To celebrate the release of the new Star Trek movie on Friday, May 8th, all this month we’ll be looking back at some of the great Star Trek games that never got their due. Yes, yes, I know that the vast majority of Trek games were utter garbage not meant for mass consumption, but there were a few winners out there that never got their time in the limelight.

So with that, on with the show…

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force is widely considered to be among the very best Star Trek games to ever hit the marketplace. It is also one of the most popular Star Trek games of all time, which is why we’re not talking about it.

Star Trek: Elite Force II is, as the name so cleverly implies, a sequel to Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. Unlike the first game, which allowed you to choose your gender (which led to some rather peculiar moments with Seven of Nine, giggity), you are forced into the shoes of Alexander Munro, leader of the elite Hazard Team and possessor of the most suave voice in Starfleet (thanks to Rino Romano).

The game opens at the very tail end of the Star Trek Voyager series finale, “Endgame”. Voyager is trapped inside of the Borg Sphere as it careens through the transwarp corridor towards Earth. You and your elite team of crew members who weren’t important enough to make it to the television show are tasked with infiltrating the Borg vessel and disabling it’s tractor beam so Voyager can escape, blow up the Sphere from the inside and avoid creating some sort of game/TV time paradox.

Oh, if you haven’t seen the Voyager finale… spoiler warning.

Once Voyager is back on Earth, Starfleet rewards the harrowing actions of the Hazard Team by dissolving the unit and assigning you as a small arms instructor at Starfleet Academy. The next two years are spent training Starfleet’s elite in small arms combat and, presumably, getting lots of hot college squirrel.

The prologue, now over, leads into the main story where Captain Jean-Luc Picard (voiced by Patrick Stewart, naturally), having just watched you and Ensign Korban slash the throats of many honorless Romulans, asks Munro if he would like to have his Hazard Team reformed aboard the USS Enterprise. Okay, so it may be a bit convenient that Picard would just happen to be touring Starfleet Academy at the exact same time Munro was engaging in a training exercise, and the decision to bring Munro aboard the Enterprise and reform the Hazard Team mere days before a galactic crisis that could kill us all is somewhat suspect… but you know what? That’s why he’s the fucking Captain.

Once aboard the Enterprise with the rest of your team, you learn of your first mission: To investigate a distress call from the USS Dallas, a Federation starship that has come under attack from insect-like creatures that are capable of space flight. Oh, and it also happens to be the starship former Hazard Team member (and hump buddy) Telsia Murphy is stationed aboard. After investigating the ship and saving the crew, the Enterprise tracks the aliens back to a planet where you have to save a group of scientists from an alien culture that, apparently, doesn’t believe in lab coats.

From there, you learn of the true origin of the alien insects as well as uncover a plot that could shift the balance of power in the Alpha Quadrant. In short, it plays like a later DS9 episode. The story itself is fairly strong and well-paced. Most of the Hazard Team cast from the first game returns for the sequel, however the cast of established canon characters is surprisingly lacking. Lieutenant Commander Tuvok returns for the sequel, and we get to see both Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Reginald Barclay, who is now the Chief Engineer, but it’s safe to say that the game lacks the same star power that Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force had (the prior had the full cast). If you picked up this game and were hoping to see all your favorite TNG characters, you were sorely out of luck.

Elite Force II played like you would expect any FPS running on the Quake III engine to play. The action was fast, the level design allowed for exploration while not letting the player get too far off track, the pacing of the combat was good and the enemy AI was… okay, so the enemy AI was non-existent, but what do you want? They were bugs. Every once in a while the game would throw a simple puzzle at you to break up the action bits. Most of these puzzles were little more than “make Image A look like Image B”, but you also had a puzzle mini-game that played a lot like Pipe Dream on the NES – and that’s a good thing.

Also, to advance the story’s plot there would be points where you, as suave Federation pimp Alexander Munro, had to make a moral decision. These decisions didn’t have any effect on the main game’s story, instead reflecting on a secondary love triangle that was going on back aboard the Enterprise.

Unlike the first Elite Force, Elite Force II encourages players to explore. Using your tricorder you can detect weaknesses in walls that allow you to discover hidden areas. Most of these secret areas contain golden Starships that, as you collect more, unlock secret “free-for-all” maps. Of course, there are other secrets, such as the Enterprise laundry room, Captain Picard playing chess with a Romulan, a full Super Mario Bros.-styled minigame, and this:

To this day I have absolutely no idea what in the hell it means, but bless it for existing.

As for the multiplayer, if you’ve ever played Quake III, you’d be right at home with Elite Force II. Like Quake III, the maps are large and allow for lots of free movement. Weapon and spawn placement is damn near perfect and, when you have a full room, it’s just as fun as you could ever hope.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there has been a single full Elite Force II server since 2004. In fact, there is only one American server still operational and it is currently occupied by two bots. The other servers are completely empty. And German. It should be noted that these servers are merely the competitive multiplayer servers. There is a hardcore group of roleplayers who use Elite Force II and some mods to actually play out full storylines inside the game. I’ve never been big on this, but it’s fun to download some of the maps just to explore the USS Enterprise.

The presentation is top-notch. The writing, while a tad cliché at times, is for the most part well done and faithful to TNG-era Trek. The cutscenes are quite cinematic, the audio effects are faithful to the material and the voice-acting is all superbly done although Elite Force II suffers from what I call “Oblivion syndrome” where just about everybody sounds alike. The visuals, much like the Quake III Engine itself, has stood up surprisingly well. Sure, the characters may walk like they’ve a stick lodged up their asses, but the character models are quite well done and the environments, in their own Star Trek way, are quite pretty.

So this brings us to the million dollar question: Why is a video game that’s only six years old featured as a “Greatest Game Never Played”?

Short answer: Blame Activision.

Long Answer: In 2003, after years of declining Star Trek video game sales and terrible ratings for Enterprise (later Star Trek Enterprise), Activision looked to terminate their contract with Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures (who owned the Star Trek license). Rumors of an Activision/Viacom fallout had been circulating as early as 2002 when Star Trek Nemesis crashed and burned in theatres, and by the summer of 2003 Activision had officially filed suit against Viacom. As part of the lawsuit, Activision accused Viacom of allowing the Star Trek license to “stagnate and decay”… which they had… and claimed significant monetary damage:

By failing and refusing to continue to exploit and support the Star Trek franchise as it had promised, Viacom has significantly diminished the value of Star Trek licensing rights including the rights received by Activision. Moreover, in so doing, Viacom has breached a fundamental term of its agreement with Activision … and has caused Activision significant damage.

Keep in mind that in 2003 Activision was still swimming in Tony Hawk money, so I wouldn’t take the “significant damage” bit too seriously.

On July 2nd, 2003 (the day the lawsuit was filed) Activision dropped the Star Trek license. As a result, stores had to pull all Activision-published Star Trek titles, including Elite Force II, which had just been released eight days prior, on June 24th.

JW got lucky and bought it on launch day – and I’ve had the same copy for six years. It’s an incredibly rare find (due to it’s eight day release window) and, when a copy does become available, can sell for around $140. However, if you find yourself at a thrift store or whatever and you see a copy of this game for sale, do yourself a huge favor and grab it… or, hell… Activision doesn’t have the license and Ritual Entertainment is kaput so just torrent the damn thing. It’s well worth it.

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