Star Trek: Encounters is a video game set in the Star Trek fictional universe, which was released on October 4, 2006, for the PlayStation 2. The game was developed by Scottish studio 4J Studios for Bethesda Softworks.
It is an arcade style shoot 'em up game, and takes ships and characters from all five Star Trek series: Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Seven classes of Starfleet vessels are available for play. These are:
The Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jonathan Archer.
The U.S.S Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk.
The U.S.S. Enterprise-D, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
The U.S.S. Defiant, under the command of Captain Benjamin Sisko.
The U.S.S. Voyager, under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway.
The U.S.S. Enterprise-E, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
A Nebula class starship that does not have a stated captain.
Skirmish[ | ]
In the Skirmish section of the game single and multi-player options are available, but each of the things you can do in both modes are the same. Head-to-Head gives the player the chance to choose a ship to fight with, and choose an opponent to fight against. The player then sets the score limit, or the number of frags, that the match will be played to. Battlefest is when the player must choose a pre-set group a three ships to fight another group of three ships. The player first starts with Ship 1 as does the enemy. When the first ship of either the player or the enemy is destroyed then they move onto Ship 2, then Ship 3 if Ship 2 is destroyed. Onslaught allows the player to only choose from the Starfleet ships currently unlocked in the game. Once a starship has been chosen the player must continuously fight against waves of ships that never stop coming until the player is destroyed. The goal is to destroy as many waves as possible. In skirmish mode, generally, the Xindi ships have the good weaponry, but poor armor. Starfleet has well rounded ships with nearly even hulls and weaponry. The Cardassian ships have powerful weapons, but weaker hulls.
Story missions[ | ]
The game consists of six eras. Five are based on television series (Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager). The sixth era is based on the untold missions of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E.
The Enterprise missions all involve defending Earth from the Xindi threat. The Original Series missions are not set during the television series itself but possibly between Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock movies, with the last mission of the era taking place in orbit of the Genesis Planet as it is self-destructing. The Next Generation era missions don't really have a recognisable time frame in relation to the television series. The Deep Space Nine missions are set during the Dominion War, and the Voyager missions have two different time frames involved. The first mission, 'The Chase' could be set just after the U.S.S. Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant. The rest of the missions all involve conflict with the Borg, meaning that these missions would logically take place during or after season four.
The primary enemy for the U.S.S. Enterprise under James Kirk are the Klingons. The primary enemy for the U.S.S. Enterprise-D are the Romulans. The Cardassians and Jem'Hadar are the primary enemies for the U.S.S. Defiant. The Borg are the primary enemy for the U.S.S. Voyager, although you have to fight also Species 8472 and the Kazon. The U.S.S. Enterprise-E has no primary enemy as there are only two missions in its era. One is against the Orions and the other is a mission that involves all the ships and enemies in the game.
