"Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force," was recently released for the PS2. This is a conversion from the PC version and seems to have been rushed. The game hasn't been optimized for the capabilities of the PS2, and slows down in places that it really shouldn't. It doesn't look as good as other games that are currently out for the PS2.
You play the role of Ensign Munro, who is apparently the only competent member of Voyager's Elite Force team. Other members of your team will shoot at the enemy, and thankfully soak up some of the enemies fire, but don't seem to actually harm them.
As the story unfolds, it does indeed seem like you are a part of an episode of "Voyager." Some random aliens attack the ship, and your ship is transported to some sort of junkyard, where it is somehow immobilized by the particle of the week. As you and your team explore the other ships in the junkyard, you slowly learn more and more about the mystery that surrounds it. And you shoot a lot of aliens.
In true "Star Trek" fashion, every emergency nearly destroys the ship. Only you can prevent warp core breaches, despite the fact that you are on the bridge when it starts, and the turbolifts aren't working. You have to crawl through the Jeffrey's Tubes to get there, even though you aren't an engineer. For some reason, no one else can put on a hazard suit and press the four buttons required to deactivate the warp core.
It does indeed give the feel of an actual episode of "Voyager." They got voices from the actual actors and allow you to meet with all of your favorite characters from the TV show. In fact, it is so much like the show that they even reused some of their old familiar lines, like, "Would you care for some Analgesic Cream?"
Multi-player mode was very uninspired and unoriginal. There is one mode -- deathmatch. This can indeed be done with up to four players using split screen. There are no interesting modes or objectives, just run around and kill each other. It boils down to having very few options and very little replayability.
In short, if you have a PC or a Mac, buy that version of the game if it interests you. There simply isn't any compelling reason to get a console version of it. Companies should learn that if they are going to do a port of a game, they need to spend some effort to do it well.
Jesse Butler is a game critic for The Daily Barometer. He can be reached at baro.diversions@studentmedia.orst.edu.