Star Trek: Invasion

I say the following sentence as a life-long Star Trek fan. Trekkers need to loosen up! It seems like anytime something pops up that seems counter to creator Gene Roddenberry's ideas for the franchise, the die-hard fans cry, "Betrayal!" They certainly screamed plenty when Star Trek: Invasion hit the Playstation back in 2000. No, it's not something that would fit in with Gene's ideas, but it's still a great game.

While the existence of Federation starfighters drew the ire of die-hard fans, the plot does fit in with the franchise as far as I'm concerned. With the Federation still recovering from the Dominion War, a new threat comes from the Kam'Jahtae, descendants of the Klingons' enemies. In response to the Kam'Jahtae's mission of conquest, Starfleet launches the new Valkyrie fighter squadron under the U.S.S. Typhon commanded by Worf. The story did keep me involved even if it was on the simpler side of Star Trek plots.

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While I do think critics calling this game just Colony Wars with a Star Trek paintjob were a bit harsh, I do see where they're coming from. The game does play a LOT like the Colony Wars games, understandable given that Warthog worked on Colony Wars. However, there have been improvements over that trilogy. First, the missions and sub-missions have more variety. Aside from the aggravating escort missions, they play pretty well since they don't have the infuriating multi-tasking that the Colony Wars games had. Repetition does set in before the story is half-over, though. Controls work well for the most part, but there are a couple of gripes. Switching weapons in the heat of battle is tougher than it should be, and the steering with the thumbstick is a bit slippery. I had a couple of mission failures because I couldn't keep the enemy in front of me consistently.

The game sparkles even to this day. The colorful views of the galaxy still impress me, the pyrotechnics pop with bright colors, and the ship designs still look extremely impressive. I was floored that the Romulan Warbirds still looked that good, whereas many PS1 games hadn't aged that well. The sound effects sound authentic, like they were ripped straight off the show. The vocal performances are hit-and-miss. Michael Dorn sounded awesome, like he never left the role of Worf, but Patrick Stewart's performance as Picard sounded bored, like he was just doing it for the paycheck. The guest aliens' voices ranged from passable to irritating.

Star Trek: Invasion in many ways is as much a betrayal of Gene Roddenberry's vision for Star Trek as Section 31 was. However, if you can ignore that, it is a great space dogfighter that can even hang with today's games. It does get repetitive, and it can get aggravating. However, it is still an engaging romp worth an enlistment.