Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force

"SET PHASERS TO FRAG"

—tagline for the first game

A series of First-Person Shooter Video Games set in the Star Trek universe, following the adventures of a squad of Space Marines who tackle assignments and challenges too tough or dangerous for standard Starfleet away teams. From the fine folks who brought you Star Wars: Jedi Outcast. There have been two games (plus one expansion) in the series:

• Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force

Stranded in the far reaches of the galaxy, The USS Voyager is in a precarious predicament. It's dangerous out here, and the rules of The Federation might not apply. And so Lt. Tuvok forms The Hazard Team, a group of highly trained officers who can handle the toughest and most dangerous missions. And that expertise will be needed forthright; Voyager finds itself trapped in a starship graveyard, unable to escape. The Hazard Team must travel from ship to ship, searching for clues (and fighting off hostile aliens), and find a way to release Voyager.

• • The economically-titled Star Trek Voyager Elite Force Expansion Pack, in addition to more multi-player arenas and modes, added two noteworthy features to the original game:
    • Jeri Ryan returned to voice Seven Of Nine (another voice actor had originally voiced the part; the Expansion Pack copied Ryan's voice work over the replacement's);
    • "Virtual Voyager Mode" allowed the player to explore the interior of the Starship Voyager, collecting items and partaking in RPG-ish mini-adventures.

• Star Trek Elite Force II

Picking up with Voyager's Grand Finale, the Hazard Team's first mission involves freeing Voyager from a Borg sphere so that she can return triumphantly to the Alpha Quadrant. You'll all be heroes--

Oops, upon returning to Starfleet, the first thing that happens is the disbanding of the Hazard Team. Fortunately for Alex Munro, he catches the eye of one Jean-Luc Picard, who promptly reforms the Hazard Team and transfers them to The Federation flagship, the Enterprise-E. And just in time, too -- there seems to be some sort of invasion of strange, savage aliens. Tracking these aliens to their source will lead Munro and his team to lost alien civilizations, ages-old feuds, the Alpha Quadrant's seedy underbelly, and good old fashioned political intrigue. All while blasting savage aliens to protoplasm.

Tropes used in Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force include:

• Alternative Continuity: Like all Star Trek Expanded Universe material, it exists outside of proper continuity.
• Ascended Extra: Chell, one of the series' major characters, started as a extra with a few lines of dialogue on a couple episodes of Voyager. He's even played by the same actor. In the first game, at least.
  • Jurot is semi-ascended. Her name was listed as a Betazoid crewmember in one episode and while never explicitly seen, that same episode did feature a female character, only seen from the back, who might've inspired the character's design.
• Badass Boast: "I'm amazed you were able to make it this far." "Yes, climbing over all those alien corpses was... inconvenient."
• BFG: The Photon Burst in EF1 is a small photon torpedo launcher.
  • In EF2, it's replaced by the more powerful Quantum Burst. Whoo-HOOO!
    • Also in EF2, there's the Romulan X - Rad secondary fire. Too bad it's a Painfully-Slow Projectile
• Big Damn Heroes: In EF1, at seemingly the worst part of a Zerg Rush (and immediately following the Heroic Sacrifice).
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Mr. Stemmons. That is all ye need know of eyebrows.
  • Tribble's?
• Bond One-Liner: "Assimilation is futile", after defeating a giant Borg in EF2.
• Bonus Stage: In EF2, one secret area leads to Super Mario World. Seriously.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The "Warthog" bipedal repair drones on the Dreadnought level in the first game.
• Bottomless Pits
• Crate Expectations: The second game features a secret area with a Boss Monster. Made of crates.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tuvok delivers this magnificent line after the first mission. "Mr. Munro, your tactical approach was, shall we say, tactless."
• Derelict Starship Graveyard: The setting of EF1.
• Escort Mission
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: EF1:

Captain Janeway: Why, Tuvok, is that pride I hear in your voice?
Lt. Tuvok: Captain, I see no reason to insult me.
[everybody laughs]

• Eviler Than Thou: The Reavers to the Borg in EF1. In fact, the Borg were originally supposed to teleport in and help you fight the final boss, but that was cut from the final product. Instead, the Etherians help out, which makes a little more sense anyway, since you'd allied with them.
  • In the comic adaptation of the game, released before the game itself, the Borg do come and help out, and the Etherians are removed entirely. There are occasional hints that this was the final plan (including a line that comments on how Foster was assimilated, when he was rescued earlier).
• First Girl Wins: Can either be played straight or averted in the sequel depending on whether or not Alex chooses to romance long-time teammate Telsia, or the new Hot Scientist and stripperiffic Kleeya.
• Gameplay Ally Immortality: Your Elite Force Alpha Team teammates (and the occasional guest teammate from the Voyager crew) are pretty much invincible. The members of the Mauve Shirt Beta Team, though, can sometimes die semi-scripted deaths depending on your actions throughout a level (i.e. if you fail the optional Stealth-Based Mission, or let one take too much damage in a set firefight).
• Gatling Good: Both games feature an energy minigun called a Tetryon Disruptor; it's a Hirogen weapon in EF1, and a Klingon weapon in EF2. In both cases you get it after defeating a Duel Boss in a shootout.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Beissman in EF1.
• Hold the Line
• Hot Scientist: Kleeya the Idryll in EF2.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Justified in that your weapons and items are actually stored in a "transporter buffer" and are actually teleported into your hands as you need them.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Biesman in EF1 loves teasing Chell and is generally a hotheaded Jerk Jock but ultimately makes a Heroic Sacrifice.
• The Jimmy Hart Version. Proof not all Tropes are bad. Danny Pelfrey's amazing score for Elite Force 1 manages to give a great new spin on the classic Voyager theme.
• Joke Items: in Virtual Voyager Mode.
• Let's Get Dangerous: Beissman, who for most of the game is an arrogant, aggressive Non-Action Guy, finally steps up to the plate and single-handedly clears out a Zerg Rush; unfortunately, he exposes himself to enemy fire while doing so.
  • While everyone around him basically just stares at the scene with their mouths wide open, rather than helping out Beissman since they, you know, have guns that kill things.
• Let's Play: Done by Linkara.
• Lost World: The Idryll biogenetic factory, which turns out to be the source of the killer Exomorphs, in EF2.
• Love Dodecahedron: In EF2 you can pursue an optional romance with either Telsia or Kleeya; but watch out for the latter's would-be Love Interest Krindo.
• Lower Deck Episode: Not an episode per se, but it plays out like one. The plot and action follow the titular Elite Force, with the main cast and crew relegated to supporting status; a few main characters, like Tom Paris and Chakotay, barely make cameos. Only Tuvok and Seven Of Nine play significant roles.
  • Given the tendency of Voyager to have the bridge crew do everything, it's a bit of a breath of fresh air to not have to interact with them all the time. YMMV, though.
• Nerfed: the Borg, thanks to the Infinity Modulator which can shoot through their shields.
  • This is addressed in EF2, where you lose the I-Mod for a decent portion of the Borg levels, forcing you to use your standard weapons until the Borg adapt to them, at which point you need to run the hell away.
  • Or you could let your team mates shoot the Borg and just hide behind them. The Borg never seem to adapt to your ally's weapons.
    • It seems that only works if your team mates are using a weapon that the Borg haven't already adapted to your use of.
• Nonstandard Game Over: Being defeated by the Borg in Elite Force results in a quick cutscene of you getting assimilated. Likewise, killing your crewmates or team members, or disobeying orders, results in you being thrown in the brig and chastised by a random member of the Voyager cast.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Mr. Stemmons, the guy with the Big Ol' Eyebrows, in EF2.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: When Picard tells Stemmons, essentially, to kiss off.
• The Only One: Lampshaded in EF2: "Why are you always running off alone?"
  • It's Up to You: Even when you have teammates, you have to accomplish most of the objectives yourself (though your team will fight enemies with some degree of skill, which AI-wise was actually new and rather impressive at the time).
• Organic Technology: The Etherians in EF1 have a very gooey, purple ship with odd systems that allow them to teleport around the ship instantly and fireflies that heal broken components of the vessel.
• Outrun the Fireball: see Video Game Cruelty Potential, below.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: Alex (-ander or -andria) Munro, the player character, in EF1; in EF2 Alex was made canonically male.
  • Telsia would even lightly hit on you regardless of your character's gender. But hey, it's the 24th century.
• Putting the Band Back Together: in EF2.
• Rubber Forehead Aliens: The Idryll in EF2 are basically (hot) humans with luminous eyes and four fingers.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Alex ignores Tuvok's demands to return to take care of things him/herself.
• Starfish Aliens: The Ethereals in Elite Force are floating manta-rays with anteater-like heads. There's also the Reavers and Exomorphs.
• Stealth-Based Mission: notable in that failure at stealth will not result in a Nonstandard Game Over, but will result in the death of a teammate.
• Storming the Castle: The final assault on The Forge in EF1.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: The Unwinnable Training Simulation in the first game ends with you shooting a console in an attempt to shut off a forcefield. Naturally, the resulting explosion kills you.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Korban in EF2 is an obvious stand-in for Worf.
  • Korban was voiced by Tony Todd, who played Worf's brother, Kurn, on TNG.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: When you find a power-up that maxes out both of your ammo types, you know the final boss is just ahead.
• Techno Babble: It wouldn't be Star Trek without it!
• Timed Mission: usually involving the prevention of a ship-wide disaster.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Saving Foster from assimilation is one of the more heart-warming examples.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: On one level of EF1, you must erect a force field to contain an explosion; however, if you erect it too soon, you'll trap a fellow crewman in with the blast.
• What the Hell, Player?: If you decide to go on a psychotic rampage in Virtual Voyager, you get beamed to the brig, where a random character will walk up and more or less ask "WTF dude?"
  • Totally worth it for the chance to vaporize Neelix, though.
  • Hell, you could activate the self-destruct sequence and get this from everyone on the bridge. Chakotay would invoke it almost word-for-word.
• Wide Open Sandbox: Virtual Voyager mode.
• Wretched Hive: The Scavenger Base in EF1, a space station full of mercenaries in EF2.
  • Bonus points, as the bar in the second game has a group of people having pretty much word for word the same conversation Luke, Obi-Wan and Han Solo have when talking about hiring his ship, only they use Star Trek technobabble instead of Star Wars technobabble.