Reviews of Star Trek - Xbox 360

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I have played about 3+ hours of this game, and I have to honestly say that it feels a bit unfinished.

The (third-person) controls are a bit clunky, as is the cover system (which is a bit hit and miss). The graphics are OK. This is not Mass Effect 2, but it is not the worst game ever to come out the gate, either. The graphics are average at best. As much as the developer had tried to avoid it, this game has a movie tie-in game feel to it.

The story is good, the voice acting decent, but the mechanics just don't feel right. It reminds me of the Iron Man movie tie-in games to this point. There is fun to be had, and I am definitely a Star Trek fan, but it just isn't terribly gratifying.

A lot of times, it is a bit confusing as to what it is that you need to be doing. I am playing a single-player campaign, and the AI hasn't been so great. maybe that is part of the problem? I am playing as Kirk, and sometimes Spock is near me but invisible, other times he's kneeling but floating in mid air, and sometimes he just runs toward the enemy taking fire out in the open. The enemies aren't so bright, and your phaser takes a few shots to put some enemies down. On stun, although the game doesn't explain it very well, you stun your opponent and it dazes them, then you have to run up to them before their stun wears off, and perform a melee combat move to put them down. When your phaser is set to "kill" it often takes several shots to put an opponent down. And, your weapon can overheat, so you fire off a shot or two, and then your opponent closes on you quickly, and you are scrambling a bit until your weapon cools down. And your opponents move MUCH faster than you do.

When your enemies take cover, they move extremely fast, get into cover, and never, ever come back out. You have to go into their cover after them, and they are more powerful than you. So if your weapon overheats, look out........

Not much is explained as for space battles (using the Enterprise), either. I keep getting blown up over and over and still am not sure what it is that I should be doing....and, for note, I'm a fairly seasoned (casual) gamer (completed the Uncharted games, Mass Effect Trilogy, Arkham games, etc.). I just can't seem to put together exactly what it is that I'm supposed to be doing.

It just doesn't feel like the game is fully developed. I'll keep it and do my best to complete it, as I am a Star Trek fan, but in truth, it just isn't living up to my expectations to this point. I'm just getting kind of a clunky, unfinished feel from this one. It was in development for quite a while, but it's just missing the mark.

It's playable for a Trek fan, but I'd wait until it hits the $ 20 range (which shouldn't be too long). I was expecting a mediocre to decent game, and I'd say, to this point in my experience, it's barely meeting my minimum expectation.

I'm normally leery of games that haven't been reviewed by the release date, and to my knowledge there was no online demo. I have read a few sources saying that the review copy of the game "got out late", and they didn't have it in time to review it. That leads me to believe that they knew it just wasn't quite finished, and they wanted to capitalize on beating the movie out of the gate.

I wasn't expecting the world, but am a little let down. There is still fun to be had, but it just isn't as well developed as the marketing suggested. It definitely needed a bit more development and polish.

I know that it can be unfair to review a game that one hasn't finished, but I'm a good way in, and I have a pretty good feel for it at this point. It may be worth holding off a bit and, if this is a game that you as a Star trek fan want to own and play, buy it at a lower price point than $ 60.

UPDATE:

I finally completed this game yesterday (took me about 15 hours or so), and there is a lot of attention and polish that the developer should add through "Patches". Overall, I don't feel like the game lived up to what the developer had promised~especially a game that has been in production as long as this game has.

The graphics were OK, better in some spots than in others. Not the best that the current-gen systems have seen, but not the worst, either. In truth, for me, if a game has a great story and great gameplay, the graphics generally aren't a hangup for me.

The story, I thought, was excellent. Very well written, and it felt like a Star Trek-worthy story. The voice acting was good. Simon Pegg (providing Mr. Scott's voice) was probably the highlight as far as the voice acting goes, and a great comic relief.

The AI was really bad. Especially the enemy AI. In some cases, some of the larger more formidable foes would just stand in one place (as if stuck in a glitch) and I would ultimately defeat them with almost no resistance. The enemy AI and the glitches surrounding the enemy behavior was definitely underdeveloped.

My (computer controlled) partner (Spock) was often a hindrance to completing tasks. Sometimes he just took off on his own (into the open taking enemy fire), and other times he just wouldn't follow me as he was supposed to. Several times I had to backtrack just to find him.

My character kept walking around screaming "Thanks for the shield boost!" to Spock, even when we weren't engaging (or even near any) enemy. That got old. Also, I found that sometimes when I would be walking or running forward, when I would release the gamepad stick, my character would keep walking/drifting forward on his own. I often had to mess with the gamepad to get him to stop.

There were three different hacking sequences used during the game, none of which (in my opinion) are really ever explained-you just have to figure them out on your own (more or less). The first is matching up pairs of matching sequences in a given time frame, which was easy enough. The second was, I'm not sure how to describe it, grid navigation mini-game (similar to how the characters rode their light bikes, or whatever those were called in Tron). That was a bit more challenging, mainly due to poor control, and became frustrating at points. The third was both characters working together to match frequencies. It worked OK, but with two players, I can see this one being tough to complete.

To the game's credit, there were a lot of really cool levels with some really neat gameplay ideas. Some were more fleshed out than others. One of the real detractors with this game is that it never really offers much in the line of explanation as to how to complete your tasks. It just leaves you to figure it out on your own. I don't know if this was by gameplay design choice, or an oversight.

At the end of the day, you play through 15, or so, hours of co op aimed gameplay and it all culminates into your facing off with a less than impressive final enemy (or "Boss").

As a Star Trek story, it succeeds. As a co op game, there is some fun to be had there. For a Star Trek fan, if they can look past the game's (sometimes glaring) flaws, there is some fun to be had there. For a gamer with high expectations in respect to overall gameplay, polish and presentation~this one will disappoint you.

Some of the mainstream reviews of this game have been pretty brutal. I feel that a "3-Star (out of 5)" or "6 out of 10" rating isn't completely unfair for this game.

It's buggy, undercooked in some areas, and nothing about it is cutting edge, but I still had a good time with it (on a solo playthrough), and I would like to play the game through on co op as well. If the developer updates this game through "patching", I think that it would be a much better and more playable game overall.

This is a game that is definitely going to be a better experience played as a co op game rather than as a single-player game. As things stand today (and in my opinion), this is a mediocre $ 60 game, a decent-to-better than average $ 30 game, and a better than average-to-good $ 20 game.

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After watching the developers talk about the game, I wanted to buy it. I saw the passion of how they spoke of the game. The wife decided to rent it first. Good call. The animation is choppy. The graphics were never finished. The enemies are either invincible or stupidly easy. Battles are never explained, nor navigation clear.

The Opening sequence is annoyingly confusing. You start out in some battle, take a couple of shots. Then there is a cut scene where Spock and Kirk are about to kill each other. Then, just before the first blow, the game starts with a pleasant conversation over chess.

The game uses battle modes similar to Gears of war, with storytelling comparable to Mass effect and Army of Two combined. It looks like the game would have been pretty good, but it seems to be pushed too soon. Characters glitch often. Enemies often shoot and walk through walls and doors. You can play as either Kirk or Spock. I chose Spock, but it's like they forgot to write those lines, so it feels like I was still playing as Kirk. Check points are at random, almost evil places that don't seem to make any sense other than to annoy you. Even the Achievements are grabbed from predictable game play and are poorly named.

I would still play it through, but I got to a point that was just too buggy. It was written to have a strategy, but all the glitches ruin it. When going in mini-games (which aren't bad), the game does not stop, so you are often left venerable.

There are four things that make this game playable and they are great:

Original score written by the same composer who wrote for Into Darkness

The characters look like who they are trying to be, even if not smoothed out not up to par for 2013 or even 2008, but like-ness is there.

The script is wonderful. Aside from the opening, it kept my interest

The Best and what is worth any amount of money to pay for this game is the entire movie cast has recorded dialog for this game. This is not something that is done often, and in this game it is perfect.

This game wants to be a 7 or low 8, but because of its poor execution and streamlined release, I can't give it more than a 4. I gave Via Domus a 5.

Buy it in a discount bin or pawn shop in six months. I you forget to, don't worry, you're not missing much.

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I have been very expectant of this game's release for some time. My wife and I are both big gamers (I have 70k xbox points and she is 20k+) and also big Star Trek fans. So far we have put in about 4 hours play together.

On the whole this is a great game but needs a bit more polishing (something updates may correct) in a few regards. First and foremost is the very awkward sign-in for the splitscreen multi. The issue is that you have the option at the "New Game" screen to play as either Kirk or Spock, and at the bottom is the option for player 2 to sign in by pressing start. However, once you start playing the second player cannot join, at all (or so it seems). There is no way for a second player to sign in when the game is running. So my wife and I pop this game in, we go through the new game screen and we both login, and we play about 2 hours. So far so good. We stop to eat dinner and when we come back I click continue, and it starts with only me... there's no way to log her in as player two... Well, I figure maybe she needs a separate save file... nope. Well... we look it up online, nothing... We try "inviting" her to my game, but it says she can't join a local session... We even find some threads online that say that this game doesn't support split screen... What the %#$^? But we just played it splitscreen for two hours?! Feeling as though we were in a Twilight Zone episode, I finally figured out that the only way to continue a game via splitscreen is to go to the Chapter select, then when you get the character selection screen then the second player can log in. There is a vague reference to this in the manual which is only online, but it isn't very explicit about the process. Hopefully the game desginers will figure this issue out so that the second player can login and continue a saved game without having to restart checkpoints, or at least make the process more streamlined.

Anyway, I wanted to get the word out that the split screen does function, but you have to go to it through chapter select.

The other big complaint is that the tutorials are really lacking. There are some great tech minigames for unlocking stuff and hacking and whatnot, but they are rather involved and the minimal direction, if at all, given by the tutorials does not in any way prepare you for completing the action. Instead, I have had to use trial and error to figure out what exactly we are supposed to be doing, sometimes it comes quick but some of the actions were rather tough to figure out what was expected. Once we figured it out it worked fine, but that first time can really be annoying which a more adequate tutorial would fix.

As to the game itself, so far we have really enjoyed it. There is a lot of investigating with tricorders which is a nice change of pace and fits the scientific character of the series nicely. The combat so far has been extraordinarily smooth, and while the graphics for the people can seem a bit stiff and blocky, the environments are great and really draw you in. We haven't gotten far enough for substantive remarks about the plot, but getting to fight the Gorn is pretty excellent by itself. It's also nice that this is an intermediary plotline taking place between the movies thereby not simply rehashing either plot line which is the downfall of many movie based games.

On the whole, this game needs some spit and polish to really make it shine, but hopefully continued development through updates will help to make the game more streamlined and less buggy. After we have completed the game I will return to update further but for now I highly recommend this game to anyone that thinks shooting Gorn with phasers as Kirk and Spock is just plain awesome. Finally an awesome Star Trek game. Finally.

>>UPDATE JULY 2013

So my wife and I beat Trek a while back, I just haven't gotten back to update this. Here's some final thoughts having played through the whole game beyond the reinforced NEED for a good update to correct the little glitches and add some explanations to a few points.

On the whole, this is still a very satisfying game. My criticisms are primarily against the non-normal portions of the game. I still feel the combat portions of the game were fully satisfying and apart from wandering around a few times between fights it was never so confusing so as to need "walkthrough" support to navigate.

The non-normal portions of the game are generally rather obtrusive and even obnoxious. There are three principle non-normal modes of play:

1. Space suit flight: Of the three, this is the best non-normal mode. Essentially you are shot like a bullet through a variety of zero-G vacuum settings, dodging debris and whatnot. On the whole pretty satisfying and makes you feel like you are in the movies. However, these scenes start sometimes unexpectedly and can be annoying to get through at times, particularly if you are at all clumsy as a player because the movements expected of you can be overly precise at times. Still, with a few re-dos all these scenes were doable without much hair pulling.

2. Space combat: More obnoxious than the zero-G flight mode, you also get to take over the gunnery systems of the Enterprise and engage is ship-to-ship combat. Awesome! Right? Ehh... The graphics and sounds are great, very bright and stunning, but the actual controls are very, very simplistic and there are a lot of moments when you are sitting there just holding down your phasers wondering if you are damaging the ship you are shooting at. Perhaps more annoying and certain to annoy Trekkies is the fact that you have to LOWER YOUR SHIELD TO FIRE, or, more precisely, between holding down your phasers you have to engage your shields to try and deflect incoming fire. The total package effect was devastating and I was shocked that they could take something so incredible looking and with so much potential and make it so tedious. My wife and I were so glad when we got through the principle battle and we could get back to the regular run and gun mode. Terrible. This mode REALLY needed more work and thought as it could have been great but in the end was one of the lowest points in the game.

3. Mind Meld: I do not think a game since the days of 8-bit consoles has made a mode of play so very, very boring. The mind meld is the most ridiculous part of the game and is really laughable. Essentially when you meld it is just an extended cut scene, not that big of deal, that's what I expected. But no, to navigate between cut scenes you get stuck in a weird blurry New Age looking tunnel and have to steer toward the light. No you aren't having a Near Death Experience. Yes you are playing the Star Trek video game and wondering what the ^&*% the designers were thinking. Really? Come on... Really? It feels like they ran out of mini-games and said hey, let's make them steer toward the memories in a long... tunnel... yeah. Seriously?

On the whole, the game lets you feel like you were playing through a Trek movie. There are some memorable fights and the voice acting, which had the entire cast, was great throughout. Having had some time to reflect on the game, I think one of the reasons why players have reacted so poorly to it is that we can sense that this game had real potential. The game mechanics and everything are good enough that if this thing were really put together well it could have been epic. Is the final product that we are playing now epic? Not by a long shot. Is it a really fun Star Trek shooter that gets you into the films? Yes it is. Just ignore all the silly and obtrusive parts and there is a very enjoyable experience here for Trekkie gamers and fans of the films.

Final Score: 3.5 rounded to 4 because... well... it's Trek.

Honest reviews on Star Trek - Xbox 360

First off, like many reviewers here I have not finished the story. The gameplay makes finishing the game a challenge to say the least. The developers really screwed up with this game. They alienated the Star Trek fans by making an action Co-op game and then turned around and alienated all Action game fans by making this a Star Trek game. IF this was simply a generic Sci-Fi co-op action game it would have sold much better. (Granted nothing can help sell games when the core gameplay is so flawed) Star Trek fans want a real star trek game that emphasizes exploration, starship management and crew management. We get none of that with this title. Action game fans want tight controls, a great story and most importantly great gameplay. We got none of that either. Honestly this game should have been scrapped in development. Everything about this game is wrong. Making a Star Trek game where you can only play 2 characters is asinine. No Star Trek movie or TV show has ever revolved around 2 characters only. Huge mistake. Second setting the game in the new timeline could have made for amazing stories... instead we get a story about the Gorn... Everything "Star Trek" about this game is an insult to the franchise. From an action gamer point of view this game fails to deliver on nearly every level. The "Clunky" controls can only be ignored for so long. After going through Mass Effect inspired levels I found myself bored more often than not. The collectables are so limited I find myself running most of the levels with my tricorder on. I can't complain about the graphics because I spent 90% of time running around with my tricorder on making all the graphics blue. It was such an awkward way to play, you can't even enjoy the levels because you have to use the tricorded all the time if you want to collect everything. Often times, I would still miss objects because I didn't notice the little patch of orange on the ground after running through blue levels the past 30 minutes. In essence the tricorder that some reviewers are praising as the best part of the game, was the worst part of the game for me. Its like the investigator view in Batman games except in the batman games you can see the items even without the view, in this game everything looks the exact same. 1 terminal might have something to check out with the tricorder while an identical terminal 5 feet away might be as pointless as the game itself. Essentially you are forced to run the levels with the tricorder always on if you want to find any experience points.

The only saving grace in this game is the multiplayer. I played through the first half of the game with a Trek friend. It was fun to play split screen like the good old PS2 days but honestly it wasn't as fun as Gear of War or even Dead Space 3 (FYI dead space 3 has no split screen both people have to own the game). Overall I'm disappointed I ended up buying this game. I wanted to support the developer and the Star Trek name but really shouldn't have wasted the money. Nothing is going to save this game from being another joke in a long line of hideous Star Trek games. Why in 2013 we still don't have a single real Star Trek game is beyond me. Since PC's bridge Commander there hasn't been a single Star Trek game worth owning. Its sad but developers with ideas like this keep getting the go ahead. Guess we now start another 6 -10 year wait for another Star Trek title to be released that hopefully isn't as bad as this.

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This could have been a great game, but it's buggy and unfinished. Feels like a smash and grab to get it out before the movie, so they could make loads of cash off the fans. What a waste. And by the way, if you're playing with a friend, don't try and save a game and come back to it, because you can't. They forgot to add in the two player mode in the continue game section. Utter crap. Wait until it hits the discount bins, or you'll feel ripped off. Like I do.