Star Trek: Resurgence

Boldly searching for a little longer than the developers want you too.

I've always been more of a Star Wars fan than a Star Trek one, in my core. Make whatever suppositions about my intelligence that you wish to from that simple fact, but I won't shy away from it: the thrill of Science Fantasy holds so much more promise to me than the faux-rigidity of Science Fiction. That being said, I have been keeping decent track of the Star Trek shows over the years because the originals do, very much, have a place solid in my childhood and heart, as such I'm not a total clueless rube regarding the whole universe. I know of the significance of the many Enterprises over the years, the hero-worship of Spock and Kirk, the inconsistent danger posed by Star Fleet regulation phasers, and the original Enterprise's captain's propensity to shirk protocol, throw himself into the frontline of danger, all so that he can have get first shot at rolling the die on space herpes. I also know that, incredibly, there haven't been any great Star Trek games over the years!

Okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little there: we haven't had many great Star Trek games. Although I will never go back to play it in order to check, I'm decently sure that 'Star Trek: Shattered Universe' was a great dogfighter Star Trek game which really allowed us to buy the scale of these giant starships from the relative miniscule cockpit of our tiny combat-fitted transport shuttles. (Although saying that: everytime I see a screenshot, the Starships look small to me. Maybe I'm inflating my memories again) I also played a frankly unhealthy amount of 'Star Trek: Tactical Assault', which I know some people dog on nowadays but I make no apologies: I think that game slapped. It was a full starship combat simulator game which put you in the captain's seat and let you battle Romulans and Klingon's around an elaborate wartime plot-line. (And there was a second Klingon Campaign too. How could you go wrong there?)

Of course, nowadays the only Star Trek games that get any sort of attention are the abysmal mobile rip-off scam games, (Which I wouldn't play if you held me at gunpoint) that VR title which allows people to playact as bridge members, (For which I have no friends to enjoy) and the decently popular Star Trek MMO game. (And I'm not in the mood for starting a brand new MMO from scratch, no matter how many times my Uncle-in-law tells me it's the bee's knees.) Where are the action adventure Star Trek games, where I get to play as an actual person, not a vehicle? The sorts of games where I can visit strange new planets, battle for my life against weird aliens, embroil myself in weird sci-fi narratives and do the whole 'boldly go where no man has gone before' thing from the show? Well with any luck, that sort of game starts right here with 'Star Trek: Resurgence'.

Okay, so maybe its not quite the 'action' adventure game I wanted, but 'Star Trek: Resurgence' does covet a style of game that we haven't seen before with the Star Trek license, and one that seems to slot into it's place fluidly; a narrative based adventure game. Yes, I think we all had sufficient Telltale vibes when watching this gameplay, what with the typical over-the-shoulder exploration angle (only this one promising more dynamic environments) dialogue scenes where player input is requested, and the customary digitisation of a living actor that makes you feel weird just to see. (So we're resurrecting Leonard Nimoy now? 'Mkay.) But beyond that there was something else, something more. 'Star Trek: Resurgence' looks smoother than a Telltale game, free from that typical comic-book style, it appears to even have some gameplay sections to it, we could go so far to call this an action title: So what's going on here?

Well I looked it up and this game is being made by a relative newcomer to the industry called Dramatic labs (Or is it 'Bruner House LLC'? Get your game together, Google!) which is led by one Kevin Bruner... who was the creator and CEO of Telltale? His list of accolades reads like a laundry list of heavy Telltale hitters, with producer credits on 'The Walking Dead', 'Tales from the Borderlands', 'Game of Thrones', 'Sam and Max', and the very first episode of 'The Wolf Among Us'. Wow, is that a legacy to leave behind! Of course, on the company website and on his personal site he is listed as 'the founder' of Telltale, despite the fact it appears he co-founded the company with Dan Connors. Strange that one would just exorcize the 'co' there, seems like a pretty important omission to just forget the business partner you launched a ten year company with. But who am I to say what's going on behind the scenes with a guy like- oh look, Google is an interesting tool, isn't it?

You might remember how Telltale famously managed to tie itself up so badly that all it took was a single week for the company to go bankrupt, which means that when looking at a new company from one of the former CEO's of Telltale one should probably wonder if they're currently looking at 'one of the good ones'. But if you happen to come across an investigative article from The Verge (which claims to have unnamed sources 'in the know') then you might see the name Bruner specifically, bought up as a major point of friction within the team. According to that reporting, Bruner worked on some of the development tools that Telltale would go onto to use, then strangle on, throughout it's ten-year history, which is why he got a little upset when he saw, in his eyes, undue praise and profile for the 'The Walking Dead' go to Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman. (Two project leaders for The Walking Dead. But then they did go on to make Firewatch later, so maybe Kev had a point...)

The point is that he's been characterised as a bit of a baby who doesn't like to play in teams, which is something he directly disputes (and claims is the opposite of the truth) and it turns into this whole big mess of 'he said, she said'. The point is that we have in front of us a really good looking narrative Star Trek game, but there is a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the creators. Of course, all of that being said and disseminated for discerning consumers to ruminate on, none of the games Bruner produced were actually terrible products, so this isn't cause of concern for quality; and the idea of jumping into a world like this like one: featuring two members of a Star Fleet crew, with criss-crossing relationships, responsibilities and story-affecting decisions to be made: we really do need someone with proven credentials to pull off this game at it's fullest potential. I think Bruner's name is a vote of confidence towards that goal... just maybe not for the management inside of the studio. Allegedly. Who can say for sure.

So we've got ourselves a new competitor on the narrative story-based game front, someone to go up against the new Telltale and DONTNOD, and if you've been around here for a minute you know that's something I'm freakin' giddy about. I give DONTNOD some crap, mainly for the more cringe-driven, writing choices in 'Life is Strange'- but they all produce quality content for this under-represented sector of the Industry and I commend them for that. To have a new warrior enter the pantheon, is like having a new kid enter the playground, bringing with him whole new games and toys that we haven't seen before; and I'm buzzing to see these new techniques mix-and-match with what we know to push the craft forward for everyone. I can't see a single way that in the game itself this title has done anything wr- it's an Epic Store exclusive isn't it? I haven't checked, I just feel it in my bones. Everything is going to right, there has to be- I knew it! Dammit, Kevin, I've only just learnt about you and you've already let me down...