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Away Team - Good but Could Have Been Better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: June 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Star Trek Away Team, published by Activision, was an interesting premise gone awry. Personally, I like tactical games where stealth and planning are essential to mission completion. Heck, I just like building bases, preparing for an all-out assault and then blitzing my enemies as I throwing everything at 'em - which is why I like Blizzard's StarCraft and Activision's Star Trek Armada.

To be honest, I'm not much of a fan of squad-based game play but I am a big Star Trek nut so I thought, this might be cool. Unfortunately, this game did little to change my original opinion. Set in the time of The Next Generation, sometime after the Dominion War, Away Team focuses on the exploits of Captain Marcus Reflian, commander of a small experimental starship, the USS Incursion, and his group of highly skilled, individually selected crewmembers and their goal to uncover a nefarious plot that threatens every major power in the quadrant, including the seemingly invincible Borg. Players must endure a linear progress through 17 missions. The locales of each mission change, bringing you to Starfleet Academy, aboard Federation starships, Q'onos, and Romulus. Even though the scenery changes game play does not. While in single player mode, you command on average, 4 Federation crewmembers you chose for each mission. Just after the mission briefing you must assemble your away team from the 17 crewmember choices. Each mission has specific skill requirement that must be met in order to meet the primary objective, such as the need for a medical officer (or someone with medical training) and/or a crewmember that is experienced in using the sniper rifle. Only after the skill requirements are met can you play the mission. You must choose your away team from each of the five Starfleet personnel divisions: Command, Engineering, Medical, Security, and Science. This does not mean you cannot "double-up" with your personnel. You can have two command officers, a science officer, and a security officer, for example, on your away team, if the skill requirements for that mission are met as you assemble your team. Each character has different skills and inventory items that will enable you to complete your missions.

Game play is reminiscent of chess, as you, with your third person perspective, must maneuver your four man away team, step by step, through your scenario world. There are tactical elements involved such as using the sniper rifle to take out a sentry from a distance or you can sneak up on an opponent and rendered him dead or unconscious by phaser, hypospray, or even the Vulcan nerve pinch. However, this brings up two flaws to the game. Firstly, since subterfuge is vital to most missions, players must maneuver their away team to avoid detection by automated security posts or guards. This can make missions very long. In some cases I took over two and a half hours to complete one mission. Secondly, because you can move team members either one at a time or en masse, managing your team and their reactions can be difficult, as the Artificial Intelligence engine of this game is seemingly limited. For example, if one or any member of your team is attacked there will be no reaction unless you command that character, so you're sitting cursing at your team member as they let a Borg attempt to assimilate them. While in other cases you click on a spot where you want your team to walk to - to avoid enemies and they walk right into them, forcing you to start your mission over, as you were supposed to remain undetected for the course of the mission.

Fan's of first person shooters were probably overjoyed when Star Trek: Elite Force came out and might hope that Away Team would bring more of that action to life, but unfortunately it does not. I hate to sound blasphemous against the Holy Franchise, but save your money for Dominion Wars.

The Pros: · Interesting storyline · Voiceovers by Brent Spiner and Michael Dorn · Decent graphics

The Cons: · Linear mission progression · Action repetitive · Mission time can be extensive · Only two exciting cut scenes - the opening and closing · Poor AI

Excellent Interface But Becomes Boring Later

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The first time I heard about this game was from a demo, and I thought just from the two missions the demo gives that this was an excellent game, so I bought it. I didn't know the Star Trek plot, but you don't really need to know the plot in this game. Star Trek: Away Team had the most beautiful interface I've seen, the buttons and menus seemed to have had a lot of work to look great. Unfortunately, what the game has in graphics it lacks in time you'd play it. The missions themselves are challenging and unique, but after a few hours the games starts to get boring. Also the game needs more movies to add; there are only two: the opening and closing. If I could, I would rate this game 3.5 stars. I wouldn't recommend this game to strategy game lovers. This is a strategy/action game, and that means you can go through the entire game and not play it again, because once you beat it, you'll feel no reason to try it again. Get this game if you're not a big-time computer game player, like me.

Easy to play and Excellent Story

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: March 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Star Trek games keep getting better and Away Team is good entry in the growing library of quality titles.

You are in control of 4 (sometimes up to 6) crewmembers on an away team. Before each mission, you are given an excellent briefing and then you are allowed to choose the members who are best suited to the mission. Once your selection is made, you beam down and begin the mission.

Each mission contains a briefing before and during the mission. The controls are very easy to master and memorize. While the main screen doesn't contain a "fog of war," there is still a lot of strategy involved in completing the missions.

The graphics are nice but not earth shattering. The sounds, used on my SoundBlaster Live! are excellent, using both front and rear channels.

On a whole, this game is fun but quite short. When played on the easy level, you an complete all of the missions in one night (if you had the time.)

While this isn't a major title (like Elite Force and The Fallen,) it is a quality Trek title and worth the purchase.

Could have been fun but...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: July 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This was a game that had a huge amount of potential and failed miserably. In most of these squad-based games there is at least a little bit of roleplaying. In this game there is none--character development is non-existent, and given the mission requirements, your picks among the pre-generated characters are often extremely limited.

The gameplay is, likewise, monotonous. It seems fun for the first few missions but then you realize that it's the same thing over and over again. After about the tenth mission I was bored out of my skull, and my willpower failed near the 13th mission and I just stopped playing.

Shortly after I gave up in disgust I picked up Fallout Tactics. If you are considering getting a game in the squad-based tactics genre get that one. You get exceptional control over character development (in fact, the characters actually develop as the game goes along, unlike those in Away Team!), throughout the entire game you get access to new weapons and technology (which means that your tactics have to change as you progress) and the missions themselves are a lot more fun!

To sum up. Away team stinks. Badly. If I could have given it no stars I would have. Spend your money on Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel instead.

The curse is broken

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: March 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It seems that the Elite Force has broken the ST curse. This is a very good game. It is commandos in the ST universe. You are in command of the crew of the USS Incursion, a defiant variant prototype. You have 22 men each with different abilities. In most cases you select four of them for the missions.

The gameplay is very similar to commandos.The maps are well designed. In addition to large outdoor maps you can get in the buildings. The places where you play are really very well done. For example the inside of the Borg Cube, or the Qu'nos or the Romulus. You fight klingons, romulans, rogues starfleet personne and the Borg.

The story is very well designed. You can feel yourself really like a member of starfleet.

After all this is a very good game. Not a cheap commandos imitation. If you like this kind of game you wont be disappointed.

Desperados in the ST universe

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was leery about buying this game because it had gotten so many mediocre reviews from the general public, but I bought it anyway in 2002 because I found it at a reasonable price on Amazon. I must admit that my Trek-addiction really paid off here, as I found the game to be a pleasure.

For those of you who have played the squad-based Cowboy game Desperados; you will find that Away Team is very similar in progressing through the missions. Stealth is the better part of valor here and it makes for a very exciting game as you try to flank your enemies, evade detection and coordinate attacks at just the right times.

You play as the captain of the USS Incursion, a Federation vessel that uses holographic imaging to change shape. As such, the plot of the game is to go behind enemy lines and win covert battles as you try to figure out the ultimate solution behind the plot. You send down away teams of 4 crewmen (each with thier own special characteristics) on clandestine missions.

On the positive side, I found the all the "sneaking around" in the game to be very "realistic" (or I should say "consistent") with the way that events play themselves out in the Star Trek universe. Vulcans can do mind-melds, phasers can be set to kill or stun (but they do set off alarms sometimes) and most importantly, you only get a few shots before the Borg "adapt". This makes the game very intense; especially at those times when you evade being detected by a gnat's hair. Also, the storyline is thoughtful and makes you want to finish each mission to see what happens next.

On the negative side, I do agree with some of the reviewers on at least 2 points. First, the game is very linear (as opposed to more open-ended squad-based games like Fallout BOS) and you will have to save often as many of the "appropriate" ways of winning missions can only be discovered by trial and error. Second, I agree that the characters are not as well developed as they could have been.

But, in general, the game is a great buy if you are a PC gamer and a Trek fan.

Now this is fun.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

What a great game. The graphics are solid, the game play is easy to learn and there is a lot to do. I have heard this game being compared to X-Com. I will not do that because I never played X-Com. Instead I will compare it to Commandos. You actually have to think to play this game. It's not some mindless 3d shooter. There is a lot of strategy involved. Mainly you will run covert missions in enemy territories, each mission getting harder than the last. There are a lot of neat gadgets to use along the way as well as unique skills for certain races.

Excellent Game! A Must for Star Trek and Strategy Fans!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a wonderful game. The gameplay is spectacular, the controls are easy to learn and use, and the screen layout and look are stupendous. This is one of my favorite Star Trek games out there. It provides hours of challenging and exciting fun. The characters are intelligent and witty. Also, be on the lookout for some of the crew of the enterprise (NCC-1701D that is).

Very Good and Challeging Game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The entire game focuses on the idea of stealth. You cant just go running with phasers firing at random. The away team is an ELITE away team who use lastest starfleet technology to enter into missions with the maxmium stealth. You can use phaser, phaser rifles, sniper rifle, grenades and plenty of special tools to do a stealth operation. This is not a shot'em up game, its a stealth game. You cant just go into a mission and shot the enemy because in some missions, that will cuz a mission failed. In one level, you cant even be seen by any guards. So buy this game and think of ways not to be seen by guards and sneak around corners. There is no beginners level to this game, however first 3 are easy enough to get your stealth up. Buy the game and prepare for stealth operations.

Could Have Been Better

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Away Team could have been much better. It didn't seem to stand out from all the other simulator type games out there. I was expecting more, but I was a little dissapointed.

The graphics are mediorcre and the sound and instruction a little confusing as you play. A little predictable too. I guess I was a little disappointed based on all the other simulator type games I have already.

You be the judge.

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