Star Trek: Elite Force II PC Game Review 

Despite being nearly 20 years old (!), there's something so crisp and clean looking about this game.

"Has anyone ever come up against bug type enemies in games and actually looked forward to fighting them?" EDF! EDF! The Romulan segments were great, I wish the game was more of that.

shame not a single classic Star Trek games are available on Steam or GOG :/

Finally got re-released on GOG! Along with the first one.

It’s on GOG for purchase as of today.

Sorry, dude. Only REDHEADS! ;)

Love all these videos mate. I watch every single one, they're a great way to pass the time. Cheers.

I love the first Elite Force, but this one really stands out for me. The Quake 3 engine is used SO well

I agree with you ,I loved this game,yes the enemies can get boring but at least they give you fun weapons to play with.

You want an example of a good bug type enemy? I like fighting the Novistadors in RE4. Mainly because nailing them at point blank with a shotgun just before they grab you is really satisfying, if you hit the QTE you can flying kick them in mid-jump, and they have a high chance of dropping gem shards.

Nothing really kicks off a good day like sitting down to some gggman

I think a case could be made that the first FPS "bugs" were Duke Nukem's Protector Drones. Jumpy behavior, low stun chance, ridiculously high hit points, and capable of shrinking you. Damn, I hated those guys! Great video, btw.

"Has anyone ever come up against bug type enemies in games and actually looked forward to fighting them?" Yes, Helldivers! Also I know I'm a little late to the party.

With your passion for bugs, and the moto of "A good bug is a dead bug", you should play and review the amazing Starship Troopers! Now, is my comment sarcasm? Depends on the review! ;)

The only bugs I was genuinely afraid of were the ones in Half-life 2. They're fast, agile, hit hard and attack in packs of at least two. Scary as hell, I tell you.

We argued a bit in your previous videos but i like your reviews. As a 90s nostalgic gamer i enjoy older ones more, i ve shouted in home when i saw this one.

I always loved visiting the ship and searching around between missions...

Finally on GOG, lets fucking gooooooo!!!

@:50 and for like 10 seconds after i noticed raven used the same death animations from SOF hehe

I wasn't very aware of this FPS franchise, particulary because i'm not a huge fan of Star Trek. But after seen in your video how awesome a FPS could be in the Star Trek Universe, i think that i will give it a try. Great Review as always.

I think this game suffered from the "more is better" misconception. I played it and enjoyed it but only played it once and never had the nerve to go back. Meanwhile the first one I played probably a dozen or so times and never got tired of it. It managed to really merge the FPS genre and Star Trek - which Ag first glance are diametrically opposed - in a very cool and fun way. It had really cool fanservice and told a cool story and featured the entire Voyager cast (even if they only added in Jeri Ryan later and had a soundalike before that). And the UsS Voyager was also more fun to explore because we had already seen so much more of it on the show and it was really cool to be in all these locations we had seen across 172 episodes, while the Enterprise E "only" had three movies under its belt... and most of the cast had left the ship in the game. It overall felt more generic. Still fun, but not really Star Trek.

Are you like sick or something so many reviews thats awesome!

Brunettes... You just got a new subscriber my friend...

one of the last games made on the legendary Quake III engine (later known as the idtech 3)

They actually do have a multiplayer holomatch mode in this game. Used to love playing it with my brother. Not sure if it was removed with the rerelease, but it certainly is there in the original release.

Love your reviews sir. Have you considered reviewing Heavy Metal FAKK 2, Oni, or Drakan: Order of the Flame? Those are classics right there.

How did I not know about this game? I've made it my goal to play every single game made by Ritual and I had no idea about this game, gonna get it ASAP.

This game have a multiplayer component and botmatch and both are quake 3 reskinned, but they are both very enjoyable to play

PSA: This and the original Elite Force just got a re-release on GOG :)

Shooting everything that moves. Time honored _Star Trek_ theme! 😋

I haven't played the game yet, but the bugs reminded me of the Ant-Lions from half life 2, of which in HL2: Episode 2 you are constantly rushed by them and the acid projective spitting ones. I actually really enjoyed that, so if it's similar to that experience I'm surely in for a good ride :)

I came here because I've only ever played Elite Force and wondered if the second game was good. Turns out it is. I also love fighting bug enemies, they're probably my favorite enemy type ever. This looks right up my alley. I just wish it had a Virtual Enterprise, like the first game had a Virtual Voyager.

I would love Gggmanlives to review Star Trek Voyager DS9: The Fallen. That too is an awesome game and best yet, it works FLAWLESSLY on Windows 10!!

This first minute of this video makes me wanna play this game again. Idk why but this look of a game is so much better then any new 3A graphics.

This and Klingon honor guard are gems

I like the new catchphrase.

I loved this game alot when it came out. Played it serveral times all the way through. Cant say i care mutch about star trekk but this game doesnt bother me at all. Another thing worth mentioning is the graphics.. Man! They have to be the best for a q3 engine title, only game getting real close is jedi outcast. I miss ritual games so mutch :(

1:28: that,s basicly how the borg behaves. in fact they nailed the borg's behavior :D which is cool, so you wont have to worry about the borg attacking you... sometimes. so basicly, they dont attack you unless they decide to do so.

This looks like a very fun shooter!

I alwayz thought gamez before 2010 looked better than theze current gen gamez

the soundtrack for this game is pretty good as well

The pace and physics of EF1's multiplayer was leaps and bounds better than EF2's multiplayer, imho. Not to mention the EF1 community was still a lot bigger than EF2's, well into the late 2000's. Still.... i bought EF2 when it first came out and, to this day, I only occasionally play it when I'm feeling uncharacteristically nostalgic for old games.

I completed the original over a dozen times, how have I not heard of this?

Other than the graphics, everything about Elite Force was a step backwards from the first game. Elite Force had virtually the entire cast of the TV show voicing their characters, but in EF2, you only get Picard, Tuvok and Barclay. In EF you could talk to your team members between missions and they'd have interesting things to say. In EF2, you just get generic "I'm busy!" clips from the nameless crewmembers who walk in endless loops around the ship. The whole game design is very uneven. You can kill some friendly NPCs, while others are completely unaffected by weapons fire. You can walk off some platforms while others have an invisible wall around them. You can descend some elevators, but not ascend them. Some panels need to be hacked, while others "modulate" automatically. The weapons all feel under-powered because as soon as you get your hands on more powerful weapons, all the weaker enemies get replaced by tougher ones. So you never feel like you have truly powerful weapons, since practically every enemy in the game will take multiple shots to kill. In EF, it was possible to sneak up on humanoid enemies and catch them off guard. It's not possible to do that in EF2. All the enemies instantly know you're there. The only exception was an area with two Romulans who were having a conversation, and in that case, you can practically stand right behind them and they won't react until their scripted conversation is over. Of course when they do stop talking, they instantly head straight for you, even if you're hiding under the stairs where they shouldn't be able to see you. EF had intelligent bots in the holomatches. Setting up a game was easy and the bots could even play a decent game of capture the flag. The bots in EF2 think every game is deathmatch and they don't even travel the entire level. They usually follow one set path around a small area and try to shoot you from the other side of the level using the limited-range hand phaser. To access the bonus content, you're supposed to find all the "golden starships". The problem is that not only are they sadistically hidden, some of them only spawn when you've down something else, and there's no indication that this has happened. In one instance, a starship spawns in a tube behind you as you descend a ladder leading to a one-way drop. Who in their right mind would go halfway down the ladder and then go back up to see if anything changed? And what do you get for finding all the starships? An FPS level that takes you about 45 seconds to finish, a Resident Evil style level and some rooms where you can look at character models. It makes the expansion pack for the original EF look like a masterpiece by comparison. The level I enjoyed the most was the one set on the hull of the ship where you have to stop aliens from setting up some devices. Unfortunately it was also the shortest level of the game and you really don't get to explore much of the hull before it's over. Then you're forced to play a turret mission where you have to shoot down another ship. Why would the Enterprise have a human-operated cannon on the hull of the ship? It's not a horrible game, but the first one was much better.

I remember playing this around 05 (i think). I really it back then, wonder if I would change opinion of the game if I played it today

The holodeck mode isn't removed, you can still play with bots in EF II It's just integrated to the MP instead of being its own thing You click multiplayer and solomatch, here you have the MP with bots

This is a very nice skin for Quake 3

Dude, you didn't use the secondary attack on the arc rifle at all. That's where the OP damage is, you just have to not get caught in the explosion.

reminds me of Command & Conquer: Renegade and can you review it , because that will be great .

Do you plan on reviewing Dead Space (any of the 3 games)?

If you think the enemies in this game are annoying just wait until you try DS9 the fallen and have to deal with the grigari. Those are infuriating

I got my hands on this game 6 or 7 years ago for £10 on ebay, when it came it was still unopened.

Liked this a lot more the the first game, better overall campaign with visuals that still look decent now. Nice swan song for the Quake3 engine. ;)

I remember this game from back then. It was a lot of fun. If you have the chance, check it out.

The bug enemies reminded me of the Trijens (?) from Far Cry...although not NEARLY as infuriatingly broken. It seems like a shortcut to cut down on production time. Humanoid enemies need clever cover and weapon assignments and believable spawnpoints and such... But with bugs they can just pop out of the ground, or vents, or whatever. Who cares, fill a hallway with em! Fill a courtyard with em! Boom. SHIP IT.

Okay, now I need to play this. Playing the spec ops away team for the Enterprise? With Picard giving orders? Oh hell yeah.

I am a really really big trekki... I love part 1 and regret that i didn't play part 2... Gonna make that soon

I could never find this one. Loved the first.

As I recall, the final level on the hardest difficulty was a massive slog of bullet sponges and deadly accurate Romulan snipers.

2:02 : It's the car wash guy from Breaking Bad!

I think the Exomorphs look more like the Race-X from Half-Life: Opposing Force. And on that note... Half-Life 2?

I would love to play both this game and the prequel, but they're not available for digital purchase anywhere. Such a shame. Anyone know why that is? Dispute over licensing?

I know it was all laser type weapons but I missed the feedback of a satisfying crunch or crack as I blasted away at mobs. Meh.

I picked the first elite force by accident and I enjoyed but not as much as the Star Wars dark forces games but there both great

YEAH, BRUNETTES FOREVER, GGG! HIGH FIVE!

I would love to hear your thoughts on fallout3 and new Vegas. I know they are both 3rd and just barely 1st shooters but still I would love the break down.

Those are some very Tyranid looking exomorphs.

The bug alien trope most likely started with Alien, since the xenomorph has a very intimidating, almost insectoid appearance. The thing is that the xenomorph had a very iconic appearance, and every attempt to copy it has largely removed what made it creepy (primarily the sexual imagery in its design). It isn't helped by the fact that the xenomorph is exclusively a melee fighter due to being a primal animal, and that doesn't translate well to most FPS games, since it's either an insta-kill (which feels cheap) or just a volley of point-blank hits (which feels annoying). Game designers have spiced it up with acid projectiles and other minor tricks, but they all wind up meshing together as a result. Even the Tyranids, arguably the most powerful race in Warhammer 40,000 (in terms of the lore), suffer from this issue when seen from a gameplay standpoint. In an FPS, most of them would just run at you headlong to get into melee, while their ranged units would lose a lot of the terror they inflict in the lore (what with Bore Beetles, Spores, and whatnot) to make them fair to fight. Even their sinister Genestealers would probably be reduced to melee fighters (perhaps various generations of them being able to wield weapons), and you wouldn't really get to experience the horror of them infiltrating a civilian populace to wreak havoc. All in all, the bug trope is difficult to overcome. In a horror setting, it works really well (see Alien: Isolation), but otherwise even the iconic xenomorph has to have its abilities limited to make it fair to fight.

Would there be a way to get this converted for use on a Xbox 360 console somehow?

Well, the only shooter I enjoyed fighting off insect-like creatures was the final level in Serious Sam 3, where you fight at least over 200 of the spider-like creatures in a brightly lit Egyptian canyon. The only reason I enjoyed that part, even if it does drag on - well, then entire level, I should say - is because with the lighting, and the holes in the sides of the canyon, it reminds me a great deal of Starship Troopers and the termite scene from Antz, which are both just classic movies to me, and it was rather satisfying to just bash in tons of the spider-like enemies using the sledgehammer to the rather orchestral music used in the level. Other than that, I know this is almost a blasphemous thing to most gamers, but, this game reminds me of what Mass Effect should have been, rather than an exposition-heavy shooting gallery, with varying degrees of stilted voice acting... I know... someone out there hates me for that, but I could never enjoy the Mass Effect series fully, mainly because of how loose and "easy" the combat is in those games, and especially when the final boss of 2 was just a huge Terminator robot, and had player choices being either very black and white, or downright overly-nice, to flat-out sadistic; this title reminds me greatly of if you mixed the space theme of that series, and put something more along the lines of Quake or Painkiller in place of the 3'rd person combat, which seems like it works, and made a great game. Great review, as usual, and keep up the good work. :)

when is this going to be on steam?!

Did you manage to get the secret staff weapon?

Bug enemy trope... My friend, you should watch Aliens and brush up on some serious Contra and Super C lore. Those games even have the Facehuggers. Long live the Xenomorph Queen! :) -Mad Wolf

Hi there, any clues where are all the people in MP?

I gotta say, I don't like having the same "well, I'm so glad you asked" intro every time, as opposed to how you used to do it. I know it's a very nit-picky criticism, I just prefer your old method is all.

Will you review the ARMA series?

The first game and TNG movie "First Contact" is what got me to finally pay attention to ST franchise. However, Elite Force 2 didn't do much for me. Yeah, it starts off good, but then the story turns generic, enemies turn into clones, characters become bland (except for Picard, of course) and even the level design eventually became generic. The longer I played, the less I cared and once I've finished it it quickly completely faded out of my memory. The first game, on the other hand, I still remember quite well and with great fondness and that has nothing to do with the show it was based on, since I finally got around to checking the ST Voyager show a full decade after playing the game. Therefore, overall, I was disappointed by this sequel. It didn't even use TNG setting or characters for the most part, unlike the first game which featured the full Voyager cast. As for your dilemma, I'd actually have to go with redheads, but brunettes are close second. :) By the way, do you have any interest in reviewing some person FMV games like the excellent 1996 ST FMV title, Star Trek: Borg? It's not a shooter, but it's not a point and click adventure either. It's a twist on the "choose your own adventure" gameplay and it looks and feels like a fully produced episode of the show (with Q returning to guide you and tease you though it). It's about an hour in length, but due to some puzzles, it could take up to three hours to beat. Even if you don't want to review it, as a fan of Borg, you should still check it out for yourself: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Borg As for the actual Star Trek first person shooters, there's still one more game you haven't touched upon and it's called Klingon Honor Guard. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation:_Klingon_Honor_Guard

You should either create another channel for other types of games or include some in here, a lot of the older pc games I would have never discovered if it wasn't for you so I am interested in what other pc games I've never heard. Thanks love the channel!

What I wouldn’t give for a *well-made* Elite Force 3. After the 2013 game and the way STO has kinda fallen off over the years, I’m not surprised it hasn’t gotten the chance it deserves.

I'd guess the first games to have bug-type aliens would be the Alien games

Will you review games that aren't in the first person perspective?

Prequel is specifically something that was released after, but takes place before. It is not just the previous entry in the franchise. The word prequel literally didn't exist until the Star Wars prequels.

One of the best Star Trek videogames, the original one was a good game, and this one is better, highly recommended! ENGAGE!!!

My kind of game. 3:23 Hello, baby!

Any chance of a review of the 1999 fps Requiem - Avenging Angel? Check it out... its different!

5:55 that sounded a hell of a lot like a xenomorph and super bunnyhop said that the movie alien is responsible for most aliens in games and many other things EDIT:6:10 that sounds like a xeno

I tried this game on win 7 but it doesnt work do i have to have xp for it ?

The Exomorphs look like Tyranids and sound like Xenomorphs

I was born 87 years ago. For 65 years I've ruled as Tamriel's emperor, but for all these years, I've never been the ruler of my own dreams. I have seen the gates of Oblivion, beyond which no waking eye may see. Behold, in darkness, a doom sweeps the land. This is the 27th of Last Seed, the year of Akatosh, 433. These are the closing days of the third era, and the final hours of my life.

Live Long and Prosper.

Forgot to mention that the game performs like ass... even on modern hardware. I mean, a Quake 3 engined game, with stencil shadows disabled, dropping frames below 60, is a big no-no. Loving your reviews by the way. It is hard for me not to click them as it's always a blast from the past.

Having to fight the Devil at the end killed the experience for me.

You should play Spec Ops:The Line. If you're ever feeling sad it's a game that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Played ST:EF back in the day and it was a worthy entry into the FPS genre, Lol never realised there was a sequel tho! Wish I had. Anyone know how to get a copy? 🤔

The only thing I didn't like about the game is that - unlike its predecessor - Elite Force 2 never got a console release, which is a pity as the game was definitely one of my favorites back in the day, both as a Star Trek fan and a gamer. NOLF2 and Elite Force 2, should have been released on consoles. Maybe one day (hey, a guy can dream, right?)

The game is still a bug hunt in the end (this is the penalty) and in plot, the original Voyager Elite Force is more interesting, but this one has a great moment, when you have to walk outside the Enterprise E. Really as a consumer of Star Trek games, I would have liked to see an Elite Force 3... And even more so if it had been with a plot that would not have led to a third bug hunt.

earth defense force is fantastic to kill bugs

Where do you get these old games?

Whats the difference between a raven and a brunette? Is Raven just pure dark?

No matter what you're into. No matter what you like. Brunettes are always supreme. Preach, brotha.