Foreign Star Trek and a Telltale Style Adventure game seems like a match made in heaven. Star Trek’s best and most beloved stories are about how people relate to one another and the world around them. It’s about the choices we make when faced with tough decisions, what we could be if we learned from our past mistakes, and the strength gained by uniting diverse peoples and cultures. All of that can be hard to do in video games, which are typically more concerned with firing phasers and torpedoes.
Star Trek: Resurgence’s conversation-heavy approach doesn’t always work, but it never loses sight of what makes Star Trek, well, Star Trek. And when the developers at Dramatic Labs lock onto that signal, it nails the series’s appeal while providing an engaging story full of memorable characters.
Resurgence follows the crew of the USS Resolute, picking up a few years after the end of Star Trek Nemesis, the final Next Generation film. The story puts you in control of two characters: Jara Ryback, a humble yet accomplished Academy graduate who’s been brought in to be the ship’s new first officer, and Carter Diaz, a charming and funny engineer who enlists to get out and see the galaxy. Dramatic Labs establishes several conflicts immediately: the crew views Jara as an outsider who walked into a job she hasn’t earned, the Resolute’s commanding officer Captain Solano is desperate to salvage what’s left of his legacy after an accident and expects Jara to help him do it, even if it means breaking a few rules. Carter, on the other hand, is part of an overworked, understaffed engineering team that’s responsible for getting the Resolute up and running, all while he manages his Vulcan boss, his friendships, and his own personal ambitions.
From everything I’ve read and everything I’ve heard, we’re lucky you were available to us, coming from a premier Starship and all, to our little research vessel.
The Resolute is a science vessel, and its first mission back is a doozy: negotiating a settlement between two alien races feuding over who owns valuable dilithium mines. It’s a lot to take in, but the decision to frontload so much of the plot pays off. It sets up some great moments later on in the story where several of these issues rear their heads at the same time. But it only works because Dramatic Labs has spent so much time establishing who the characters are, what they want, and the problems they’re facing. And that’s just the opening hour. Things get much, much more complicated over the next eleven or so, but you won’t need to know much about Star Trek to follow along.
The perspective effectively bounces between Jara and Carter depending on the situation. Sometimes that means giving orders from the bridge or leading an away team; other times, it means rerouting power to a critical system. Jara and Carter rarely directly interact with one another, but both of them play important roles in the story. In one early scene, Carter is out on the ship’s hull repairing a critical system while Jara is on the bridge. How well you do as Carter affects what happens to the ship, but the decisions you make as Jara affect Carter. If something goes wrong, you’ll have to make these choices quickly because you’re on a timer, and you have to respond only as one or the other, not both. But choosing not to decide is a choice too. Resurgence gives you a fair amount of time to think, but you have to be decisive. The decisions you make don’t just affect the ship or the safety of the other characters; they change how they see your characters too. If Jara chooses to defy Solano’s orders, that has repercussions in their relationship. If you alienate a member of the bridge crew, you probably won’t be able to ask them for help later in critical moments. Carter’s interpersonal relationships aren’t as politically fraught, but how he reacts under pressure can quite literally mean the difference between life and death. While very few of these interactions are things so relationship-defining that you can’t fix them later, they can play a big role at later moments in the story.
Much of the team at Dramatic Labs used to work at Telltale, and the quality of the writing reflects that. All of Resurgence’s characters feel like real people. What they do is defined by what they believe, what’s happened to them, and the choices you make. All of that comes across whether you’re watching Carter joke with his best friend, palling around with the Hatari Ambassador as Jara, or just chatting with Ambassador Spock. Speaking of Spock, Piota Michael takes over the role from the late Leonard Nimoy, and he absolutely nails every facet of Nimoy’s famously distinct voice and intonation.
The entire cast is fantastic, though Josh Keaton and Chrissy Abajos are standouts as Carter and Jara respectively. And while it’s not up to the standard of something like God of War, Resurgence looks pretty good. Character models, especially their faces, are beautifully animated and full of personality, and many of the late-game environments are stunning. There’s a little jank here and there, things like the walk animations, but it’s easy to forget about it when the characters emote so well.
“We are all hands on deck right now, which means if you are not at your post at the appointed time, I do not have someone to replace you.”
One of Resurgence’s greatest strengths though is that it makes its scenarios feel like there’s no right answer. You can see how your decisions change your relationships in the pause menu, but there’s no morality meter or signposting to suggest a correct course of action. Other characters will tell you what they think, but that’s all. And these decisions can get complicated when the ship is in danger and the bridge crew offer two options: who do you side with, the senior officer with more experience or the junior officer who sounds like her idea might just be crazy enough to work? If crew members need rescuing but doing so might endanger the ship, do you risk everything for them or let them go it alone? Who do you trust? Watching these decisions play out can be both thrilling and devastating. Calls don’t always play out in obvious ways, for both better and worse, but almost everything feels earned. What happens depends on the choices you make, not because the plot demanded it.
Sometimes, however, you’ll make what feels like an important decision only to realize later that it didn’t matter much. At one point, you’re sent to rescue a group of people by beaming them away from impending disaster and have to choose between saving them and gravely injuring a crew member. But if you choose to save the group, its leader thanks you and then doesn’t really appear again, even when it would have made sense. This happens more than once. Choices are generally set up extremely well and are emotionally effective in the moment, but the lack of meaningful consequences can make some of them feel like filler in hindsight.
Of course, all of those dialogue options and moral dilemmas are broken up by Resurgence’s respectable moment-to-moment action. There’s a lot of variety: you’ll fly shuttles, fire phasers, command the Resolute from the bridge, pull in debris, solve engineering puzzles, scan things with your tricorder, and sneak around
hostile environments. And nearly all of it is engaging and feels like what you should be doing in a Star Trek game. Best of all, you’re building skills that can be used in more difficult, stressful scenarios later on. The only annoyance among them is the tricorder segments. What you need to scan isn’t always obvious, and it’s easy to spend a few minutes looking for the last piece of information you need. Resurgence tries to help you out by having the tricorder beep when you’re near something that can be scanned, but it doesn’t distinguish between something that can be scanned and something you already have scanned. In a small environment with a lot of scannable objects, this can mean the tricorder is constantly beeping, which isn’t really helpful.
The PC version also has some technical issues. There are no graphic settings aside from resolution, and it runs at a locked 30 frames per second, though it dips significantly below that when a lot is happening on screen. More annoyingly, the subtitles often disappear entirely or don’t match the spoken dialogue in ways that can be jarring or tonally inconsistent. There’s also no chapter select option so you can easily go back and try out different choices at specific instances. However, Resurgence does track your choices so you can revisit them afterwards.
Resurgence does an admirable job of capturing the spirit of Star Trek. This is a series that fundamentally believes in doing the right thing and treating others with compassion, and that’s reflected by the many well-written decisions you’re presented with here. The choices are almost never easy, but the lack of a morality system or any indication of what you’re supposed to do creates a sense of freedom to act how you imagine these characters would. And your choices matter. And that’s what Star Trek is really about: choice. The choice to be better today than we were yesterday, to accept one another, to try and do the right thing. Resurgence gets that. Engage.
For more, check out our reviews of Tron Identity and Sherlock Holmes The Awakened. And for everything else, stick with IGN.
Star Trek: Resurgence reviewed by Will Borger on PC, also available on PlayStation and Xbox.
Resurgence does an admirable job of capturing the spirit of Star Trek in a Telltale style game. The choices are almost never easy, but the lack of a morality system or any indication of what you’re “supposed” to do creates a sense of freedom to act how you imagine these characters would.
#IGN #Gaming #StarTrek
After all these years someone did a star trek game right! Its a little clunky but has all the great components which mades star trek great in the 90s.
What does one need to play this on a PC?
Every Star Trek fan must check this game out. It really captures the spirit of the franchise.
No character creation?
Pass.
Why is the reviewer yelling?
Wait this just looks like a bad mass effect
Basically this game is like those of us who remember "choose your own adventure" books. Tons of console games out there which are better than just shooting things but these story games get boring after awhile.
I'd buy this but no way at full price
So, this is a Telltale game? Meh.
The Star Trek IP is perfect for the Telltale style.
Had a fantastic time with the game. Finally a real star trek feeling again after these horrible tv shows over the last couple of years
THIS GAME IS SO AWESOME!!!!!!!! 7/10
?
Shame it doesn't let you create your own character
so it's like a much better version of Mass Effect I'd might play it
Maybe I'll plan on getting this Star Trek game for the holiday season for my XBOX
Is it like alpha protocol?
"The PC version also has some technical issues."
Well what a surprise.
Calm down.
I'll wait for the next armada
clearly, based on the content of the review, it deserves an 8 rating. Wonder if Reshade could noticeably improve the graphics
Why is nobody talking about this game?
So he praises the game 99% of the review, then gets to the verdict and the music builds to a crescendo, and boom ! 7!!! I know that isn't a bad score, but he may want to explain why a 7 , since he said very few negative things. Do the tricorder sections bring it down that much???
Damn here was me hoping for another game like legacy and encounters 😢
the "gamified" mechanics can be a bit groan inducing but the story and characters kept m eplaying and enjoying this game.
Almost done with the game. Finally a great Star Trek game. We need more of this. Lovin' it.
Looks like garbage
Reviewed by Will BORGer. Hmm..
1:06 One year…
This reads like 9/10
Not the best voiceover from Ryan. Felt a bit uncomfortable and shouty. Methinks the review needed another round of revisions or someone else narrating it.
Easily the best Star Trek story based games every made and probably top 5 all time as far as Star Trek games ever, if not top 5.
Shame it didn't come out on PC… Ehhh…
The graphics look so bad
Cartoony
😂 classic IGN. “Amazing story, incredible dialogue, fantastic cast – meh gets a 7”.
This is the best ST game we can get as of now. If you love TNG – this is a must. Great story, great characters (cameos!). Also, there's a point where you have to actually pause the game and WATCH s01e05 of TNG to get the most of the lore. Awesome!
The game is fun, but sadly it's one of those games where the choices are an illusion. Certain people will die and certain events will play out and you cannot change that, which is a shame. There are far better designed games, like the Dark Pictures Anthology and Until Dawn, etc, there the choices make a real difference. So, Star Trek is great to play through… ONCE, but sadly it has ZERO replay value.
Considering the lackluster of star trek games these past couple of decades. a 7/10 is high praise for this franchise.
Only TNG a final unity does it better
This is more a playthrou then a review. SHame on you.
Not sure about the graphics.. looks like something from previous console gen, not current…
Top tier game for me loved it make it so
WHY you YELLInG SO LOUD THE WHOLE TIME..??!
..its unbelievable loud …and so annoying….
holy the ships classes alone.. we can meet again even when its a sequence in the game is awesome…
but the engine why why why. . . unreal 5 is there ..oh why…the poor animations kills me too every time…the rest looks well thought. .
They need to turn this reviewer’s microphone down a lot.
Epic Exclusive? I'll wait for a GOG release.
An absolute belter of a story, great characters and choices that have consequences that are often unforeseeable but always make sense. 10/10 from me.
No Steam = No buy.
Glowing praise > 7/10
Graphics look rough.