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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.
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