There have been dozens of Star Trek games for various systems over the years, with the PC receiving the majority of them. In fact, I was looking through several recent back issues of PC Gamer and I noticed that every single one of them had a different Star Trek title in either the review or preview sections. Unfortunately, seasoned gamers know that most of these games are churned out to appease the legions of slavering, pointy-eared Trekkies who will snap up anything bearing the name Star Trek, and quality be damned. Yep, that’s right, most of the Star Trek games to date have been mediocre at best, grotesquely unplayable at worst.

Until Now. Thanks to Raven Software, makers of the recent gore-fest Soldier of Fortune, and the licensing of the solid Quake III Arena engine, there’s now a Star Trek game which can be enjoyed by the masses, Trek fan or not. Elite Force is a first person shooter (FPS) based on the current Trek TV show, Voyager. The game consists of both a single player campaign and a full-featured multi-player game.

The single player game follows what would be a single episode of the TV show (or perhaps a movie), beginning when Voyager is whisked through an inter-dimensional rift to a starship graveyard controlled by a mysterious alien entity. As a member of the high-risk Hazard Team, you must follow orders and scour the various spaceships littering the graveyard for clues that might help Voyager and her crew escape to safety.

This is all played out through seamless in-game cutscenes and near-constant action. All of the missions feature dynamic scripted events, mostly between other members of Hazard Team and yourself. This is a refreshing change of pace from the "one man against an army" philosophy of past FPS titles. Raven even threw a bone to the rabid Trek fans by allowing you to wander around Voyager between missions and even test out new weapons in the Holodeck. You’ll also be able to listen in on a number of conversations between crewmembers to enrich the story if you desire. Unfortunately, as good as the single player game is, it’s also short. Very short. Also, it’s all quite easy, even the final battle against the main alien "bad guy." You’ll get a few hours of gameplay out of it and then it’s over. That’s where the "Holomatch" multiplayer mode comes into play.

Holomatch is basically Quake III Arena with a Star Trek makeover. It has the same one-player progression of fights against increasingly difficult AI-controlled bots, and the familiar Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture The Flag modes for you and your friends to play online or over a network. There are an impressive number of player models to customize your in-game appearance, ranging from Voyager crewmembers to various aliens. There are even better than a half-dozen varieties of everyone’s favorite Trek villains, the Borg.

The graphics are very nice, and put the Quake III engine to work, delivering a wide variety of rich backdrops, ranging from Voyager locales to such exotic fare as Klingon and Borg vessels, living alien ships and others.

Weapons are also pulled from the Trek universe and range from the standard phasers and compression rifles to personal photon launchers and energy grenades to some truly bizarre alien technology. Raven even took a page from Unreal Tournament and gave every weapon a primary and secondary mode of fire, adding to the diversity of your arsenal.

It’s not often that we get a good Trek game, and AAA shooters are hard to come by in these days of Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament, but Elite Force has succeeded in being both.

Graphics: 9 (Crisp, clean textures and amazing environments in the single player game, we-designed and slick levels for multiplayer, and the weapon effects are very cool – it’s very cool to disintegrate your opponents!)

Sound: 8 (The voice actors are good, and all of the weapon effects sound great)

Gameplay: 9 (It controls like QIIIA and that’s definitely a good thing)

Replay: 9 (After playing through the short single player game, there’s still lots of life left in the Holomatch and multiplayer modes)

Overall: 8 (Trek fan or not, this is a great game.)