"Personal log for Ensign Munroe, I started my day in training with Lt. Tuvok. His matter-of-fact demeanor meant that I would have to master my tasks, and complete my training efficiently and expediently. While training we were attacked. Once the smoke cleared Voyager was stranded in an alien junkyard with a dampening field slowly diminishing our precious power reserves..."

This is the gist of the games' beginning. Starting off with action is a great introduction to this graphics intensive game. As you enter the game you are, of course, aboard the Starship Voyager and part of an elite HAZARD team designed and trained by Tuvok to handle extraordinary challenges and explorations. After playing many TREK related PC games, I found that the stop motion technique used for facial expression and body movement was very accurate and exciting. Although the graphics "hiccupped" for 2-3 seconds at a time, they were flawless for the most part. The look and feel of the characters, equipment, and the environments are as close as possible to the TREK universe as I've seen in a game. Also, the use of sound effects seem as though they've been pulled from the archives of Paramount itself. It is easy to immerse yourself in this game.

During game play, the keyboard movement system becomes awkward and the number of movement types can be somewhat confusing unless you're a keyboard wiz. You control your movement with your left hand on the keyboard or your mouse and the options for doing so are many. You can easily spend 5-10 minutes configuring them. The weapons interface is simplistic, using your mouse to fire and the number keys 1-9 for your weapon type.

In game you have a variety of different weapons. Choices range from a Scavenger rifle which shoots rapid fire "machine gun" type energy bullets to the Stasis weapon which can disable an enemy in one hit. One minor complaint is that you have two weapon ammo types, energy and projectile. When you re-stock on either type you only get so much for ALL your weapons which means if you have 300 energy on your Phaser rifle and fire 50 pts, then your next energy weapon will only have 250 pts left. This made the game somewhat difficult in that when you deplete both sources on two weapons your others are useless. Individual ammo charges for each weapon would have been more preferable. For the most part, the recharge stations and ammo crystals were plentiful, but the system needs reworking.

The enemies and bosses are very nicely done with the Borg, species 9472, Klingons, etc. Environments aboard the ships are superb. My personal favorite environment was the Klingon vessel with it's sleeping commander on the bridge and the dimly lit red lighting as well. The 3D effect given by the graphics engine lends itself to making the overall look of this game wonderful.  Even walking around is fun!

The storyline takes you from the point where you are stuck in the ship graveyard with the "FORGE" sending ships to dismantle your vessel. The FORGE has been doing this for what you assume is a LONG time and other vessels have fallen victim to it's deadly scavengers. Each level is progressively harder, although not impossibly so. There are some points where you have to put on your thinking cap and solve problems to get you to the next level. A problem with this game, in my opinion, is that the levels are not hard enough. After only roughly 8 hours I had completed this game and felt cheated that there wasn't more. I guess that meant that I liked it.

The game overall is nice eye candy, fairly simple to control, and somewhat of a challenge. For the diehard shooter fan I wouldn't go overboard. Other than the possible head-to-head with other players through a network the re-playability in this installment is limited. Once a site is setup allowing all to battle each other in a tournament style, I think that the game will lend itself to more play time. At this point it is basically a one player game, and once you're done with that it would only be the same thing all over again.

If you want it then I'd recommend trying the playable demo which is pretty much the same as the game itself. Don't expect to be challenged to the point of wanting to buy a hint book. The last boss is the only REAL challenge, and even he can be beaten eventually with minimal effort.

            by Scott