Being a big Trekkie, I've been looking forward to this release for some time.
It promised a canon story (from the timeline of the new films), that takes place in between the last movie and the new movie. It also promised that it wouldn't fall into the pitfalls of many movie/game tie ins...
So...sounds good so far...
Turned it on...greeted with a very nice menu with the Enterprise crew in the background. They look a little smooth, yet I'm impressed. The music is also very stirring, getting me ready to jump into what I feel will be an epic game...
It begins. I get the choice of Kirk or Spock. Cool. I go for Spock....
I click continue...Hmmm...what's going on? Straight into action. Bit of generic awkward shooting, I don't really know what I'm doing. This seems like Gears of War with a Star Trek skin...ok, I can accept that....that's cool....except after a few minutes...I realise it isn't really anything like Gears of War - it's like a cheap and nasty knock off.
The control are incredibly awkward. Like something you'd find in the first 3D games back in the Playstation era. Not good. It seems a hassle to do anything. Gameplay is basically a poor version of Gears of War with a tricorder and a companion character - either Kirk or Spock depending on who you chose. Now, having just come from the excellent Bioshock infinite...perhaps I'm a little spoilt...but the companion dynamic in this game, simply does not work. It's awful. I struggled to pass through an open doorway because Kirk was standing in it, blocking my way. I had to tell him to move. Ridiculous in this day and age. If you or your partner are injured, the other will revive you, the problem is that the AI is so bad that the second they revive you, they will be injured themselves, meaning you then have to revive them. Enemy AI is also shocking - they rarely take cover, and you can often shoot them again and again until they react.
The extremely dodgy and unsatisfying combat is spread out with boring mini-game sessions, which usually involve a 'snake' like clone and matching harmonic signals. Urgh. There's the odd quick time event too.
I was pleased to see the generic 3rd person shooting separated with an Enterprise controlling segment. Sadly, this was merely controlling the phasers. The entire segment was very frustrating and confusing to me, I didn't even know what I was meant to be doing. Very poor.
The voice acting is amazing. Very well acted. Sadly, the facial animations of the characters do not match, and fail miserably in comparison. A real shame. Overall, the graphics range from mediocre to good. There are some nice effects, but some things are extremely below par.
The story seems a good one though. I'm quite a bit in, and that's why I'm still playing. Otherwise, I'd have jibbed this off a while ago.
Maybe I was expecting too much, but this Trekkie is not impressed. It's definitely a phaser malfunction of a game.
It promised a canon story (from the timeline of the new films), that takes place in between the last movie and the new movie. It also promised that it wouldn't fall into the pitfalls of many movie/game tie ins...
So...sounds good so far...
Turned it on...greeted with a very nice menu with the Enterprise crew in the background. They look a little smooth, yet I'm impressed. The music is also very stirring, getting me ready to jump into what I feel will be an epic game...
It begins. I get the choice of Kirk or Spock. Cool. I go for Spock....
I click continue...Hmmm...what's going on? Straight into action. Bit of generic awkward shooting, I don't really know what I'm doing. This seems like Gears of War with a Star Trek skin...ok, I can accept that....that's cool....except after a few minutes...I realise it isn't really anything like Gears of War - it's like a cheap and nasty knock off.
The control are incredibly awkward. Like something you'd find in the first 3D games back in the Playstation era. Not good. It seems a hassle to do anything. Gameplay is basically a poor version of Gears of War with a tricorder and a companion character - either Kirk or Spock depending on who you chose. Now, having just come from the excellent Bioshock infinite...perhaps I'm a little spoilt...but the companion dynamic in this game, simply does not work. It's awful. I struggled to pass through an open doorway because Kirk was standing in it, blocking my way. I had to tell him to move. Ridiculous in this day and age. If you or your partner are injured, the other will revive you, the problem is that the AI is so bad that the second they revive you, they will be injured themselves, meaning you then have to revive them. Enemy AI is also shocking - they rarely take cover, and you can often shoot them again and again until they react.
The extremely dodgy and unsatisfying combat is spread out with boring mini-game sessions, which usually involve a 'snake' like clone and matching harmonic signals. Urgh. There's the odd quick time event too.
I was pleased to see the generic 3rd person shooting separated with an Enterprise controlling segment. Sadly, this was merely controlling the phasers. The entire segment was very frustrating and confusing to me, I didn't even know what I was meant to be doing. Very poor.
The voice acting is amazing. Very well acted. Sadly, the facial animations of the characters do not match, and fail miserably in comparison. A real shame. Overall, the graphics range from mediocre to good. There are some nice effects, but some things are extremely below par.
The story seems a good one though. I'm quite a bit in, and that's why I'm still playing. Otherwise, I'd have jibbed this off a while ago.
Maybe I was expecting too much, but this Trekkie is not impressed. It's definitely a phaser malfunction of a game.
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