Star Trek™: Voyager - Elite Force

I was ten with this game came out and my dad got it immediately...for himself! Haha! He is a HUGE Trekkie and loved to share Star Trek with me (even though I like Star Wars better)... I remember him loading this game up on our Windows 98 machine...or maybe we had the Windows 2000 at that point... but anyway... My dad taught me how to play this game and I sat watching him blow through enemies like he was some kind of gaming super hero (In reality my dad SUCKS at video games, but he knew I loved them. So he stuck it on easy, and tried to impress me...it worked lol). Now I am 33 playing this game and loving it just as much! It's got smooth gameplay, that isn't without its hiccups, but what game doesn't have bugs? The story is SO engaging for the time it was released. I will be revisiting this narrative for the rest of my life! I have VERY little I could possibly say bad about this game. Speaking of bugs, here is one I can help you out with if you are reading this... If you experience the game going back to the main menu randomly, this seems to be common on some newer machines. You need to tell the game to allocate more memory to loading up new areas and save files in the game. Follow the instructions below. They come from a user named "fluffybuffy" here on GOG that figured this out back in 2021: "Open the econfig.cfg file or launch the game and open the console. Find com_hunkmegs value in config file and increase its value or type "seta com_hunkmegs x" in the console, where x is a larger value than the default one. Default is usually 36Mb, setting to 72Mb seems to also solve the issue with the game resetting back to the main menu when a new area is loaded." Hope this helps!

First, just gonna preface this: There was a time where Star Trek games as a whole were legendarily bad. Buggy, poorly written, bad audio, bad graphics arbitrarily steep system requirements, you name it. Any issue a game could have, odds were good that a game using that license would have all of them. Then Activision got the license and comissioned Raven software to make a Star Trek game. This would prove to be an excellent decision all around, as this game holds the distinction of being a Star Trek game that stands entirely on it's own merits. It'sa well written, it's fun, it's got a memorable cast of characters, great voice acting, memorable, enjoyable weapons, graphics that hold up fairly well even today, a still active and enjoyable multiplayer with a wide variety of game modes and more. If there is literally only one Star Trek game you will ever buy in your life, this is the one to get. Hell, they ever worked in some tasteful fanservice in the form of the "virtual voyager" mode that lets you explore the ship, interact with characters, even complete some not to bad adventure game esque puzzles and find two new, unique weapons hidden on the ship for you to play around with. I heartily recommend buying this one. Assuming you haven't already. And if not, why not?

This game means so much to me in terms of my experience with PC Gaming. When it released I'd not had a PC very long and was super hyped for it. I played through the Single Player then immediately delved into the modding, starting a Single Player expansion. During that time was I helped tremendously with support from devs while learning their scripting code and was a regular over at the Raven forums. While the MOD was never remotely finished (I released a 2 level preview for EFPhantoms, finishing around 4 and a half levels in total) my experience with the community made it a great experience. As for the game? Still fantastic even now, I like to think of the Elite Force series as the last truly great Trek games and while the sequel was a decent time, the original will always be something special to me.

Raven Software is one of the best shooter developer out there and the fact that this game is still great is a proof enough. Great mission structure, lots of guns, nice story and characters even if you are not familiar with Star Trek and overall just great shooter from it's time. The only technical issue is a widescreeen and resolution, but that can be solved like in 2 minutes in config file. Not very intuitive, but it's work. Thanks to GOG team SO MUCH for this game, you are the best :D Hope to see more of those classics return.

My thoughts on this game: FINALLY an ST game deserving 5 stars. Aside from a Trekkie rant there's nothing for me to complain about. I'm a huge fan of TNG-era ST, which is here both a blessing and a curse. It's quite refreshing to have a game focused on Voyager, whereas most ST games are focused on Kirk's or Picard's Enterprise. Kudos points for Raven Software and people involved in Star Trek (Michael Okuda and Rick Sternbach) for going out of their way to make Elite Force just like an actual episode of Voyager. They almost succeded. The levels designed to be a Borg cube and Voyager - masterfully done: I felt as if I really was there. More so: during cut-scenes and in Virtual Voyager mode there were many little nods to famous Voyager lines and events. Basicly fan service. RANT ALERT: The only thing that didn't fit was making Scavangers comprised of Klingons, Malon, Hirogen and Kirk-era Mirror Universe Terran Empire Soldiers. Sorry, if you go Trek, then you have to do it right. I respect creative freedom but if you label a game ST Voyager then you have to stick more or less to the cannon. There was no Mirror Universe arc in Voyager and so it's a thing that should not be in Elite Force. I understand this was supposed to be an homage to TOS. Graphics: I honestly can't complain - looks good (detailed) on high settings. Gameplay - fun and balanced. Basicly it's a very solid shooter with some known ST toys, There's no map, but levels are mostly intuitive. There are some challenges (like that looong jump on the Gunship). Story: coherent and engaging, true to Voyager mythos. Most of it fits with Voyager reality, so it does resemble a Voyager episode. Missions are divided into segments which helps game experience. Good to hear all the original main cast of senior staff. There's even the late David Graff (Tackleberry) who guest starred on Voayager too. Overall: a very good game set in ST Universe. Just don't mix Mirror Universe with our reality without a good reason.