stellaris vs star trek

Star Trek: Infinite review

It's stellaris, but not as we know it., our verdict.

Compelling, but not quite there yet. Needs two seasons to grow the beard.

PC Gamer's got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.

What is it?  Paradox style grand strategy, but Star Trek. Release date October 12, 2023 Expect to pay $30/£27 Developer Nimble Giant Publisher Paradox Interactive Reviewed on  Intel i5, 16GB RAM, GTX 1660 Link Official site

I am opening this review with a warning: I am going to spend a lot of time here talking about a different game. This isn't something I usually do, but as you may have guessed from the screenshots, Infinite is very much built on the chassis of Stellaris with some appropriately Star Trek twists. Consider it the Napoleon: Total War to Stellaris's Empire: Total War: a more focused, narrative spin off from a larger and more sprawling game.

The game is set firmly in the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine era (it actually begins with the Romulan attack on Khitomer, where Worf's family were killed) and portrays the Federation, Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians as four superpowers locked in constant competition. In my game for example, an early decision brought the Federation and the Klingons closer together, and the Romulans and Cardassians immediately responded by forming a counter-alliance to stop the perceived threat.

Unlike Stellaris, Infinite is only semi-random. The four great powers collide in the middle of the map in roughly the same way every game while the rest of the galaxy is full of randomly placed "minor powers". So a classic Federation member like Trill can feasibly spawn on the opposite side of the galaxy and end up getting invaded by Romulans. It's not unlike joining a Stellaris game a third of the way in, after the big power blocks have formed. For the most part this works surprisingly well, but there are some oddities: for example playing as the Federation I was prompted to colonise the uninhabited planet of Denobula. I know, Nimble Giant, I like to pretend Enterprise never existed sometimes too.

Here's the good news: Star Trek: Infinite expresses the Federation fantasy far better than Stellaris ever did. You can genuinely expand by diplomacy here, buttering up minor species and inviting them, one by one. The other playable factions have their own spin on this, with the Romulans setting up puppet governments and the Cardassians using something similar to Stellaris's overlord system. The Klingons just invade people, they don't really do subtle.

One of the other big changes from Stellaris will be familiar to players of other Paradox games. There's now a narrative structure to the game in the form of a branching mission tree, where events can be triggered by objectives as exciting as "have Bajor join the federation" or as banal as "survey 10 systems". Some of these events follow classic Trek storylines, but others present compelling 'what if' moments, like Romulan and Vulcan reunification. They're as much about steering your playstyle as getting the rewards, and I ended up enjoying them a great deal.

Continuing mission

One of the best of these mission chains is the Enterprise itself. Completing the first step will reward you with a jack of all trades super ship that is equally adept at science, war and diplomacy. Sending the Enterprise out to do various tasks will reward you with a Next Generation crew member, who might give you a generic empire bonus, or might physically appear as a recruitable leader. Other major and minor Trek characters can also emerge in this fashion, meaning that, entirely organically, I once ended up in a situation where the Enterprise was valiantly holding the line against an unstoppable Borg sphere, only to be rescued by Benjamin Sisko commanding a fleet of Voyagers.

I once ended up in a situation where the Enterprise was valiantly holding the line against an unstoppable Borg sphere, only to be rescued by Benjamin Sisko commanding a fleet of Voyagers.

At this point I have to talk about the targ in the room. Stellaris already has a Star Trek mod, so why should you pay for a game when a mod is free? Well Stellaris's New Horizons mod is a sprawling epic that covers the entirety of Star Trek history and every faction in the galaxy, while Infinite is focused on the Alpha and Beta quadrants of the Next Generation era, and frankly I think it's better for it. This means, for example, that the Borg are more akin to the terrifying invader from nowhere they are in the show, rather than another player faction. It's also, paradoxically, the cheaper option if you don't already own a full deck of Stellaris DLC.

Something Infinite should have over any mod is polish, and while it does feel less clunky than New Horizons, there are still more issues than there should be at launch. Like a decidedly un-silent notification for a "silent alarm", or the strange bug that caused the voiceover to claim a character had died every five minutes, or the time I ended up with two Rikers. Although to be fair that last one also happened in the show.

It's things like this, and the more direct ports from Stellaris, that make Infinite feel a little unfinished. I don't mind that Nimble Giant haven't really changed the planet building interface, but I feel like I probably shouldn't be trading energy credits for alloys as the famously post capitalist Federation. There's also a disappointing lack of interactions with pre-FTL civilisations, a Prime Directive dilemma or two would've been nice. In the end I stopped playing well before the victory conditions, but that's also frequently true of Stellaris, a game I've played for hundreds of hours.

Nevertheless at the end of every review I ask myself "do I still want to play this game some more, now that I'm not being paid?" and the answer here is yes. I really do want to try that reunification story arc, I want to see if I can evacuate the Romulans before their sun explodes this time (sorry guys), I want to actually get the Enterprise E before Jean Luc Picard dies of old age.

I don't mark games on what they could be, but I certainly hope that Infinite gets the same kind of post release support as its bigger brother. I think it would be fascinating (captain) to see how the two games grow and inform one another over the years. Now that would be the best of both worlds.

Star Trek: Infinite reviews crater as Paradox announces it's dead, Jim

I've played the Star Trek game of my dreams, and it's a grand strategy game

Gigantic: Rampage Edition launches to 'mostly positive' reviews on Steam, but server problems are once again causing headaches

Most Popular

By Abbie Stone 28 March 2024

By Dave James 28 March 2024

By Jon Bailes 27 March 2024

By Jacob Ridley 27 March 2024

By Dave James 27 March 2024

By Robert Jones 27 March 2024

By Rich Stanton 26 March 2024

By Oscar Taylor-Kent 26 March 2024

By Tom Francis 25 March 2024

By Ross Atherton 25 March 2024

Filed under:

Star Trek: Infinite leans in to the best of Trek

Paradox Interactive’s 4X strategy game rewards role-playing and replaying

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Star Trek: Infinite leans in to the best of Trek

Star Trek and strategy games seem like they should fit like a snug, spandex spacesuit. While, in the past, game studios have attempted to apply the Star Trek brand to sexier game genres like first-person shooters or flight combat simulators, this often felt like a sweaty attempt to make Trek fit into a non-fan’s definition of “cool.” Thankfully, Trek’s fortunes seem to be changing, as for the second time this year , it’s been applied to a game that both fits the brand and can stand up next to other titles in its genre. Developed by Nimble Giant Entertainment (the 2016 Masters of Orion remake) and published by Paradox Interactive ( Crusader Kings , Stellaris ), Star Trek: Infinite is a 4X grand strategy game that shares a lot of qualities with a good Star Trek episode: It’s cerebral, accessible, occasionally a little clumsy, and overall a good time.

Star Trek: Infinite gives you access to the Alpha and Beta Quadrants of the Milky Way Galaxy, where most Star Trek stories are set. There, you take command of one of the four most prominent factions in the mythology and race the other three to become the dominant force in the cosmos. The object of the game is to expand your empire and to absorb as many of the region’s smaller civilizations as possible over the course of three centuries, but each faction goes about this in their own unique mode. The benevolent United Federation of Planets makes friends by sharing the bounty of its post-scarcity economy. The enigmatic Romulan Empire uses espionage and political trickery to set up puppet states, while the Klingon Empire prefers the direct approach, overwhelming its enemies like a gleeful storm of war. The Cardassian Union occupies and enslaves its neighbors for the benefit of its resource-poor homeworld. Beyond their specific forms of conquest, each faction faces parallel challenges of exploring the final frontier, acquiring and managing resources, and balancing the myriad responsibilities of maintaining a massive galactic government.

Veterans of the 4X grand strategy genre (particularly Stellaris , this game’s direct ancestor) will be at home playing Infinite , dispatching starships across the 2D map to survey new star systems and colonize the habitable planets therein. Victory requires tempering your ambition and expanding your empire at a sustainable rate without allowing yourself to be outpaced by your opponents. Players are guided through the process by a faction-specific mission tree that encourages you to play to your empire’s strengths. The Federation’s biggest advantage is that its ability to provide nearly infinite creature comforts means rarely worrying about internal stability, so you can feel free to start exploring strange new worlds right away. In contrast, the Cardassian mission tree gives you a quota of how many forced labor camps you should build to meet your material demands, suggesting that you start building reeducation centers to keep the populace devoted to the state. Completing challenges on the mission tree grants you bonuses that will keep you competitive as the other three major powers carve out their own corners of the map.

That’s not to say that Star Trek: Infinite keeps the player totally on rails. Role-playing your faction to match their modus operandi from the TV shows will get you reliable results, but there’s nothing to stop you from veering from the canon. Each mission tree has a specifically divergent path you can follow, such as fast-tracking the peaceful reunification of the Romulan and Vulcan peoples or allowing the Federation to devolve into a fascist police state, but you can also ignore the tree completely and experiment with your own stories. Each faction has unique traits and capabilities that make it impossible to perfectly imitate the play style of another, but there’s plenty of wiggle room if you feel like creating new obstacles for yourself on repeat playthroughs. The canonical path, however, offers the least resistance and the swiftest route to victory.

I began my adventure, as I imagine most players will, with the Federation campaign, which has the most faction-specific features and perks and the friendliest difficulty curve. The Federation benefits from beginning with four stable founding worlds and a plentiful supply of Energy, which is the game’s primary currency. There are multiple minor powers in the vicinity who are easily persuaded to join your ranks, granting you developed worlds and additional starfleets upon their admission to the Federation. The challenge for the Federation is to bolster your military fleet proportional to the size of your territory, at least until you can amass so much wealth that your opponents can’t hope to overpower you. On the default difficulty of “Ensign,” I became too big to fail centuries ahead of schedule, but even on “Commodore,” the fourth of six difficulty levels against AI opponents, I was able to eke out a win long before the start of the official endgame.

The three playable alien empires are each more challenging in different ways, befitting their disposition in the canon. Klingons can only expand their territory by force, but their warships are cheap and the Empire receives a cultural benefit every time one of their own ships is destroyed in battle. The Romulan campaign has an extra crisis to manage, as their home star system will be destroyed by a supernova a quarter of the way through the game, but they have the ability to seduce minor powers into becoming puppet states that feed them resources until they’re ready to be fully assimilated. The Cardassian homeworld operates at a deficit, but they also begin the game with an occupied minor power (Bajor, of course) and the ability to work non-Cardassian laborers literally to death to maximize resource production. (The player receives annual mortality reports from their labor camps.) It can take time to adjust oneself to the nasty ways that these empires exploit their advantages (did I mention the labor camp mortality reports?) but they certainly differentiate the gameplay between campaigns.

Players face a variety of crises, anomalies, and dilemmas throughout the campaign, presented in the form of two- to three-paragraph story cards and an array of options for pushing the story forward. Some of these stories are directly based on episodes of The Next Generation , while others are original to the game. They’re all written in a prose style that’s more flippant than you might expect from Trek, though in line with the flavor text of Stellaris or a tabletop strategy game. What’s impressive about the setup of these story scenarios is how, despite their costs and rewards being the same across campaigns, I found that the material needs of whatever empire I was playing nearly always guided me towards making the kinds of choices that my faction would likely make on the show. Choosing the most humane or diplomatic option was always practical as the Federation, but often not affordable as the Klingons or Cardassians. It feels appropriate to Trek’s ethos that the galaxy’s more brutal powers make some dubious or cruel choices, not because they’re “evil,” but because that’s where their circumstances lead them. Disrupting that is possible, but it takes a lot more work.

The game’s most underwhelming gameplay element is the Borg, which is included as a non-player faction that intermittently invades your space. The Borg is positioned as the game’s foremost ongoing threat, regardless of which faction you play, but on default settings, it’s little more than a nuisance. (Thankfully, they have their own dedicated difficulty slider during game setup.) By contrast, the Nausicaan pirates are the much larger problem, attacking more frequently and in greater force, but with no corresponding story importance.

Infinite also has some UI issues that only get more frustrating the deeper you get into the game. While it’s easy to move the camera directly to the location of any planet or starship you control, the same is not true for mission locations, which might even be in places you’ve yet to explore. The game’s search function will take you to any star system, but not every mission description specifies where it takes place, requiring that you scroll around an ever-expanding galactic map looking for a yellow pulsing indicator. The designers have also clearly made a remarkable effort to bring authentic Trek flavor to the game (even including a full Klingon language audio track in the Deluxe Edition), but that means it’s all the more jarring whenever I come across terminology that has been held over from Stellaris , from which Infinite branched at the start of development. (Never have the terms “voidcraft” or “highway node” been used in the Trek canon, though franchise-specific equivalents do exist.)

These criticisms are mostly quibbles. As with any 4X game, what’s most fun about Star Trek: Infinite is the challenge of seeing how many plates you can keep spinning. A century into the game’s timeline (or a few hours in real time), you’ll be managing the population and production of a dozen colony worlds, sprawling civilian and military starfleets, ground forces, a spy network, three streams of research projects, and your relationships with multiple friendly and hostile factions. Some of these pursuits can be selectively automated, allowing you to focus on the ones you most enjoy. The ability to control the passage of time means that you can get as granular as you want, to micromanage to your heart’s content, or to go full speed ahead and put out fires as they erupt. Star Trek: Infinite ’s flexibility accounts for a lot of its replay appeal — as does the presumption that, as a Paradox game, official expansions and polished community mods are surely forthcoming. There is, after all, still half a galaxy to explore.

Star Trek: Infinite was released on Oct. 12 on Mac and Windows PCs. The game was reviewed on PC using a pre-release download code provided by Paradox Interactive. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here .

Loading comments...

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Star Trek: Infinite Really Does Just Look Like the Ultimate Stellaris Mod

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Stellaris has long had a history of rich and deep total conversion mods, fan-made overhauls that let players take one of the most successful space strategy games of recent history and turn it into everything from Warhammer to Star Wars . Trek mods are no stranger to it either, but now they have new competition: an official Trek spin on 4X gaming from Paradox themselves.

Previously revealed at Summer Games Fest last weekend in a non-gameplay trailer, today, celebrating the fabled Captain Picard Day , Paradox and developer Nimble Giant Entertainment dropped new details on Star Trek: Infinite , a new game set in the era of the late 24th century that lets players take command of iconic Star Trek civilizations to Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate their way across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Head on over to the official Trek website to see the new trailer.

These Are the Best Desktop Apps for Gmail

9 of the Best Flops on Display at the Museum of Failure

From Disney+ to Max, Here Are the Best Streaming Services

And yep: there’s no surprises that at least on the surface this very much looks like Paradox’s work on Stellaris already—similar mission trees, similar conversation windows, a similar aesthetic. It just so happens to be with a Star Trek coat of paint, as players pick one of four factions (the Federation, the Romulan Star Empire, the Cardassian Union, and the Klingon Empire) to explore the galaxy. Each faction promises unique differences beyond aesthetics, including storyline quests and different strengths and weaknesses to how they navigate conflict, diplomacy, and resource management.

Honestly though? There’s nothing wrong with Infinite just being an official spin on Stellaris ’ mechanics, from the publisher that makes Stellaris . It’s a pretty perfect fit for Trek , and given the popularity of already turning Stellaris into Trek in the community anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out with official backing.

Star Trek: Infinite will launch on PC sometime in Fall 2023, and is available to wishlist on Steam now.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

More from Gizmodo

The Best Free AI Art Generators, Ranked

The Best Free TV and Movie Channels For Every Major Streaming Device

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

Click here to read the full article.

Recommended Stories

'sasquatch sunset' is so relentlessly gross that people are walking out of screenings. star jesse eisenberg says the film was a ‘labor of love.’.

“There are so many movies made for people who like typical things. This is not that," the film's star told Yahoo Entertainment.

76ers' statue for Allen Iverson draws jokes, outrage due to misunderstanding: 'That was disrespectful'

Iverson didn't get a life-size statue. Charles Barkley and Wilt Chamberlain didn't either.

Travis Kelce receives his University of Cincinnati diploma, chugs a beer on stage

Nobody is going to change the Kelce brothers.

Scott Boras loses Jordan Montgomery as client after super-agent's disaster offseason

Boras reportedly demanded at least $170 million for Montgomery. The pitcher ended up getting $25 million.

O.J. Simpson dead at 76 after battle with cancer, family announces

O.J. Simpson, one of the most infamous figures in U.S. history, had been battling cancer.

Influencer fatigue finds its next victim: Coachella 2024

“We built a full city in the desert, and now, it’s a little too big," an event ticketing expert told Yahoo Entertainment about Coachella.

2025 Toyota 4Runner (finally!) revealed, and the new Trailhunter is extremely cool

The 2025 Toyota 4Runner is finally arriving this fall with a full lineup including returning TRD Pro and new Trailhunter. Hybrid power now available.

Republicans (?!?) are killing a tax cut

In a flip of the usual priorities, Senate Republicans seem likely to kill a set of tax cuts that have already passed the House and are broadly popular. Here's why.

2024 NBA Awards: All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie selections

Here's one voter's awards ballot with All-NBA, All-Defensive and All-Rookie selections.

2024 NBA Awards: Official picks for MVP, Rookie of the Year and every individual honor

With the 2023-24 NBA season coming to an end, here's one voter's award ballot, breaking down the top candidates — and declaring the winners.

2024 NFL Draft guide: 32 teams, 32 needs, picks, best fits and more

What selections does your team have? What areas should it address? Who's the dream fantasy pick? We cover all that and more for every franchise right here.

Adam Silver: Raptors’ Jontay Porter accused of ‘cardinal sin’ in betting scandal, full ban a possibility

The league is investigating Jontay Porter over several betting irregularities in which player props on him all hit after he left games early.

Shohei Ohtani scandal: The 5 most surprising revelations of Ippei Mizuhara's criminal complaint

Ippei Mizuhara allegedly stole $16 million to help pay for his gambling habit that included 19,000 illegal bets.

2024 WNBA Mock Draft 2.0: Caitlin Clark to Fever at No. 1, followed by Cameron Brink, Kamilla Cardoso

Where will the most hyped college stars land? How WNBA-ready are the international prospects? Who helped themselves during the NCAA tournament? And what unexpected surprises could be in store? Let’s dig in.

2024 Q1 Auto Sales: America's 3 best-selling convertibles are trucks and SUVs

The three best-selling convertibles in America are two SUVs and a truck. Where we're going, we don't need roadsters.

2024 NFL Draft: How every team should tackle the WR position

Fantasy football analyst Matt Harmon wraps up his positional needs series with the wide receivers ahead of the NFL Draft.

2024 NFL Draft: Favorite players outside the top 50

These aren't household names, but there are plenty of quality, if imperfect, prospects that should be available on Day 2 of the NFL Draft and beyond.

20 new electric cars we're excited are coming soon in 2024 and 2025

A slew of new electric cars are coming in 2024 and 2025. Here are 20 that have us looking forward to their imminent release.

Stephen Strasburg retires after years of injury struggles and months-long standoff with Nationals

Stephen Strasburg made eight starts after signing a $245 million contract in 2019.

Stock market today: 'Magnificent 7' power stock surge after CPI-fueled sell-off

Investors were bracing for a wholesale inflation print, after a surprise uptick in CPI shook markets and undermined bets on interest-rate cuts.

Sign in to add this item to your wishlist, follow it, or mark it as ignored

Sign in to see reasons why you may or may not like this based on your games, friends, and curators you follow.

Buy Star Trek: Infinite

Packages that include this game, buy star trek: infinite - deluxe edition.

Includes 4 items: Star Trek: Infinite, Star Trek: Infinite - Designing the Galaxy, Star Trek: Infinite - Galactic Tracks, Star Trek: Infinite - Neutral Zone Tunes

Content For This Game Browse all (3)

“Star Trek: Infinite is a 4X grand strategy game that shares a lot of qualities with a good Star Trek episode: It’s cerebral, accessible, occasionally a little clumsy, and overall a good time.” Polygon “...If you’re a huge Trekkie and just happen to also like video games, Star Trek: Infinite will beam boatloads of fun right into your living room.” Video Games (Sports Illustrated) “This game is made for Star Trek fans through and through. From the well-crafted story elements to the small random easter egg events, there is something for those with various entry points into the fandom.” But Why Tho?

DELUXE EDITION

U.S.S. Cerritos & California -class Uniforms

Klingon voice pack, downloadable soundtrack, more star trek music, about this game.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

This Game may contain content not appropriate for all ages, or may not be appropriate for viewing at work: General Mature Content

System Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS *: Windows® 7 SP1 64 Bit
• Processor: Intel® iCore™ i3-530 or AMD® FX-6350
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 460 or AMD® ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 (1GB VRAM), or AMD® Radeon™ RX Vega 11 or Intel® HD Graphics 4600
• DirectX: Version 9.0c
• Storage: 15 GB available space
• OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit
• Processor: Intel® iCore™ i5-3570K or AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2400G
• Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 560 Ti (1GB VRAM) or AMD® Radeon™ R7 370 (2 GB VRAM)
• DirectX: Version 12
• OS: 10.11 (El Capitan)
• Processor: Intel® iCore™ i5-4570S
• Memory: 15 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GT 750M or equivalent AMD® card with 1GB Vram
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 10 GB available space
• OS: 10.13 (High Sierra)
• Processor: Intel® iCore™ i5-4670
• Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 780M with 4GB Vram or AMD® Radeon™ R7 370 (2 GB VRAM)

© 2023 Paradox Interactive AB. All rights reserved.

More from Nimble Giant Entertainment

More like this, what curators say, customer reviews.

You can use this widget-maker to generate a bit of HTML that can be embedded in your website to easily allow customers to purchase this game on Steam.

There is more than one way to buy this game. Please select a specific package to create a widget for:

Enter up to 375 characters to add a description to your widget:

Copy and paste the HTML below into your website to make the above widget appear

Popular user-defined tags for this product: (?)

Sign in to add your own tags to this product.

Stellaris' New Horizons mod is the best Star Trek game

It's Stellaris, Jim, but not as we know it,

Everything was in place for the Romulan invasion of the United Federation of Planets. Warbirds screeched out of the shipyards of Romulus and Remus on a direct course for the closest Federation worlds, those belonging to the chilly Andorians. The real goal, of course, was neighbouring Vulcan. This was a symbolic war.

As my jade vessels bombarded the frozen Andorian homeworld, the Tal Shiar informed me that yet another Federation ship had been successfully sabotaged. When my Reman shock troops’ boots hit the icy ground, I realised that Star Trek: New Horizons , a Stellaris [ official site ] mod, was my favourite ever Roddenbery-flavoured game.

I noticed New Horizons at just the right time. With a new Star Trek show in production, my hunger for that venerable sci-fi universe has increased tenfold, and I’ve found myself once again devouring the previous shows. I’m going through the best of the bunch, Deep Space Nine, at the moment, and it remains just as compelling as it did back when I first sat, transfixed, after school, watching the adventure of Sisko and his eclectic crew.

There isn’t a 4X game better suited to Star Trek than Stellaris, not even the official one from 1999, Birth of the Federation, which was terrible despite the countless hours I spent wasting my time with it. Even without mods, Stellaris evokes the universe of Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Scott Bakula’s hairy chest. The focus on exploration, sci-fi mysteries and epic yarns make them superb bedfellows.

None of this is to say that the New Horizons team haven’t done a tremendous amount of work, adding a dizzying array of Star Trek species with appropriate traits, multiple maps of the galaxy – different sizes depending on the beefiness of your PC – complete with canon starting positions and countless species-specific touches like the aforementioned sneaky buggers, the Tal Shiar.

It might be far from finished, but I can’t think of many things that could make it feel more authentic. Everything from technology to statistical bonuses has been run through a Treky filter. So the Klingon Empire uses disrupters and the Dominion uses polaron beams, and when you’re designing your own ships, you can slap on modules like tactical stations and deflector arrays. And they’re more than just Stellaris components with fancy new names.

The scale of the thing astounds me. Downloading it, I prepared myself for loads of bugs and missing features, expecting just a slice of Star Trek rather than the whole cake. What greeted me was a cake buffet. See, New Horizons simulates the entire history of Star Trek, from the pre-Federation Enterprise era onwards. And while the galaxy evolves through conquest, expansion and technological advancement, it also transforms through the events system that Stellaris uses so well.

Events run the gamut from the creation of the Federation to the development of new ship designs, reflecting the changes between the different shows. You don’t want to be flitting around the galaxy in an NX-class vessel for the whole game. At certain junctures, you’ll be notified of scientists and groups who have new ideas, eureka moments, making your ships more effective. Take a look at your shipyards after these events and you’ll notice that your vessels have been upgraded from, say, TOS-era ships to TNG ones.

In my Romulan game, the redesign event also forced me to make some important leadership decisions. I had two ship designers vying for my attention. One, a Romulan military chap, the other a member of a species that was under the empire’s control. Romulans are pretty racist, but the alien engineer was the superior candidate. By choosing him, I ruffled some feathers, but he also became a scientist I could recruit and set to work researching new engineering tech or send off as captain of his own science vessel. I wanted to make my version of the Romulans a wee bit more egalitarian.

While New Horizons gives you the freedom to rewrite Star Trek history – maybe the Romulans left Khitomer alone and became friends with the Klingons – it always feels strongly connected to the shows, full of nods to specific episodes drawn from the universe’s long history. One of my explorers was zapped by a probe that made them live out a dead man’s life in a lost civilisation. Another discovered that a transporter malfunction from years ago created second versions of themselves. For the uninitiated they are surprises rich in meaningful choices, but for fans they evoke memories of some of Star Trek’s strongest storylines.

A lot of what makes the mod such a great Star Trek game simultaneously makes it a great 4X game, taking things like Stellaris’ brilliant asymmetry and running with it, enhancing it even. Take the state of the galaxy at the start of a campaign, for example. Every species feels dramatically different.

The pre-Federation humans inhabit only a tiny part of the galaxy and start off as fairly insignificant, while older species, like the Founders, the shape-shifting rulers of the Dominion, begin from a position of strength. They’ve colonised several systems, have planets full of loyal Vorta – talented clone administrators who evolved on tropical worlds, just like their TV counterparts – and they’re effectively immortal.

All of these things make the Milky Way feel diverse and lived in, a place where thousands of years of history have already played out. There are giant empires and underdogs, blossoming friendships and established grudges. This variety makes it a fascinating 4X game, even if you aren’t invested in the Star Trek theme. It helps if you are, of course. I’ve started up a dozen different games already just to see how the team have managed to transpose stuff from the TV and cinematic universe to the game, turning the elements that make a species interesting into actual mechanics or traits like the Borg’s penchant for assimilating all life.

With so much stuff going on, New Horizons also makes a valiant attempt to fix the mid-game slog that can infect the vanilla game, where you’ve finished exploring and the galaxy sort of drifts into this status quo that’s only shaken up when massive factions decide to go to war. The politics, intrigue, Klingon civil wars and bespoke storylines keep things moving along in a pacy fashion. There are still moments where things grind to a halt, though, and the advantages that some species have go a little beyond asymmetry and threaten to enter the realm of game-breaking imbalance, but it is still a work-in-progress.

If my unapologetic gushing hasn’t already made it clear: New Horizons is something pretty special, and you’d be dafter than a dopey Pakled if you aren’t already hovering over the subscribe button in the Steam Workshop .

Supporters only: Carpathian Night Starring Bela Lugosi takes Castlevania back to basics

Total Warhammer 3 without touching grass: unlikely allies, money troubles, and bilge rats

Manor Lords’ early access launch is built on solid technical ground, mostly

Supporters only: Fantasy games have a weird relationship with regional British accents

The Rally Point: Humble turn-based wargame The Troop is top of its WW2 class

Prince Of Persia's creator has seen the series "struggle to find it's identity" at Ubisoft, but thinks they've finally found an elegant solution

What's better: Gliding powers or Dragon's Dogma 2's Unmaking Arrow?

The Rogue Prince Of Persia is a new roguelite that combines wall running with Arkham-style agile combat

• Classic Games
• Star Trek: Infinite

ST: I vs New Horizons

• Thread starter Kahless
• Start date Sep 16, 2023

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.

• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct . Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

• Sep 16, 2023
• Add bookmark

I will admit that when I first saw this I thought it was just going to be a paid mod in order to cash in on established Stellaris mods like New Horizons and Strange new Worlds. However after playing those mods over the years and even making some minor contributions to them. I think I like more how ST: I has decided to focus on just a few major factions in the alpha/beta quadrant. Because let's face it you can't really have the borg playable and hope for any balance. The same with the Dominion. The the shows they only ever get defeated due to astronomical luck and plot armor thicker than the Yamato. I'm hoping that ST: I with it's tighter focus and a few majors of about equal power and the mission system that seems to be borrowed from EU IV that this will be a game with truly unique play styles for each faction and tons of replayability. What does everyone else feel?  

Field Marshal

I agree completely. STI was designed with a vision and it shows. I think there are too many people who just consider that game a "reskin" because they don't make the effort to look a but more into it. It's pretty clear that featuring only 4 playable empires means that there's a lot more focus on interactions (diplomatic or otherwise) and making each empire feel more unique. Stellaris is a fun sandbox, but let's face it, it's also very repetitive, and most of the fun comes from playing one of the most unique empire styles, especially when it comes from a very story-driven origin (such as the Toxic Knights). STI is basically like if Stellaris was entirely designed around making 4 empire origins feel more unique. And that's how the game could be advertized to Stellaris fans. Especially fans of Stellaris like me with more than 2000 hours on the game who feel tired and stop playing everytime the galaxy inevitably turns into another boring scenario I've seen 100s of times already.  

Hoi Neuling

• Sep 18, 2023

We don´t have an comparision between Star Trek: Infinite and the Stellaris Mod: Star Trek New Horions. The only thing we know from Presentation-Vids and lookable Pictures is that Star Trek: Infinite is based on an more advanced Stellaris-Engine and have an bigger Zoom-In as well as from the Informations that it will play in the Pre-TNG-Era to the Picard-Era. Stellaris with the Mod Star Trek: New Horizions (which I play with great Fun) uses all Stellaris-Parts incl. DLCs and give you the Oportunity to play the complete Star Trek-Storyline from the Archer-Enterprise-Era to the Picard+-Era. There you can play all major Races (like Humans, Klingons, Rumulans, Borg etc.) as well as minor Races (like Denubolans, Xindi etc.). To make an Comparision between both we have to play Star Trek: Infinite first, to see what are the Differences in the Gameplay and so on. Therefore everything is only speculation. The most important Thing is, that Infinite gives the Modding-Ability to bring in the New Horizions Timeline in the Game to play with more modern Graphics from the Archer-Enterprise to the Picard+-Era.  

Hoi Neuling said: with more modern Graphics from the Archer-Enterprise to the Picard+-Era. Click to expand...

rick19572021

• Sep 19, 2023

I've played Stellaris with both mods and I feel that it will be fun to play ST:I without having to have worry about any mods and still have a great Star Trek experience.  

• Sep 22, 2023

I have played some of the mod (ST:New Horizon) but found the game for starters extremely slow, and confusing. example: as Earth i got my homeworld blown up the the Xindi, with no idea how i was supposed to stop it. in the past this used to be an event.. now i need to figure out how the Star Trek lore translates to game features, in a game where i just want to play as the federation and have some fun. The complexity is a real issue for the mod, especially for players that arent that fimiliar with this genre of games or don't game that much at all and are just there to have a good star trek experience. from what i have seen from the game, ST:I did do themselves a good favor and focused on bringing a good experience too as many star trek fans as possible, instead of the mod where they focused on bringing an as detailed as possible simulation of the star trek universe to stellaris. i don't mind there being B-Races in the game that have lore to them and influence the A-races to an extend. (Think Bajor, The Gorn, Xindi, Tzenkheti (hope i spelled that correct), Breen, etc.)  

I also feel that ST:I is a very good step forward for Star Trek fans. It will evolve with time because Paradox and the game's developers have their hearts in the right place. As for the complexity of a game, that is something born out of the wishes of the gamers themselves. Imagine in a couple of years where you might be in regards to your feelings about ST:I's complexity. Will you have had enough or will you be hungry for more? I suspect that you'll be hungry for more because ST:I will be very familiar to you. You'll then be in a perfect place because Paradox is well suited to providing greater content and enjoyment. Optimism is a very good thing.  

The News Of Tomorrow, Today

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Now you can get the top stories from Gizmodo delivered to your inbox. Enter your email below.

By subscribing you agree to our  Terms of Use  and  Privacy Policy.

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Star Trek: Infinite Really Does Just Look Like the Ultimate Stellaris Mod

Previously revealed at Summer Games Fest last weekend in a non-gameplay trailer, today, celebrating the fabled Captain Picard Day , Paradox and developer Nimble Giant Entertainment dropped new details on Star Trek: Infinite , a new game set in the era of the late 24th century that lets players take command of iconic Star Trek civilizations to Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate their way across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Head on over to the official Trek website to see the new trailer.

And yep: there’s no surprises that at least on the surface this very much looks like Paradox’s work on Stellaris already — similar mission trees, similar conversation windows, a similar aesthetic, it just so happens to be with a Star Trek coat of paint, as players pick one of four factions (the Federation, the Romulan Star Empire, the Cardassian Union, and the Klingon Empire) to explore the galaxy. Each faction promises unique differences beyond aesthetic, including storyline quests and different strengths and weaknesses to how they navigate conflict, diplomacy, and resource management.

Honestly though? There’s nothing wrong with Infinite just being an official spin on Stellaris ’ mechanics, from the publisher that makes Stellaris . It’s a pretty perfect fit for Trek , and given the popularity of already turning Stellaris into Trek in the community anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out with official backing.

Star Trek: Infinite will launch on PC sometime in Fall 2023, and is available to wishlist on Steam now.

Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

Stellaris Wiki

Personal tools

Navigation menu.

• Star Trek New Civilisations

Renegades Modding Group

• Steam Workshop
• Coming Soon

About this mod

Star Trek New Civilisations is a total conversion mod for Stellaris set in the Star Trek universe. The mod is developed by Walshicus with contributions from many others, and is currently available to download via the steam workshop page.

The mod offers the players the ability to select and play from a large number of civilisations in the Star Trek universe. Hundreds of starships, species, events, archaeological sites, and more are provided to offer a complete Star Trek experience.

Important pages

Want to help out?

Major playable empires.

• Play on Paradox technology
• Paradox Forums
• Paradox Wikis
• Join our playtests
• Media contact
• Legal Information
• EU Online Dispute Resolution
• Terms & Policies
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Paradox Interactive corporate website

Star Trek: Infinite

Originally posted by Sinjen Blackstar : Both, why limit the good times?

Originally posted by jessed : It seems to me that the mod, in addition to having great quality, is much more complete, since it includes the Gamma and Delta quadrants. Will it be worth buying this game? Greetings.

Originally posted by NightH4wk1982 : Could never get along with NH, it was a pop up simulator. Infinite will be much more refined, hopefully.

Originally posted by Druark : Originally posted by NightH4wk1982 : Could never get along with NH, it was a pop up simulator. Infinite will be much more refined, hopefully.

Originally posted by volbound1700 : I would be curious if ST: Infinite improves on it.

Report this post

• New threadmarks

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.

• The tagging system on SpaceBattles has been overhauled to make it more useful for organizing and filtering content. A new age of tags is upon us!
• New Awards types are available now! Introducing the Golden Dice and Escalation Awards.
• Fiction Discussion
• Vs. Debates

The contingency vs star trek galaxy. (Stellaris vs star trek)

• Thread starter GDI_Martok
• Start date Aug 7, 2019

• Aug 7, 2019

The contingency. Vs Star trek. Everybody is in character. Time line is before the dominion war. The contingency will have one machine world hub in each quadrant. There is no cybrex to help. Crisis strength is 1.0 Edit: Asume godly beings from trek stay out of it. Only races that use tech are fighting here. Victory conditions. Contingency is destoryed/galaxy is purged. Use all cannon sources for trek. Edit: use mid - high end calcs for their damage. Use the method below for calculating the power of contingency ships.  

NewPredator said: Kinda hard to calculate based on that image but if its scaling based on damage-value I've got something better than that. Ten gigaton nuclear payload. You can probably work your way from there based on the fact he's specifically talking about nuclear warheads,which narrows it down to T 1-2 missiles. T3 missiles and above use either antimatter or zero point energy so its clear its not talking about them. Going by the wiki a T2 fusion missile does an average damage of 45.5 so it should come to about 220 Megatons per point of damage.If we want to lowball it you could assume he's talking about a T2 Torpedo(280 avg damage) and that comes to about 35 Megatons per damage point. In any case the Tacyon Lance(what I always assumed is displayed in that image from the OP) will be anywhere from a low-end of 49 Gigatons to a high-end of 308 Gigatons.As a bonus the Titan's Perdition Beam (avg dmg 7500) will be anywhere from 262 Gigatons to 1.65 Teratons. Its worth noting that the damage values for energy/kinetic weapons will be inflated by virtue of said weapon concentrating all their energy in a small application point rather than an omnidirectional explosion but the actual energies involved are probably still in the single digit to double digit gigaton range especially since the game kinda acknowledges this by having different damage bonuses to hull/armor/shields based on weapon type. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

This is a spite thread. Aside from the Borg, Trek is megaton level.  

SlainDragon

Fuck turin..

The problem is that even if we have a good idea of their firepower, and have that one novel for their FTL speed, their sublight speed, numbers, and industrial capabilities are still a mystery to us.  

SoulReaper0924

Fiyah the phazahs and damn the topedas.

Ertwin said: This is a spite thread. Aside from the Borg, Trek is megaton level. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

SoulReaper0924 said: also, could you clarify for us if by canon sources you mean the movies and tv shows? the books and manuals arent canon as far as we know and are kind of a source of contention. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Inspiring Fanfiction Writer

Helezhelm said: To be fair, megatons is considered as mid-range and it came from tech manuals that are not canon at all. So, the calcs are pretty convoluted, so OP will need to establish calcs to use for both factions. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

It's certainly reasonable, but other interpretations are reasonable as well.  

• Aug 8, 2019

Ertwin said: While the manuals are not canon, the 64MT number is a reasonable mid-range calc. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

NewPredator

Benevolent misanthrope.

SoulReaper0924 said: and why are we using a fan interpretation based on one hyperbole description of a species for contingency firepower? is there anything better to use? so far, it seems like we are trying to translate game mechanics into usable numbers here Click to expand... Click to shrink...

NewPredator said: Those calcs are generally in line with how the setting is portrayed though.We have that image of a Tachyon Lance effects on a planet. And those are the same weapons used to reduce infested worlds to barren planets with no atmosphere or oceans,take down a moon sized metallic machine or the voidspawn whose life begins by bursting its way out of a planet like an egg. Gigatons to low Terratons(for the super weapons) doesn't seem that setting breaking given the context. The contigency tech is generaly on par with that as they employ pretty much the same weapons as the normal empires with those feats. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

( Stated that if it had fully emerged into our universe, it would have consumed the galaxy by now ) Click to expand... Click to shrink...

mist2123 said: Close to instant instant. And note that those drives is considered as their old shit. lol Even at speeds approaching .99 of light it was just seven rest-minutes for the Terella to pass the nearest planet, but their trip, including the hyperspace jump, would take them 831 kiloparsecs—26,096 light years. And most of that in the blink of an eye … far beyond the dust clouds of the outer boundaries. That was nearly four hundred lifetimes for a normal man like Hayden Quinn. But that time would pass in no time at all for the crew of The Terrella once they made the jump to hyperspace. These new fusion drives went beyond tha t, though, into the realms of what had always been considered impossible. Hayden didn't know how they worked, or how the ever-changing calculations necessary for astro-navigation could be computed by minds unable to keep up with the speed of the engines. He didn't need to. The engines worked and the calculations—and adjustments— would be made quickly enough for the Terella to avoid flying into debris. That was all that mattered, not the miracle behind it. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

SoulReaper0924 said: that is based on a non canon amount of antimatter. we have many showings of photon torpedoes being able to do or modified to do much more than that. thats also not including the quantum torpedoes or transphasic torpedoes. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Ertwin said: That doesn't change the fact that Trek's mid-range is megatons, and maybe low gigatons in the high range. I will fight tooth and nail for Trek when I think they can win, but this is an utter stomp. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

SoulReaper0924 said: im not very versed on the contingency. what tech do they have? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

so how fast is their sublight? would having shields give st any kind of edge? to be able to hit a target half way across a solar system, the weapon would have to be FTL or the pilot of the target ship extremely sucky at evasive maneuvers.  

SoulReaper0924 said: so how fast is their sublight? would having shields give st any kind of edge? to be able to hit a target half way across a solar system, the weapon would have to be FTL or the pilot of the target ship extremely sucky at evasive maneuvers. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

• Aug 9, 2019

What is referred to by the same name in two different settings might have entirely different properties. Aren't star destroyers said to be made of neutronium as well? Besides, Trek's high range is higher than low gigatons and its mid range is still debatable.  

Keyboard said: What is referred to by the same name in two different settings might have entirely different properties. Aren't star destroyers said to be made of neutronium as well? Besides, Trek's high range is higher than low gigatons and its mid range is still debatable. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

derneuejonathan

All canon for Trek? Well I think in the spirit of fairness we have to toss the Cult of Connie TOS feats out the window then and go with the nerfed TNG and later interpretations. OP did NOT say TOW is off the table and in fact, ALL CANON sources.. so that kind of explicitly means it IS on the table. In which case ST stomps this. Time travel and phasing cloaks and solar system leveling firepower. But even without that, the Borg and 8472 and the Krenim and other various impressive races ought to have this.  

SoulReaper0924 said: so how fast is their sublight? would having shields give st any kind of edge? Click to expand... Click to shrink...

SoulReaper0924 said: to be able to hit a target half way across a solar system, the weapon would have to be FTL or the pilot of the target ship extremely sucky at evasive maneuvers. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Ertwin said: That is only if proven otherwise. In general we accept that things in fiction are the same as in reality unless stated otherwise. We assume steel in Lord of the Rings is the same as steel in Game of Thrones. In this case, they are used for the same purpose, so it's pretty safe to assume they have the same properties, especially considering the technological disparity between the Trek races, and late game Stellaris empires, let alone the contingency. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Keyboard said: In reality neutronium would be a gas unless under extreme pressure, so stellaris ships would break apart on their own without intervention from trek. The technological disparity is also unconfirmed, as it is partly contingent upon the assumption that stellaris calcs are dramatically higher than trek calcs. Click to expand... Click to shrink...

Is the Federation allowed to break out their superweapons? (Stuff like subspace weapons, Omega molecules and other stuff of DOOM?) Because that could change things.  

Covering the business and politics of space

Star Trek vs Star Wars Debate at 39th Space Symposium: Who Won?

• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Clipboard (Opens in new window)

The clash of the titans finally happened, and it wasn’t between starships in a distant galaxy but rather between fervent fans of two of the most iconic science fiction franchises: Star Trek and Star Wars. 

The battleground? The RedWire booth at the 39th Space Symposium, where passions flared, arguments flew and a winner was declared by none other than former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine himself.

Moderated by SpaceNews Senior Staff Writer Jeff Foust, the April 11 debate saw Team Star Trek, represented by Redwire Chief Growth Officer Mike Gold and NASA Chief Technologist A.C. Charania, go head-to-head with Team Star Wars, consisting of Jessica Noble, general counsel at iSpace Technologies U.S., and Camille Bergin, better known as The Galactic Gal. 

The event was no mere clash of fandoms; it was a battle of ideologies, with each side arguing the merits of their beloved franchise. Team Star Trek argued for its optimistic vision of humanity’s future, spearheaded by the ideals of exploration, diplomacy and cooperation, as epitomized by the Federation and its starship crews. Team Star Wars, meanwhile, championed the epic saga’s timeless themes of heroism, destiny and the eternal struggle between light and dark, not to mention Ewoks, Han and Chewie.

Bridenstine, who dodged the “Star Trek or Star Wars?” quagmire during his tenure by citing Space Balls as his personal favorite, ultimately judged Team Star Wars to be the winner of the Redwire debate.

However, the outcome wasn’t without contention. Team Star Wars walked away with the victory, but the crowd audibly leaned in favor of the arguments put forth by Team Star Trek. 

Watch and decide for yourself!

Brian Berger

Brian Berger is editor in chief of SpaceNews.com and the SpaceNews magazine. He joined SpaceNews.com in 1998, spending his first decade with the publication covering NASA. His reporting on the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident was... More by Brian Berger

Sign up for a SpaceNews newsletter

Get top stories, military space news and more delivered to your inbox.