Wow, I didn't even know that ST: Resurgence had been pulled from stores. Huge Trek fan here, I played it and really enjoyed it as a Trek story authentic to the era it was being told in. Although I do remember having some quibbles with the way your choices played out in the end game.
I've been enjoying Voyager: Across The Unknown as an idle time game, but damn if the RNG mechanic doesn't drive me bloody crazy at times.
Shadow Frontier looks really interesting! Ro Laren was always one of the most interesting characters on TNG, so giving her top billing immediately gets my attention.
I suppose it's time to indulge and list my favourite Star Trek games over the years:
ST: 25th Anniversary & Judgement Rites - Interplay's point-and-click adventure masterpieces, with the voices of the OG cast on the CD-Rom versions! The puzzles frequently stumped me as a kid, but the space combat was easy - you just threw the Enterprise into reverse and the enemy AI would sit right in front of you, and the Enterprise would almost always outgun them toe-to-toe.
Starfleet Academy - fun albeit simple first-person space combat
Bridge Commander - fun albeit overly complex first-person space combat
Voyager: Elite Force - a great and very creative early 2000s FPS, that as a bonus let you walk around the virtual Voyager and explore to your heart's content.
Star Trek: Legacy - spanning all eras of the franchise of the time, with voices from all the Captains (including the highly elusive Avery Brooks!), you had a third-person space combat game that included some very light strategy elements too.
This is a really helpful list. I haven't played many Star Trek games. A bit of Bridge Commander and I think some Legacy, though I don't have a strong memory of it.
The strength of the shows is also the strength and weakness of making a Trek game, I think. As in: what is Star Trek, anyways? There have been so many diverse stories and genres explored in episodes of the show that it's hard to pin down.
There's plenty of space battles and phaser fights, but the peaceful philosophy of the Federation means that making an exclusively combat-focused game feels tonally jarring. There's lots of episodes about exploring alien cultures and diplomacy, but that can be difficult to turn into a game.
Trek games that do try to cover it all frequently feel like they've undercooked at least part of the gameplay. Trek games that focus on one element feel like they're leaving out important parts of what make Trek, Trek.
A more linear, character-focused story like they're selling Shadow Frontier is something that hasn't been attempted yet. Could be a good way to thread the needle!
Wow, I didn't even know that ST: Resurgence had been pulled from stores. Huge Trek fan here, I played it and really enjoyed it as a Trek story authentic to the era it was being told in. Although I do remember having some quibbles with the way your choices played out in the end game.
I've been enjoying Voyager: Across The Unknown as an idle time game, but damn if the RNG mechanic doesn't drive me bloody crazy at times.
Shadow Frontier looks really interesting! Ro Laren was always one of the most interesting characters on TNG, so giving her top billing immediately gets my attention.
I suppose it's time to indulge and list my favourite Star Trek games over the years:
ST: 25th Anniversary & Judgement Rites - Interplay's point-and-click adventure masterpieces, with the voices of the OG cast on the CD-Rom versions! The puzzles frequently stumped me as a kid, but the space combat was easy - you just threw the Enterprise into reverse and the enemy AI would sit right in front of you, and the Enterprise would almost always outgun them toe-to-toe.
Starfleet Academy - fun albeit simple first-person space combat
Bridge Commander - fun albeit overly complex first-person space combat
Voyager: Elite Force - a great and very creative early 2000s FPS, that as a bonus let you walk around the virtual Voyager and explore to your heart's content.
Star Trek: Legacy - spanning all eras of the franchise of the time, with voices from all the Captains (including the highly elusive Avery Brooks!), you had a third-person space combat game that included some very light strategy elements too.
Star Trek: Armada - a great RTS!
This is a really helpful list. I haven't played many Star Trek games. A bit of Bridge Commander and I think some Legacy, though I don't have a strong memory of it.
The strength of the shows is also the strength and weakness of making a Trek game, I think. As in: what is Star Trek, anyways? There have been so many diverse stories and genres explored in episodes of the show that it's hard to pin down.
There's plenty of space battles and phaser fights, but the peaceful philosophy of the Federation means that making an exclusively combat-focused game feels tonally jarring. There's lots of episodes about exploring alien cultures and diplomacy, but that can be difficult to turn into a game.
Trek games that do try to cover it all frequently feel like they've undercooked at least part of the gameplay. Trek games that focus on one element feel like they're leaving out important parts of what make Trek, Trek.
A more linear, character-focused story like they're selling Shadow Frontier is something that hasn't been attempted yet. Could be a good way to thread the needle!
Ok, this sounds great.
As the author of the book Star Trek Video Games, it’s nice to see we’re getting some bigger budget titles in more mainstream genres.
I really liked Star Trek: Resurgence, and even appeared on a panel with one of the writers at Star Trek-Las Vegas 2024.
On a whole, the Star Trek games have been worse than the Star Wars games… but they are also more varied and more interesting.