The game is played from a 3/4 bird's eye view perspective. The levels are
detailed and definitely give the player the feel that he/she are on a Borg cube
or at Federation Headquarters. Cutscenes are curiously absent, though. In a game
that is so story driven, they would have gone a long way in bringing the player
into the story. Instead, when a mission is completed, the player is taken to a
fairly static screen to listen to voiceovers.
Sounds are definitely the game's strong suit. The voice acting is of the
highest quality and includes Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn reprising their roles
of Data and Worf, respectively. Anyone who's ever seen an episode of The Next
Generation will recognize the accurately captured sounds of everything from
phasers to transporters.
Star Trek fans will probably enjoy this game. The storyline is intriguing and
will make them feel that they are taking part in an episode of The Next
Generation. Unfortunately for most others, the game may prove to be too
restrictive. There is not all that much difference between crew members other
than the equipment they carry. Since this equipment is fixed, you'll have to
choose your team based on inventory. It would have been nice if the game's
characters had more personality and benefited from experience, but alas they do
not. This is particularly disappointing for a Star Trek game, since richly
developed characters are so integral to the series.
The game lacks any kind of fog of war or line of site restrictions, allowing
you to scan the entire map at your leisure. Guards must obey line of site rules,
but since your party does not, play often involves waiting for a guard to come
stumbling around a wall into a rain of phaser fire from your team - advantage
player. In addition, play can be paused while you survey the situation and give
orders to your team. While some might say that this takes the need for quick
reflexes out of the game, it makes for a less challenging game.
The missions themselves are quite linear, and there is not a whole lot of
leeway for the player in their completion. This results in very little replay
value once the game is completed. Also, missions automatically end with the loss
of a crew member. It would have been far more interesting if you had to cope
with such losses while trying to complete the mission and the game.
There is no AI to speak of programmed into crew members. If one is shot,
he/she will continue to stand there taking damage until you explicitly order
them to return fire. Also, they will happily run right into the field of view of
a security camera unless you carefully walk them one by one past it. There's a
fine line between giving the player control over units in a game and frustrating
a player with units that require a large amount of handholding - Star Trek Away
Team finds itself on the wrong side of that line.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 68%.
Trekkers will gain more enjoyment from this game than others based on its good
storyline - they're also more likely to give the game more patience. Other
gamers will find it too simple, linear, and restrictive. More freedom in
assembling the away teams and their equipment, coupled with more RPG elements
for the individual crew members, would have gone a long way towards making this
a pretty good game.
System Requirements: 266 MHz Pentium II CPU; 64 MB RAM; 4x
CD-ROM; 400 MB Hard Drive Space; Mouse.
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