek. Moving forward, rather than tread over what's already been shown and done would be less wasteful than erasing such great storytelling and history. Star Trek builds upon what came before and evolves from it, giving a realized and evolving database of ships, races, and stories with a nice familiar feel and history that offers no need to start over from scratch. Name another series with this much evolution, stories, and attention to detail, as well as many years of history and recognition of it.

The game follows that history with the five series of Trek, and lets you see the difference of each one. There is no storyline to speak of, as each series jumps into various objective filled episodes giving a sort of simple crash course on Star Trek, so it starts off fresh from series to series. Starting out with Star Trek: Enterprise and ending with a Sovereign starship campaign (Picard's Enterprise), you will do battle with all of the nemesis races from each series. Unfortunately the best Trek, in Deep Space Nine, gets the shaft with only two episodes. However, it doesn't hit warp speed from there, as there are still some rather problematic elements that keep the game mired in mediocrity.

For one, many objectives and music tracks repeat themselves way too often. The music is well composed and fitting, such as the ominous track that plays when you encounter the Borg and other enemies, but the tracks themselves do little to sooth and add to the feeling of deja vu you feel throughout the episodes of the game. For instance, in many episodes you may have to speed through some "warp conduits" for speed to make it out of a tough spot. Or you have to race another ship using the same method. Why the hell do devs still think flying through hoops is fun? Dunno about that, but in a Star Trek: Enterprise episode you are also asked to search and follow a warp trail, and that's something that must also be done in almost all of the other series somewhere within an episode.

Not only can these objectives be boring, but also downright frustrating in parts when near perfection is the only way to progress. Seriously, if you're a gamer not immunized on this type of gameplay of the past, you will definitely find these tasks unforgiving, and you will curse the day the devs ever touched their first keyboard. For myself, these elements proved annoying at first, then tedious afterwards. There are some cool objectives like destroying a Borg unicomplex, but they are encased within a series of objectives making episodes a lot longer than needed. Thankfully – thankfully – there are checkpoints, but some better sized, better thought out objectives would have made the overall game more fun to play.

The hoop flying difficulty and overall repetitive nature of the game is what really kills it, as most everything else is well presented. From an overhead perspective, the wide theatre of space is presented with your given ship as its avatar. Gorgeous undergrounds of nebulae, spinning planets and moons (that are reflected nicely on your ships), along with some nice effects like when your ship passes over a sun and eclipses it, are great backdrops for battle. And there is plenty of that.

The overhead view is perfect for showing the rather chaotic battles that take place. As I've stated, the game takes on an arcade-like feel. Enemy ships are easily destroyable (think: "Voyager Borgified" if you absolutely must – but for all vessels) and they drop refills of torpedo and mine ammo. The common things found in Star Trek, like beaming an away team and targeting systems, has also found a way into the gameplay and can also be worked into a battle with enemies.

By rotating the right analog stick, using a 360 targeting slice, you can target onto a ship and have it cycle through various systems and deal damage to them. You can then lock on to the system of choice and disable them for a set period of time. Target a ship's weapons and fire phasers or torpedoes, for instance, and the enemy will lose weapon functions; target and hit the sensors and the enemy's ship will go crazy. You pretty much get the idea. You can also steal energy by using a transporter beam on some enemy systems giving you some more juice to divert to your ship's systems.

It's really neat the way you can target enemy systems, but unfortunately the systems are tied into the overall ship's constitution: if you target, say, weapons all the way to destruction, so goes the ship. It really would have been better if every system had it's own health meter, allowing you to destroy the system but leave the ship very much intact. However, it's still enjoyable to see the ships fail, as the wait-for-it explosion aftermaths are something of a sight and sound, as well as a long awaited treat for this explosion (anemic) luvin' gamer who has been let down a lot this past gen (what gives, Star Fox?).

Aside from the main game, the multiplayer is somewhat fun, as well. Onslaught mode is the real gem of it, and dare I say of the entire game, as I don't find unlocking ships and getting a useless rating in the single-player to have much in the way of happy repeating. Now, having to take on wave after wave of enemies from the game and many from Star Trek's history? I'll keep reaching for that multimillion score, thank ya. True arcade fun. From ships to space stations, you have to blast all of them with the aid of some power-ups and limited lives in the fun mode. It can get pretty hectic, but it's a great time waster. Unfortunately the rest of the multiplayer consists of one-on-one battles, as you choose your ship, where you want to battle, number of frags, add another ship to battle...*yawn*...repeat.

It would have been better if you could add more than two ships at a time to the multiplayer fray, or even have a battle viewer where you could set up an epic battle and watch it play out, but not here. With the 30 seconds of loading at the beginning and end of a battle, the loading becomes more of an inconvenience than in the single-player because it gets in the way of quick selecting of the many choices you have. You do have to choose a high frag limit to get something from the head-to-head battles or your time will be taken more in loading rather than in battling.

Perhaps I was expecting the game to have what bigger budget titles have – and that's my fault – but I do expect devs to give their all regardless, and the game should have been more polished and accessible to all types of Star Trek gamers. While the game does have some fun, and it's the one of better released-for-budget game I have ever played and bought (dunno if that's saying much), I cannot recommend it to just anyone – for rent or purchase.

You must fit three criteria if you want to play Encounters: first, you must have a level of patience that is above what most games today ask for; second, you must have an enjoyment for Star Trek without a pole sticking from your ass, as the Defiant can shoot 360, you can beam through shields, and it's "arcady" action (pissy? not for you); third – and most important – you must have a PS2 that can read a blue-bottomed cd (yep, the game's that cheap). If you fit all three, then I'd say to go ahead and try the game. I would suggest playing it as a companion to another more meatier game, however, because you will want to chuck it, then return to it, then chuck it, then return to it...etc.

Star Trek: Legacy was to be the main event in this current gaming revival of Star Trek, but Encounters is a nice little alternative if you're hesitant in trying the unfinished and released PC title. If you have some patience, you might end up having some fun.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/06, Updated 12/01/08

Game Release: Star Trek: Encounters (US, 10/04/06)