It’s safe to say that Star Trek has fallen out of favour when it comes to video games, with only a select handful standing out over recent years, Star Trek Online being the most obvious example. On the other hand, 2013’s Star Trek also stood out for all the wrong reasons. One title I haven’t been able to try but would like to is Star Trek: Bridge Crew. One thing is sure, Star Trek lends itself well to various game types, and it’s time for former TellTale alums at Dramatic Labs to bring the adventure with Star Trek: Resurgence.
That is certainly the aim, and for the most part, it is done with a good measure of success. Star Trek: Resurgence falls precisely where Star Trek is often best, the philosophical and the humane. One can’t imagine the franchise without Encounter at Farpoint, the launchpad of The Next Generation and Jean Luc Picard, or episodes like The Measure of a Man (TNG), Duet (DS9), and even The Andorian Incident (Enterprise). Star Trek can always bring the action, but it’s in episodes like those about people (or Androids, or Andorians) and sometimes about avoiding unnecessary ‘action’.
Being an adventure game where choice and consequences are in the same vein as what Telltale’s biggest games featured, you would be right to expect something more in keeping with the more thought-provoking Trek episodes. This isn’t to say there isn’t any action, something “Telltale’s The Walking Dead” was more than happy to show over a decade ago. Dramatic Labs have even gotten more effort into the gameplay, giving you control over the phaser, tricorder, and other tools in a limited way. Adventure games are slowly getting there.
Of course, for the most part, you will be doing the same things you’ve expected from these choice-driven adventure games. You will do minimal exploration in enclosed areas, inspecting a few items and talking to a few people. There are a few puzzles around where you can realign the transporter whatchyamadoodle, correctly plot a course for the tractor beam, and so on. Some of these puzzles are also optional, giving you a little on the side to complete and potentially impacting later in the game.
Naturally, the real impact comes from your decisions throughout the core moments. From deciding to send your crew-mate first back into the ship, or going forward with your – in this case, Carter Diaz’s – love interest, or when taking the role of Jara Rydek, choosing between one of the two feuding factions, of which you are forced to do. These, and many more, are the decisions that will shape the fate of your story. They will shape how others look at Carter Diaz and Jara Rydek, the two playable characters.
Set just after the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Resurgence also has the opportunity to bring in some things fans of the series will know and love. Two returning characters are Spock (as seen above), voiced by Piotr Michael, who does an excellent job of sounding like the late, great Leonard Nimoy. Another guest appearance is non-other than Jonathan Frakes as William T. Riker, one of the best characters ever to grace a sci-fi screen. Fortunately, none of these characters superseded what are well-written newcomers.
Generally speaking, Star Trek: Resurgence is well written and feels like something that belongs to Trek. It forges its path in its little corner of the universe but is inextricably linked to everything else. It also takes that delicate balance you’ve come to expect. It includes enough magical space science that you could do with Wesley Crusher on your side, ready to MacGyver up an explanation or solution. Unique ion storms keeping you stranded, factions within factions threatening all-out war between two neighbouring planets, covert actions threatening to turn everything on its head, it’s precisely what you’ve come to expect.
How this story is presented is where I’ve found the game to fall. Aesthetically, I can’t complain. It’s not, nor would I want it to be photo-realistic. I particularly enjoy the design on show here, with colours helping to make things pop, even if animations can be exaggerated. There are also a few slight issues where characters will phase through tables during scenes, and while this is Trek, I know it wasn’t intended. None of that takes away from the game, though, but it sets the stage for the technical issues that do.
Voice Acting in an adventure game like this could arguably be the most critical component. Everybody does an excellent job here; I can’t fault a single line that I’ve heard, the actors should be proud of their delivery, and the writers should be proud of their writing. My problem comes with the technical issues in delivering these lines. I’ve had lines cut short; I’ve had them clipping into each other, with the start of one word being ended by the end of another.
Another issue that can be fixed by simply going into the settings is the audio balance, though I would ideally want a game to have it right out of the box. When you’re at the end of one of the in-game chapters or after a big decision or event, you’ll notice that quite great music starts playing. The problem is that characters can also be talking, and unless you alter the settings, you may as well give up any hope of knowing what they have to say. I’ve had more effortless conversations at heavy-rock gigs.
As a final technical issue, I implore you, on the PC, to never press escape while in the pause screen (entered with the space key). If you do this, the game will stop responding, and you will find it a complete and utter pain in the arse to close it down, giving you access to your PC again without restarting. Once you know about it, it’s easy to avoid doing it (though pressing escape is instinctual), but it’s another issue that shouldn’t exist.
Despite the issues I have gone through, and I must admit they seem to make up a large chunk of the review, I can’t help but like Star Trek: Resurgence. This is Trek storytelling, and I’ve always argued that little if any, sci-fi does storytelling as good as Trek. It also helps that the gameplay has slightly branched out, and you get a little exploration here and there. Despite the issues, I recommend this game, particularly if you’re a trek fan, but it’s more than welcoming to all
PC version reviewed. Copy provided by the publisher.
