Star trek elite force free download

The team is scattered with various assignments, and Munro suddenly finds himself teaching small-unit tactics to new recruits at the Academy. Through the magic of cutscenes, two years go by before Munro's abilities catch the eye of Captain Jean-Luc Picard voiced by Patrick Stewart , who requests that Munro assemble a new Hazard Team for the Enterprise. Although two full missions have been completed by this point, it's here that the game's true plot begins to take shape. That plot involves the introduction of three groups new to the Star Trek universe.

The Attrexians are a spacefaring race based near the Neutral Zone, who have suddenly found themselves under attack from a strange group of creatures called the Exomorphs. No one knows where the Exomorphs came from, why they're attacking the Attrexians, or if they're even sentient.

The third group in this mnage Trek is the Idryll, a 'backwards' race also based near the Neutral Zone. There's some animosity between the Idryll and Attrexians; they each maintain their own version of history, and it's not initially clear what the real story is. There are several other races familiar to Star Trek fans involved in the overall plot, but to mention who they are or why they appear would give away spoilers It may sound odd to talk about major plot spoilers in a first-person shooter, but Elite Force II is a game that may appeal more to Star Trek fans than your average action gamer.

The game is soaked in Star Trek atmosphere and loaded with inside jokes. Constant cutscenes propel the plot along, and you regularly get to explore the Enterprise and talk to crewmembers between missions. Trekkers will probably have a blast getting to explore locations like Starfleet Academy, and it's clear a lot of effort went into keeping the game faithful to the franchise. Most of the missions are standard shooter fare, although there's a healthier dose of exploration and puzzles than in the original game.

There are 11 large missions in all, set across a variety of alien worlds, large ships, and starbases. Like the Jedi Knight games, you'll often spend as much time trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B as you will shooting enemies which is a good thing, for reasons we'll point out shortly.

Members of the new Hazard Team fight by your side during many of the missions, and there are several parts of the game where you need to protect friendlies for a period of time. Along with the cutscenes, scripted sequences can be found in almost every mission, and there are also a number of memorable levels, such as one battle that takes place in low-G on the surface of the Enterprise.

Along with the usual weapons, Munro carries an advanced tricorder, which allows him to scan objects and upload and download information. It also has several visual scan filters, including a structural integrity mode that allows Munro to detect weak points in the geometry, often allowing access to secret areas or alternate pathways. Finally, the tricorder is used for some honest-to-goodness puzzles, such as completing computer circuits.

These elements help keep things interesting by breaking up the usual run-and-shoot, while simultaneously remaining faithful to the Star Trek universe. It's also worth noting that Elite Force II has more than its fair share of major bosses.

Normally, I loathe bosses, but Ritual gets it right, giving each major boss a health bar so you're never left wondering how much damage you may or may not be doing. The bosses also attack in stages, so it's often like fighting four different enemies in one. My only gripe is the very final boss, who is so ridiculously tough to beat that it ceases to be fun in very short order.

I eventually turned cheats on to finish off the boss and see how everything turned out; I suspect I won't be alone. We've reached a point where developers can crank out games with the engine pretty quickly, but the tech has been showing its age of late.

That's why Ritual deserves credit for creating what's easily the best-looking Quake 3 engine to date. Everything in the game looks sharp, from the highly detailed characters and weapons to the ultra-high resolution textures, and the Enterprise has never looked better. Better yet, the game doesn't require a beast of a machine to run; it wasn't until the very last boss that my machine showed any signs of stuttering you'll understand why if you get there.

Not only do these decision points partially change what happens later in the mission, they provide a nice change of pace from mindless action game mechanics. All in all, the game seemed a little brief, only taking me about 15 hours to beat on the lowest difficulty level. Of course, multiplayer is encouraged -- this through the use of Quake style arenas, new character skins for all of the Star Trek characters, and some interesting themed levels.

You can also play through the multiplayer levels against computer controlled bots if, like me, you have a slow Internet connection. Both smooth and detailed, the ships and characters are lovely to look at. Your teammates move around you, taking point, gesturing, opening doors, talking watch their lips move!

You heard right! There are a few video scenes showcasing ships maneuvering or firing, but most of the cinematics are done within the Quake engine. None of the cinematics are spectacular, but they serve to forward the story. The scripted sequences that occur while you are playing, ala Half-Life , do much more to set the mood.

There are 11 large missions in all, set across a variety of alien worlds, large ships, and starbases. Like the Jedi Knight games, you'll often spend as much time trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B as you will shooting enemies which is a good thing, for reasons we'll point out shortly. Members of the new Hazard Team fight by your side during many of the missions, and there are several parts of the game where you need to protect friendlies for a period of time.

Along with the cutscenes, scripted sequences can be found in almost every mission, and there are also a number of memorable levels, such as one battle that takes place in low-G on the surface of the Enterprise. Along with the usual weapons, Munro carries an advanced tricorder, which allows him to scan objects and upload and download information. It also has several visual scan filters, including a structural integrity mode that allows Munro to detect weak points in the geometry, often allowing access to secret areas or alternate pathways.

Finally, the tricorder is used for some honest-to-goodness puzzles, such as completing computer circuits. These elements help keep things interesting by breaking up the usual run-and-shoot, while simultaneously remaining faithful to the Star Trek universe. It's also worth noting that Elite Force II has more than its fair share of major bosses. Normally, I loathe bosses, but Ritual gets it right, giving each major boss a health bar so you're never left wondering how much damage you may or may not be doing.

The bosses also attack in stages, so it's often like fighting four different enemies in one. My only gripe is the very final boss, who is so ridiculously tough to beat that it ceases to be fun in very short order. I eventually turned cheats on to finish off the boss and see how everything turned out; I suspect I won't be alone.

We've reached a point where developers can crank out games with the engine pretty quickly, but the tech has been showing its age of late. That's why Ritual deserves credit for creating what's easily the best-looking Quake 3 engine to date. Everything in the game looks sharp, from the highly detailed characters and weapons to the ultra-high resolution textures, and the Enterprise has never looked better. Better yet, the game doesn't require a beast of a machine to run; it wasn't until the very last boss that my machine showed any signs of stuttering you'll understand why if you get there.

With all this going for it, it's a shame that Elite Force II's weakest point is the combat. Waves of creatures mindlessly hurl themselves at you with little regard for their own well-being, and this quickly becomes monotonous as the creatures get stronger and larger in number.

Like the zombies in Return to Castle Wolfenstein or the spiders in Unreal II, this might be OK as an occasional change of pace, but over the course of an entire game, it's just not very exciting. The supposedly sentient creatures aren't much smarter. In one mission, Munro is forced to flee a mercenary starbase when a price is suddenly put on his head. I'm willing to bet most of these 'mercenaries' were either unemployed or on disability, because few of them showed much in the way of combat skills or intelligence, often standing still or out in the open waiting to get shot.

Every trick in the book is used to cover up the low-class AI, from sneaky enemy placement and aliens bursting out of walls to the cheap tactic of respawning new enemies via teleportation. It seems Ritual understood the limitations of its AI and designed a game and story to hide these weaknesses as much as possible, which would explain the game's emphasis on exploration and other puzzles, and why fairly brainless enemies were used as the main threat.

It's arguable that -- without building all-new AI and redesigning the game -- this is the best first-person shooter Ritual could have created with the tools at its disposal.

The combat may not be completely fulfilling, but like Black Hawk Down earlier this year, the game's pacing and polish are so spot-on that you may hardly notice. In many of our previews, we were led to believe that Elite Force II would be roughly twice as long as its predecessor.

Gamers often harp on the length of games, so it's worth noting that while I finished the original Elite Force in about eight hours, I completed Elite Force II in no more than 12, and even that may be a generous estimate.