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"PlayStation . . . the final frontier. This is the review of Activision’s Star Trek: Invasion. Its apparent mission: to explore gamers’ patience . . . to seek out new joystick control issues . . . to boldly go where Colony Wars has gone before . . ."
[Cue obnoxious woman’s voice and fade out.]
Activision’s latest product, Star Trek: Invasion, beamed onto store shelves is an unfortunate example of style over substance that falls just a few design decisions short of becoming a very good title. One of the first things you’re likely to notice about the game is its superb 3D graphics; the in–game visuals here are among the best I’ve seen for the PlayStation platform. Everything from small fighter craft to massive Borg cubes are rendered beautifully, and serve to immerse the player into the Star Trek Universe. Michael Dorn and Patrick Stewart also pitch in with some nice voice–over work. Dorn (Worf) acts as your commanding officer in charge of briefing you on all your missions (20 in total, sort of [more on that later]). Everything about ST: Invasion looks and sounds great. The game is truly a first class production. The only problem is, while developers Warthog were busy spit–shining the 3D graphics, and adjusting the levels on the game’s excellent sound effects, they apparently forgot to play test the game. And that, my gaming friends, is a pretty significant oversight.
Before we address where Star Trek: Invasion fails, I’d like to explain where the game succeeds, which is in the immersion factor. When Worf briefs you on your upcoming mission, you’ll actually experience the feeling as though you’re in a lost Star Trek episode. Ship graphics, shield effects, explosions — they all look fantastic. But where developer Warthog REALLY outdid themselves (which is the main ingredient in the immersion recipe) is in the game’s control scheme. You will truly be able to control every aspect of your ship — weapon selection, warp drive, targeting computer — through the use of one of the most well–designed gamepad interfaces I’ve ever encountered. You can even have your ship strafe the enemy, which really comes in handy when fighting capital ships such as Romulan Warbirds and the like. While it certainly takes a little while to become accustomed to the functions of all the different buttons, after going through the exercises of several well–designed training missions, the introduction to these features is presented at a manageable pace. Given the complex nature of the ship controls, Warthog really delivers the goods on a non–intrusive, robust control scheme.
Unfortunately, one of the major problems with Star Trek: Invasion is something that probably was initiated from the developer’s hands. This problem is the inadequacy of Sony’s standard PlayStation gamepad to properly control a flight simulation. Many times during the dogfight of heavy missions, I found myself wishing I could attach my PC’s Gravis Analog Joystick to the PlayStation instead of being stuck using the PSX’s out–of–the–box controller. There are many points in the game where your ability to do battle with your enemy relies on your ability to control your ship with precision, and you just can’t do that with Sony’s joystick. Even the slightest tap on the button will send your ship zooming past its intended target; this alone makes the game incredibly frustrating.
However, Warthog most certainly DID have a say in the title’s mission design, yet apparently they didn’t practice much with play testing, because if they had they would’ve seen the game’s fatal flaw which causes — severe frustration. You see, many of the missions consist of you and your Valkyrie being outnumbered by a fleet of enemy fighters. While this is not a problem, as almost every space sim in existence has given the player the role of the underdog, once you’re finished mopping up the first wave of enemies, the game sends another wave your way — and another, and another, ad nauseum. This heavy duty attack causes the game to become more annoying then it is fun, and since there’s no in–game save you’ll find yourself spending far too much time restarting missions. The difficult nature of some of the missions further aggravates this problem; I spent at least a three hours trying to get past one of the game’s missions, and with each failure I would have to begin the mission again. With this mission model all the good graphics and sound effects in the world couldn’t have saved Star Trek: Invasion from becoming boring and tedious.
Warthog, in what can only be described as a direct slap at the face of their customers, decided that gamers who wish to play the game on the easiest level of difficulty should be punished by only allowing them to play one–third of the game! That’s right, after completing Mission 7 of what you thought was going to be a 20 or so mission game, you’ll be told, "To play further missions, restart the game at a higher difficulty level." The message should’ve read "Sorry! The 15 hours you just spent fighting through monotonous and poorly designed missions is a total waste, and if you want to see how the game REALLY ends you’ll have to do it all over again! Now don’t you feel foolish?" It’s unbelievable that this design decision was left in the final game!
While Star Trek: Invasion demonstrates an excellent use of the PlayStation’s graphics and audio capabilities, it unfortunately suffers from a lack of thought invested in the game play department. The game’s mind numbing missions combined with the PSX’s shoddy controller make this game all but unplayable. That’s a real shame because had more attention been paid to mission structure, this game could’ve been a real winner.
"Hmmmmmm, enormous potential, some stunning play, but overall — let Michael Askounes fill you in on the details, but p’raps ’tis time to look for another Star Trek title to play."
