Voyager

Oi oi, where my Janeway fans at? Where my Parisians and my Torresians? Can I get a whoop, whoop for Chakotay? A high five for Seven of Nine? Daedalic have announced Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, a “story-based survival strategy game” adaptation of the loneliest of the classic Treks. Created by developers gameXcite, who I may yet forgive for capitalising their name that way, it asks you to “manage systems and crew, engage in diplomacy, navigate difficult moral decisions, and face the unknown”. It’s got a cutaway dollhouse spaceship and a HUD made up to resemble a Star Trek bridge display. Also, Ensign Harry Kim is here! He wants orders. Kim, your orders are to roll that trailer.

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Here’s some blurb from the Steam page:

Set aboard the U.S.S. Voyager and deep in the unexplored reaches of the Delta Quadrant, Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown invites players to relive–and redefine–the legendary starship’s journey back to earth. The game blends exploration, ship & resource management, roguelite elements, and meaningful choices. Experience crew dynamics and a fresh take on a beloved sci-fi universe — with what-if scenarios that open up new possibilities.

If you’re like me, you are presently being torn in half by the contrast between your apathy for yet another set of “roguelike elements”, and your enthusiasm for the what-if scenarios. Maybe an episode where Janeway becomes the Borg Queen? Maybe the Doctor gets to be captain? Maybe Neelix undergoes some kind of Garrus-style reinvention as a badass with hairy ears? All that may have actually happened, I can’t remember. Some more from the Steam page:

Take a risky approach or play it safe. Be diplomatic or let phasers do the talking. Research technologies that were shunned by the crew. But: Be prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions! The game features rogue-like elements, so in each run you will encounter different situations and even iconic characters might meet an early end if you don’t react accordingly.

There’s a base-building component: you’ll add facilities to Voyager’s innards as you go, in the manner popularised by XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I’m less sold on the tiddly, top-down spaceship movement within solar systems, which recalls Mass Effect at its dinkiest and makes the Delta Quadrant seem as strange and enveloping as Center Parcs. But I do like the sound of the away missions, in which you get to handpick a team of named faces and redshirts.

“A team with skills that complement each other might be best suited for the task, but it is up to you to call the shots,” the developers comment. “Minimize the risk for the team’s members, rush headlong into danger, or take a scientific approach – you decide.” All this and, of course, ship-to-ship combat, in which you’ll assign crews to stations and target individual systems.

There’s no release date. In case it wasn’t obvious already, my excitement about this game is at least 80% nostalgia spike, with another 5% consisting of furtive teenage memories of certain saucy fan fiction websites. Finally, we can make Paris and Chakotay bone. The developers don’t have much form for space sims: going by their website, they have hitherto specialised exclusively in Asterix comic adaptations. I guess a starship is a kind of Gallic village? Let’s finish off by watching the original Voyager intro again.

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