Star Trek: Elite Force 2 Review

Overall Rating

1) Varied lighting
2) Fairly good level design, and enjoyable "Enterprise" intermissions, which made a nice change from shooting everything in sight.
3) Occasionally "spooky" atmosphere: as opposed to some, I found these gloomy and fog-ridden (indoor and outdoor) maps very atmospheric.
4) Good sounds, and an ok soundtrack (both better than in EF1)
5) Relatively good graphics overall with the exception of some facial shading/shadows.
6) Cutscenes generally rather good.

1) Linearity.
2) AI (team and enemy).
3) Level difficulty inconsistencies.
4) Bugs.
5) Lack of originality.

1) Picard's face: Poorly-done. Lack of other "well-known" characters in the game. (Even though I have read the "trekkie logic" online that explains why certain characters are missing, I wasn't convinced by the logic of Barclay's appearance in this game either.)
2) Team-AI:
a) Team members occasionally shoot at you instead of the enemy, if you accidentally get into their line of fire.
b) They're real scaredycats when it comes to going on ahead (couldn't the developers have included more of a "random" element here, so that, occasionally, they do lead a bit more?)
c) They don't get out of the way when you need to get past them, which occasionally means unnecessary damage to you from an enemy.
3) Enemy AI:
Your foes often aim exclusively at you, and simply ignore your team members altogether. (Spoiler:) An example is the "Queen"/"boss" in the archway Idryll Ruins 1-1b, as she:
ignores your three team members completely and "spits" her venom only at you
once you're a certain distance away - but well within shooting/spitting range - she ignores you too, and stops "spitting", seems to have a goldfish-length attention-span and...
...at that point can't be wounded by your firepower either, unless you (re)appoach a little closer.
Your team can fire at her all they like, it doesn't affect her health if it comes from them rather than you.
None of the above adds to the "realism" of the game.
4) Level linearity:
Especially irritating are those areas where one is "forbidden" to cross/jump over ledges, for which there is no real logical reason (Starfleet Academy is one of several places). Occasionally this even led me to falling off a ledge which I wanted to explore, because "forbidden" paths were combined with "allowed" ones in the same area. Confusing.
5) Bugs (the ones you shoot at):
Too many Exomorphs. "Soft 'n' squidgy" aliens are few and far between.
6) Bugs (the ones you can't shoot at, sadly):
a) Some enemies that are "scripted" to die don't disappear into a puff of smoke directly afterwards (certain Attrexians and Idyll). Fine, except that they have the rather too lifelike property of, er, blinking whilst lying prostrate!!! Why didn't the developers look at these lines of code? I seem to remember that this bug was there even in the EF1 days.
b) (German language version only, I hope!:) At the beginning of the Idryll Ruins Episode, a cut-scene, briefing on the Enterprise: One hears the English audio version simultaneously (at around a third of the volume) to the German voice acting. Shoddy.
c) (Another spoiler:) Idryll Ruins 1-1b: Try running away from those green-glowing Exomorphs, at the first encounter, and around four come out into the open to get you (on normal difficulty). Once they're killed, and you proceed back through the entrance to the inner area again, you are attacked by some "invisible" ones in the archway! (I presume these are the ones that weren't bright enough to be able to walk down the steps to get you and just got stuck there, but they have somehow become invisible.) Ughh.
6) Gameplay/Design Issues:
a) Avoiding the warp core explosion: this is severely hampered by Barclay getting in one's way, as well as the small protrusions from the warp core base hindering fast movement around it (by you being "snagged to a standstill" on occasion). Furthermore, why is this task so difficult anyway, compared to all that has gone before?
b) Another bug: After ejecting the warp core, you can talk to a burly-looking officer in the room, who replies to you in a woman's voice!
c) If you look carefully at the cutscene where Munroe hands Picard his weapon, you'll see a glitch where Picard is already holding it prior to the handover!
d) The Enterprise Hull mission is unfair: the smallest mistake, and you miss your time-deadline. Again, too hard compared to the other missions, and therefore not much fun. Furthermore, it would have been nice if, after fulfilling the task, you had the opportunity of walking on the hull, gazing at the sky etc., as there is some eye-candy which you otherwise miss. Instead, a cutscene follows immediately after "success".
f) The way in which crew members wander around the Enterprise itself seems a backward step (no pun intended) compared to EF1, where, at least they'd disappear into the turbo-lifts occasionally, and vanish.

Summary:
Far less novelty than I expected, having read some rave reviews and previews prior to purchasing the game.
Much too linear.
Lousy team AI. Average enemy AI.
Far too much variation in playing difficulty according to the level you're on: this is not "novelty", but poor game design.
Too many Exomorphs.
Several bugs/inconsistencies. This spoils gameplay and "realism".
All in all, you might be disappointed, unless you take it as an "extension", not an improvement (other than graphically/aurally), on EF1.

Rating:
Graphics/Sound = 9/10, AI = 3/10, Gameplay/Level Design = 6/10.
Overall = 6/10.