et after the events of Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek: Shattered Universe throws the crew of the U.S.S. Excelsior into an alternative reality where the Federation has been transformed into an evil empire and its familiar shuttlecraft have been replaced by lethal, fast-moving starfighters.
Players take on the role of an unnamed shuttlecraft pilot suddenly charged with flying the new fighters on a variety of missions to protect the Excelsior, which finds itself navigating its way through universe of the original-series Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror." This reality is deadly enough without provocation, but the crew of the Excelsior crosses over just after Capt. Sulu's doppelganger declares his intention to rebel against the Terran Empire. In doing so, he has brought the wrath of Cmdr. Pavel Chekov, leader of the I.S.S. Enterprise, down upon the Excelsior and her crew. Their only hope lies in evading Chekov and fighting their way through hostile space to a wormhole that might return them home.
Shattered Universe is an arcade-style, single-player space-fighter game made up of 19 missions. Players pilot one of two Federation-style fighter craft—the Spectre and the Wraith—as well as a handful of fighters inspired by other races, including the Klingons and Orion pirates. Each fighter has three weapons at its disposal: the familiar Star Trek phaser, a blaster-type weapon and scaled-down photon torpedoes.
The game's missions revolve around several familiar themes: scouting trips through asteroids, fighter-vs.-fighter combat in defense of the Excelsior, and direct attacks against capital ships. Primary objectives are set at the beginning of every mission, but additional objectives often appear later on.
Players can choose between a first-person and a third-person perspective when flying, and are aided in their dogfights by a targeting system that tracks enemy spacecraft and provides a "leading shot" receptacle for the presently selected target.
Great premise ruined by mediocre gameplay
Shattered Universe begins with an excellent premise, particularly for a space-fighter game set in the Star Trek universe. Generally speaking, fighters aren't something fans see much of in Trek, so it makes sense to send players into the far more militaristic shadow reality, where their presence makes perfect sense. It builds on this presence with voice acting provided George Takei (Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov) and visuals that are faithful to the Undiscovered Country setting.
At first glance, the space-based combat is adequate, if not inspired. Of the three weapons available on fighters, only one—the phasers—is effective for dogfighting. Players can paint targets with the weapon, and once locked on they do an excellent job of burning through shields. The fighters are extremely maneuverable, allowing players to turn on a dime and easily engage targets.
The visuals aren't exactly awe-inspiring, but there are no frame-rate issues, and the Excelsior and her fellow ships are impressive-looking enough to solicit appreciative smiles from Trekkers during flybys.
Unfortunately, the game begins to falter after the first few missions, as both tedium and mediocrity strangle the life out of its promising setup.
Endless wings of enemy fighters constantly barrage the Excelsior, and while destroying the first two or three might be fun, it gets downright boring after the fifth or six. It wouldn't be quite so bad, though, if Excelsior weren't so utterly incapable of defending herself. The ship's shields drop after a few fighter attacks, and its phasers are incapable of destroying the attacking fleas. That could be understandable—after all, the Star Wars trench run was based the Death Star's inability to defend against snub fighter attacks—but the Excelsior is equally ineffective against other ships.
Because of this glaring flaw, many missions involve taking out ships like Klingon heavy cruisers and Federation Miranda-class frigates. Given how much time the crews in the TV series spent trying to target specific systems on enemy ships, players might expect that their attacks against enemy vessels would involve taking out phasers or destroying propulsion systems. In reality, players end up parking themselves in an enemy ship's blind spot and then pounding at it until the ship's shields fall and the hull buckles. This is as boring as it is unimaginative, and the repeated button-mashing is hard on the fingers.
Mission design is infuriating, with ambiguous objectives that force players to fly around in circles until they stumble across the solution, and sudden "surprise attacks" that come at the end of 30 minutes' hard fighting destroy the Excelsior and force a restart.
Die-hard fans might want to rent this game just for the chance to see Sulu helming the Excelsior again, but even they will probably shelve it eventually. Enthusiasm for a game's premise can carry players only so far, and in the case of Shattered Universe that's about Mission 7.
As a fan who'd hoped for an Excelsior TV series to replace Voyager, I was eager to play Shattered Universe, and stuck with it far longer than most probably would. I kept hoping it would improve, but unfortunately it never did.
— Ken
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