Star Trek Shattered Universe

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.


Disappointing   March 24, 2004
Christian Wheeler (St. Louis)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

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.


Interesting - finally a straight up Star Trek "shooter"   November 8, 2003
Jim L. Jones (New Jersey, USA)
10 out of 22 found this review helpful

First off, I have to tell you that I am a big "shooter" fan.
That's what I "grew up" on videogame wise. Think of classic arcade shooters like Tempest, Gyruss, Vanguard etc... (yeah, I know, I'm really dating myself).

Jump to the 21st century and it seems that straight-up shooters are at a premium on the current gen consoles. The two best ones that I've seen so far are Rez and Panzer Dragoon Orta (PS2 and xbox, respectively and also both done by Sega)

Being still a fan of Star Trek, it is shocking to me that there hasn't been a straight-up, seat of your pants flying around in space shooter that was Trek based. The only one I can think of was the Sega Star Trek Strategic Operation Simulator arcade game from the early/mid '80's (Hmnnn, Sega again - why do they keep coming to mind - LOL).

I've played Elite Force, and I do think it's very cool. The reviews that I have read of it pretty much indicate it's probably the best Trek videogame done yet.

The premise of Shattered Universe relies upon the "mirror" universe that was introduced in the original series and followed up on in Deep Space 9. You're basically trapped in the mirror universe and have to fight the ISS (Imperial Federation - our favorite characters gone bad) in deep space arcade style combat to get back to the "regular" universe/dimension/whatever.

From what I've read, the major Trek species are in here, but I am dying to know if they've included the Borg. In my opinion, no Trek arcade style game would be complete without them.

I've given this a rating of 3 stars due to the preview footage I've seen of it at the website for the game. I expect this game to be gorgeous graphically speaking and FAST. (on the xbox, it better be!!!!!!!!!!)

Speaking of which, this will be the first Trek game available for the xbox as well, and with regards to other shooters, the mark it has to either match or beat has been set by Panzer Dragoon Orta (DROOL!!!!!!!!). If you haven't played PDO, please do, especially if your considering Shattered Universe.


Not worth the money   March 29, 2004
D. Lindridge (Lincoln City, OR)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

(...)

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.(...)


My head hurts   January 30, 2004
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

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.