The only real show of intelligence is the odd point in the game where a random Klingon will run off to get help. Thankfully the game does vary incredibly well, you often find yourself in a 'Thief' style atmosphere of sneaking past sleeping foe and taking care not to wake them. The modes shifting from violent shooting carnage to stealth like tactics help to keep play at an original level.

Just like in Ion Storms Daikatana you have sidekicks to help make up your team, all of who follow you around and go about doing their jobs independent of you. Thankfully, aside from a few minor glitches, the team AI remained fairly believable and far from the sombre nature of Daikatana's. You rarely have to worry about anybody keeping up, one way or another they'll catch up eventually.

Overall the AI became a challenge, although the longer shooting fests (especially on later levels) were often frustrating or just plain boring.

Live long and…

Interactivity is another area many hoped would be higher then it turned out to be; instead of bridging the gap between Quake3 and System Shock2, it only helped to separate it. More leaning towards the Q3 style shooting romp than the SS2 levels of interactivity, Elite Force is somewhat of a let down. At least titles such as Half Life gave you a more realistic illusion of interactivity, in Elite Force it feels fabricated.

The only real interaction you have is pressing the enter key and making a member of the crew or an alien race speak, or doing the same on a control panel to stop some kind of explosion occurring. Rather similar to EpicGames 'Unreal' than anything else, a bit more interactivity could have vastly improved the game.

Next >>

<< Previous