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Star Trek Resurgence understands what makes great Star Trek

Telltale Games veterans veer away from combat and into philosophy

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Unlike its esteemed counterpart from Lucasfilm, Star Trek’s history with video games isn’t exactly stellar.

There are licensed Star Trek video games going back 50 years, but there’s never been a truly great Star Trek game, one whose appeal outstretches the limits of its existing fan base. Moreover, even the most celebrated Star Trek games, such as 2000’s Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force , 2002’s Star Trek: Bridge Commander , and the long-running MMORPG Star Trek Online , place an overwhelming emphasis on combat, which is only ever a last resort in Star Trek stories. Gene Roddenberry’s cosmic polemic often contains action, but it’s never about action; Star Trek is about compassion, curiosity, and camaraderie. To truly capture the essence of the spacefaring adventure series, a video game should be as much about talking as it is about flying and shooting, allowing players to explore new worlds, build relationships, and confront complicated moral dilemmas.

This seems to be the aim of Star Trek Resurgence , the debut release from Telltale offshoot Dramatic Labs, and the first Star Trek game in ages to be as character- and dialogue-focused as the television series. Set aboard a new ship and starring an almost entirely new cast, Resurgence is a branching narrative whose balance between interstellar intrigue, interpersonal conflict, and explosive space action hews closer to that of its source material than any Star Trek game in decades — maybe ever. As a game and as a piece of software, it leaves a lot to be desired. But as a Star Trek story, it definitely earns its pips.

Resurgence alternates between the perspectives of two player-controlled characters aboard the science vessel Resolute, incoming first officer Commander Jara Rydek (Krizia Bajos) and enlisted engineer Petty Officer Carter Diaz (Josh Keaton). The Resolute is recovering from a recent disaster that cost the lives of several of its crew and the reputation of its captain, Zachary Solano. Solano fears that he’s lost the confidence of his staff, and is counting on Academy protege Rydek to help restore his honor as the Resolute embarks on an important diplomatic mission. Over the course of the story, Rydek takes point on unraveling a mystery with galactic implications, earning the trust of the crew while also evaluating whether or not Solano is worthy of her own. Meanwhile, engineer Diaz deals with more of the nuts-and-bolts problems aboard the ship, as well as navigating a romance with a fellow officer.

As in a good peak-era Star Trek episode, the “problem of the week” is tackled from more than one angle, with some of the crew handling a social or interpersonal conflict while others investigate some related scientific or technological puzzle. Teamwork is an essential ingredient to Star Trek, and Resurgence highlights that it takes a variety of skill sets and perspectives to solve complex problems. There is a two-way relationship between the bridge crew handling the big picture and the specialists below troubleshooting the finer points. Alternating between these A- and B-plots also breaks up the story and the gameplay nicely, and introduces the player to a variety of likable, memorable characters with whom you interact differently depending on your protagonist.

The narrative moves along at a steady clip, with the stakes escalating organically from that of a typical Next Generation episode to something closer to a modern season-long arc of Discovery . Crucially, for a video game and for a Star Trek story, the player faces consequential, difficult, and timely choices.

In contrast to the (still far superior) Mass Effect games, which present players with clear-cut Paragon or Renegade paths to pursue, Resurgence ’s dialogue trees don’t always offer an obvious ethical binary. Will you risk a dozen lives to save one? Will you disobey a direct order to follow the advice of an impassioned subordinate? Which member of your crew do you trust more in a crisis, and will they trust you in a pinch? These decisions are all made on a short timer, forcing the player to think quickly and trust their instincts. This instantly makes Resurgence feel closer to the “real” Starfleet experience even than the expansive open world of Star Trek Online , which dictates most of your objectives for you; nearly every path ends with “fire all phasers.”

More than anything, it’s your relationships with the supporting cast that shape the variations in the narrative. It’s not simply a matter of passing each one’s individual loyalty check, allowing you to achieve some 100% “perfect” ending. You cannot please everyone and you cannot save everyone. (Or at least I haven’t yet in my two playthroughs.) Not only does this place the full weight of duty and command on the player and offer an incentive to replay the 12-to-15-hour game multiple times, but it also underlines one of the essential tenets of Star Trek: It is possible for two parties, in good faith and good conscience, to disagree. Sometimes a compromise can be reached, sometimes conflict can’t be avoided, but no one needs to stay enemies forever.

On the other hand, commitment to the Star Trek ethos does have its drawbacks. Starfleet’s strict code of conduct means that the players are somewhat railroaded. For instance, when enlisted engineer Diaz’s love interest is caught accessing files she’s not supposed to, you, as Diaz, can’t lie to cover for her. In a move typical of the franchise whose reputation for political radicalism is somewhat overblown, its core political conflict between a colonizing empire and their long-suffering protectorate sniffs of some unfortunate bothsidesism. Some of the sci-fi twists that complicate the plot do so at the price of nuance, introducing an overarching threat that forces all parties to work together without ever actually addressing what drove them apart in the first place. It’s a flaw found in a lot of past and present Star Trek, demonstrating the liberal-moderate belief that we can all just get along without committing to any meaningful change in the status quo.

It’s in the non-dialogue-driven gameplay elements that Resurgence truly stumbles. While the stealth and cover shooting portions are smooth and fun, a lot of the other mechanics are sluggish, tedious, or both. This particularly applies to PO Diaz’s engineering tasks, which feel less like puzzles or minigames and more like busywork. (Pull R2 to open this conduit, now LS+R2 to remove this isolinear chip, and then the next one, etc.) Fail conditions of certain minigames or stages can be disabled via a Story Mode option, but there is no way to avoid the game’s more mindless chores.

Star Trek Resurgence also suffers numerous technical glitches at the time of release, at least on PlayStation 4. It’s not uncommon for lines of dialogue to start late or cut off early, costing the scene important exposition or flavor. Keeping subtitles enabled can sometimes compensate for this issue, except on random occasions when the subtitles disappear altogether for a line or two at a time. Busier cutscenes, such as the game’s space battle finale, load sluggishly on PS4, creating seconds-long gaps between shots, killing the momentum of what should be a thrilling climax. These issues may be resolved in future updates, but at launch, they’re an undeniable drag.

Despite these glaring flaws, Star Trek Resurgence offers a space-worthy experience for Star Trek fans. Where other titles have offered a more complete picture of the Star Trek universe — letting players explore the breadth of the galaxy, walk the decks of their favorite starships, or build their own — only a rare few have looked beyond lore toward story . Fans don’t love Star Trek merely for the cool ships or deep mythology, we love it for the friendship between Kirk and Spock, and Picard’s growth from stiff loner to proud patriarch; for Sisko’s impossible moral dilemmas and Burnham’s quest for redemption.

Not even Resurgence ’s nearest spiritual ancestors, classic ’90s point-and-click adventures Star Trek 25th Anniversary or Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity , have captured that essential human element that makes for a great Star Trek story. Resurgence ties a worthwhile cast of characters to an interstellar adventure. Does Resurgence qualify as “great Star Trek”? Probably not, but it’s hard to argue that any video game has come closer.

Star Trek Resurgence was released on May 23 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PS4 using a pre-release download code provided by Double Fine Productions. 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 .

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Star Trek: Resurgence

• View history

The game was first announced at The Game Awards on 9 December 2021 . [1] [2]

• 2.1 USS Resolute
• 3.1 See also
• 4.1 Voice cast
• 5 External links

Summary [ ]

Characters and references [ ].

• Ambassador Spock
• First Officer Jara Rydek
• Petty Officer Carter Diaz
• Tactical Officer Araxi Bedrosian
• Chief Engineer Chovak ( β )
• Chief Medical Officer Dr. Eraam Duvall
• Petty Officer Nili Edsilar
• Petty Officer Miranda Maris ( β )
• Captain William T. Riker [3]
• Captain Zachary Solano ( β ) [4]
• Operations Officer Yann Urmott
• Science Officer Ben Westbrook [5]
• Ensign Paul Calloway ( β )

USS Resolute [ ]

USS Resolute

The Centaur -type USS Resolute (NCC-92317) ( β ) is the primary setting for the events of the game, and the assignment of the two principal characters, Rydek and Diaz. The Resolute carried at least four Type 6 shuttlecraft : the Ptarmigan ( β ), the Baffin ( β ), the Polar ( β ), and the Melville ( β ).

Background information [ ]

• Screen Rant interviewed the game's Cinematic Director Kent Mudle and Lead Writer Dan Martin on the inspiration behind the story, setting, and character dynamics in December 2021 . [6]
• On 1 May 2023 , StarTrek.com announced that William T. Riker would make an appearance in the game, with Jonathan Frakes reprising the role. [7]

See also [ ]

• Star Trek: Resurgence , the five-issue comic tie-in to the video game

Credits [ ]

Voice cast [ ].

• Krizia Bajos as Commander Jara Rydek
• Josh Keaton as Petty Officer Carter Diaz
• Piotr Michael as Ambassador Spock
• Jonathan Frakes as Captain William T. Riker
• Stephanie Sheh as Petty Officer Nili Edsilar
• Captain Zachary Solano
• Major Sarlit Arminta
• Abby Trott as Petty Officer Miranda Maris
• Mark Rolston as Portal 63
• Ali Hillis as Lieutenant Araxi Bedrosian
• Amanda C. Miller as Tylas Altaras
• Bumper Robinson as Ensign Paul Calloway
• Dr. Eraam Duvall
• Hotari Queen
• Elias Toufexis as Galvan
• JP Karliak as Lieutenant Commander Chovak
• Julianne Grossman as Resolute Computer
• Commander Ben Westbrook
• Liam O'Brien as Commander Yann Urmott
• Lieutenant Handar
• Petty Officer Ryan Kapoor
• Crewmember 4
• Security Officer
• Victoria Atkin as Lieutenant Itasca
• Dan Martin – Lead Writer
• Andrew Grant – Writer
• Kent Mudle – Director
• Jesse Maccabe – Art Director
• Lazar Levine – Audio Director

External links [ ]

• Star Trek: Resurgence official site
• Star Trek: Resurgence at X (formerly Twitter)
• Star Trek: Resurgence at the Internet Movie Database
• Resurgence at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

[Spoilers] Transporter Event SPOILERS!

What did you guys do? Did you save Bedrosian or complete the transport. The writers did a good job with making it a no win scenario. Your crew or people you barely even know?

Side note, does Bedrosian hate you forever, or can you salvage your relationship?

I completed transport. It is possible to do damage control with your relationship with Bedrosian, but I’m not sure what level you can build it up to again. I.E. I’m not sure if you can gain a green positive final result or if the best is a yellow neutral. I only managed to get her to yellow neutral, but that’s because I continued to do and mixture of things she did and didn’t like.

I ended up with a blind Bedrosian, but managed to salvage the relationship when I talked to her in Sickbay, and confided in her about suspicious goings on later in the game (if you know, you know).

Spoilers for later in the game:

However when I beamed up all the Tkon receptacles, she went off the wall at me, and tended her resignation from the Resolute . When I said I didn’t accept it, Bedrosian said she expected as much and had already filed the paperwork with Starfleet Command. As a result, I only has Westbrook and Urmott to choose from for the new XO. Which resulted in Urmott getting pissed off at me then. Michael Burnham never had these problems when she mutinied…

Captain’s Log, Lt Bedrosian has tendered her resignation from this ship and from Starfleet. Bedrosian is a good tactical officer. She is fearless and not afraid to voice her opinion; a trait I value in the officers under my command. Unfortunately, Bedrosian’s opinions often lead her to clashing with the chain off command, bordering on insubordination. I’m also concerned that some of her opinions are antithetical to what Starfleet upholds. As Starfleet officer’s we have a duty to seek out new life and new civilizations…not destroy them. And when an enemy surrenders, we are obligated to give quarter. An enemy today, may be an ally tomorrow. The Klingons and Romulans are a testament to that fact. I hope that, given time away from the uniform, Bedrosian will reflect on and reconcile her views. For now, the Resolute must voyage on without her. End log entry.

She also resigned from my Resolute as well, but even though I accepted her resignation (hey, she’s got her reasons for her decisions just as much as I have mine) she later came back to the bridge during the firefight with the Scion, although made it VERY clear she only did so for the ship and the crew, NOT for me.

Same here. She resigned.

And my choices were:

• I went with the transport option
• transported the pods
• spared the crew

To tell You the truth , I think this crew should never be put on the bridge of a federation starship not mentioning two of them got three pips. We have two princesses (no promotion = feels betrayed and pissed or asking for transfer) and a “mirror universe psychopath” (kill everyone!). Ok. I know not every starfleet ofiicer can be Data , LaForge or Riker but looks like we have three Hobsons on the bridge.

I just finished my second playthrough. This time I saved Bedrosian instead of the Alydian transport, but it doesn’t really make a difference as to whether she stays or resigns. If you choose to save the Tkon vault she will resign whether you spared her sight or not. I assume that means if you destroy the vault, she will remain whether you rescued her or not.

I choose to save the crew. Bedrosian doesn’t hate you, after you meet her in sickbay she says she doesn’t hate you for letting he complete the transport. She says it was her duty and it was the right thing to do. Later in the game letting her get hurt can affect other things like how much she’s willing to do for you until she leaves.

That bit stuck out to me. I immediately checked the relationship tracker and it says she may never forgive you for this, but very next scene in sickbay she says it’s ok for all the obvious reasons of saving lives, duty, etc.

Then later in the game she throws it back in your face. Couldn’t tell if writers were intentionally doing a flawed character moment or just being inconsistent.

Yeah, that happened on my second playthrough too. Seems like saving the Tkon crystals is her breaking point, no matter how you treat her at any stage before that.

Star Trek: Resurgence review

Tkon the piss., our verdict.

Resurgence is the perfect mash-up of dramatic Star Trek storytelling and Telltale-style decision making, but with too many QTEs.

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What is it? A single-player choice-driven action story set in the post-TNG era. Release date May 23, 2023 Expect to pay $39.99/£35 Developer Dramatic Labs Publisher Bruner House Reviewed on Intel i7-9700F, RTX 2070 Super, 32GB RAM Steam Deck Unverified Link Official site  

"The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth" is one of Captain Picard's most iconic lines, and the team at Dramatic Labs—a bunch of self-confessed diehard Trekkies—have embodied that mantra in their Telltale-esque adventure, Star Trek: Resurgence. The story is the perfect mix of everything Star Trek and Telltale's classic choice-based narrative: silly humour, gentle moments that focus on care and affection, and dramatic phaser fights with lots of unnecessary diving around.

The Telltale formula of a strong narrative combined with morally ambiguous decision-making—and plenty of QTEs—seems to fit the Star Trek storytelling style perfectly. But Dramatic Labs offers something more: complicated puzzles, stealth sequences, time-sensitive exploration objectives, better cinematics, and an overall departure from the Telltale default of feeling like you're watching an interactive movie. Resurgence isn't an episodic tale, at least not in the traditional Telltale sense. Rather than having five distinct acts or episodes that arrive separately, you'll get to play it all at once as you swap between the two player characters, who each get their own uniquely titled episodes, much like you'd see in The Next Generation.

Star Trek: Resurgence is meant to represent roughly three full-length films and ties in nicely to the post-TNG era series and movies. It's set in 2380, right after the events of Nemesis and 16 years after the beginning of The Next Generation. Also, everyone is wearing DS9-style uniforms, so you know it's going to be good. It brings together a balanced mix of bridge crew antics—a well-established Star Trek approach—and the inspiring, comic-relief side of the lower decks, which we've seen in the newest animated series. Only, the lower decks characters become the real heroes and villains in this story, showing that wearing three pins on your uniform isn't the be-and end-all. 

I have principles 

...she has to make some life-altering decisions, like whether or not to commit genocide. Twice!

You switch between playing as First Officer Jara Rydek and Petty Officer Carter Diaz. Both are loyal Starfleet officers and aside from a few snide comments, there's no real option to go rogue. With Jara, you can choose to be a by-the-book type who's loyal to her captain or more of a character who plays fast and loose with the rules. She's a Kobliad, an endangered race who rely on Deuridium infusions to survive. Star Trek captains often make difficult decisions that trickle down to the rest of the crew, sometimes involving sacrifice for the greater good. Resurgence opens with that theme, with the Resolute having just been repaired after a catastrophic "malfunction" at the hands of Captain Solano. Jara joins the Resolute as an outsider and is made aware straight from the off that she'll need to work twice as hard to gain the crew's trust, but not before the captain demands absolute loyalty from her. Not being one to bend the knee on demand, I opted for a more "sure, but my loyalties are with Starfleet" approach—needless to say, the captain wasn't pleased.

The other player character, Carter, has a gentler introduction; he's part of the engineering team under Engineering Chief Chovak, an ultra-sarcastic Vulcan. He chums along with fellow petty officer Nili Edsilar, an unjoined Trill, and is a talented young engineer. I opted to keep a happy-go-lucky attitude with Carter, with the greater good vibe of Starfleet as his morality meter, although I did choose to start a romance with another officer which… well, I'll get back to that. At first, it seems his character will be the jokey one who'd find himself in sticky yet hilarious situations, but he quickly proves himself to be one hell of an officer and makes bridge-level life-or-death decisions. His is by far the more engaging and exciting storyline and without him, Resurgence would have just been another retelling of an XO making one morally grey choice after another. That being said, Jara's story is still a complicated one that challenges leadership and loyalty, and she has to make some life-altering decisions, like whether or not to commit genocide. Twice!

While Resurgence gives you the freedom to take a variety of approaches, there's no real option to play a renegade version of a Starfleet officer here. While some decisions appear more neutral or non-committal, the majority exist as canon Starfleet options—you can choose to take the advice of your fellow officers in an emergency, do exactly as your captain tells you, or you can just go your own way. Either way, Jara and Carter remain dedicated to Starfleet's principles.

Made up 

Resurgence introduces two new species: the hotari, a rocky-faced, hardy, and previously subservient species who mined on their planet's moon, Tau, and the alydians, a tall Kelpian/Kaminoan-looking species who are staunchly militaristic and who once seemed to control the hotari by forcing them to work in the mines that they technically owned. Jara and the crew of the Resolute are tasked with arbitration between the two races as they each seek control of the mines and the Dilithium within. Only, there's ancient, advanced Tkon technology and trickery at work here, and not everyone is who they say they are.

To catch you up, the Tkon is an ancient civilisation first mentioned in The Last Outpost in Season 1 of The Next Generation which, for the uninitiated, is the season with a beardless Riker who has a unique way of sitting on chairs. In it, Riker is challenged by a Tkon guardian, Portal 63, who releases the Enterprise and a Ferengi ship from its grasp once Riker defeats Portal's riddle and proves humanity's worth. The episode ends with Portal stating: "I will sleep until I'm needed again" which, for an episode that came out in 1987, was a hell of a foreshadowing. 

Fortunately, it takes a little more than a bombastic side eye to put me off a Trek game.

While it's always fun to see familiar faces in Star Trek, I was very excited to see the two new species specifically created for Resurgence. Coming up with a species name is one thing, but how do you create two races that slot seamlessly into the Star Trek universe—especially when the bulk of Star Trek's alien appearances were the result of heavy use of prosthetics? In lieu of prosthetics, we've got detailed alien faces courtesy of the Unreal Engine, but while the facial animations for the Aldyians and hotari are certainly emotive and dynamic, the human faces have a big Mass Effect 1 stray eyebrow energy and everyone constantly looks mildly confused and slightly annoyed. Fortunately, it takes a little more than a bombastic side eye to put me off a Trek game. Though the final frontier can look lovely, Resurgence has a definite last-gen look and has some off-putting low-quality textures appear throughout the environments. The running animation in particular is pretty awkward, not to mention slow as hell.

With the help of a hotari, Tylas, Jara uncovers a terrible secret—the hotari discovered a Tkon artifact and used it to seize control of the mines, but not before their minds were replaced by Tkon via a process called bioforming. And now everyone's at risk of becoming a Tkon, whether they are hotari, alydian or from Starfleet. If you think this sounds a lot like the Borg and their attempts to assimilate everyone, you'd be right—the word "futile" is uttered by the Tkon host leader, Galvan, more than once.

Petty (officer) squabbles 

Along with saving the galaxy, there are several interpersonal challenges Jara and Carter must overcome. Jara has the unenviable task of winning over her crewmates and choosing who lives, dies and gets promoted. Meanwhile, Carter gets to decide if he's going to shoot his girlfriend, put his best friend in the line of fire (several times) and make the good old Telltale-like choice of "Do I bother saving this person?" Standard Trek storytelling, then. Big decisions crop up everywhere, whether it's during a shootout or a meeting of bridge officers. In the corner, a little box with a character's face will glow grey, red or green to indicate whether they like what you said or not, and you can follow your choices from the main menu. 

As it's based on the post-TNG era, you can expect many easter eggs. Spock obviously makes an entrance in his role as ambassador, setting the tone for much of the opening half, but as the plot thickens and deciding who to trust becomes more of a challenge, Resurgence transforms into a real Star Trek story. And by a real story, I obviously mean it features a cameo from Jonathan Frakes, who reprises his role as Commander Riker, except he's captain of the Titan now as per the canon. I also got to throw in a cheeky "Engage!" when commanding the helm to take flight and you'll issue that command any time you're in charge of the Resolute, which obviously made the Trekkie in me very happy. 

Push the button 

What lets Resurgence down is the overuse of QTEs. In some sections, you'll be absolutely bombarded with them every few steps you take, and a lot of them are incredibly mundane, like simply pressing a button. And when a failure leads to a game over screen, you'll have to replay the entire section again, without the ability to even skip dialogue. While the QTEs undeniably add more tension, even when simply climbing a ladder, I would have liked the opportunity to do a little more wandering around. The phaser battle scenes had clunky controls, but if you keep dying like I did, you have the option to play in story mode which negates any damage, which was a welcome relief. Not every failed QTE results in a game over, though, as I learned during a few crucial moments, where I had to live with the consequences of my indecision.

In saying that, there's an exciting mix of dialogue choices, QTEs, transporter puzzles, shuttle flying and the phaser fights are quite arcade-like, but they are all a bit janky. The shuttle flying is boring and a little too simplistic, with a laborious flying through the ring sequence. Trying to aim with the phaser during shootouts was also a pain, thanks to the sluggish controls. There is no option to adjust the mouse or controller sensitivity and, all too often, panning the screen or aiming was too slow and time-consuming. The stealth sequences, however, are actually a lot of fun, and progression is saved at the right points so there were fewer do-overs—I'm looking at you, Hogwarts Legacy's forbidden section of the library. 

While Star Trek often has a superb musical accompaniment, Resurgence's soundtrack leaves something to be desired—it sounds a lot like midi tracks you'd find on a mid-2000s mobile phone, which is a bit of a disconnect from the usual orchestral backing from the shows and films. It did get a little frustrating hearing the same melodies on repeat as I had to redo failed sections, but that says more about me needing to get good at games than it does about whoever wrote the score.

Disappointingly, there are no real options to set up Resurgence to your own liking. There are no accessibility options—not even sensitivity as I mentioned—and screen resolution options are extremely limited. There's no option to rebind controls or turn off the motion blur which, at times, gave me a little motion sickness at times, and neither is there an option to unlock frame rate. While past Telltale games also had this lack of personalisation and accessibility options, it's frustrating to see that Dramatic Labs chose not to include these as it would have made the experience that much better.

The complement of the USS Resolute may not be the finest crew in Starfleet—not when Captain Riker is out there commanding the Titan—but Carter especially is now one of my most-loved Trek characters. It would have been easy to have you roleplaying as a well-established captain or officer, but in focusing on new characters and lower decks antics, Dramatic Labs have created something special. Resurgence takes the best of Telltale's flavour, makes it better and smashes it together with an excellent Star Trek story to create something that's fresh. Yes, characters unavoidably die and the story takes a few hours to really take off, but it's worth it—I haven't cried as much at a Star Trek story since Data sacrificed himself in Nemesis, so read into that what you will. 

The first three games Lauren played on PC were Star Wars: X-Wing, Zoo Tycoon and Barbie Fashion Designer, which explains her love of all things space, strategy and aesthetically pleasing. Lauren recently took over as PC Gamer's Guides Editor after three years of writing many dozens of Destiny 2 guides at VG247, as well as casually trying to shoehorn in The Witcher 3 articles wherever possible. When she's not trying to force everyone to play as a Warlock in Destiny 2, Lauren is either mastering her SEO abilities to help smash the competition, or patting one of her red sons.

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Review: ‘Star Trek: Resurgence’ Immerses You In A Fascinating TNG-Era Story

| May 22, 2023 | By: Anthony Pascale 31 comments so far

Star Trek: Resurgence Video game for Xbox, PlayStation and PC Developer: Dramatic Labs Release Date: May 23, 2023 Price: $39.99

Star Trek: Resurgence is a narrative adventure game set in the Next Generation era. It is a welcome return to single-player gaming on PC and console for the franchise. Resurgence succeeds in immersing players into the Star Trek universe, playing key roles in a fascinating story worthy of the name Star Trek. Regular gamers and novices should be able to navigate their way through the story-focused game, albeit with a few periodic frustrations.

USS Resolute (Dramatic Labs)

NOTE: MINOR GAME SPOILERS BELOW

Resurgence is set one year after Star Trek: Nemesis on the science vessel USS Resolute. Broken into 40 “episodes” that can each take 10-20 minutes to play, the game features an excellent story cleverly tied into Star Trek lore. The Resolute has been tasked with a diplomatic mission to solve a dispute between the Hotari and the Alydian, two new alien races created for the game who are well fleshed out with complicated backstories and unique designs and iconography. Coming along for the ride is one of the familiar faces of the game, Ambassador Spock, ably played by veteran voice actor Piotr Michael who really nails the cadence and style of Nimoy from the TNG era. The drama and stakes of the mission escalate as a mystery unfolds which ties into a fascinating but somewhat obscure civilization from Star Trek canon, which opened up the opportunity to include Captain William T. Riker and have Jonathan Frakes add his special something to the game.

Jara chooses what to say to the Hotari queen (Dramatic Labs)

Players take on two roles: First Officer Jara Rydek and Engineering Crewperson Carter Diaz. Switching back and forth between the two gives different sides of the unfolding story from the bridge and lower decks perspectives while also offering opportunities for different kinds of gameplay. Each has their own quirks and issues, giving the player a great starting point to work from; voice actors Krizia Bajos (Rydek) and Josh Keaton (Diaz) sell each of your choices with perfection. This is the first game from Dramatic Labs, and they chose to make a Star Trek game first because the team genuinely loves the franchise, which can be seen in how they made Rydek a Kobliad : They take a somewhat obscure Trek race and find interesting ways to see how that impacts her personal story and interactions.

Rydek is a Kobliad (Dramatic Labs)

Dramatic Labs is made up of veterans from Telltale Games, so if you are familiar with those, you will find the structure using quick time events, mini-games, and cut scenes familiar. However, Resurgence raises the level on those popular games by adding better graphics, more functionality, and an even more complex story structure. The third-person game primarily focuses on dialogue as players choose how to interact with other characters, and it is here where the game is at its best. While staying within the lines of what would be expected of members of Starfleet, the dialogue choices allow you to vary your roleplay, choosing to play it straight and by the book, or maybe go the sarcastic wisecrack route, or fill the ship with your sunny disposition.

Diaz picks a comeback to chief engineer Chovak

The choices you make impact your relationships with different members of the crew as well as determine the course of both the main plot and subplots, including a potential romance. The excellent writing and strong voice work from the cast completely immerse the player as you navigate your way through the crew of the Resolute and beyond. Some relationships like the ones between Rydek and the prickly Captain Solono or Diaz and his bubbly buddy Petty Officer Edsilar can be quite nuanced. Decisions you make often come back later in the game in dialogue, adding even more to your agency within the game. Some choices may seem trivial, but others are profound and can have lasting consequences, allowing for both lighter fun moments and heartbreaking drama.

Diaz faces a choice for some romance (Dramatic Labs)

A subtitle option helps you follow along, and there are indicators showing if character interactions were positive, neutral, or negative. However, it would be nice to be able to refer to a log to catch up on missed dialogue. You can also at any time pause the game and check your status with different characters. The narrative nature of the game keeps this as a sort of scoreboard, but often there are no “right” choices, so in the end, like in real life, you can’t keep everyone happy all the time, although disappointing Spock hurts more than getting fragged in any first-person shooter. The good news is that you can change people’s opinions of you as you play through the game but there are some choices that will leave a lasting or even permanent impact.

Jara has to manage her way with some strong personalities (Dramatic Labs)

Resurgence isn’t built to have cutting-edge graphics, although what it has is adequate, based on the popular Unreal Engine. However, Dramatic Labs has added its own “Beanie” narrative engine which allows for this complex choice-based narrative to play out of what ends up being the equivalent of a full season of Star Trek. While some choices just add flavor or even some fun, like picking your command code or choosing a replicator beverage, the player is often faced with moral choices and even a few moments that feel like no-win scenarios, adding some real emotional punch. There is a “Choices” screen where you can explore the choices that you’ve made in the game and see how they’ve affected various events and relationships during your journey. The game also autosaves as you go along with many save points. However, it would be nice to have the option to pick previous save points to try out some different options or choices.

Diaz faced a life-or-death choice (Dramatic Labs)

Added to the branching narrative functions of the game is some basic exploring, however, this is not an open-world game, so don’t expect to be able to just walk around the ship and check everything out. Resurgence also features a number of mini-games and puzzles, including tricorder scanning and shuttle piloting. These add depth to the Star Trek immersion, along with all the technobabble and appropriate beeps you could want.

Jara takes flight (Dramatic Labs)

These puzzles, especially with the tricorder, can really make you feel like you are in Starfleet helping sort out problems and even uncovering ancient mysteries. However, often the puzzles can get a bit frustrating, with limited or even no clues for when you get stuck. There are tutorial slides available in the pause menu, but sometimes a task can take so long that you can forget what exactly you are supposed to do and so more hints and a way to remind you of your current task would be helpful.

It wouldn’t be Star Trek without scanning for some anomalies (Dramatic Labs)

The game also has some rudimentary stealth mechanics so you can sneak around the bad guys, which adds a bit more to the game but these sequences prove very little challenge. There are a few segments of phaser combat along with some basic cover system that ramps up the action including some timed segments that can prove to be very challenging. Players used to complex RPGs and shooters may find the limited combat system a bit frustrating, but if you ever get stuck in a segment the game offers you “story mode” which allows you to play through without getting killed and having to restart that segment.

Carter fights off some bad guys (Dramatic Labs)

The best action in the game comes during dramatic scenes on the bridge as Jara has to make some critical decisions, dealing with the captain, her fellow bridge officers, and of course, fending off enemy ships. There are some moments, especially later in the game, that have just as much impact as some of the best Star Trek battle sequences. More importantly, some choices you make will stay with you, making you wonder was there a better way? Much of this drama is enhanced by the strong original score which fits well within the Next Generation era, especially the movies.

Jara with Captain Solano (Dramatic Labs)

The game seamlessly flows from cut scene to choice to puzzle and back again making this the ultimate choose-your-own adventure within Star Trek. However, both the PC and console review releases had a few hiccups including dropped frames, and audio issues, usually fixed by just reloading the most recent save point, and hopefully, these little bugs will be sorted out with early patches. And adding the ability to skip cut scenes (especially if you already played through that episode before) would be a big help, as would the ability to reload previous episodes.

Hotaris Sidron and Tylas (Dramatic Labs)

Resurgence isn’t at the level of a AAA game like the recently released Star Wars: Jedi Survivor or Bethesda’s highly anticipated sci-fi game Starfield , but it is the most ambitious and impressive Star Trek game since 2019’s Star Trek: Bridge Crew . The strength of the game and why it is highly recommended to any fan is for the fascinating story that it allows you to participate in, populated with interesting well-played characters, all inhabiting a familiar Star Trek universe that also expands the lore. Star Trek: Resurgence literally lets you test the axiom “risk is our business” with an experience you will not soon forget.

Another strange world (Dramatic Labs)

Available on Tuesday

Star Trek: Resurgence arrives on Tuesday, May 23rd. It is available on Xbox (Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X), PlayStation (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Slim, PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation 5), and PC (via Epic Game Store). The release price is $39.99. It is available only as a digital release and there are no pre-orders but more info on how to buy the game along with required PC specs and more FAQs are available at startrek-resurgence.com .

Check out the launch trailer (warning it includes spoilers )

Bonus video

Here is some pre-release footage from the game…

Find more  Star Trek gaming news and analysis .

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An AI clone of Nimoy’s voice?

wow. its an actor. he does a good job

Forget to change to your alt account?

I think he was just stating that he was surprised it was an actor and not an AI generated voice as he first thought.

Clearly just answering his own question after finding out. (Or it’s a scary foreign bot account intent on scoring points on a TV show’s news site’s comment section! WooOooO. 😏)

My dexterity is quite low*. In the past, the mini-games I’ve seen in PC RPG’s have been very dexterity-based, to the point of my being unable to finish a game. How are the mini-games in this one? Can a non-dexterous Trekkie still play?

*Those of you you’ve played D&D know that a character’s statistics are rolled on three six-sided dice, so they range from a low of 3 to a high of 18. More than one of my friends has looked at me, shaken their head sadly, and said, “Intelligence 18, Dexterity 3 .” True story! :-)

The mini games are not really that great but, it’s really more about the main story, it is an adventure game at its heart.

Well, that last screenshot is a dead giveaway of the obscure race from TNG season past. Sun Tzu anyone?

Portal of the T’Kon Empire. You are being tested, Riker!

Paws off, Ferengi!

I’ll pick this one up!

So, has Starfleet suppressed that pesky writers strike yet?

Looks like there’s actually way more than that going on.

I want the Roddenberry Archiv Enterprise D with the TNG crew and play actual original episode storys in that photo realistic graphic they already have! Also I want to walk through and discover the entire ship! The Roddenberry Archiv is the biggest thing for me and I’m so much looking forward to it… Not the least because my dudes Rob Bryan and Daniel Korican are working on that project in a huge way..

Playing original episodes would be rad…

Q: But your test hardly requires a long mission. Your immediate destination offers far more challenge than you can possibly imagine. Yes, this Farpoint station will be an excellent test.

Player 1: it’s a space jellyfish. Farpoint Station is a space jellyfish. A. A. A. A. A. A. next episode

Code of Honor. Masks. Who gets to be Beverly in Sub Rosa. I’d pass, if I played these games.

To hell with who gets to be Beverly in Sub Rosa…. who gets to be the candle?!?

Ha! Excellent.

I got the game on Epic and got a coupon for ten bucks off. I didn’t DO anything to get the coupon; it was just there. Cool!

I picked it up on PS4. Usually these days I wait for a sale, but I specifically wanted to help this game do well from Day 1, so I picked it up today.

I’m not very far in yet, but so far, so good! The character animations are a little stiff, but I can forgive that. It’s a fairly ambitious game from a small developer, rather than some huge AAA thing, and the important thing is that they’ve clearly put a lot of Trek love into it. It’s really suffused with the feel of 1990s Trek in particular. Based on my extremely limited experience with it so far, I hope it does well.

Glad to hear it! I’ve been busy all day and haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but as you said, I wanted the game to do well.

PC version is locked to 1080p and 30fps and the controls/keybinds are just bad. You can easily, mistakenly exit back to main menu and lose your progress and have to start over again. Refunded. Will check it again in the future are re-purchase it if they make improvements.

Huh? You have to press Enter and then mouseclick on the Main Menu button, how do you do this mistakenly? Plus, each episode has multiple savepoints, so you at maximum are thrown back a few minutes of gametime.

If this game makes it to a fully compatible Steam Deck release I’d be interested.

Shame this is an Epic exclusive on PC. When it inevitably makes the journey to Steam (and thus the Steam Deck) a year or so from now, I’ll have my credit card ready to roll. Until then…

You can run it on Steam Deck now with tinkering. However, reports say it runs pretty bad and I don’t think that will change (short of patches) even with an official Steam release: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/13q82sa/star_trek_resurgence_struggles_on_the_steam_deck/

Why is this such a massive problem? You can buy on Epic now, you can even use the current voucher to give you a big discount. Then if you a so desire add it to you Steam interface via the add a non steam game option.

Fun game. Like other have mentioned, its easy to accidently back out and loose your progress. If you have an ultrawide monitor, you will need to download UUUE4 unlocker and then set the desired ultrawide resolution in the “HOTSAMPLING”. Do this by setting the game in window mode, then set the hotsample, then press fullscreen and save it (dont worryy about it still saying 1080p) Also you will need to set the FOV by access the commands with the hotkey set in UUUE4. Set to 75-80 fpv for the best outcome or to reset, type out fov reset. The game is great but i do not like the tricorder and transporter mini games.

I’ve found the game to be a bit glitchy on PS5. Characters will often repeat lines of dialogue or get cut off in the middle of a sentence.

Star Trek: Resurgence is a narrative-driven adventure game created by former members of Telltale Games that delivers all the excitement and wonder of the Star Trek universe. Join the crew of the U.S.S. Resolute as first officer Jara Rydek and enlisted engineer Carter Diaz on a mission to prevent an eons-old and powerful force from engulfing everything in its wake!

You’ll be challenged by tough choices in Star Trek: Resurgence and through those choices, it becomes YOUR story. After playing, see how some of your decisions compare with those of other Star Fleet officers around the world HERE .

Read the comic book series and graphic novel - available from your favorite retailer.

On a windswept planet on the edge of Talarian space, a scientist working on groundbreaking warp technology has gone missing. Captain Solano, First Officer Sutherland, and the crew of the U.S.S. Resolute are sent on a top-secret mission to find Doctor Leah Brahms and retrieve her research before it falls into the wrong hands.

Star Trek: Resurgence was created by Dramatic Labs , a new studio comprised of former members of Telltale Games who have worked on genre-defining and award-winning titles including Telltale’s The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Batman.

Get updates, including release dates, exclusive first looks, and more by signing up for the Star Trek Resurgence mailing list .

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Star Trek Resurgence Review: Boldly Getting Star Trek Right, Mostly

Note: A Press Build of the game was provided to us by the developer. 

Star Trek is my secret personal passion. I’ve never been a Trekkie, but growing up as a kid of the mid 80s and then 90s, Star Trek and Next Generation became foundational for me and the media that I loved. While Star Wars had some more of the fantastical elements to it that I enjoyed, Next Generation captured my attention for the way in which it told so many varied stories that often revolved around solving problems through violence as a last resort and presented a vision of a future in which conflict, while unavoidable, was not insurmountable, and in which the prevailing concept of the universe was one of tenacious progress and hope.

This is perhaps a controversial opinion, but I have spent much of the last 20 years or so watching Star Trek just sort of bumble about as a franchise. The newer movies had vibrancy and life but seemed doomed to go nowhere, and most attempts at modernizing the series on television were met with abysmal failures of the initial idea and concept. Star Trek was never about the combat or the action, but was about the dramatics and the storytelling, exploring a high concept future of hope, and I’ve felt slightly frustrated in how distant that type of storytelling seems to have become. 

Games based on Star Trek similarly seemed to always just come up short of actually capturing the ideology and mindset of the series, focusing too much on action gaming than the narrative that makes Star Trek so appealing. Star Trek Resurgence by Dramatic Labs tries to deliver on producing Star Trek’s unique vision of the future in a narrative adventure game shell, and manages to encapsulate everything good–and bad–about Star Trek, along with some quibbles of the long shadow left behind by Telltale games. 

Resurgence starts by introducing players to Jara Rydek, a half-Kobliad Commander in Starfleet with a particularly nebulous but apparently amazing record of service that brings her a lot of respect and notoriety. If you don’t know what a Kobliad is, don’t worry too much about turning in your tricorder; they’re not a particularly famous race in Star Trek, and notably have a genetic defect that requires use of a substance known as Deuridium to stabilize their cell-structure; this becomes both plot relevant in a few ways, and also a means to provide the seemingly superheroic Rydek with a slice of foretold weakness. After a bit of tutorial introduction and scene-setting, the game then introduces the secondary protagonist, Petty Officer Carter Diaz, a member of the long-suffering “lower decks”: the grunts who do all of the work below the bridge and often pay the price with their bodies (or their lives) without much fanfare. Diaz is perky and hardworking, a good counterweight to the serious and tactical Rydek, but how players develop both characters via the choices available to them can change these personalities within certain parameters. 

The game spends quite a lot of time setting up some of the initial tensions and relationships, which pays off: the game is far longer than it likely seems it is going to be, clocking in around 12-13 hours or so for a single playthrough (and assuming you don’t encounter any frustrating gameplay portions that make you stuck for a bit), and the first third of those hours are spent establishing the current state of the Resolute and the crew upon the vessel. There are some of the staples one might expect of a Star Trek crew: A Vulcan, a Trill–unjoined, which becomes a plot point and a slight lore oddity, as… most Trill are actually unjoined, so it seems like the writers wanted this to be a bigger deal than it is–and a Bolian, before introducing the game’s seemingly original alien species developed specifically for this story: The Hotari, who reminded me of orcs, and the Alydians, who seem a little more at home in Star Wars or Mass Effect than Star Trek. There aren’t too many other races you might expect: no Klingons, Cardassians, or Ferengi appear throughout Resurgence , but for the most part this doesn’t matter too much (but frankly I did want to interact with at least a Klingon while playing). 

The narrative trundles along for a while, and at times the gameplay segments in which you directly control Diaz or Rydek are some of the worst parts of the game by far. I appreciate the idea of giving us a break from dialogue choices and talking scenes, but these are the most interesting parts of the game (and generally, of Star Trek), so many times I found a lot of the active sequences tiresome or frustrating as they occasionally dragged on (looking at you, shuttle piloting sections). Thankfully, none of them ever did so to the point of making me not want to keep finding out what happened in the story, but they certainly stood out as reminding me of some of the worst parts of Telltale games, the gameplay parts. 

Hero Worship

One thing that nagged at me early in Resurgence was its attempts to pull at Trek fans’ senses of nostalgia. I audibly gasped at the appearance of a certain NPC, and then rolled my eyes a bit when another showed up later; I get that there are fans out there who likely would go crazy for these cameos, but I found them slightly odd, as if tying the game to established points of fandom love in order to garner player sympathy or affection to some of the rougher parts of the game. Alternatively, it smacks a little of seeming like the game was afraid to portray a version of Star Trek that did not name drop (or literally person drop) established, beloved characters instead of establishing it’s own identity. And, certainly, Star Trek is generally interconnected; lots of memorable episodes of TNG or Deep Space 9 feature cameos and callbacks, as do more modern shows and movies, but at times I found these a little hamfisted into the game itself. They aren’t harmful, nor do these characters detract from the narrative save for one, who it feels like disappointing means you’re playing the game wrong. 

This nostalgic worship also rears its head in the way that the game seems beholden to the legacy of games like The Walking Dead from the defunct Telltale, which tracks, as quite a few of the Dramatic Labs developers worked for Telltale. The problem is that the weakest portions of this game remind me of why I found Telltale games stale after a while: choices sometimes don’t make clear sense or feel forced on the player, “gameplay” or action sequences detract from the most compelling aspects of the game, and some of the narrative choices smack of being stuck in the past. The most irritating one stems from a somewhat forced romantic relationship that happens in Diaz’s route almost immediately upon starting his storyline. While you can try to choose to avoid the relationship, doing so just implies that it DID happen or something COULD have happened, and so your choice as a player is to lean into the hetero relationship that feels, well, totally empty, or try to lean away from it, and have the game kind of force it on you anyway. 

Alternatively, Rydek’s storyline has no direct romantic implications, except for one NPC relationship that reads so sapphicly charged that it has to be accidental queerbaiting where the writers just did not realizing what they had going here: Rydek and this character go through all of the emotional moments one might expect from a romantic, or especially lesbian, romance to develop: trials by fire, learning to trust, saving one another, and even has a moment of dramatic antigravity twirling as one character holds onto the other. To have no ability to make this pay off romantically in any way; Listen, I’m kind of an expert on lesbian romance , and I can tell something was cooking here, but don’t offer to serve me something and then change the menu. Having to trudge through the game forcing Diaz’s hetero romantic implications is a little annoying, but maybe I’m holding out some hope Dramatic Labs will consider more queer options in the future, or have a writing room that isn’t entirely male, either one sounds great. 

Time’s Orphan

This narrative grousing aside, despite the somewhat dated nature of the game’s story and gameplay, there is a lot to enjoy in Resurgence. I found myself drawn into the narrative to the point that I ended up staying up until nearly 4 am to see the game completed, and I haven’t done that in quite some time. I reached out to Dramatic Labs to confirm a few things, and depending on your choices, there are numerous endings and outcomes that can be achieved; some seem obvious, but others aren’t, and I’m curious to work my way through the game a second time to see what different ending outcomes I can get for certain characters. Resurgence really does a great job of nailing some of that diplomatic and dramatic tension that Star Trek excels at: problems can’t be solved entirely with phasers and photo torpedoes, but choices, and that those choices will have consequences. 

Diaz’s storyline feels like an homage to more modern Star Trek, with a focus on the lower deck crew and their struggles to be seen as individuals in a larger system; in many ways, the Diaz storyline explores the weaknesses of the Federation, but without a lot of the cynicism that some modern attempts at updating Star Trek have done so. The Federation is still considered a force of good and peace in the universe, and the narrative doesn’t try to undermine that consideration, but instead simply note that there are ways in which the Federation is not perfect and that many problems can’t be solved entirely by stiff protocol. Rydek’s narrative is the much more sophist view of Star Trek, the types of episodes Next Generation fans rant about with epic speeches on what it means to be alive or the place of life in a cold universe. Personally, I found Rydek to be the far more interesting character to play as and engage with, but appreciated both stories as it provided an interesting A and B storyline sequence that felt very Trek. 

Perhaps the greatest compliment to be paid to Resurgence is that it does get ‘Trek’. The chapters have episode titles like episodes of the show, the aesthetic is right, and Dramatic Labs never goes too far into changing up Trek lore or ideas to suit their own narrative. This does at times mean that some story beats or choices seem to have obvious correct (Prime Directive-inspired choices) and incorrect (going super rogue) options, but honestly? I liked that. I liked that the game knew the universe to a point that it presented choices like this as a chance to go off script, but then veer slightly into What If? territory than trying to make Star Trek bend to my whims as a player. And the story is generally quite engaging; I found myself engrossed in wanting to know what would happen next, and thoroughly enjoyed the moments when the game made me feel like I was finally playing in the space of one of my favorite franchises rather than playing a corridor shooter or space shooter game with Star Trek slapped onto the box. 

Take Me Out to the Holosuite

Star Trek Resurgence is a great return to the universe of Star Trek that I and likely many others fell in love with as children or adults: the almost high fantasy style scifi universe in which it seemed like everything was possible, a universe that prided logic, debate, and conflict resolution above action and magical solutions. Perhaps the biggest issue the game has, however, is that it does very little to convince new people to give the game a chance. Knowing nothing about Star Trek would likely make this game difficult or even silly, and certainly does nothing to combat any of the stereotypes Star Trek might have. There isn’t even a lot for me to say to convince non-Trek fans to play the game, sadly – if you don’t like Star Trek, you probably aren’t going to like Resurgence. 

Star Trek Resurgence is a great return to the universe of Star Trek that I and likely many others fell in love with as children or adults

But if you do like Star Trek, particularly the period of the 90s in which Star Trek dominated much of the sci-fi television landscape between Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, than Star Trek Resurgence will likely feel extremely comforting and fun to engage with. The story is entertaining and gripping enough to encourage you to see it through, the characters interact in interesting ways, and Jara Rydek feels like a character you’ve somehow known for years despite being essentially created from scratch just for this video game. It would be great to see more adventures featuring Jara and the crew of the Resolute in the future.

Although next time, let us actually have our lesbian romance. Trust me: It’ll sell. 

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at  [email protected] .

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Star Trek: Resurgence Review: To Unsteadily Go Where We’ve Already Been Before

By Jason Faulkner

As a long-time fan of the franchise , I was excited to hear that Star Trek: Resurgence from Dramatic Labs would be bringing a new story set just after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis to PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Part of my gaming teeth were cut on early-to-mid 90s games like Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, Judgment Rites, and A Final Unity, so I was curious what a Star Trek adventure game would look like almost two decades later.

In the 90s through the early 2000s, we saw a bevy of terrific Star Trek video games released on various platforms. However, things have been pretty bleak since Activision lost the license in 2003. In 2023, if you want a Trek gaming fix, you can choose between Star Trek Online or a handful of Gatcha titles. So, there’s a lot of pressure on Resurgence from fans.

All hands on deck

In Star Trek: Resurgence, you play as two characters:

The first, Commander Jara Rydek, is arriving to fill the first officer post on the USS Resolute that was opened when the previous XO died. The game picks up a few months after the prequel comic series ends, and Hydek joins a shaken and distrustful crew. Many of them blame the ship’s captain, Zachary Solano, for the incident that severely damaged the Resolute and killed the previous first officer. Many also resent that he brought an outsider in to become XO instead of promoting from within. Playing as Rydek, you’ll have to navigate the crew’s misgivings and decide whether Captain Solano is being unfairly judged or is incompetent and a danger to the ship.

When not facing the trials and tribulations of being a senior officer on the upper decks, you’ll take the role of Petty Officer Carter Diaz down in the bowels of the Resolute. His focus is on the engineering and slice-of-life aspects of living on a starship, and you’ll be responsible for helping perform basic maintenance and diagnostic tasks.

After being refit, the Resolute’s first mission is to mediate a conflict between two races. At first glance, it appears that one has used its technological superiority to subjugate the other. However, a chance appearance of an intense ion storm has negated that advantage and allowed the more primitive race to throw off the yoke of their oppressors. The famed Ambassador Spock himself is coming along to help with the negotiations, and despite the two species’ history, it looks like it’ll be a fairly straightforward diplomatic mission. However, it becomes evident that things aren’t as simple as they seem, and the ion storm has properties that haven’t been seen before.

The story is the highlight in Resurgence, and it does a great job of capturing the feeling of an episode of TNG. However, the inclusion of Spock is a bit much. It’s 2380 in the game, and the Romulan Senate was just assassinated a year before. It would make more sense for Spock to be on Romulus helping the Unification movement than for him to mediate a conflict between two random non-Federation members.

Visually, Star Trek: Resurgence is a mixed bag. The art direction is great, and you can tell that fans of the franchise are behind it. The USS Resolute, being made up of surplus Excelsior and Miranda-class parts, is a blend of narrower, segmented corridors from the TOS-era movies and the bright, carpeted aesthetic of the Galaxy-class. Most Star Trek productions center around the latest and greatest vessels, and it’s interesting to get another look at life on one of the fleet’s workhorses.

That being said, everything is pretty blue. The Resolute’s interior is primarily based on the Excelsior as seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and the Voyager episode “Flashback.” As such, Dramatic Labs has stuck with a similar interior design. For some reason, instead of getting an upgrade to the latest LCARS, it retained the blue input system that the Enterprise-A and Excelsior were equipped with. Because the game is stylized and uses exaggerated colors, the amount of blue can be overwhelming sometimes. It seems like Dramatic Labs was going for a comic book aesthetic, and it doesn’t quite pull it off. Instead, it comes off as a mask for a budget game that needed about six months longer in the oven.

Ultimately, Resurgence’s biggest issue overall is its animations. The stilted walking and odd hand movements were immersion-breaking throughout. I didn’t expect each role to be fully motion captured, but they should be at least somewhat lifelike. Dramatic Studio was founded by ex-Telltale employees, so the expertise should be there. Often, the result is that serious scenes end up coming off as farcical because of some strange movement or facial expression from a character.

Core breach

Unfortunately, Resurgence has technical shortcomings that are impossible to look past. I played on PC, so here’s a brief rundown of my specs:

• CPU: Intel i9-13900K
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
• RAM: 64GB G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5 6400 Memory
• SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 2TB m.2

Even on what’s pretty much the highest-end hardware available right now, I ran into performance issues. There was infrequent stuttering, Level of Detail glitches, pop-in, and more. Subtitles also frequently fail to trigger properly, which is a major accessibility problem.

Additionally, on PC, there were no options to raise the resolution further than 1080p and no way to adjust any graphics settings or framerate. One of the PC biggest strengths as a platform is that you can tune your gaming experience to your requirements, but that’s not the case here.

On the upside, controller support worked well. But, I found myself unable to quit the game when using it. For some reason, I could return to the main menu with a mouse and keyboard, but when trying to do the same with a controller, the game would freeze, and I’d have to close it with task manager.

Overall, it feels like the PC port could have used several more months in production. Of course, it’s possible a day-one patch could solve one or more of these issues, but we’ll have to wait to see if that’s the case.

Star Trek Resurgence review: The Final Verdict

Resurgence is a game that’s hard to review. As a fan of the franchise, I appreciate the attention to detail and the effort required to bottle the nostalgia of 90s Trek. However, despite being an enjoyable experience on its own, I have to wonder how much of my perception of the game was colored by my love for TNG, DS9, and Voyager. At times it felt as though I were seeing through a glass, darkly, ignoring faults so I could be transported back to the golden age of Trek. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does give some context for those who aren’t into that era of the franchise.

Unfortunately, Resurgence’s technical and quality issues mean it’s not a great introduction to Star Trek. Luckily, many older Star Trek titles that are friendlier for newcomers are now available on GOG.com, and they’ve been updated to work on modern PCs. So, if you’re new to Trek and want to see what the gaming side of the franchise has to offer, I suggest starting elsewhere.

Score: 6/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience.

Jason Faulkner is Evolve Media's Evergreen SEO Manager. On a typical day, you can find him working desperately trying to get late-1990s/early-2000s PC games working at 4K and 16:9 ratio without crashing.

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9 Ups & 2 Downs From Star Trek: Resurgence

4. down: bad romance.

As noted before, Carter Diaz is an established member of the Resolute 's lower decks contingent and as such has built up a number of relationships within that group.

The most significant of these is with alliterative security crewmember Miranda Maris.

Maris is returning to the Resolute as the story begins. The set up very quickly places her into a potential romantic relationship with Diaz which, thanks to untold numbers of previous storylines, pretty much indicates she'll turn out to be somehow intricate to the story. Add to that fans and players will just know that this relationship has to have a dire twist and delivers almost as quickly on its suggestion.

The need for there to be a romantic affiliation within Resurgence is perhaps questionable since there is no real attachment to these characters at the start. Having Miranda just as a crewmember who is caught up in the machinations of the Tkon would still have worked and perhaps have made the stakes just as high as Dramatic Labs were intending with their romantic link to one of the leads.

A Star Trek fan from birth, I love to dive into every aspect of the franchise in front and behind the screen. There's something here that's kept me interested for the best part of four decades! Now I'm getting back into writing and using Star Trek as my first line of literary attack. If I'm not here on WhatCulture then you're more than welcome to come and take a look at my blog, Some Kind of Star Trek at http://SKoST.co.uk or maybe follow me on Twitter as @TheWarpCore. Sometimes I force myself not to talk about Star Trek.

Star Trek: Resurgence Review – To Tell a Tale where No One has Gone Before

Chris Wray May 22, 2023, 12:00 PM EDT Copy Shortlink

Star Trek: Resurgence

It's safe to say that Star Trek has fallen out of favour when it comes to video games, with only a select handful standing out over recent years, Star Trek Online being the most obvious example. On the other hand, 2013's Star Trek also stood out for all the wrong reasons. One title I haven't been able to try but would like to is Star Trek: Bridge Crew . One thing is sure, Star Trek lends itself well to various game types, and it's time for former TellTale alums at Dramatic Labs to bring the adventure with Star Trek: Resurgence.

That is certainly the aim, and for the most part, it is done with a good measure of success. Star Trek: Resurgence falls precisely where Star Trek is often best, the philosophical and the humane. One can't imagine the franchise without Encounter at Farpoint, the launchpad of The Next Generation and Jean Luc Picard, or episodes like The Measure of a Man (TNG), Duet (DS9), and even The Andorian Incident (Enterprise). Star Trek can always bring the action, but it's in episodes like those about people (or Androids, or Andorians) and sometimes about avoiding unnecessary 'action'.

Being an adventure game where choice and consequences are in the same vein as what Telltale's biggest games featured, you would be right to expect something more in keeping with the more thought-provoking Trek episodes. This isn't to say there isn't any action, something "Telltale's The Walking Dead" was more than happy to show over a decade ago. Dramatic Labs have even gotten more effort into the gameplay, giving you control over the phaser, tricorder, and other tools in a limited way. Adventure games are slowly getting there.

Of course, for the most part, you will be doing the same things you've expected from these choice-driven adventure games. You will do minimal exploration in enclosed areas, inspecting a few items and talking to a few people. There are a few puzzles around where you can realign the transporter whatchyamadoodle, correctly plot a course for the tractor beam, and so on. Some of these puzzles are also optional, giving you a little on the side to complete and potentially impacting later in the game.

Naturally, the real impact comes from your decisions throughout the core moments. From deciding to send your crew-mate first back into the ship, or going forward with your - in this case, Carter Diaz's - love interest, or when taking the role of Jara Rydek, choosing between one of the two feuding factions, of which you are forced to do. These, and many more, are the decisions that will shape the fate of your story. They will shape how others look at Carter Diaz and Jara Rydek, the two playable characters.

Set just after the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Resurgence also has the opportunity to bring in some things fans of the series will know and love. Two returning characters are Spock (as seen above), voiced by Piotr Michael, who does an excellent job of sounding like the late, great Leonard Nimoy . Another guest appearance is non-other than Jonathan Frakes as William T. Riker, one of the best characters ever to grace a sci-fi screen. Fortunately, none of these characters superseded what are well-written newcomers.

Generally speaking, Star Trek: Resurgence is well written and feels like something that belongs to Trek. It forges its path in its little corner of the universe but is inextricably linked to everything else. It also takes that delicate balance you've come to expect. It includes enough magical space science that you could do with Wesley Crusher on your side, ready to MacGyver up an explanation or solution. Unique ion storms keeping you stranded, factions within factions threatening all-out war between two neighbouring planets, covert actions threatening to turn everything on its head, it's precisely what you've come to expect.

How this story is presented is where I've found the game to fall. Aesthetically, I can't complain. It's not, nor would I want it to be photo-realistic. I particularly enjoy the design on show here, with colours helping to make things pop, even if animations can be exaggerated. There are also a few slight issues where characters will phase through tables during scenes, and while this is Trek, I know it wasn't intended. None of that takes away from the game, though, but it sets the stage for the technical issues that do.

Voice Acting in an adventure game like this could arguably be the most critical component. Everybody does an excellent job here; I can't fault a single line that I've heard, the actors should be proud of their delivery, and the writers should be proud of their writing. My problem comes with the technical issues in delivering these lines. I've had lines cut short; I've had them clipping into each other, with the start of one word being ended by the end of another.

Another issue that can be fixed by simply going into the settings is the audio balance, though I would ideally want a game to have it right out of the box. When you're at the end of one of the in-game chapters or after a big decision or event, you'll notice that quite great music starts playing. The problem is that characters can also be talking, and unless you alter the settings, you may as well give up any hope of knowing what they have to say. I've had more effortless conversations at heavy-rock gigs.

As a final technical issue, I implore you, on the PC, to never press escape while in the pause screen (entered with the space key). If you do this, the game will stop responding, and you will find it a complete and utter pain in the arse to close it down, giving you access to your PC again without restarting. Once you know about it, it's easy to avoid doing it (though pressing escape is instinctual), but it's another issue that shouldn't exist.

Despite the issues I have gone through, and I must admit they seem to make up a large chunk of the review, I can't help but like Star Trek: Resurgence. This is Trek storytelling, and I've always argued that little, if any, sci-fi does storytelling as good as Trek. It also helps that the gameplay has slightly branched out, and you get a little exploration here and there. Despite the issues, I recommend this game, particularly if you're a Trek fan, but it's more than welcoming to all.

PC version reviewed. Copy provided by the publisher.

Star Trek: Resurgence is possibly one of the more accurate games to have captured the Star Trek world in a more contemplative manner, with the adventure game format being particularly suited to it. With a compelling narrative, interesting characters (new and returning) and a game that plays well, there is a lot to like here, despite a number of technical hiccups on the PC version.

• An interesting story, featuring well developed characters, both new and old.
• Features varied gameplay to branch out the general adventure-game aspects.
• Looks good, and captures the Star Trek universe well.
• Excellent voice acting throughout.
• However, the audio suffers from a number of technical issues, which can be obtrusive.
• The game also has other technical issues.

Deal of the Day

Further Reading

Deliver Us Mars Review – The Fate Of A Father

Wccftech’s Most Anticipated Adventure Games of 2023 – A New Journey Begins

Somerville Review – Some More, Please

Star Trek Online: Stormfall Giveaway – Enter to Win 6-Month Paramount+ Subscription and Much More!

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Screen Rant

Star trek just made geordi la forge's holodeck romance even creepier.

Star Trek: Resurgence #2 revisits one of Geordi La Forge's most embarrassing moments in Star Trek: The Next Generation, raising fresh questions.

Warning: spoilers for Star Trek: Resurgence #2! Geordi La Forge's holodeck romance from the Star Trek: The Next Generation has just gotten even creeper in a new prequel comic to the upcoming Star Trek: Resurgence game . The scene exists in a nebulous period of time which could indicate he made further changes to the program after the real Brahms discovered its existence.

In a flashback, La Forge is having a discussion with his Dr. Leah Brahms hologram on the holodeck before returning to the actual story in Star Trek: Resurgence #2 by writers Andrew Grant and Dan Martin, artist Josh Hood, colorist Charlie Kirchoff and letterer Neil Uyetake. Brahms laments not being able to prove a theory she just came up with that would revolutionize warp travel, to which La Forge attempts to comfort her by explaining that she deserves to be out on the frontier where these types of discoveries are usually made.

Related: Star Trek: Geordi La Forge's Evil Redesign Is a Franchise Best Villain

The scene serves as a continuation of La Forge's relationships with both the real and holographic versions of Brahms . In the TNG episode "Booby Trap," La Forge creates a holodeck program with the human scientist Brahms in response to an ongoing development on the Enterprise-D, but eventually forms an intimate relationship with her. In the later episode "Galaxy's Child," the real Brahms boards the Enterprise and accidentally stumbles upon La Forge's version of her - a revelation that disturbs her, and which initially hampers their relationship as friends and colleagues.

Star Trek Revisits La Forge's Hologram of Brahms

What's unsettling about the flashback in the Resurgence comic is that the year is given as 2367, which puts it after "Booby Trap," but before or after the later episode where La Forge befriends the real Dr. Brahms. If the latter, the scene is decidedly creepy. Indeed, the holographic Brahms is wearing the same color outfit as the real Brahms wore in "Galaxy's Child." Originally, the Brahms hologram that La Forge had a relationship with in "Booby Trap" wore pink. This suggests the moment takes place after La Forge met the real Brahms , and that he updated the hologram (which she objected to) to make it resemble her. This is especially disturbing since it's clear by the actions of the Brahms hologram that she is not as headstrong as the real Brahms, suggesting La Forge may have updated the hologram's appearance to make it more accurate, but consciously not given it the more independent personality of the real version.

Frustratingly, the lack of a precise stardate or a wedding ring on Brahms' finger make it difficult to judge when exactly this scene takes place, but the potential still emphasizes the moral discussion at the heart of La Forge's relationship with the holographic Brahms. As a franchise, Star Trek looks to the future, asking how a fallible but morally ambitious humanity will deal with advanced technology and alien societies. The moral quandary at the heart of La Forge's friendship with Brahms is the perfect example of how the franchise makes these heady ideas personal, exploring humanity's failings and evolution via individual stories.

More: 2022 Redefined the Stakes of Star Trek's Entire Franchise

Star Trek: Resurgence is available from IDW Publishing!