The problem with trying to make a Star Trek video game is that “video games” as a medium usually can’t handle the idea that there is more to life than “shooting things in the face,” so a property like Star Trek is tough to adapt since frequently the entire conflict of an episode or movie is solved by a sudden quip or insight rather than “shooting things in the face”. That’s not to say there haven’t been good Star Trek games, but they usually have to contort themselves so that an entire property that’s about exploration, diplomacy, and deep thought winds up going, well, fuck it, set phasers to frag. Elite Force is a whole lot of fun, mind you, but Janeway didn’t spend a lot of time rocket jumping. Star Trek: Resurgence is probably the first Star Trek game that actually feels like…well, Star Trek, with the dialogue and the thinking and the choices rather than the PYEW PYEW SPACE LASERS…sorry, SPACE PHASERS.
Star Trek: Resurgence
Developer: Dramatic Labs
Price: $40 USD
Platform: PC (reviewed), Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One
MonsterVine was supplied with Epic Game Store code for review
Those of you who are familiar with my whole thing may be surprised to find out I am a little bit of a cynic, so I admit I grinned during the introduction sequence when the game slowly spins out the premise: We are the newly assigned first officer (yes!) on the Resolute, a science vessel that isn’t all that impressive (of course!) but just finished a refit and rebuild after suffering a terrible accident (HA!) that left the crew almost as scarred as the ship (sickos YES YES dot jpg)…
Look, I don’t know much, but I know a classic Star Trek setup when I see one.
For the Trek heads, Resurgence takes place a few years after the end of Star Trek: Nemesis (don’t worry if you didn’t see it or like it, nobody did! In either case!), meaning we are just at the end of the Next Generation run. Our viewpoint characters are Jara Rydeck, the aforementioned first officer on the Resolute, and then we also get to enjoy the swashbuckling lower decks (but not that Lower Decks but he would totally fit in on that Lower Decks!) stylings of engineer Carter Diaz as the Resolute sets off on what is…actually, a pretty solid Star Trek story with the captain and crew trying to get their groove back as told by a crew of Telltale veterans in pretty classic Telltale Games style.
Now, if you do not like Star Trek and if you don’t like the Telltale Games formula of making dialogue choices and frowning at relationship implications and story plot points, will you enjoy it? No. Simply put: you will not. Because it is: That. It is basically an interactive Star Trek episode that’s actually closer to an old-school interactive CD-ROM game (for my fellow shambling dinosaurs) than what we think of as a modern “video game”. You shamble or run around making dialogue choices or clicking things or playing little minigames and then something happens and someone reacts and then you make another choice and that’s it. That’s what it is. Choices.
This is one of those games where Choices Matter(™) and you are going to be more concerned with whether people like you and if you made the right choice than poopsocking your way to the next laser cannon upgrade or whatever. There are some interesting tweaks to what I’d think of as the classic Telltale “style”, for example, you can check and see what people thought of your decisions and choices pretty quickly, rather than just getting ominous warnings that “Soandso will remember that”. If they think you were an asshole, you’ll find out right away!
The downside is that sometimes, being basically a Star Trek episode shoved into a video game means it suffers from video game bullshit like stealth, cover shooting, puzzles, minigames, etc. There is a story mode option where you don’t have to deal with these, but still. And there are some technical hitches and bugs and whatnot. There was an early moment I remember where it was prompting me to pull the trigger on my controller only 1. I was playing on PC and 2. I didn’t have a damn controller plugged in so 3. Wtf, GAME, what do you want from me?!
But I was still Star Trekking across the universe and, well, an interactive Star Trek episode? That’s pretty pretty pretty cool.
The Final Word
STAR TREKKING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE! FINALLY A STAR TREK GAME THAT DOESN’T MAKE ME CURSE!
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
