Review: Star Trek (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

The first thing to note about the game is it’s not for Star Trek purists. Longer term fans of the sci-fi franchise may have a few choice words to say in Klingon about the direction that’s been taken because it seems the developer didn’t really have them in mind.

Star Trek hallmarks, such as discovery, diplomacy and morality, which would have been nicely suited to an intelligent strategy-RPG title, have largely been ignored.

Instead Digital Extremes has gone down the most commercially safe route possible, creating a shallow action-adventure and third-person shooter.

Its hodgepodge of styles – fighting, platforming and light puzzling, among other things, but nothing remotely deep – lead to Star Trek being a vanilla-flavoured homogeneous corporate product that will keep bosses of the brand happy and appeal to a broad spectrum of gamers.

It’s much more about marketing the current blockbuster movie series than pleasing Trekkies.

As a gaming experience it may not meet the hopes and expectations of devotees, but it does allow people to play within the movie world, set as it is within the re-energised 23rd-century Star Trek universe seen in the 2009 JJ Abrams film.

The story, set after the previous film and before the upcoming sequel Into Darkness, centres on the rise of reptilian race the Gorn, who famously fought with William Shatner's Kirk back in the original Star Trek era. Use of the Gorn is one of the few times the game makes any sort of reference to the franchise's rich history.

The lizardy villains have invaded through a rip in space and stolen a doomsday device called the Helios which must be retrieved before the Gorn can take over the galaxy.

As well as being heavily armed with weapons, the space-nazi Gorn also have infectious venom which they use to turn Starfleet crew into zombie-like enemies.

The game is a two-player co-op affair with Kirk and Spock the central protagonists, If you've got a friend to play with you'll each play as one of these two characters. If you're playing solo you'll pick your favourite one and the computer will control your partner.

Character voices and likenesses are provided by actors Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, who also play the pair on the silver screen. There are some witty lines and good banter between the duo in cutscenes, but during play their chatter becomes dull and repetitive.

Spock and Kirk's personalities are very different but there isn't much to distinguish them in terms of their strengths and abilities as playable characters, which is a shame. This also hurts the game’s replay value because once you’ve played through the story as one of them there isn’t much point repeating it as the other.

As well as Pine and Quinto, other members of the film cast appear as non-playable characters including Simon Pegg as Scotty and Karl Uban as Bones.

Having actors from the movies on board, along with an authentic soundtrack and audio effects, definitely adds some credibility to proceedings.

Given this, it's a shame the character models and animations are so poor. It's easy to tell who each person is and when they are still they don't look too bad, but when they start talking or moving around it's cringe-worthy to see how crudely they are depicted.

Low-grade is the best way to describe the overall quality of the game's graphics, which have a lack of polish and refinement.

Examples of this are the way characters pass through scenery or each other sometimes, or how I've caught my AI buddy running endlessly on the spot going nowhere on several occasions.

The game lacks the visual flair of the Abrams films and, as an aside, lacks the lens flare too.

Devoid of any original ideas of its own, so it doesn’t boldly go anywhere near new territory, gameplay draws on influences from a diverse mix of other titles, including Uncharted, Batman and Dead Space. There is a whiff of Portal about part of it, while one of the various other games it faintly reminds me of is Mass Effect – though Star Trek is nowhere near as complex or good as Bioware’s space epic.

This is a mishmash of a game wrapped inside a Star Trek skin which doesn’t improve upon any of the ideas it takes from other places and doesn’t excel at anything.

That said, all the different parts do come together into something that still provides fun and excitement in places.

Although I have reservations about whether there is too much action for a Star Trek game, the combat is the best part of it.

Other than being able to stun an enemy there doesn’t seem to be a proper melee attack, the stealth doesn’t work very well and the enemy AI (as well as computer-controlled partner AI sometimes) is painfully dumb, but there is still a solid cover system and tight shooting mechanics. – I’ve played other shooters before that are a lot worse.

It’s satisfying shooting the evil Gorn with the phaser and other weapons that are picked up during the game. I always prefer something with a space or sci-fi theme over gritty contemporary military locations.

The frequent firefights provide the most stimulating moments of the adventure. While nothing is truly terrible or broken, other parts of the game become quite tedious either because of repetition or because instructions are too sketchy which results in some tasks taking far longer than they ought to.

Hacking, for example, has to be done over and over again to access computer systems. This involves a few different mini-games such as guiding a light from one point to another on a simple maze, matching up sound wave shapes or finding pairs of corresponding audio signals. They start off as slightly annoying distractions and build to become really grating after a while.

Meanwhile, one particularly tiresome level wanted me to follow some power lines that were only visible with the tricorder device in order to find three control panels. Two of them were easy enough to locate after some hunting around while the third one ... well, I won’t give it away but it involved extra work that wasn’t made at all clear.

Maddening moments like those I’ve described definitely hold it back but overall the balance swings towards enjoying the game instead of not enjoying it - it’s a very close call, mind.

If you can overlook the fact this isn’t really a proper Star Trek game, and ignore the numerous issues – from the technical glitches to the lack of elegance in the visuals – there is still an OK action-adventure and a competent shooter to be played.

All things considered, it’s a lot better than the fare usually served up in games connected to film releases – and that deserves some credit.

Verdict: 6 out of 10

Co-published by Namco Bandai Games and Paramount Pictures, Star Trek is out now for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC – PS3 version tested.