This game improved on many of the first games (very few) shortcomings. Elite Force was a game I completed in about 10 hours, this one took 20. Elite Force felt a little arcadey at times, some of the weapons felt s tad limp. When you fire up your tetryon gattling gun in Elite Force II, it really feels like you're wrecking shop as your enemies start to crumble before you. Visually they squeezed every last pixel from the Tech 3 engine and it looks great. The levels are larger with interconnecting paths through them, there are characters and NPC'S to interact with (beyond your own squad) and several optional objectives and secret areas per mission. The voice acting is top notch, it's child's play to edit and mod the game, the story "borrows" and "pays homage" to several other franchises and still manages to turn it into a very Star Trek story. Some areas really set the stage well, and for a game running on an engine that was 4 years old when it was released, the atmosphere it creates is great. Stalking through the battered, lifeless and dimly illuminated hulk of an Excelsior class starship hunting (being hunted by?) creatures you can hear but don't see is a good example of solid level design. I still have more fond memories of the first game, but I honestly can't find anything about Elite Force II that I feel was badly implemented or poorly thought out.
Somebody looked at Star Trek and thought "this could work as a squad based tactics game." They were right. Another one with a great plot and voice talent, the game is easy to mod (a hallmark of the old Activision Trek games) and it was challenging enough, while still being quite forgiving. As a bonus, all the Activision era Star Trek games shared the same continuity, and it wasn't uncommon to have characters from, say Armada II referring to events from Away Team, or Elite Force II talking about the events of Bridge Commander. Its a fun as heck game.
So many fond memories playing this. In the vanilla release, the game was smooth, combat was fun and the plot felt like an excellently written episode. Starring voice actors who either reprise their roles from the shows, or play new characters, the dialogue is always a pleasure. You really feel like you're in command of 5 million tonnes of starship. Buy it, play it and love it.
It's rare for a game to have 6 different factions in a 4X game that all feel genuinely distinct from one another. Not only that, they aren't really analogous to any other sci-fi trope species, either. Most Space RTS games have a "Starfleet" faction and a "Klingon" faction and "Romulan" and "Borg" factions. This was the first I can remember that started to move away from those Star Trek influences. It's not the most complex game, every aspect is incredibly streamlined, and while you can't micromanage your chosen nation, it is certainly possible to fine control the battles. When you've got the strengths, weaknesses and capabilities of various weapons and equipment figured out, you can enter a situation with inferior numbers and, provided you play smart, still come out on top. Some of the random events are great fun, too and even failing a random encounter can provide bonuses on different ways. Case in point; if you fail to protect your world from a meteor shower, you may lose the colony... but when you come back, the planet's mineral wealth will have skyrocketed with every asteroid that made it to the surface. As a bonus, the game is incredibly easy to mod, making it possible to completely customise the game to your preferences with a minimal of fuss. It's less than €10 at the moment. For that price, it's an utter bargain.
This game popularised the current trend of pointless DLCs. Great. That said, it's a superb game. Well made, excellent quests and plenty to explore and discover. It's not as good as Morrowind, but most games aren't as good as Morrowind. It's at least as good as Skyrim, albeit in different ways. This game is still worth the full ticket price after 15 years. If you've played it, then you know it deserves a place in your library. If you've never played it, then welcome to Earth, alien visitor. Buy this game. Play this game. Love this game.
Charming and delightful in about a hundred different ways. I adore this game; it has such a shallow learning curve, all the recorded voice lines are really good and the design of the buildings is great. If you have even a passing interest in city builders, then this is definitely worth a try.
It's kind of like a blend of game mechanics; A bit of Assassin's Creed in the parkour verticality, a bit of Commandos-esque stealth tactics and a little bit action-y, too. I like the world building, the aesthetics are very atmospheric and the voice acting ranges from "quite good" to "outstanding" - one character in particular is excellent (voiced by the same terrific voice actor who brought Marcus Cromwell to life in the excellent "Nexus - The Jupiter Incident") but I particularly liked hearing a range of accents from across the UK (Brummies and Geordies don't get nuchal representation!) There was enough dry, sarcastic humour strewn throughout that during my first few hours playing, I laughed out loud a few times. the combat is last resort, but still felt appropriately weighty with typical light/heavy/dodge mechanics and the sound design is pretty good, too. Some of the music is absolutely outstanding. I'm really enjoying it, but I'm a sucker for RPGs. I recommend it very highly indeed.
I remember playing this on a 2.4 GHz PC back when it first came out and it was like a slide-show; 15 frames per second, tops. Only just replayed it and now we're living in the future, my impossibly sophisticated super computer runs it at an easy 150 fps. The scale was impressive back then and it's impressive now. A thousand units on screen at once, ranging from "tiny" main battle tanks to the big brother of Wild, Wild West's giant mechaspider, but with frikken' laser beams on their heads. The unit diversity is impressive, a bit rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock, but it balences extremely well. It'd easy to mod, easy to get used to (though my Total Annihilation muscle memory did help) but still challenging in places. In fact, that's a good summary of the game: it's a sexier version of Total Annihilation. If you like RTS then buy this and you will not regret it, I promise you.
I had 15 years of listening to the hype about this "amazing experience" with "incredible writing" and a "fascinating world" with "engaging character." Imagine my surprise when it not only lived up to the hype, but exceeded it. I've had this game for 5 years now and on my first play through I was putting in 8 hours a time. It's completely riveting and I devoured every strange and wonderful element. I've played through a few times since and loved it just as much each time. There's not much I can say about this game that hasn't already been said a hundred times before, but if you haven't played it, you'd be doing yourself a disservice to miss out on gaming history. Planescape repeatedly makes it into lists of "Greatest Games Of All Time" for good reason.
