- Original Release: 2003
- Developer: Ritual
- Publisher: Activision
- Platform: PC
The sequel to Elite Force starts off during the Voyager episode “Endgame”, expanding upon Voyager’s journey through the transwarp hub. A Borg sphere has captured Voyager and the Hazard Team needs to free Voyager before the Borg adapt to their new systems. After Voyager gets home, Munro (who is unfortunately only male in this game – it’s a bit odd when the first game I played as a female Munro) gets stuck teaching at the academy until he impresses Picard, getting assigned to the Enterprise E, which swiftly gets involved in a mystery surrounding some insect-like aliens with organic impulse engines.
While this is developed by a different developer, the feel of the gameplay is the same. You have a mixture of alien and federation weapons again (although far more Federation weapons this game, with machine gun and shotgun versions of the compression rifle). My wish about the first game is answered here: I wanted more Tricorder use and puzzles and this has that. The puzzles aren’t great, though, and are just pipe connecting and waveform matching minigame – I would have preferred puzzles that involved more scanning. The tricorder does have more view modes, pointing out weak walls or bioscanners. My favourite thing about the tricorder is that you can scan a lot of things. All the Federation characters have names (both on the Enterprise and at Starfleet Academy) – even the fish do. It’s a nice little touch, and I just love scanning for lifeforms.
The new insect-like aliens are definitely used well for a gameplay perspective, as they have many different forms that get introduced throughout the game, although at times it feels a bit lonely as you often get separated from your crew (to the point where they lampshade it), who really don’t get enough screen-time. Previous characters like Chang and Chell barely do anything (in the final mission, Chell is shot and beamed back to the Enterprise before you even start) and the new Klingon member, Korban, is not utilised much at all. There’s one mission where you are looking for a Ferengi on a pirate Klingon space station and instead of wearing casual clothing and taking the Klingon member of the team…they go in full Starfleet gear.
Picard also feels a bit lonely. This is set a bit after Nemesis, and everyone has left – even Crusher and La Forge – so it makes sense. The only familiar face he has is Chief Engineer Barclay, with Tuvok (on temporary assignment to the Enterpriser to help integrate the Hazard team). being the only other character from the shows. I don’t have any issues with this, but it would be nice if it felt like Picard had a new crew, but the only developed character is a botanist that you can listen to random conversations (she has no involvement in the plot). Just a named first officer would be enough.
That said, Elite Force 2 is still a great game and the gameplay is extremely enjoyable. Some of the plot is predictable – you can tell one of the villains the moment he speaks in his “overly evil” accent, but other moments provide a nice mystery. The weapons are fun to use again, with some great set pieces to keep the action entertaining.
Where to get Star Trek: Elite Force II
How to play Star Trek: Elite Force II on Windows 11
The GoG version works well on Windows 11. For widescreen, you’ll need to go to the game directory\base\”your windows Username”.cfg and change the following lines to this:
seta r_mode “-1”
seta r_customwidth “1920”
seta r_customheight “1080”
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I have this game, but haven’t played it yet. The first one remains one of my favorites. Will definitely give it a play through sometime!
Best bit was the Enterprise E!
Yeah, also the Excelsior class USS Dallas and the Attrexian station were amazing as well.
I found Elite Force II substantially less enjoyable than the first, and the orbital bombardment option is an enormous letdown.
The funniest part of the game is when you’re interrogating the Ferengi guy, he will offer to bribe you by giving you your own planet. If you accept, you wind up in the brig.
Back then, I didn’t like it as much as EF1 mostly because of the MP options. I did it again last year on Steam Deck, and it was great. Level design is good, but I agree that some dialogues were off/forgettable. Graphically, the game still looks very good tbh. Still recommend
I quite enjoyed it, this would end up been the last game Activision released as they severed contract ties on the licence as they werent happy with the state the franchise was in at the time. Only a small number of copies were manufactured so it became rare pretty quick
It always sounded like Tim Russ literally phoned in his lines for this game. They all had a weird reverb to them that sounded like they were coming from a communicator, even when Tuvok was in the room with you.
I loved Elite Force, I didn’t realize there was a sequel!
Adds and subtracts from the previous game is a great way of putting it👏🏻 love this game, but I had a lot more issues with it than the first. But boy does it still LOOK good. I do wish it still SOUNDED good😅
I need to Play this again
I really liked this game and the diversity of environments it lets you visit. Enterprise E, alien ships, Romulan camp… still, at least for me, the first Elite Force created a better Star Trek feeling that came totally naturally.
Played this last year and it’s still good!
Elite Force II is better than the first in almost every way. And its Tricorder does get quite a work out