Star Trekkin' across... Barrhaven?

A coop day in eye boggling 3D!

When Coxxorz and I planned a coop evening this past Saturday it never came into question what game we were going to play. Sure I packed a few extra games but there was no doubt that Star Trek the Video Game was our primary choice. Our only planned choice.

During our last adventure we left off in the middle of Chapter 4, Frontier Starbase. After six more hours of play time we finished Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Volatile Cargo & Flashback, and managed to get part way through Chapter 6, Gorn Planet & the Trials. Not quite half way through Chapter 6. There are eight chapters in total.

We have been getting a lot of flak from varying sources about playing such a poorly rated game. There is not much to say other than we spent $9.77 each on our copies and we are determined to get our moneys' worth.

Now available in 3D! Times 2!

Do you remember me starting the story by mentioning 3D? We remembered that Star Trek the Video Game had a 3D icon on its cover and that Coxxorz should get his moneys' worth playing the game in 3D. Since he had picked up a brand new, massive Sony 3D TV during the last boxing week sales he decided to try it out.

It was pretty impressive even though initially I only got to check it out over his shoulder. Initially because who would have two TVs supporting 3D in their house. Well... if your name is Coxxorz the odds were surprisingly good.

After an hour or so of Coxxorz revelling in his 3D goodness he (conveniently) remembered that the TV I was playing on, his backup, also supported 3D. Picked up during boxing week sales two years ago. It's in his bargain corner somewhere. A 42" LG.

So yes, two 3D TVs, both playing Star Trek the Video Game in glorious 3D.

My impression on the 3D gaming was that it was pretty cool. It was fun and added to the game play in a noticeable manner. The HUD interface floating out of the screen was very cool, the depth of the levels was interesting. The mission target showing deeper inside the screen was good. Did it make me want to rush out and buy a 3D TV? Well... no and not just because I can't afford to buy one right now. The 3D is an interesting and cool a add on but it not yet a game defining feature. If you can get it great but I wouldn't panic over it or fight for it.

Still, Coxxorz having two 3D supporting TVs added to our coop evening.

And now back to the 2D portion of our story

Six hours of play seems like a lot, and it was, but we did replay a lot of sections from previous checkpoints. Mostly to qualify for Star Fleet Commendations but sometimes due to player error...

This sequence of Coxxorz/Spock running to his death and not bothering to jump is funny. It is funny on its own merit. It gets funnier however when you discover that I did not get my camera out until after his third attempt. Third. So this suicide was his fourth attempt. In all fairness, technically, he made his third attempt even if he ended up hanging by his finger tips. I was the one who missed that time and died before he could pull himself up. I particularly appreciate the end of the video where my Kirk character glares in disgust directly where Coxxorz was sitting in real life.

We enjoyed this session more than our previous days as the glitches seemed less prevalent. The primary issue we were having was network related. On the plus side we figured out how to get Coxxorz into the game before the next check point. An annoying issue mentioned previously - I could invite him to my game over live but he was staring at a black screen until I hit the next check point. Unfortunately we discovered by accident that Kirk's death counted as a "next check point." So ever time I invited Coxxorz to join the game I had to figure out how to suicide my character. Coxxorz seemed to enjoy Kirk's death by fire, death by lava, death by falling, and death by enemy fire. Death by enemy fire took the longest because the AI version of Spock kept doubling back to revive my character. After the fifth time he resuscitated me while under fire I went looking for something high to jump off. The double level stairwell turned out only to be enough to disable me but it ended well as the AI Spock could not figure out how to get behind the stairs to resuscitate me! Woo hoo! Suicide by stupid AI.

AI Spock to Kirk: "I have failed you Captain." Each and every time you revived me pal, each and every time.

Again we discovered lots of gameplay types.

• Captain, I appear to have broken physicsA portal type puzzle portion where an engineering teleportation hook allowed you to lock onto a player and then teleport him onto a specific receiving pad. This was used to get past debris, unlocked doors and along the outside of the Star Base to the antenna array. Not only fun but useful when Coxxorz managed to step through an opening and fall into space. Instead of a sequel to Gravity I managed to teleport him onto a pad before the level reset.
• Flying through space. It was easier to fall along the outside of the disintegrating starbase than to teleport puzzle our way back down. We replayed this a lot as we kept flying into steel panels, floating debris, or plasma bursts. It was an on rails sequence with limited control and many attempts were required before we could figure it out. We never did work out whether the issue was gameplay, 3D effects or us. Could have been any of those
• Stealth portions. We, like most Herd of Cats, are not stealthy. This took us a while and many attempts to work out the best path. We had to reload each time. To a checkpoint immediately behind a locked door that needed to be hacked. We took turns hacking the door. We discovered a technique involved partially alerting the Gorn Leader and then racing to a coop door and opening it before he turned the corner. Made particularly entertaining by the two of us being unable to enter the door simultaneously no matter how hard we tried. "Me first," "no,. me first," "suck in your gut, would you." "fine. After you." We learned to coordinate our door entry otherwise we were never getting out of there.
• Pathway puzzle solving. The Starbase was falling apart and left us with a lot of route finding. "Spock, is that floor lava?" "Indeed, Captain." "On a Starbase?" "A fascinating phenomena. I shall study it further." We may have died a lot here which brought on it's own form of entertainment based solely on check point placement. Immediately before this point in the game you walked through a standard set of doors. This started an in game scene where two starbase personnel run toward you saying how glad they are to see you. Then they die. In a spectacular fashion. After restarting the same checkpoint many times and watching the same death scene many times it became entertaining. We named the two characters, gave them back stories, families and we took turns killing them...
• Dodging turbo lifts chasing a Gorn Lieutenant through the turbo lift system on the Enterprise. Both of us got squished multiple times and the twisted contortions of our pretzeled bodies had us laughing. Not necessarily in a good way.
• A mind meld sequence (of the Gorn Lieutenant) which was pretty pointless and extended seemingly just to add time. Truthfully the cut scenes it added to the story seemed to hurt the story more than it helped. We discovered at this point that the plot line was getting (more) confusing. Neither of us were sure we were properly keeping track. Whatever, time to kill more Gorn.
• Two separate flying suit sequences during the Gorn Planet & the Trials chapter. Dodging rock structures, falling rocks, incoming fire, bridge structures and incoming Photon torpedoes from the Enterprise. All to land in a small cave entrance. Which is where we called it quits at 1:00 AM.

Once again Bones was the funniest character in the game. His interplay with Chekhov at the end of this scene had us both laughing. I think the writers enjoying writing for his character.

I am leaving stuff out that I wanted to cover but this entry is getting a little long. Suffice to say we had a much better time during our third session that our second session.

Two more chapters to go and we both plan on playing them. Consensus is starting to form on the game.

If you are a Star Trek fan and have a someone to play the coop campaign with Star Trek the Video Game is a worthwhile purchase. I would even recommend paying as much as $14.99.

Revisiting the unsung Red Shirts

So sad my eyes almost teared up


Umm... Spock? I lost the body but I saved his shirt


Dammit Jim, how hard is to keep track of a body?