What do we think?
- Story — 10/10
- Graphics — 6/10
- Overall — 7.5/10
I purchased Star Trek: Resurgence during the Epic Games Store winter sale. More than 14 hours of gameplay later, I watched the end credits roll. As a Trekkie, I was emotionally moved and left with the feeling that this game had fully captured the spirit of Star Trek. From its opening scene, it drew me in and immersed me in its universe.
Easily the equal of the best-of-the-best Star Trek movies or seasons, the game focused on the interpersonal interactions with the crew, forcing me to make difficult or even impossible moral choices that affected lives and relationships. And of course, the fate of the entire galaxy against impossible odds depended on these choices, requiring cooperation from those same crew members based on my decisions.
Resurgence has a brilliantly written moving story about real people, since most of the team at Dramatic Labs worked at Telltale. Each character, whether alien or crew member, is defined by their beliefs, their past, and your choices. Beyond that, it is cool to interact with Star Trek tech on a fully functioning Federation research starship, the USS Resolute, set in the time frame after the Nemesis movie.
Alternating as one of two protagonists—Jara Rydeck, the Resolute’s new first officer; and Carter Diaz, a talented engineer—you experience an authentic Star Trek adventure that requires diplomacy, shuttlecraft piloting skills, fighting, and navigating challenging puzzles and threats with your tricorder and phaser. But most importantly, you make tough decisions that influence relationships and impact lives. Although you cannot affect the overall story’s ending, it is amazing for the player to be their own director.
The voice acting is stellar. Ambassador Spock’s intonation and characteristics are well-captured by the voice actor who took over from Nimoy. The music is from the Star Trek universe and works well to convey the emotion of what is happening on the screen. Although the graphics are fair and good enough, there are some frame rate issues and stuttering, even with a top-notch PC.
Besides its weakness with graphics, other irritations include too many QTEs (QuickTime events) or sudden prompts in-game that require you to perform a certain button action with little warning, or else suffer negative consequences that dropped the overall score. There were also some tedious interactions with objectives, and stealth sequences were way too easy. But, I’m thankful there was a replay on story mode (easy) for some action scenes where sometimes you felt like you were fighting the controls more than the enemy NPCs.
Overall, 7.5/10 and well worth playing; 8/10 if you are a Trekkie.