Star Trek: Resurgence feels like playing an episode of TNG

There have been several video game iterations of Gene Roddenberry’s prolific Star Trek franchise over the years. Many of them have attempted to capture the essence of the various films and TV shows that fans have enjoyed for decades, but in most instances it has boiled down to the action-oriented aspects of the franchises. That’s not to say there aren’t good Trek games out there, Bridge Crew and Star Trek: Online come to mind as two good examples, but nothing has ever quite captured the diplomacy and moral questions that are at its core. Enter the fine folks over at Dramatic Labs and their upcoming title Star Trek: Resurgence, which, after a brief hands-on demo of a PC build during GDC, is feeling like it might be the most Star Trek game ever made.

Players will take on the role of two different characters throughout the course of Star Trek: Resurgence. Jara is the new half-Kobliad First Officer of the USS Resolute. She’s joining the crew at a time of low morale after a recent failed experiment ended with the deaths of several crewmates. The captain of the ship, Solano is hoping that Jara will be able to gain the trust of the crew quickly and support him in a new high priority mission from Starfleet.

An ionic storm stronger than any on record has been sending out a pulse through the cosmos. The source of the storm happens to be in the Hotari system which finds itself in the middle of a conflict between the working class Hotari who mine dilithium and the ruling class Alydian who supply them with the technology to do the mining. The crew of the Resolute are now tasked with both escorting a diplomat (who should be quite familiar to long-time Trek fans) as well as investigating the ionic storm.

The other playable character is a lower deck Ensign named Carter Diaz that works in engineering. Carter is very intelligent and, from my brief time playing as him, struck me as confident and possibly a little cocky during a brief interaction with his Vulcan supervisor. It was a bit hard to nail down either of the playable characters' personalities though, as much of that will most likely be decided by the player themself.

The team at Dramatic Labs has several Telltale Games veterans as part of its metaphorical bridge crew. So, while Resurgence will feature some moments of action, the focus will be on the narrative driven aspects of the game. The dialog choices and decisions you make will likely be the most important part of the game overall and of course will end up affecting key moments. In fact, just about every aspect of my brief demo was dialog. There were a few moments where I got to wander around the bridge conversing with the crew and a brief walk through the halls to engineering, but it is clear that this is going to be a narrative to the front game. And frankly, I’m all for it.

I am a huge TNG fan and while there was plenty of action-packed excitement to be had in the TV series, there was just as much tension and drama in the many moral and social aspects of the show. While my time with Star Trek: Resurgence may not have put me in the briefing room of the Enterprise, it did make me feel like I was right smack dab in the middle of an episode while making comments and asking questions in a briefing on the Resolute. I’ve played my share of Telltale titles in the past, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt like a franchise has fit the narrative genre as much as Star Trek: Resurgence does. It’s honestly a bit odd to feel excited about making dialog choices for several hours, but that’s exactly what’s going on now. For the moment, Star Trek: Resurgence has a course set for a Q2 2022 release on PC, PS5, PS4, and Xbox Series X/S. We’ll be sure to keep you up to date as more details are released. In the meantime, live long and prosper!

Blake Morse

Events Coordinator

Blake has been writing and making videos about pop-culture and games for over 10 years now. Although he'd probably prefer you thought of him as a musician and listened to his band, www.cartoonviolencemusic.com. If you see him on the street, buy him a taco or something. Follow him on twitter @ProfRobot