So the first game in the J.J Abrams Star Trek has finally been released, better late than never I suppose. Now I pre-warn all of you, I am a huge Star Trek fan and I own every single star trek game, so please just keep that in mind as you read on.
BEST STAR TREK GAME
EVER!!! Well that’s what I would be saying if this actually had a star trek element and feel to the game, and I don’t just mean because it’s in the JJ Verse. There is no real STAR TREK feel to this game at all. It’s just feels like another Co-op 3rd person shooter with a skin that looks to represent the bastardized Star Trek. To top that off the AI isn’t very clever, I died so many damn times because SPOCK got himself killed, as he has ran straight into a turret firing arc! I mean I’m KIRK aren’t I suppose to be the GUN-HO one! The One part the pissed me off more than a few others is from the screenshot below. I will get into more detail when we reach this part of the review
I mean here look at this, we’re in a turbo lift and he’s RUNNING AT THE WALL!!
And then he doesn’t even bloody follow me out!
The graphics are actually not too bad…UNTIL you see the animations on their face’s when they speak….”ITS NOT EVEN IN TIME!!”…On a good note at least the cast from the movie was there to reprise their roles. Graphically the best part of the game for me was the Environment graphics; they are amazing, and some beautiful sites to see.
Now the bitching is done, (Grits teeth) let us get down to business, I’ve been looking forward to this game since I heard it was being developed all the way back in 2010. (That’s 3 years ago, call of duty bring one out every year *every other year if u think two different company’s work on it. So one year for example one company dose Modern warfare, and the other year Black ops comes out, so in a general rule we get a great game every other year* I loaded it up and was greeted with this pretty damn sexy menu screen, its layered over the Bridge while the camera pans around it, I was already like…WOW AWESOME:D – (begs computer) “Please don’t let me down!”
Ok, New game, Choose your character KIRK or SPOCK, Well honestly that’s not hard is it? Be logical and a goodie goodie, or go in fighting GUNHO STYLE!? – ok Kirk it is! The game begins with you getting thrown straight into a battle in an alien environment surrounded by what only seems to be the Gorn. Just like the Kobayashi Maru it seems to be a no win scenario. It ends with Spock yelling about an incoming grenade. The screen fades out and you appear to be in what I can only imagine to be an area with an event I could not image Spock picks himself up and has a really strange look on his face, once he’s up he dusts himself off, looks angry *an emotion, Interesting* and comes at you, TRYING TO KILL YOU….*Umm WTF IS GOING ON HERE!*
Just as Kirk and Spock come face to face ready to exchange blows your thrown into Spock’s quarters and in the corner of the screen reads 8 hours earlier.
Ok, I get it, Throw u in the deep end and then Pull you out just as you’re wondering what is going on and stick you back into a calm place where the story will begin to unfold, While playing Chess, Uhura Talks over the communicator mentioning that a Space Station is in trouble, Here is where the game really starts and you get your first taste of the controls, your first objective is to reach the bridge, Not really a hard task, As you reach the bridge Kirk asks for a status update, You soon learn that the space station is losing altitude and falling into the sun. Kirk gives the command to beam all the survivors to the Enterprise, but Scotty jumps in and tells you its unwise as you could potentially “FRY THE LITTLE BUGGERS!” so you can’t get them via transporter due to radiation interference, so Ok screw it, shuttle it is then, head straight for the turbo life and down to the shuttle bay, my first OMG moment of the game, it was beautiful:
The Bridge and the shuttle bay where graphically beautifully, just too many Len’s flair, just like the movie well my fingers are crossed and it’s time to move on. You reach the space station and discover that it is of Vulcan origin. I won’t go into too much detail as I don’t wish to spoil the level; I will give you a few of my assessments and then wrap up my review.
Ok so we have reached the Vulcan Space Station, just as you leave the landing bay and head towards your first checkpoint you enter a decontamination chamber. This was HORRIBLE! Far too bright and playing it in a dark room, it actually hurt my eyes!
As you progress though the station you have to save a few Vulcans, Spock doesn’t seem happy that his race is doing such dangerous research when there are so few Vulcans left alive after Nero’s attack from the 2009 Film. You learn the Captain of the Station is with some other scientists in the transporter room; this is where we get to the part I mentioned was a pain in the ass!
When the blue shields are down the sun’s rays blast down the shaft of the shipping burning anything that is not protected. The amount of times Spock got killed and I had to redo the level was stupidly amazing, just proving to me how STUPID and sucky the AI was. The funny thing was after completing the game and starting again as Spock, Kirk didn’t die once at this point, you could hear him getting hurt a few times and Spock yelling for him to get into cover, I don’t know if it was because I was more daring and got though it a lot quicker or not? – At the end you have to PRY open the air lock…another issue with the AI here (and every time too) when you choose to pry the door, your ally (be it Kirk or Spock) Hovers over to you, they don’t walk they fly! Such bad programing. There is no combat in this level, which is of course a bit of a shame, it is mainly used to get you use to the CO-OP style and having to work together to get tasks done, after you are safely off the station you are greeted with the games TITLE screen!
After the title screen your shuttle crashes onto the Enterprise hanger ALA Star Trek 5
Some more Story driven cut scenes, and some horrible face animations and it’s off onto your second adventure, this time to New Vulcan! – off to the transporter room then!
This time we finally get some action, but your first encounter is not with the Gorn, it’s an infected, enraged Vulcan!
Midway onto this level we finally find our first Gorn “This has taken far too long to get in my opinion!”
King ugly has grabbed me out of a Jeffries tube and the attack begins! They don’t just give you a weak Gorn to go against they give you a damn Brute. Well this is where I will end my review, if you brought this without the extra content you really are not missing much, here is a few shots of the extra costumes:
U.S.S. Kelvin Uniform
Star Fleet Academy Uniform
Kirks Leather Biker jacket
Kobayashi Maru Uniform
Stealth suit
I’m not going to give this a single score as I just can’t do it, so I’m going to break it down into a few category’s and score it that way, I know this wasn’t exactly a great review but with a game you’ve been really looking forward to and really let down by its hard to do it justice…I enjoyed Alien Colonial Marines MUCH more
Game play – 5/10
AI – 4/10
Environments – 8/10
Facial animations – 3/10
Story elements 7/10
Weapons – 7/10
DLC/extra content – 2/10
Thanks for reading and hopefully you guys might get more enjoyment from this game than me,
