Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Name: Star Trek Collection
Item: Star Trek Collection
Author: Retro Replay

The Star Trek Collection delivers a diverse gameplay package by bringing together four distinct titles, each offering its own style and pacing. Star Trek: Away Team emphasizes tactical, squad-based strategy, tasking players with coordinating a team of specialists as they infiltrate enemy installations and solve environmental puzzles. The game’s command interface is intuitive, allowing quick selection and ordering of crew members, though the occasionally finicky pathfinding can lead to tense moments during high-stakes missions.

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Moving to the stars, Star Trek: Armada shifts the focus to real-time strategy at a galactic scale. Players command fleets of Federation starships, research advanced technologies, and defend or attack starbases. The RTS mechanics feel solid, with resource-gathering missions and fleet composition adding layers of strategic depth. While the AI admirably coordinates enemy forces and keeps battles challenging, seasoned strategy veterans may find the core loop familiar after extended play.

Star Trek: Hidden Evil steers the collection into the realm of third-person action-adventure. As Ensign Alyssa Ogawa, you explore planet-side environments, solve light puzzles, and engage in cinematic battles against alien foes. Combat is brisk but can sometimes feel repetitive, relying on a limited arsenal of phasers and grenades. That said, the environmental interactions and mission objectives—ranging from repairing alien machinery to outwitting sentries—bring welcome variety.

Finally, Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force elevates the collection with its tight, adrenaline-fueled first-person shooter gameplay. Players step into the boots of Lt. Cmdr. Tuvok’s security team, navigating derelict starships and alien installations. The weapon balance is superb, and the level design encourages creative approaches to firefights. Elite Force’s pacing is the strongest of the quartet, blending exploration, platforming, and combat encounters into a seamless Trek narrative.

Graphics

Visually, the Star Trek Collection is a snapshot of late ’90s and early ’00s PC capabilities. Star Trek: Away Team and Hidden Evil both showcase detailed character models and richly textured environments for their time, though you’ll notice the era’s low polygon counts when examining close-up facial animations. With the inclusion of higher-resolution assets and modern compatibility patches, these games still hold up as charming period pieces.

Star Trek: Armada scales up to space, rendering colossal starships in vibrant 3D and painting cosmic backdrops with nebulae, asteroid fields, and epic explosions. Fleet models vary in design from sleek Federation cruisers to menacing Borg cubes, all carefully lit to highlight their distinctive silhouettes. Performance remains stable even when hundreds of units clash onscreen, thanks to efficient engine design that predates modern hardware demands.

The action-adventure styling of Hidden Evil offers lush jungle canyons and alien ruins bathed in atmospheric lighting. While foliage and surface details appear repetitive in high resolutions, dynamic shadows and particle effects help this game feel more immersive than you might expect from a two-decades-old title. Text and HUD elements have been upscaled for today’s widescreen displays, ensuring menus and mission prompts are always legible.

Elite Force delivers the strongest graphical punch in the collection, with detailed enemy textures, realistic lighting effects, and smooth character animations. Its custom Quake III-based engine handles complex indoor environments and moody lighting with ease, delivering an experience that still rivals many modern shooters’ remastered editions. Reflections on metallic surfaces and volumetric fog in certain levels add depth, underscoring why Elite Force was a visual standout at its release.

Story

Though gameplay styles vary, each title in the Star Trek Collection is tied together by faithful narratives rooted in the franchise’s ethos. Star Trek: Away Team weaves an original storyline centered around covert missions led by Admiral Janeway during a clandestine Klingon conflict. Character interactions feel authentic, and mission briefings recall the calm professionalism of Starfleet Command, even if the script occasionally resorts to predictable plot beats.

Star Trek: Armada focuses less on character-driven moments and more on an overarching campaign pitting the Federation against the Borg and the Klingon Empire. The story unfolds across multiple chapters, each illuminating different factions’ perspectives. While the writing is serviceable, Armada’s real allure is in witnessing epic fleet engagements that feel straight out of a Next Generation battle sequence, reinforcing the grand scale of galactic warfare.

Hidden Evil delivers a narrower, personal tale involving a mysterious artifact discovered by the Voyager crew. The game ties neatly into the Voyager continuity, offering fans the thrill of seeing iconic characters appear in mission-critical cutscenes. Though the script can be simplistic, it captures the familiar banter of the Brannon Braga era, lending the adventure a genuine Starfleet charm as you race to prevent an ancient threat from reawakening.

Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force arguably tells the most compelling story, featuring an original security team aboard Voyager and a sinister alien conspiracy at its core. The writing balances dark thrills with moments of Socratic humor, and voice work from series actors adds authenticity. Cutscenes and mission dialogue flow seamlessly into gameplay, driving players forward with a sense of urgency that few licensed shooters manage to achieve.

Overall Experience

As a package, the Star Trek Collection offers remarkable variety. From meticulous strategy to direct FPS action, each game highlights a different aspect of Starfleet life and Star Trek lore. This breadth makes the compilation a strong value proposition for fans who want to explore multiple canonical experiences without hunting down each title individually.

Installation and setup have been streamlined for modern PCs, with community-driven patches ensuring compatibility with current operating systems and widescreen monitors. Loading times are minimal, and save systems function smoothly across all four games. Even if you only dip into one or two titles, the collection’s unified launcher lets you jump between campaigns with ease.

Nostalgia plays a significant role in the appeal of this collection. While some mechanics and graphics may feel dated compared to contemporary standards, the legacy of each title shines through. Whether you’re planning detailed skirmishes in Armada, solving puzzles aboard a hostile moon in Hidden Evil, or charging down corridor battles in Elite Force, you’re reminded of why Star Trek’s storytelling continues to resonate.

Ultimately, the Star Trek Collection stands as a testament to the franchise’s versatility in gaming. It caters both to strategic commanders yearning for fleet-level battles and to action enthusiasts craving immersive FPS thrills. For dedicated Trekkies and curious newcomers alike, this compilation delivers a comprehensive journey through the final frontier—one mission at a time.