Customer Reviews

Star Trek Shattered Universe

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I love Star Trek in its many forms. I am 38, I grew up with Star Trek. Unfortunately,..

1. This game is difficult enough that the what fun there could have been is sucked out of it. The controller configurations are not intuitive, it takes a lot of effort to get used to them, I finally choose the second configuration. The missions are very very long, and they typically cresendo to very difficult challenges at the end. If you fail, and you will until you figure out the best strategy, you go all the way back to the beginning of the mission. What happened to intermediate save points?

2. Nice graphics but after getting over the excitement of protecting the Federation, I noticed that the missions involved the same kind of action really, and it became boring and incredibly tedious.

3. How many times has this storyline been rehashed. Let it go already.

This game looks pretty for a while, but it takes advantage of Star Trek fans. We deserve better, especially for the money.

I wanted to love this game, but I just cant.

When I finished playing this game, I thought about what could have been...maybe this could have become Star Trek, "Crimson Skies" style, with the kind of great aerial/spaceborn combat that is so rare these days. Even a Star Trek version of "Jedi Starfighter" would have been acceptable. But that's not to be. This may be the worst Trek game produced to date, with shoddy graphics, awful controls, and overall terrible gameplay.

The idea was intriguing: Borrowing from the classic Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror," which featured an alternative universe that was completely alien to Kirk and his crew, this game finds you as defender (in an admittedly cool small starfighter) of the USS Excelsior, captained by Hikaru Sulu (voicework from George Takei; that's Walter Koenig as the voice of Chekov, as well) in a hostile environment. The Terran Empire has replaced the Federation, and you must defend your ship from constant attacks. Sounds good so far...but when one's missions consist of little more than keeping attackers from weakening the Excelsior's shields or shooting asteroids in order to gather needed materials, one gets bored very, very quickly. The sub-par graphics (barely PS One calibre, even on the XBox) are distracting, with some of the worst visuals seen on any game in recent memory. Large explosions and impacts are graphically inferior, more like firecrackers than earth-shattering blasts. Character imagery (like Sulu and Chekov) is so bad that you wouldn't recognize either character if you didn't know what game you were playing. Animatics are nearly static and often clumsy. Controls are just terrible--your ship handles poorly (like piloting a refrigerator in a hurricane), and the built-in targeting system is inconsistent at best. Overall, I can find very few positive things to say about this game.

What could have been an excellent game--possibly giving Trek a leg-up into the sci-fi gaming world that Star Wars has so long dominated--ends up being a great disappointment. One may end up feeling that this game was released simply to capitalize on the Star Trek name.

(...)

This game is a real-time space fighter/mission oriented game. The back of the box bills it as more of a Capitol Ship combat game, so lets get that first part straight. There are Trekkers out there who will hate the game because of some inconsitancies in the univers, but that is besides the point.

As other reviewrs have said there isn't any way to save the game mid-mission, so if you screw up or just plain die, you have to start over at the beginning of the mission. This feature [gets really bad] when you get deep into some of the more involved levels.
The individual missions are set not to be challenging, but straight up WAY too hard. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have replayed several of the missions almost a dozen times and I was playing on the "easy" setting.
The environment graphics are quite good, spectacular even. The animations of people however leave quite a bit to be desired.
The controls are quite intuitive and easy to grasp. Not a lot of excess controls that you don't need or never use.
There is a lack of helpful targeting controls (i.e. nearest enemy). Your only options are "Nearest Capitol", "Next Target", "Previous Target" or "Next Fighter".
The cut-scenes are good, but in the middle of game-play (when a ship blows up) is not good, especially when you return from it you aren't in the same place you were. Kind of like the game continued for a couple of seconds after the scene started. This may not sound like much, but when you have an enemy locked on, a cut scene starts, and when you come back you have to track them all over again it really [is not good]!
Also, when new messages come in, parts of your on screen display/HUD (which isn't always easy to translate), is covered obscuring necessary information for several seconds (such as distance to target).
There also seems to be a lack of reference to effective ranges of weapons or minimum distances to avoid being blown-up when a starship goes. These you apparently have to find out by trial and error.

And just incase someone from Jack Of All Games reads this, next time leave the fighters out except as maybe an accessory to the ship (not player controlled other than "attack this", "defend that"). Include a save feature in the pause menu. Make the game about starship vs. starship. Fix the above listed problems of controls and game play. And finally, make it playable head to head either on the same console or also on XBox Live. Maybe turn based real-time combat would be a good idea.(...)

Ok, I got suckered into this would be a cool game, luckily I rented it from WalletBu$ter and didn't shell out $40+ for this loser.

Run down of what makes this thing a 3-Day rental or $10 Used Game:

1. Control layout is awful. They crammed three weapons, forward & reverse thrust, direction & rolls, target selection and view selection into three awkward layouts. Come-on guys, this could have been simple: TRIGGERS=GUNS, A=THRUST, B=HONK HORN! Half the figging time I trying to figure out what to fire while my 5 other punk shuttles are bearing down on me!

2. The first mission is a major disappointment. You are first told to jump into a shuttle craft with a phaser duck-taped to the hood and ordered to defend the Excellsior. You need to chase off a capital ship and blow-up 3-4 other shuttles - all while Sulu is barking, "You have 30 seconds left mister!"

3. They have this "cinematic" view...forget using it. I tried this out, lost control and watched my shuttle fly into an asteroid.

4. You have a photon-like weapon, but no auto/computer assisted targeting. Man, with a all this advance technology and Sulu sends me out on a weak shuttle, he deserves to blow up!

5. No skirmishes, atleast not without Xlive that I'm aware of. I like mission-based games, but sometimes I wish I could select the Enterprise, upgrade the Photons, bolt-on another engine and stick on those neon "Aero" wiperblades. With my modified Enterprise I'd go blow things up like: other capital ships, pesky shuttles, people accidentally beamed into space, etc.

6. The game has quite a bit of 3D animation of Sulu and Chekov. Every scene you could count on Sulu slowly blinking 2-3 times...really annoying, I was waiting for another crew member to come up with a tazer and shock some life into him.

7. I think I was hoping for a real good capital ship vs. capital ship game (i.e. FIRE PHASERS AT ENGINEERING and watch Scotty get plasma burns), but got stuck flying tiny shuttles with no balls - well maybe a half a ball.

That is what you will ask yourself after a few minutes of playing it. The story begins with Sulu commanding the Excelsior and when he responds to a distress beacon from Enterprise (commanded by Chekov) the ship flies into a "vortex" and is suddenly transposed into an alternate universe. The Federation is no longer a peacful utopian organization and Sulu is accused of treason. Excelsior is on the run and in the typical Star Trek fashion Sulu and the crew must battle their way through the universe until they discover a way home. Thats all fine and dandy except that the game play has little, if anything to do with the story.
The missions are silly. Your character (who remains unidentified the entire time) pilots an array of fighter craft and is usually charged with something like holding off the enemy fighters - while the unseen crew of Excelsior is working on the story line. Each mission has a time limit and a vague set of instructions. Sulu is constantly baby sitting you during the mission by barking orders and changing your objective. The controls are difficult and the onscreen targeting interface is barely helpful. There is a convoluded radar and ship readout which don't help much either. To top it off the pointless cut scenes are really boring.
This game requires no thought or problem solving skill. It is a straight forward "fly around and shoot stuff" game. The story is lame and in no way related to the game play. There are no special video or audio effects, and no ability to alter the controller settings. Save your money - hook up your PSone and play Star Wars Rogue Squadron. Or for a cool dog fighting game try Crimson Skies.

Some of the levels are seemingly impossible. Even with cheats like infinite shields, the game is insanely hard. In one of the levels you have a couple minutes to destroy an insane amount of ships. Don't waist your time unless you are a serious trekkie and really good with this type of game.

I went ahead and bought this game, despite the repeated onine warnings against it.

While I actually enjoyed the ship graphics (the character CG is terrible), I got terribly frustrated. Even with all the cheats, this game is near impossible to complete. I gave it a month, on and off, and finally got rid of it.

Unless you just want the opportunity to blow up original series starships, do yourself a favor and stay far, far away!

What can I say as a part time/non-hard core gamer about STSU? Well, it's sort of dull and kind of easy. There aren't a really great variety of ships to use at any given time. Having the authentic voices of original series cast members helps and the graphics for PS2 and X-Box are pretty decent. Personally, it gives me some satisfaction as a 29 year Trekkie (since I was 4..that dates me...), I get a kick out of piloting the Klingon Bird of Prey against larger Starfleet ships like the Miranda and Constitution classes. Overall, the game will be a snore-fest for non STAR TREK fans, a little fun for people who like it and some good, distracting fun for those of us who live, eat and breathe STAR TREK.

Truth be told, this game is the first "fighter" game of it's type.

The premis of the game is simple. The USS Excelsior, commanded by Captain Hikaru Sulu responds to a distress call from two federation ships, one being the USS Enterprise..oddly..under the command of Pavel Chekov. Somehow, the Excelsior is pulled into the alternate universe, and runs right into the ISS Enterprise, commanded by an evil Pavel Chekov. Chaos ensues for nearly 20 missions.

This game has many good points. The graphics, sound and music as well as the story line are all top notch, and deserve praise. Many Original Series moments are duplicated in the mirror universe in top form, and the capital ships are very difficult to destroy with a fighter, as they should be.
However....

The games flaws keep it from gaining a 5 star rating. The game is insanely difficult even on easy. the Imperial Fleet seems to be made up of only three classes of ships, the Refit Constitution Class, the Miranda class and an unamed Destroyer class. In all the missions, the capital ships never slug it out, you never see photon torpedos and phasers being fired between the Excelsior and the enemy ships, the only thing they do is take random pot shots at fighters.

Both Sulu and Chekov are voiced by the actors that played them, a big, big plus.

I would recommend this game for any trek fan, but be aware of it's errors before you simply jump in head first without thinking.

I love this game but, you have to be a Star Trek fan. I got the X-Box version of this game. It is a shooter game a little hard to handle at first but if you love Star Trek this game will make you feel like you are in Star Trek defending the Federation.