Three years ago, Activision and Raven have released their first-person shooter based upon the Star Trek Voyager TV series. Now Activision and Ritual return with more Trek shooter action in Elite Force II that features a new in-depth storyline, scenarios and even more tweaked Quake 3 Engine. Was it worth the wait? Let's find out.

Star Trek Elite Force II once again puts players in the role of Hazard Team leader Alexander Munro. The game starts out during the events of Star Trek: Voyager's series finale, Endgame, with the U.S.S. Voyager being trapped inside a Borg Sphere. The Hazard Team's first mission in the game is to board the Sphere and find a way to free Voyager. After doing and returning to Earth, Munro is assigned to Starfleet Academy to train cadets.Through a series of events, Munro and the members of the Hazard Team find themselves transferred aboard the prestigious Enterprise-E serving under Picard. After answering a distress call of a derelict Federation vessel, the Enterprise-E and crew find themselves caught up in the upheaval of tension and conflict between warring species and find out who is behind it all. You will come across many familiar races in Star Trek including the Klingons, Borg, Andorians, and Romulans along with two new races and a horrific new alien race of monsters. Your actions will determine the ultimate outcome of these events.

The gameplay is definitely a lot of fun and extremely intense. There are 11 single-player missions over the course of the game, as well as some smaller scenarios scattered about, in total over 70 levels of gun blasting. There are a few puzzles (from simple pushing button to matching sine waves and rotating power couplings) spread out here and there to keep the game from the depths of a mindless shooter.

The weapons are great too, EF2 offers a a mixture of weapons from enhanced versions of Elite Force weapons to all-new weapons, including Hand-phaser (sometimes a life-saver if your ammo runs out), Compression Rifle (probably the best weapon in the game, along with the Tatryon Gun), Enhanced Compression Rifle (secondary mode which launches grenades), Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle (isn't as accurate, but still somewhat effective), Grenade Launcher, Tatryon Gun (the Klingon-style chaingun), Energy Staff: of Romulan origin, Infinity Modulator (the only effective weapon against Borgs), Lightning Gun, Quantum Burst Torpedo (a.k.a. the rocket launcher), Radiation Gun (the second Romulan weapon, very similar to a flame-thrower) and Tricorders. The bosses were also a lot of fun playing, because all of them were challenging, but not the kind that frustrates. They are attacking in stages, so it's often like fighting four different enemies in one.

Only thing they could done better is the AI of team members. In other words, the NPC characters in Elite Force II are really dumb and annoying.For example, in Borg sphere, if you're leading the team round an alien environment, the members of the Hazard Team continually walk in front of you when you are shooting. Shame on them! ;)

The multiplayer portion of the game is pretty much the same as the first game (HoloMatch, Team HoloMatch and Capture the Flag), but the levels themselves are done better and with a little more variety. They've added Plasma Bomb Diffusal as a new game type. In this mode one side plants a bomb in the enemy's base. You'll then need to diffuse it before it detonates or successfully wait it out until the timer expires without the other team planting a bomb, depending on which side you're on. Nothing really ground breaking, but still breaks away from the norm. They've also added modifiers such as Control Points, Power Struggle, Auto Handicap, Weapon Score and One Flag. The multiplayer uses the excelent id Software networking code, so games are solid and lag-free. Needless to say that multiplayer in EF2 won't disappoint you.

Although EF2 is not innovative, it is a solid and entertaining game with a lot more variety than most FPS on the market. If you are Star Trek fan or just fan of shooters this is a must for your collection. Personally, I found this game to be a great addition to the unfortunately lacking lineup of Star Trek games. Download playable demo (118MB).

System requirements:
Minimum: Pentium III 600 or Athlon processor or higher, 128MB RAM, 3D Hardware Accelerator Card required - 100% DirectX 9.0 compatible 32MB video card and drivers*, Quad Speed CD-ROM, 1.3GB HDD space, for multiplayer: Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported, Internet play requires 56 Kbps (or faster) modem and drivers, LAN play requires network interface card and drivers
*Supported chipsets: All ATI Radeon, nVidiaR TNT2 and TNT2 Ultra, All nVidia GeForce chipsets , SIS Xabre 400