Star Trek: Resurgence Review (cold.fire)
Do you ever wish you could piss off everyone you talk to? Well I've got good news for you! All you've got to do is make a choice that feels right for a Starfleet officer, and then literally everybody around you gets upset and melodramatic about it. This game is basically a frustration simulator!
I really did want to like this game... I've played so few Star Trek games, and on the outside this one sounded pretty neat so I was excited to give it a try! Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it. I will go into more detail below, but for those who just want the TL;DR - The gameplay is boring and at times feels utterly pointless, the narrative is badly written and your choices don't make much difference in the overall story, and the animation quality is really cheap-looking. That last one I can kinda forgive for being a low-budget game, but the first two just made me lose interest in playing after a while. I couldn't even make it to the end of the story, it was THAT BAD. It may also be worth noting that I have not played any "Telltale" style games prior to this, and so my expectations may have been a little high going in...
Okay, here are some things I DID appreciate about ST: Resurgence:
- Many references to and deeper explorations into an obscure episode of TNG (the one that introduces the Ferengi in Season 1)
- Getting to see more of Riker on the Titan.
- Exploring an era of Star Trek that takes place after Voyager.
- Switching back and forth between two characters, each seeing a different angle on the story, is a nice mechanic.
Now, for the negative qualities of ST: Resurgence:
- Your choices basically amount to "which person am I trying NOT to piss off" because every choice will almost assuredly anger somebody, it's just a matter of picking sides (without really knowing why, because you don't have all the information yet).
- Many of the characters have extremely unprofessional reactions to your choices and the events going on around them, which really gave me the impression that the writers hadn't watched any Star Trek before making this game.
- The consequences of your choices are often the opposite of what you anticipated, and don't make a lot of sense half the time.
- The "minigame" segments of the story where you have to interact with tools or fly a shuttle... are HORRIBLY bad. Like, "why did they even bother" bad. Not only does it completely destroy the pacing of the story every time, but the controls are just AWFUL on PC. The game would have been noticeably better if they had dropped all the minigames and just left it as a visual novel with dialogue choices and that's it.
- The chapters can be a bit long at times, and there are very few "save" points where you can quit the game and come back to it without losing a lot of progress... that is an unfortunate choice that may be inconvenient for many. In fact, the entire save system could use some work, because it's difficult to know where your last checkpoint even was (if there were any mid-chapter checkpoints at all).
- There was a noticeable lack of polish on this game, which I try not to put too much emphasis on when it comes to lower budget indie games, but from the sound of it, these devs have worked on many games of a similar style to this in the past, so I am a bit disappointed that the experience I got didn't feel like that.
So, in conclusion: I was hoping for a more refined experience than what I was presented with here, that much is clear. When I think of a franchise like Star Trek... I guess I expected it to be a bit better? Unfortunately, what I got was a very mundane and average "choose your own adventure" game with a lazily applied Star Trek veneer on top. If you're a die-hard Trek fan interested in trying out this game for the story or the gameplay... just go watch some Star Trek instead. You'll probably be happier.