Yo Dawg, this Star Trek game be good (no spoilers please)

So, as a cranky old man, I tend to fall into the "Star Trek isn't so good now" camp, beings nostalgic for the optimism of TNG's competent, mature and hopeful approach to problems, solving things with diplomacy and discussion while saving violent actions for defensive last resorts and using set pieces sparingly to make them more meaningful. Modern Star Trek comes across as too focused on action scenes, special effects and self-aware fanboying, all of which feels cynical and anti-theoretical to the ideals that TNG presented.Which is why I'm delighted to say that This new Star Trek game is really, really good. Now, it's definitely shows that it's a game by former Telltale devs, that DNA is undeniable, so if you didn’t like those you may not like this, but it presents as a positive evolution of that formula that got stale while presenting an intriguing story that starts out as 'morality play of the week', becomes a mystery and escalates to what would have been a great 2-part episode of the old show. The dialogue is smartly written, as is the overarching plot and the themes it hits on. The voice acting, while perhaps viewable as a tad corny by today's standards is still absolutely of the tone one would expect from old Trek. The graphics....kinda look like a toy playset but they grew on me and in some cases, such as on a few away missions to planet surfaces, kinda look like cheap soundstage sets from the show IN THE GOOD WAY. And the guy they got to play Spock is really a dead ringer of Nimoy’s voice. It even makes reference to one of the cornier early episodes of TNG and makes what was a fairly forgettable episode suddenly really intriguing.

There are some bad parts. Resolutions on PC above 1080 stretch the screen horizontally so 1080p is effectively the max resolution. It also runs at 30FPS unless a shot is very texture-light, but to be fair has never really chugged below 30fps either. And the music is unfortunately pretty generic, and suspiciously absent of all of the classic Star Trek music, almost like the official music had a separate license to use that was more expensive than rest of the IP (a believable possibility.) I went into this expecting a cheap game and I got something I'm enjoying enough to tear me away from Zelda and Boltgun (the least Star Trek thing that I also maybe problematically love) to play this non-stop. I'm almost but not totally done so I'd ask for no spoilers. It's possible it could biff the ending, but if I may invoke a reverse Wolpaw's Law, I've seen enough to wholeheartedly recommend this, especially if you are an oldschool fan that is grumpy about modern Trek.

I had no idea this existed until I saw it in new posts here so I really have to check it out. Thanks for writing. I’m not grumpy about modern Trek but TNG is highest in my heart.

Thanks for the write up, I heard about this game briefly somewhere but completely spaced on it. As a big fan of TNG (and someone that sometimes is in the mood for a Telltale-esque game) I might have to give this one a try.

Followup: I've now finished it and it had a solid ending. Maybe not an amazing reveal or anything, though they set up some choices that made pretty big differences in a few of the emotional payoffs, despite the overall plot ending seems pretty set. I was unhappy with a few of the results of my choices that seemed a bit artificial but in the end is better that they had either/or choices, precluding a "you did everything perfect" ending, especially considering Star Trek was often about compromises more than wish fulfillment. Some required negative consequences are a good thing.

If I were to rate this, it's a solid 8/10. I hope this is successful enough to result in the dev team getting a bigger budget for a sequel. It was clearly made by people that adore the source material without becoming fan fiction or putting self-insert characters in it, which is another of my complaints about modern trek shows (starfleet officers shouldn't say likes like "This is sooo cool" in the middle of missions. If you think otherwise, you think wrong. Also, coka-cola doesn't taste the way it used to and soup used to be a nickle! Get away from me, cloud!)

The guys at Nextlander have played it a bit on stream and it definitely looks like my kind of thing:

I'm about 3 hours in and its definitely feeding my appetite for some good ol' Star Trek. The actual gameplay is pretty lackluster, however its passable and easy to overlook if you're just here for the Trek story--which I am. The two main characters have both been engaging so far. Alex over at Nextlander mentioned that he thought Diaz was a bit more B plot but I think his stuff has been pretty fun so far. Its clear Jara is the main focus, and she is certainly getting into the weeds of the main plot, but its nice to see them give more time to other crew members(something I think nu-Trek has struggled with). I had no idea this this game even existed before it released so I hope that it gets the love it totally deserves.

If this is where the spirit of classic Trek is gonna exist, I'm cool with it. Although, I do think Strange New Worlds is a huge step in the right direction. Hope season 2 continues that momentum