The crew of U.S.S. Resolute offers an adventure that's far from perfect but certainly engaging.
It’s an interesting time to be a Star Trek fan. For every Star Trek Strange New Worlds, there’s an announcement of a Riverdale-like Starfleet Academy. For every success like the final season of Star Trek Picard, there’s an illogical lack of announcement when it comes to Star Trek Legacy. There’s a Section 31 movie that no one’s really asked for… and Star Trek Discovery, a polarising show that’s leaving fans either mourning or celebrating as it enters its final season. All the animated stuff is pure gold.
Star Trek Resurgence only exacerbates this feeling, following on from Digital Extreme’s lackluster Star Trek movie tie-in, myriad (and rather hollow) mobile titles in Timelines, Legends and Fleet Command, a kid’s title in Star Trek Prodigy Supernova, and the 13-year-old MMO Star Trek Online. While there’s some enjoyment to be had in all of those, Trek fans never get anything as high quality or engaging as something like Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi Survivor.
To say that Resurgence can hit the highs of the likes of Jedi Survivor is doing the matter a disservice; this is the first title from Dramatic Labs, a new studio founded by a number of ex-Telltale devs. While they don’t have huge budgets to work with, the developers inside Dramatic Labs certainly have heart and a love — and proper understanding — of Star Trek.
Resurgence follows two main protagonists: Commander Jara Rydek and Chief Petty Officer Carter Diaz. Rydek, a half-human, half-Kobliad, is new to the U.S.S. Resolute — quite literally, as the game opens with her arrival — a Starfleet research vessel that’s undergoing extensive repairs after a catastrophic accident. Helping with some of those repairs is Diaz, a cocky yet likeable engineer who provides a real lower decks experience with fellow Petty Officers Edsilar and Maris. Jumping back and forth between the characters, players are taken from the bridge to a shuttlebay, down to an away team, sickbay and many other familiar Trek locales.
Dramatic Labs’ experience also means that Resurgence is quite different from the likes of Jedi Survivor in that it’s a narrative adventure first and foremost. The player has agency when it comes to choice — choosing to follow the captain’s orders to the letter, or picking the recommendation of your science head over that of Ops — and also needs to step up with tricorder scans, quicktime-fuelled movements and well-aimed phaser fire.
While Dramatic Labs doesn’t have a ton of budget, it’s nonetheless far easier to create alien character models than it is to put real-life actors in makeup; the result is a Starfleet ship that’s awash with diversity. While there are quite a few humans in Resolute’s senior staff, the ship itself is host to a Bolian second in command, a Vulcan head of engineering, a Trill officer in Edsilar and the deep cut that is Rydek herself. This is bolstered by the introduction of two new races, the Alydian and the Hotari.
As previously mentioned, Commander Rydek is half Kobliad, representing a race that’s featured in Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and even Enterprise. She’s reliant upon assistive technology, bound to a device that tells her when she needs an infusion of dueridium to reconstitute her cell structure. While this comes into play within Resurgence‘s narrative from time to time, it’s yet another step in inclusion, and one I welcome.
The deep cuts don’t end with the Kobliad; as promoted as early as the title was announced, a voice-alike recreates the role of Ambassador Spock mere years before he jumps into the Kelvin timeline. As detailed far more recently, Jonathan Frakes also reprises his role as Captain William T. Riker of the U.S.S. Titan, NCC-80201.
Spock’s inclusion is frankly for nostalgic purposes — fun for diehards, but nonetheless unnecessary and a stark contrast to nostalgia introduced in Star Trek Picard Season 3. Riker’s inclusion makes far more sense; Resurgence’s narrative revolves around the Tkon Empire and Portal Six Three, the subject of Star Trek The Next Generation’s first season episode, “The Last Outpost”.
Resurgence does a tremendous job of feeling like one of your favourite episodes of Berman-era Star Trek. When Resurgence works, it really works, arming you with a tricorder and solving quandaries with your mind, ethics and heart. I was particularly surprised — and, frankly, impressed — by a dive into Trill symbiosis that mirrored the main narrative. In a very Telltale-like manner, Resurgence forces you into a series of challenging — often, morality-charged — decisions with real repercussions.
There’s plenty of opportunity to act like a tyrant, but there’s equal chance to conduct yourself as a proper Starfleet officer, even if the price of doing the right thing is quite high. In these moments, Resurgence can consider itself as an equal to what I consider the best Trek game of all-time, Star Trek The Next Generation A Final Unity. The starship porn is pretty damn good too.
When it fails, Star Trek Resurgence feels like an early expansion of Star Trek Online, throwing some bugs, janky animations, copy/paste models — Scottish and non-Scottish Starfleet personnel and engineering tools alike — and too many phaser fights to the forefront. None of the phaser fights are fun — and none of them are really needed, especially in a franchise that encourages you to succeed through compassion — though they’re not as bad as one sequence in which pure stealth is required. It’s equal parts frustrating and boring. There’s also a weird insistence that Diaz needs to be straight and lusting after a fellow Petty Officer, and a frustrating lesbian encounter for Rydek that’s teased but seemingly not within reach.
Resurgence isn’t without bugs, either; I couldn’t pass one sequence that merely required me to aim and fire a phaser through a quicktime event. Luckily, I was able to bypass the block by engaging in that sequence using story mode, one that means you can’t fail an engagement. Points to Dramatic Labs here for not locking down any Achievements for those who choose to do so. Several instances within the game — generally revolving around Portal Six Three — have horrendous, clipping audio as well.
In the end, I’m willing to overlook most of these flaws as a Star Trek fan, though I’m sure those looking for a compelling, challenging narrative adventure will be able to do the same. The one cardinal sin that I can’t ignore is after finishing the adventure and finding out that a chapter select isn’t available upon completion. Early on I realised that most major decision points awarded an Achievement — so I got into the habit of picking the option I didn’t want, then quickly reloading my checkpoint to choose the better option — though this is unfeasable near the endgame. If I want to explore what would happen if one choice over the other was made, I’ll literally have to replay the entire game over to do so.
Dramatic Labs has created something special with Resurgence, populating the Star Trek universe in very much the same way that Picard Season 3 has just done; there are also a few other parallels in there that I’ll leave for the player to discover. The resulting work has left me envigorated and enthusiastic that the developer can revisit the crew of the Resolute sooner rather than later, continuing to explore the final frontier.
Star Trek Resurgence is available later today on Windows PC via the Epic Games Store, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS4 and PS5.
Star Trek Resurgence was reviewed using a promotional code on Xbox Series X, as provided by the developer. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.
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Star Trek Resurgence23 May 2023PC PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series S & X
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