Scroll down to the bottom of the post for a 5/10/2013 update!
First off, this is a short post today because I’ve been preparing for a trip, which is always a tad stressful and has forced me to have a Beverly Hills 90210 marathon tonight for the sake of my sanity. (The trip will be a blast. The travel planning is the painful part.) But that isn’t stopping me from obsessing over my most highly anticipated movie of the year.
Honestly, I feel like I have Star Trek Into Darkness fever. My sister, who often goes to the movies with me, can attest that I squeal every time a trailer for it comes on in the cinema. What I’m most looking forward to is seeing Kirk mature. I mean, Kirk’s character arc in the 2009 film is fun, but that’s about it. Into Darkness looks like it will have him making mistakes and wrestling with guilt, which is so much more intriguing.
And while I impatiently await the movie’s release, I’ll be playing the new Star Trek game and reviewing it for Pop GO! It’s set sometime after the end of the 2009 film.
I’ve already put a couple hours into the game, and the facial graphics are a little disconcerting, to say the least… but on the plus side, 1.) the actors in the J.J. Abrams films voice the characters in-game, 2.) music is by Michael Giacchino, who also wrote the music for the Abrams movies, and 3.) the co-op is really fun.
Whether playing solo or with a friend (or stranger, I guess), you can choose to play as either Kirk or Spock. Each character has a slightly different focus, with Kirk being more guns-blazing and Spock taking more of a stealth, let’s-solve-these-mini-games approach at times. (So yeah, I’m playing as Spock.)
Even playing alone, all the co-op actions are there, so there’s been lots of tapping “E” to open doors. I’m not completely sold on the QTEs — I mean, seriously, it feels like they are nonstop — but so far running around the Enterprise, setting my phaser to stun, and seeing some solar flares burn my poor Spock to a crisp have made this video game purchase totally worthwhile.
As long as this game isn’t too long, I might give in to playing it twice, just to see the differences in dialogue and gameplay depending on which character you play. Already, I’ve gotten to mind meld with victims and cancel a dinner date with Uhura by playing as Spock.
— Ashley
5/10/2013 UPDATE!
So, I have played Star Trek: The Video Game. Or, I have toiled through it. And I wrote a review about it on Population GO, which you can read here.
It’s probably not the worst game in the world, but it was hard to get through, and that’s because all the things I was looking forward to — particularly the inventive co-op and the Star Trek story — just fell apart, fast. The story especially bothers me, because it basically labels an entire race as “evil,” which doesn’t seem very Star Trek-y to me. And any cool co-op bits the early trailers and IGN footage showed were the only ones in the game. I hate it when that happens. It’s like a trailer for a comedy movie that gives away the only funny lines in the film, so seeing the whole movie is a total let-down because the rest of the movie isn’t as funny as the trailer. You know what I mean.
Anyway, it’s worth a rental if you’re curious… or wait until the price goes down to buy it. All I can say is, I am more eager than ever to see Into Darkness, because compared to that game, I’m sure it’s going to seem absolutely stellar.
— Ashley
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