Star Trek Resurgence Review: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (PC)

First officer’s log: I’ve been assigned to inspect and evaluate a new game, a form of entertainment from the early 21st century. I take my duty very seriously, so I’ve been picking it apart from every conceivable angle. It’s called Star Trek Resurgence and it’s quite entertaining. It plays something like the TellTale series of games, broken into episodes and being heavily narrative driven. 

I’m not as familiar with this kind of game, usually choosing something more like Sam and Max for my slower, narrative focused entertainment. I have to admit though, despite it being slower and allowing me less direct control of things, I find it gives me a familiar, comfortable feeling. It moves at a specific, planned pace, less a traditional game and more an interactive narrative

Even with all the good, enjoyable parts of this game, I find myself distracted by a few outliers. There are flaws that keep this from being the game I want, limitations that leave me wanting more. Still, for fans of Star Trek there’s a something here to love.

Star Trek Resurgence is available on EpicGames for $39.99

Story – These Are the Voyages…

The story is the entire experience in Star Trek Resurgence. To that end, it does exactly what it needs to: it feels like an episode of Star Trek. The game is teeming with cameos from major players in the series, references to other shows, the friendly banter of the lower decks, and of course, TechnoBabble. It’s meant recreate the feeling of an episode of Deep Space Nine or Next Generation. 

You take on the dual roles of First Officer Jara Rydek and Petty Officer Carter Diaz. Rydek is a the newcomer, trying to find her place on the ship, while Diaz is the lower deck regular, just trying to do his best. Your ship has been summoned to deliver a negotiator to peace talks between two worlds at the brink of war, a classic Trek trope. And wouldn’t you know it, once you arrive hijinks ensue.

It’s an engaging story. It kinda has to be, what with Star Trek Resurgence being 99% narrative. It gets personal, letting you see the connections between your characters and those around you. You can check after every major story beat to see how the other characters are reacting to your choices, each of which changes the flow of the story just a bit. Personally, I love this aspect. It makes me want to reconsider all my choices and go back to try again, like a kid keeping his finger on the page of a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Most choices are pretty standard, but keep your eyes open. They get serious quickly.

Gameplay – Make It So

Normally, I’d break gameplay up into subsections to better explore the nuances of the title, but there’s really no need for Star Trek Resurgence. If you’ve played a TellTale game, you know what you’re in for. The story is broken into episodes, each with their own title. You control a character with very limited options on how you can act. When the story gets to an important moment, you make a choice.  It’s not terribly complicated, but I will give the game credit. Unlike some other choice based dialogues, the characters in Resurgence actually say the words on screen you pick.

I think this simple format works for the game. It restricts your freedom a bit, but in this instance, that’s not a bad thing. You see, something occurred to me while I was running a tricorder over the exhaust manifold of a shuttlecraft: Star Trek characters are smarter than me. Sure, they may know what do when their shuttle is bombarded by negative ion particles in an tachyon storm… but I don’t! So guiding their intentions, rather than their actions, allows me to feel like I’m part of the story without having to understand all the minutia of the world. 

All in all, your gameplay will consist of moving around, talking to people, making decisions, and occasionally reacting to QuickTime events. If you’re in the right place for it, you might do a little stealth action, pilot a shuttle, use your tricorder, or fire your phaser. But everything is contextual. If the story doesn’t need you to pull out a tricorder, you can’t. This leads to very… calm conflicts. At no point, even when I had people trying to kill me, did I feel rushed or in danger. Again, this is Star Trek, not Star Wars. It’s calmer. It’s less action focused and more story focused, and that’s okay. Damn it, Jim, it’s a narrative, not an FPS!

Every decision is evaluated by your peers, changing how they feel about you and how the story unfolds.

Graphics & Audio – There Are Four Lights!

So I need to be upfront on this one. The game is engaging. Immersive. But… it could be prettier. A lot prettier. While the settings and backdrops are great, the scenes are authentic, it’s the characters that drop the ball. I love watching the ships move, I adore moving through the halls of the Resolute. It all makes me feel like I’m in a Star Trek episode. But the actual characters feel… stiff. Almost like animatronics. They don’t pivot when you change direction, they often just strafe. Their arms move stiffly outside of cutscenes. And even in cutscenes, which are the bulk of the experience, you can see how robotic their reactions are.

When you have an action game like say, the Horizon series, it’s beautiful during cutscenes, and then it doesn’t really have to worry beyond that because you’re focused on making sure Aloy doesn’t fall down a gorge. But this is a narrative driven game and that means 99% of the time I’m looking at faces. After a while, you start to notice the robotic feel when they change facial expressions. You start to realize all the characters take exactly .23 seconds to raise or lower their eyebrows.  And their faces start to feel like masks stretched over a robotic frame. When you move, your character doesn’t move fluidly. They don’t really change directions so much as they just start strafing or backpedaling immediately. It’s not… horrible. But it’s noticeable. And when you spend so much time staring at these characters, it’s nearly impossible to not dwell on it.

Spock is spot on, though. But then again, he barely moves even in the show.

Audio-wise, however, this game has nothing to worry about. Nothing is stand-out, but it is taking from an amazing library of effects straight from the shows. The sound of phasers, the click of your tricorder when it opens, the swish of the doors… and of course, that wonderful theme song. Serviceable. Authentic. Even superb in some cases.