Review for Star Trek: Resurgence
If you are a Star Trek fan or, at the very least, keep up with geek-related news, you would know that the franchise has taken a dark turn in recent years. Prequels such as Star Trek: Discovery or even the sequel show Star Trek: Picard have seemingly ditched the vision of Gene Roddenberry, trading utopian ideals and the image of humanity bettering itself for something post-utopian, becoming more akin to Game of Thrones (Alex Kurtzman, the current head of Star Trek projects, stated this during a panel.) The latest product, Star Trek: Resurgence, either did not get the memo or threw it in the trash. It successfully recaptures the original Star Trek’s essence, bringing a nostalgic feeling that longtime fans are missing from the newest iterations. On top of that, the gameplay is the familiar and straightforward Telltale formula with a few innovations that shake things up.
Developed by Dramatic Labs and published by Bruner House, Star Trek: Resurgence puts you in the shoes of two Federation crew members working on the U.S.S. Resolute. The first is Jara Rydek, the new XO (First Officer), working alongside Captain Solano and others to help lead the ship. The second is Petty Officer Carter Diaz, who helps maintain the ship’s structural integrity alongside the others on the lower decks. The mission: to facilitate peace talks between the Hotari and the Alydians while also investigating the appearance of a mysterious storm disrupting ship systems.
The two storylines converge and make for an engaging narrative with well-written characters (the first time through the game took more than nine hours to complete). All the officers and alien species you encounter embody that classic Star Trek spirit – similar to watching an episode of The Next Generation. They all have traumatic experiences, ambitions, or opinions that either go against the Federation’s “Prime Directive” or follow its protocols, sometimes blindly. The exemplary voice cast helps bring these characters to life, whether portraying rational Klingons, stoic leaders/officers, hotheaded or scared compatriots, etc. All the characters feel fleshed out, whether within the Federation or not, and their traits are interwoven into the story. This also goes for the callbacks to the original shows. These aren’t just moments that fans will point to and say, “WOW! I remember that from this episode.” They are essential to Resurgence and do not overshadow the already brilliant characters.
The Star Trek spirit also extends to the decisions you will have to make. Your progress will differ depending on your options, whether due to dialogue choices or situations that will impact the story. The possibilities themselves boil down to either being the professional Starfleet Officer you are expected to be or the opposite -- which resembles the choice between the original Star Trek ethos or the more recent series’ ethos -- at least, it feels that way to me. This will affect the opinions that others will have of Rydek or Diaz and even impact what actions characters will do for or against you. If this sounds like Telltale’s The Walking Dead or something similar, that’s because some of Resurgence’s development team are ex-Telltale employees. However, my choices mattered more here than in the past Telltale games because of how other characters reacted to and commented on Rydek and Diaz’s behaviors.
What really sells the classic Star Trek aesthetic is the overall presentation. The style screams Star Trek, from the various uniforms and alien designs to the ships and technology aboard. This also includes the soundscape, the most prominent being the teleporter, tricorder, and phaser blasts. They sound exactly as they would when watching the original Star Trek shows and movies. And the orchestral background music is composed in a way that would suit the soundtracks of the originals.
Granted, there are also minor but noticeable flaws in the presentation. There are times when there is a stark difference between the backdrop and the handmade environments, mainly when a few visual effects, such as dust particles in space, stick out like a sore thumb. There are also frame rate dips, but not to where it made the game unplayable. On top of that, while still appealing, the character models do not stand to the likes of other modern games. The facial and motion animations are expressive but use the same handmade presets most of the time. Finally, in a few instances, especially early on, the dialogue audio cuts abruptly, and the subtitles do not align with what the characters are saying -- or may never show up. Yet, this did not take me out of the experience or sour my opinion. This is STILL a work of Star Trek art to me, and I suspect that other Trek devotees will feel the same.
The gameplay will be familiar to Telltale fans, but they will also find a few changes. Resurgence features a point-and-click interface where you must either be close to the object you want to interact with or sometimes aim a pointer at the object to use it. Quick Time Events in-between require fast reflexes or trial and error to succeed. However, other challenges are introduced to mix things up, such as stealth sections to get past enemies; shootouts that mostly boil down to shooting the guy targeting your allies or shooting explosive objects; and flying a shuttle to a specific destination. There is also some light puzzle solving, either relatively or moderately complex. It shows that these challenges were crafted by veteran Telltale developers but that they wanted to improve upon a formula that, admittedly, was becoming a bit stale. It seems that Dramatic Labs learned from their previous projects and asked themselves, “What can we do to make the action stand out?”
As a story, Star Trek: Resurgence doesn’t feel like a pointless rehash of old ideas as in other franchises (I’m looking at you, Star Wars). Resurgence rejects the grim direction of the present-day Star Trek series. It does its own thing while staying true to what many fans want Star Trek to be. It is the ideal contemporary Star Trek, particularly if you choose a pure Federation playthrough.
