There’s been a lot of Star Trek games, but few are more beloved than the Elite Force duology. Originally designed by Raven Software before moving to Ritual Entertainment for its sequel, the FPS games did have a lot of high-octane shooter action, but also slowed down to focus on puzzles to be more true to the spirit of Trek.
In an interview with FRVR, Elite Force 2 designer Chris Stockman explained that the now-beloved Star Trek games did not sell well. While the original sold well enough to garner a sequel, the second game’s poor sales—despite high reviews—not only led to the series’ end, but even a lawsuit over the “stagnation” of the Star Trek brand.
“They’re so fondly remembered because no one played them,” Stockman laughed, “and they were, in the pantheon of Star Trek games, they weren’t sh*t. They were so different and so kind of wild, and very much fan-service games. I mean, Elite Force 2 had a stellar voice cast, you know? Patrick Stewart reprising his role, Dwight Shultz, you could just through all of them.”
“I would just call it Elite Force 3, I would just call it Elite Force, and I would probably just dump the Star Trek.”
Elite Force 2 designer Chris Stockman on a third entry
While sheer fan-service pandering is looked down upon today, Elite Force and especially Elite Force 2 were designed around it, but Stockman explains that the game was also just pure “fun”, even if it was far more action-focused than your traditional Trek episode.
“It was fun, it was a bit ridiculous, actually very ridiculous, and it was a shooter. Even then, there weren’t a lot of first-person shooters, there were quite a few, but there weren’t a tonne of them,” the designer said, explaining that the novelty of being able to “walk around the Enterprise and look at these cool interactive moments” was a massive benefit for the games back then.
While Star Trek: Elite Force 2 isn’t remembered all that fondly outside of the Trek fanbase, Stockman explains that the game was very inspired by “NOLF [No One Lives Forever]”, adding more interactive elements and even minor dialogue options to the game that made you feel like more than just a guy with a gun.
A sequel to Elite Force is likely never going to happen, and Stockman has no plans to made one, but the designer explains that he can “imagine an Elite Force 3 in this day and age in the form of, like, a Rainbow Six Siege, but it’s set in Star Trek. It sells itself!”
If Stockman was to make a new game in the vein of Elite Force, he explains that he would probably do so without the Trek name attached. “I would just call it Elite Force 3, I would just call it Elite Force, and I would probably just dump the Star Trek. It’s a Star Trek game, but I wouldn’t call it Star Trek: Elite Force. I would just call it Elite Force, because that sounds f**king cool. You know, you’re an Elite Force. That’s first and then the Star Trek branding and all that comes second.”
Stockman explained that it “doesn’t have to be set in the sanitary world of Next Gen”, as the Hazard Team you’re pushed into horrendous situations the Federation can’t deal with, and that means the existence of an “Elite Force” can exist whenever and wherever. (Honestly, it would probably best fit the era of Enterprise, and we could finally get Scott Bakula back.)
To this day, Star Trek: Elite Force and its sequel are both kinda weird games, but they’re also peak early-2000s. Today, it would probably be frowned upon to make a Trek game and give you 15 different guns to blast enemies away with. Hell, that awful 2011 movie tie-in game was criticised largely for its action focus… as well as its general brokenness. But at the turn of the millennium, you could do damn near anything, as long as it was fun, and it was.
