Star Trek: Encounters

"Asteroids and Star Trek have a young baby nerdling"

I have not played many Star Trek games. I have had two before this one, 25th Ani on NES, and Starfleet Academy for the Super Nintendo, and they both sucked. I thought so anyway. When I saw Encounters hiding behind seven copy's of Star Wars III on PS2 (LOL), I glanced at it, and almost put it away when I noticed that it was $10, AND the word Activision was nowhere in sight.

So I picked it up.

(GAMEPLAY - 8/10)
Like the review title says, its like Asteroids, but it goes somewhat more in depth. You run around as an Enterprise (the NX-01 at first, but the others will be unlocked, don't forget the Defiant, and Voyager) shooting bad guys with ships phasors, and photon torpedoes. Unlike Asteroids, you can target your foes (Klingon, Borg Xindi ((?!))) with a highlight of a targeting slice that you rotate around the ship with the right analogue stick.

Some missions (called episodes) involve having to cripple parts of
some ships, and send an away team, or tow them off. Those work like the weapons and such.

I almost forgot Skirmish mode.
I would like to call it arcade mode, but I don't spend much time here.
This is where you can beat random ships (Galaxy vs. NX-01, or Bird Of Prey vs. D7) in three modes. Head to Head, allows you and a friend to choose a ship, and kill each other. I have yet to do Battlefest mode (some review...). Onslaught mode is where the time is best spent. You pick an Enterprise (Defiant/Voyager) and try to survive waves of ships on three lives.

(MUSIC - 9/10)
If you have played Star Trek Legacy, then you are not missing anything (literally, its the same score!), but if you have not, then it is an entirely different score then the shows and movies. No Jerry Goldsmith here.

It sounds like a strange fusion of Star Trek elements, and Star Wars elements, grabbing a mood of DS9. I hope that made sense.

I have looked around, and heard that the music was below par in this game and almost everyone preferred regular Trek music. I liked it though.

(GRAPHICS - 7/10)
Very pretty, but not pretty enough.
These are graphics that look nice from afar, as it has the Asteroids birds eye, but they start to get kinda ugly up close. The ships look as they should, which I enjoyed, but sometimes when there are allot of ships on screen, some ships become indistinguishable because its dark.

There are nice touches, like a light reflection on a ships hull.
I particularly like the nebula's and clouds, but that's me.

(STORY - 5/10)
Imagine this, you go to the games sound and option menu, you turn down all the voices, except the narrator, who is a bored sounding Shatner, and leave the
music and sound effects. What you get is a game that feels like Disney/Pixar's Cars, but in space, and without the love that it had, but I digress.

The story's are somewhat simple because it was (seemingly) designed to be an arcade game.
Go to the Klingons to stop them from doing whatever, get ambushed, continue on your way, get ambushed again, but in an asteroid field, and repeat until done. There are variations, like protect a Vulcan ship from Klingons, and blow up a Klingon space station. Again, an arcade game.

Skirmish mode is mindless. ;)

(REPLAY - 6/10)
For me, its a game where I will unlock everything, and leave it be for a year or so, then go back and play it for a few hours, then it repeats. Of course this is a budget game, and SAN AN ( a game with better replay value) was no budget game.
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Overall, I would have to say that this is a fun game. It reminds me of one of those arcade games on a classic games collection that you (assuming your age 20 in 2007) have never heard of, and its sort of tucked away (Zaxxon on the Sega Genesis Collection). Snag it if you have been playing Asteroids for the last 25 years.

8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/24/07