I got this as a birthday present. It’s like Quake2 with Star Trek graphics. Circle strafing, jumping puzzles, key hunts, secret areas, noninteractive cutscenes. Not what I want from a modern shooter.
C’mon man, Activision paid a lot for that Star Drek license. Can’t you try harder to like it? How dare you expect a fresh experience!
I tried the demo, I liked it, very old school but polished and rather fun. Didn’t tried the full version though, so I don’t know how the game works in the long run…
Dear God in Heaven, if the definition of “old school” has become inclusive enough to include Elite Force 2’s gameplay, then we need to say a quick eulogy for the term and torch its carcass to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens.
I had a lot more fun with EF 2’s demo than whith both Unreal II & RTCW (full). Those games bore me to hell. So yes, I’d rather stay with “old school” gameplay, it does not break new ground but at least it does what it intended to and does it almost right (at least I had that impression in the demo). I’ll try the full game very soon.
EF2’s a decent blast, if nothing special. If you ignore the hideous ‘lost trap filled temple of doom’ levels that keep turning up like a bad penny, and the fact that the Hazard Team’s motto is “Let The Guy With The Keyboard Do ALL The Work.”
Sometimes a good old decent blast is better than a crappy game that tries to hard to be the next best thing.
If we do that, then before the fire goes out, can we PLEASE PLEASE toss “gaming goodness” or even just “goodness” in the fire? If I have to read another review about game X’s “gaming goodness”, my skull will explode. Then again, maybe that’s the intended effect.
[Edit: grammar]
I enjoyed EF: 2 well enough once I got past the early levels. It wasn’t groundbreaking or anything, but I had a good time for a few days with it. I could have done without all the wondering around on the Enterprise shit. That got old fast!
EF:2 was fine. You got to whack moles with a variety of mole-whackers, and in neat-looking places, too. We’re talking SHOOTERS here, remember, so you really can’t ask for much more.
That being said, it did have annoyances:
- Spiders. Shooter designers, FUCK OFF WITH THE SPIDERS.
- Bosses. With the exception of one boss (the beginning Borg one), there was absolutely no strategy behind defeating any of them, beyond what I call the “let’s trade hit points for five minutes, because there is no way to avoid being hit” strategy commonly found in Japanese 2D shooters. The final boss was particularly egregious.
- The fact that you were sent out on your own in the missions ALL THE TIME was so obvious that it was even an in-game joke (listen to your Klingon underling during missions).
- Your player did not get to strip the alien bimbo with a low-setting phaser, knock her ankles out from under her, and then engage in filthy cross-species animal sex. The Captain Kirk in all of us cries out in outrage for the lack of xenofluid swapping.
–scharmers
Please god bring on HL2.
It is just so generic. It’s like they haven’t paid attention to shooter design for the last five years. You can beat most any opponent by just running backwards and shooting straight ahead as they mindlessly pursue you, unable to reach their “switch to shooting” trigger range. They get around the AI problems by just having most monsters ambush you at close range in small areas.
I’ll give them credit for two things: First, they have a reasonable fiction for why you can carry a huge pile of weapons. Second is a spoiler, so highlight: [color=white]While they do use the horrible design flaw of taking you prisoner during a cutscene, at least they don’t take your weapons away.[/color] They should consider themselves damned with faint praise.
I considered complaining about the Phaser’s low battery time, but then I realized that a larger battery would imbalance the game. Phaser alt-fire is awesome, and if it would go longer (or you could select two Phasers so you could keep shooting while one recharges) then no creatures would stand a chance except the Borg. I’ve found myself using only the Phaser about 80% of the time.
Scharmers, you need to work on your circle strafing if those bosses are hitting you much. Playing on normal difficulty, I usually take less than ten points of damage. They’ll get me for about 25 if there are several minibosses involved. However, you are 100% correct about the alien bimbo.
Casts Resurrect.
I bought this game on GoG yesterday. Let’s see if it holds up in 2023.
Wild hearing a much younger (than present day) Patrick Stewart reading this monologue. Tuvok did a superb job with the voice acting on the tutorial before this as well. Great voice work so far.
Edit: Wish I could play in widescreen though. The best I’ve found is to play on 1280x1024 in a window.
Jeezus what a necro. Thirty-something Scharmers snarking about a bog-standard Raven shooter and wishing for HL2.
Where did the time go
Arachnophobia toggles weren’t a thing back then. But they’re all the rage these days.
This was my arachnophobia toggle.
