Adam Lenhardt
Senior HTF Member
Anybody else play this yet?
Despite utilizing Unreal Engine 5, it's not really an especially immersive experience; it's not an open world game and the areas you're allowed to wander and the things you're allowed to interact with are very strictly prescribed.
Instead it's more like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, where your choices determine the outcome. You alternate between controlling two characters: One of Starfleet's rising stars, Jara Rydek, who has just been named as the new first officer of the USS Resolute (NCC-92317). And a lowly enlisted crewman who handles the grunt work in engineering for the humorless Vulcan chief engineer.
There are plenty of starships and plenty of aliens, but the main focus of the game is relationships. The Resolute has an over the hill captain more worried about repairing his reputation than successfully completing the mission, a science officer and and an operations officer who each think they should have been named first officer instead of an outsider, a green tactical officer who takes everything too personally, and a chief medical officer who is actively aggitating against the captain. How you manage all of these personalities and get them to do what needs to be done plays a big part in determining the success of the mission.
Leading the diplomatic mission that drives the story is Ambassador Spock, and the actor they got to voice him sounds exactly like Leonard Nimoy circa the first J.J. Abrams Trek movie. Jonathan Frakes also has an important supporting role as Riker during his tenure as captain of the USS Titan, as knowledge gained on one of the Enterprise-D's old away missions plays an important role in defusing the current crisis.
Storywise, it's probably the equivalent of one of the mini-arcs toward the end of "Enterprise"; more than a two-parter, but not a full season.
I really enjoyed the ride, but I'm not sure how much replayability there is, since I would imagine the broad story beats are pretty fixed, with the decisions made by the player changing who and how things happen but probably not changing the bigger picture in too significant of a way.
Despite utilizing Unreal Engine 5, it's not really an especially immersive experience; it's not an open world game and the areas you're allowed to wander and the things you're allowed to interact with are very strictly prescribed.
Instead it's more like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, where your choices determine the outcome. You alternate between controlling two characters: One of Starfleet's rising stars, Jara Rydek, who has just been named as the new first officer of the USS Resolute (NCC-92317). And a lowly enlisted crewman who handles the grunt work in engineering for the humorless Vulcan chief engineer.
There are plenty of starships and plenty of aliens, but the main focus of the game is relationships. The Resolute has an over the hill captain more worried about repairing his reputation than successfully completing the mission, a science officer and and an operations officer who each think they should have been named first officer instead of an outsider, a green tactical officer who takes everything too personally, and a chief medical officer who is actively aggitating against the captain. How you manage all of these personalities and get them to do what needs to be done plays a big part in determining the success of the mission.
Leading the diplomatic mission that drives the story is Ambassador Spock, and the actor they got to voice him sounds exactly like Leonard Nimoy circa the first J.J. Abrams Trek movie. Jonathan Frakes also has an important supporting role as Riker during his tenure as captain of the USS Titan, as knowledge gained on one of the Enterprise-D's old away missions plays an important role in defusing the current crisis.
Storywise, it's probably the equivalent of one of the mini-arcs toward the end of "Enterprise"; more than a two-parter, but not a full season.
I really enjoyed the ride, but I'm not sure how much replayability there is, since I would imagine the broad story beats are pretty fixed, with the decisions made by the player changing who and how things happen but probably not changing the bigger picture in too significant of a way.
