Flip through any game magazine these days and you're bound to see a bunch of Star Trek ads for games spanning every conceivable genre, not to mention the Classic, Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager universes.  To say the Star Trek game marketplace is cluttered and confused would be an understatement.  But if there's one upcoming Trek game that looks most likely to break through the clutter and register with gamers, chances are it will be Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, published by Activision.

Developed by Raven Software, peculiarly based in Madison, Wisconsin, Elite Force is powered by id Software's Quake 3 engine and the closest Star Trek fans are likely to get to a high-quality first person shooter.  And just ask any fan: such a game is long overdue, especially after the debacle that was Klingon Honor Guard, Microrprose's unspeakably bad Unreal-based shooter from 1998.

Building a game based on a licensed property is no easy task, and the struggle is only exacerbated when you are building a Star Trek game, given the franchise's rocky history on gaming platforms.   But that didn't stop Raven Software from crafting a game they hope appeals to both hard-core gamers and ardent Star Trek followers.   So far, the results look promising – at this year's E3 show in Los Angeles, Elite Force arguably stole the show at Activision's booth.

While some may dismiss Elite Force as a trite shoot-em-up with little soul, Kenn Hoekstra of Raven Software tells us that the game is anything but the Borg-equivalent of Duck Hunt.  In an extensive interview with GameSlice's Geoff Keighley, Hoekstra details the exhaustive plot that threads itself through the gameplay, and explains exactly how the game's story can tailor itself based on a player's choices and actions. 

Q: I guess we will start off with the obligatory Star Trek license question, but I want to take it a step further.  I think Elite Force is in an interesting situation because quite a few Star Trek games are due in the near future, including The Collective's Deep Space 9 game that uses the Unreal engine.  Although Star Trek games have usually been forgettable -- I'm sure you hope to change that -- do you worry that the market is going to be over saturated with Star Trek games when Elite Force comes out in August?  Even if this is a great game, do you worry that it won't break through the clutter because of confusion with the Deep Space 9 game and other Trek titles from Activision?

A: No, I’m not worried about the saturation of Trek games. Most of the games coming out are all different game types. This is something that Activision has been thinking through and they have really created a nice line up of games that are all different and capture a very diverse audience of gamers. With Elite Force being the only first person action shooter based on Star Trek, I think we can corner those action gamers, and with our virtual Trek environments, we hope to capture a large audience that will enjoy just being in the surroundings of the Star Trek universe. It’s the closest thing to actually being there.