Star Trek is one of those television series that commonly gets made into online RPGs and action or 4X strategy games, but the universe and its interpersonal conflicts make great grounds for a story-based adventure game too. Like the interactive novel type of titles from Telltale, such as The Walking Dead and Tales From the Borderlands, in Star Trek: Resurgence, players are allowed to impact the adventure by being given a variety of choices as the story progresses. Those choices all have an influence on the course of the story.
These kinds of titles tend to play like visual novels with the occasional minigame or tough choice that may change dialogue later on in the story. The sci-fi political atmosphere and aesthetic of Star Trek lends itself well to this design.
Plot Ahoy!
The story of Star Trek: Resurgence is predominantly told from two different perspectives, following Commander Rydek, the new first officer of the USS Resolute, and Petty Officer Diaz, an engineer recently assigned to the ship. The impetus for the Resolute’s voyage is to escort Ambassador Spock to parley with two alien species, though unfortunately there’s an extra side to these negotiations with an additional force manipulating everyone involved in pursuit of a rare resource. Throughout the course of Star Trek: Resurgence, you’ll guide Rydek and Diaz on their diplomatic mission and will even be forced to decide the fate of their vessel and crew.
The more enfranchised you are with Star Trek lore, the more you’ll get out of the occasional references to The Next Generation or some other series while you play, but Resurgence never leaves you confused if this is your first foray into the Star Trek universe.
Anything that needs explained to understand the transpiring events is quickly explained, you just may not know why the USS Enterprise is mentioned periodically throughout the adventure. Overall, the developers did an excellent job explaining tidbits here and there to keep the plot moving along, without bogging down the pacing with references.
Notwithstanding, this is very refreshing if you were a fan of the older Star Trek series, when there were fewer action scenes and explosions. While not every character is likable or even endearing, the majority of the characters act like military personnel, which brought me back to watching The Next Generation reruns in the late 90s. For fans of newer Star Trek material, Resurgence could be a great way to ease yourself into the interpersonal conflicts of 90s Star Trek.
Review Notes
Star Trek: Resurgence primarily plays like an interactive choose-your-adventure novel, where you’ll often be given dialogue choices which can influence your relationships with the various characters and creatures you encounter throughout the story. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t much in the way of gameplay, however, as you’ll regularly be tasked with interacting with the environment, like scanning for issues that need fixed on the Resolute or using tractor beams to prevent a collision with a ship. There are some events or minigames that are timed, but the time limits themselves are not so strict that you’ll need to do rampant restarts in order to clear them properly.
It is worth noting, if you play Star Trek: Resurgence on PC, it can be jarring to play at times without a controller. Quick time events may occur, with objects flying at your character which you need to avoid, but if you’re playing with a mouse and keyboard the game keeps popping up “RT” and other unfamiliar button options since a controller wasn’t turned on at the time. This doesn’t happen consistently, thankfully, but it did pop up once or twice and quickly corrected itself after playing for a bit.
There’s two separate characters in Star Trek Resurgence who show different sides of the conflict, with Rydek being newer to the crew of the Resolute, coming in as First Officer after a particularly devastating loss. Diaz, on the other hand, is a member of the crew and gives you a greater insight into the other crew members, their tasks, and the drama pervading the USS Resolute. It was more interesting than I expected to see the conflicts of Star Trek: Resurgence being told from both a top-down and bottom-up character perspective, because oftentimes the decisions or dialogue choices you make as Rydek will affect Diaz or other members of the crew more deeply. On top of this, as players progress through the game, they’ll encounter popular characters like Spock, Ryker, and more that tickle the brains of even the most casual Trekkies.
Star Trek: Resurgence very much looks like a budget Telltale game, which makes sense considering this is a $25 release and not a full priced title. Character models and textures are very much more advanced than what you would see in Telltale’s The Walking Dead from 2012, but for some reason there are moments where the characters look strange or are rendered at substantially lower resolution. It could have been a rendering bug, as it wasn’t exactly something present at all times. The sound design of Resurgence, on the other hand, is incredible and feels right in line with episodes of The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine.
TLDR
Star Trek: Resurgence is a lovely little Star Trek adventure following two protagonists as you work through a sci-fi political plot and (hopefully) keep your crew alive. There are multiple endings, and there’s lots of minigames and quick time events. And so long as you don’t let the sometimes-janky visuals deter you, there’s a lot to love about the story being told in Resurgence. If you’ve played any Telltale games-style titles and appreciated them, Star Trek: Resurgence will be right up your alley.
Developers: Dramatic Labs
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Steam, Xbox One