Star Trek™: Voyager - Elite Force

Voyager Elite Force is one of my favorite games of all time, but I am disappointed with this Gog release. The Virtual Voyager expansion pack crashes back to the main menu when I try to switch decks. When it came out it was cool because it was a bit like Half-Life, but Star Trek. I wish Voyager got even more games but at least we got a really good one.

It's good to see low-poly Tuvok again. Exactly as I remember. Well may be a littler sharper and more highres, since then. Played through the first set of levels without troubles. Works out of the box without problems on Intel Macs when installed via Wineskin. Not tested on M1.

Star Trek Elite Force has been one of a handful of games that I had experienced over ten plus years ago, during the days of Windows XP on a bundled demo disc. I do not remember one iota where I got it from, but to enjoy such demos as...Frogger 2, Catechumen...Heavy Metal Fakk (I was seven years old, mind you), and then came Elite Force I was enjoying Voyager with my father for the first time, as he had gotten the whole series on DVD, the first Trek show in fact that I completed, seeing a Star Trek game such as this- the first one for me period, I had to try it, and try it I sure did! It contained the game (and I think lacked Jeri Ryan), up until the point after you were done in Engineering. At that point, the game ended and you could go again or play the Multiplayer portion to try that out...I went back to the same single player mission, time and time again, exploring all the hidden corners and places I shouldnt really visit for a Borg Cube. I was quite amazed. But, alas, I was seven, my focus was an Xbox, and well, the time passed by me, year by year, until Star Trek Online and watching the other shows got me reinvigorated, but my Laptop could barely play the original Fallout...It was that bad, but it could play Elite Force, but I never got the full game yet- still having the demo disc, I went back to it half a dozen times over the years before eventually going switching to PC gaming in 2016, but I only ever got money for digital storefronts (Steam, largely) until the last year or two where I got a job, and well, seeing this game on GOG, I jumped at the chance... Exploring the game fully past the first half hour is very invigorating, satisfying, It took time to get used to the controls for what I am used to, but the blast from the past keeps on coming, and boy am I glad to finally have the game I've experienced groundhog day with in my collection. Yes, I know, this review is more my experience with the demo, but let that speak to how I view the game positively.

Some talented developers and excellent writers defied all the odds, and with a licensed property and the Quake 3 engine created a timeless FPS classic 23 years ago. If you feel like a good story and great voice acting packaged in a mature and creative shooter then here you go. This was another great FPS that flew far under my radar at the time, but I can't recommend it enough. Even with the block character models, it still looks fantastic given its age, and applying a widescreen patch is easy as pie. Most shocking of all is how much trouble Raven went to in order to make a shooter fit in with the core ethos of the Star Trek world. This is a loving and respectful use of the property, absolutely pitch perfect. Raven really were at the pinnacle of FPS development in the 2000s - this is a classic that should be preserved. What a great game.

The only reason I am not buying this today is that I have quite few games in my que and can afford to wait to see if it goes on sale. I have the original and I remember it being awesome. I just didn't want to try to go through the pain of getting it work on a modern machine. GOG does it again!