I just finished the game, overall a pretty good rating. My general thoughts and feedback:
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The story and atmosphere is excellent. It’s half way between an episode of TNG and an episode of Lower Decks played straight. Seriously, I kept hearing Rutherford’s voice every time we played as the engineer. If you’re jonesing for something from the 90s Trek era, I definitely recommend this. It reminds me of Bridge Commander in feel in that it let’s you do “all the things” from the show and live out your fantasies.
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Goes longer than it needed to, which is good. If you’re familiar with the Shatner Trek novels, he and his ghostwriters typically have two narrative viewpoints that alternate with each chapter, with every chapter tending to end on a cliffhanger. The game was a lot like that with you wanting to play through a chapter so you could see how the previous cliffhanger would be resolved in the next one.
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Have to wonder how impactful the decision points are. Things like the relationship tracker saying “so-and-so may never forgive you for this” and in the very next scene they’re forgiving me for obvious reasons. Sometimes they get angry at you for strange things, and I can’t work out if that’s meant to happen, as in you’re not meant to please everyone, or if it’s “voice of the author” needling me that I did the wrong thing.
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QTEs are generous, you’ll never miss one.
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There’s some very minor LGBT rep for those like me who care about that sort of thing.
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I chose the Ops Officer for my XO. Science Officer had a constant stick up his ass and frankly would have become a living example of the Peter Principle if chosen. The Tactical Officer was too green and hero-worshippy and then decided to resign in the middle of battle because we weren’t murdering enough. Ops Officer was a real dark horse and I realised he was completely level-headed and would call me on my bulls**t if needed so I went to him for both the mutiny and the promotion.
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Never been a fan of the body-snatcher plot. All the paranoia gets tiresome, as does the hand-wringing about hurting the possessed. I would have preferred it stuck to the earlier “populists exploit ancient alien tech to instigate conflict” story.
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Graphics vary. Sometimes it’s really good, like the props and set detailing. Others it’s bad (the hair and most of the faces). The new alien races look great. Same premise as Elite Force 2’s, but much better in visual design.
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Just as an aside, the Centaur class is my least favourite ship by far. But in one of the early dialogue options the Resolute is described as a “Centaur refit”. and the new secondary hull and embedded shuttlebay really flesh it out. The bridge, sickbay, ready room, etc all look the part too. I wish there was a freeroam option, though from all the deckplans I own, ships with saucers have to make do with a radial spoke corridor layout that makes it very hard to find your way around.
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The game deserved to be raked over the coals for its bugs. Staticy sound and unfinished UI are the biggest offenders. Cost me some progress more than a few times. And there is no way to skip any cutscenes or dialogue at all, which will make replays murder.
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There’s an online portal you can use to track your story decisions, but even that is broken. Both in the text it provides and the percentages it claims players chose.
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It’s interesting to note that the CEO of the development studio Dramatic Labs is Kevin Bruner, former CEO of Telltale Games who got drummed out of his own company. Telltale was failing because it was over-stretched making interactive story games with great plotting but terrible bugs. For better or worse, Dramatic Labs seems to be a carbon-copy of the Telltale formula, so I wouldn’t expect much change with any sequel or follow-up.
The tragic end of Telltale Games - The Verge -
Ships that appear are the Centaur, Nova, Steamrunner, Luna, Cheyenne, Miranda, Excelsior, Akira, Galileo, Type 6, and Galaxy (hologram only)
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Episodes to watch before playing this are The Last Outpost and maybe The Passenger.