- Original Release: 2004
- Developer: Starsphere Interactive
- Publisher: THQ
- Platform: PS2/Xbox
Shattered Universe is another fighter Star Trek game, similar to Invasion. You play as a random unknown person on board the USS Excelsior. An unknown vortex pulls the ship into the Mirror Universe, with the ship turning into the ISS Excelsior and Sulu gaining a scar (unlike previous Mirror Universe incursions, they seem to have actually swapped bodies (which has horrific connotations for the end of the game). The vortex gets closed by the ISS Enterprise (captained by Chekov), so the Excelsior has to travel to a similar vortex in Tholian space, past Terran Empire, Klingon and Romulan space.
The plot is an interesting idea, but the writing is very dry and uninteresting. The combat itself (the entire game) is also extremely dull, and so much stuff seems off. The Mirror universe has started using fighters, and a bunch of them are on the ISS Excelsior. The Excelsior is absolutely useless in combat, so it’s up to you to destroy the enemies and babysit the Excelsior, which will definitely blow up far more than you. Your phasers and secondary weapons (disruptors/torpedoes) charge up very fast, so you can just hold down the buttons to continue firing, you don’t need to wait for a lock-on for homing weapons. The game is just very boring from start to finish.
Fighting capital ships (what the game calls the main starships) is also very dull, as instead of attack runs, it’s better to just fly in front of it and then reverse. I was hoping for subsystem targeting and disabling systems, but it’s just a health bar that depletes no matter where you hit – knocking out weapons of engines would have provided some variety in gameplay. Missions continue beyond the point that it feels they should be over and the main interest is just bringing a few things back from The Original Series like the Doomsday machine and Fesarius, but they don’t really amount to much.
The game also doesn’t like telling you anything. You’re thrown out on your first mission, straight into combat in a mission that will fail if you don’t start doing the right thing straight away. Throughout the game, you’ll fail objectives because the game isn’t clear about what you’re supposed to do, which means starting the level from scratch (and some can be long and drawn out). The worst example is in one of the early levels, you’re told to destroy some docking clamps holding the USS Excelsior in drydock. If you slightly miss, the Excelsior will blow up. If you fly close to get an accurate hit, enemies will fly into the drydock and the Excelsior will blow up. This is half way into the level, so you have to fight waves of fighters each time you fail. You just keep have to try different parts of the target until you don’t blow up the Excelsior.
The game itself was delayed for a few years, which somewhat explains why it feels a bit dated (especially in comparison to similar games like Rogue Squadron 2), but sometimes this game feels even older than Invasion on the PlayStation.
Where to get Star Trek: Shattered Universe
How to play Star Trek: Shattered Universe on Windows 11
You’ll need a PS2 emulator like PCSX2. I couldn’t find a widescreen hack for this game, to be sure to set it to 4:3.
Browse Games By Year
1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979
1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Having played a little bit of Shattered Universe, I can say it’s both a mess and INCREDIBLY fascinating as an artifact.
I still have this game. One useful little option to take out a capital ship is to get in close behind the saucers impulse engine and blast it to hell, then fly away before the ship blows up.
It was ok but I remember it being a quick game with not a lot of replay value but I might be remembering wrong as it was a while back! I liked the Mirror Universe aspect though. I always thought they should do a Mirror Universe game for DS9
Got this for Xbox. It’s a calmer playing affair than say Invasion or the BSG one that same out about the same time. But I remember finishing it.
I think it was okay. Not the best but definitely playable.
Good game, have it for XBox. Wish they would’ve made a sequel
oh that game rocked it was so good.
i wish it was on pc but i am so glad i got to complete it.
Loved this game.
I hated the last mission. The idea that you can’t attack the other ship because you might die doesn’t seem to matter to the other guys… plus the implication that one of the fighters you destroyed was piloted by… but like you said, the excelsior kept getting destroyed… ugh!
and for XBox.
And my first Trek game. <3
Still a game I enjoy just because of the new ships and being able to take out multiple capitals at once. Though protecting Excelsior often was annoying as it doesn’t last long without you. Plus the final mission could’ve been done better somehow and that was on easy.
It’s hard to express how hard this game could be at times. Especially the last mission, it took me a long time to finally beat this game as a kid.
Bought it day it came out it was only £20 and did it in a day not that great of game. It wouldve been interesting to have seen how the Interplay version wouldve been as it looked very different on screenshots
Had a love/hate relationship with it, I loved the idea of bringing in Starfleet fighters by making it a mirror universe thing.
I also loved the M5 mission, getting the capital ships weak enough that a neigboring ship exploding would take them out was a fun trick.
I played the opening couple of levels of this on stream a few months ago, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t necessarily good either. Very middling, I’d like to play more of it to see the full thing.
Difficulty curve in this game is unforgiving sometimes, good game though.
I’ve got such a love/hate relationship with this game. The levels that are actually references to classic eps made me happy, but the rest that’s GO HERE, BLOW UP AN ASTEROID, OKAY NOW HERE, BLOW UP FIGHTERS x12 until a capital ship shows up make me want to jump into the sea
Yeah the mission trying to avoid detection by the Romulans is a slog.
And there’s like 6 of them. And they’re all the same, just with Orion ships instead of Terran ones etc etc. There’s a decent enough 3 hour game in there if they just cut out the padding.
Yeah, and I’ll admit I have a soft spot for parts of the soundtrack.
Only beat this game recently, because it was way too hard for me as a kid. Once I learned the trick of hiding behind enemy capitol ships’ impulse engines and firing away, the game got a lot easier🤣 like it for what it is, but it DEF has problems. Invasion is a MUCH better game.