If there's one thing that should be known about me, it's that I am a Trekkie. You can keep your Obi-Wan, the Solos, and the Skywalkers. I will pick Jean-Luc Picard, Benjamin Sisko, and Kathryn Janeway every day of the week. That's what makes Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown such a compelling title to me. Even if I hadn't been sent a copy to review, I would have bought this because, as I've said, Star Trek.
Now, with my love of the source material out in the open, I'm going to say that this has the potential to really work for Trek fans, particularly fans of the Voyager voyage, but there are elements of it that may put people off. Before I start, though, I want to say how much I love listening to the Voyager theme on the main menu.
Let's get the actual story out of the way. It's Star Trek: Voyager. The initial cutscenes show the Voyager getting yeeted to the Delta Quadrant, and you take over from there. Throughout the story, you have opportunities to change how it plays out. The first choice can actually finish your playthrough in a matter of minutes; will you use the caretaker's relay to send you back? It is an option, but one that takes away from exploring "what could have been".
Sometimes these choices are key parts of the core timeline; other times, side-quests that cover the filler episodes, and it can result in you getting crew members that were only vaguely touched upon in the show. Tuvix, or two versions of B'Elanna (I got those), or another is the extremely well-remembered Pelk. Sometimes, your decisions can also result in you getting technology that can be a massive boost elsewhere in the game, helping you through some moments where you are meant to fail.
It's something I genuinely enjoy about Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown. I don't remember all the events of the show; it's been a few years since I re-watched it, but there are elements I remember, and being able to change events and make my own journey is something that I find really compelling. Could I have done a better job than Janeway? Would I have gotten rid of Tuvix? The answers are maybe, and yes, yes, I would.
It's difficult for me to mark down the game when it comes to story for the simple reason that it has the story of an excellent show to follow, and even expand on, and it does that well. Now we come to where Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown will likely put a number of people off, and that's the presentation of this story, and, arguably, a chunk of the gameplay around it.
The story is presented almost universally in text. At the start of each chapter (sector), you'll get a little voiceover from what I believe are the original actors who played Tom Paris and Tuvok, and that's the extent of any audio dialogue. Everything else is in text, and that could - and likely will - put some people off. We're talking adventure-game or choose-your-own-story book levels of text.
Every choice is text-based, with a percentage success chance based on varying factors - from a character's level to the level of a certain room within your ship (more on that later). There are also away-team missions, which are - again - text-based affairs, with you being given three options of what to do, and your chance of success is based on the ability of the character (or multiple) you choose to take the action, provided they have that particular ability.
Now, that is at least somewhat tactical. You are shown before you select the characters which abilities you are going to be able to choose from in the event, so you can plan ahead, since every time you use a character, they will be fatigued for the next step, meaning it is always best to rotate and give yourself the best chance to get through an event. Even better when you level up your characters, keep morale high, and their skills can net you an even bigger success, giving you extra rewards and experience.
Outside of the text-heavy gameplay, there is a bit of combat. Again, it's a little tactical. You can choose which part of an enemy ship to target and assign energy to different elements of your ship. You can also order your ship to protect a certain side if the shields have been knocked out. It's a shame you don't have direct control over your ship, as there are times when it seems to be unable to circle an enemy, something that seems to happen all the time when facing larger enemies like Borg cubes.
Would it have been nice to have had full control over the ship? Of course, though, with the clear budget offering of Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown, I'm not going to hold it against it. I could also argue that, narratively, you are Captain Janeway, and she gave orders to the crew; she didn't take control and fly the Voyager herself. We're getting into Star Trek: Bridge Crew levels of detail now, though.
This is to say that the combat is quite hands-off, but it works. Which brings us to the other core aspect of the game, survival and exploration. Each sector has a number of systems for you to move between, letting you pop to different systems, asteroid belts, or other points of interest, to gather resources. I would argue the game likely goes a little too far with its resource management, with 10 different resources to keep track of. You can add another three if you count crew, the number of worker crews (needed to build, repair, or upgrade rooms), and your crew's morale.
Add to this resource caps, unless you build storage rooms for the four core resources, bio labs for borg nanites, and another, the impact on morale if you don't have enough beds for your crew, and more, and it becomes a fraught balancing act. Especially as you're wanting to upgrade rooms for extra benefits, upgrade your engine for more power, and essentially turn Voyager into a superweapon.
Adding to this balancing act is the fact that if you stay in a sector for too long, morale starts to deteriorate as the crew becomes increasingly homesick. Of course, if you're like me, you want to stay in a system as long as possible, as you can use the free time to research even more scientific advancements, essentially farming to buff yourself for the endgame.
Much like other similar survival games, of which FTL: Faster than Light is the only one I can currently think of, it is a balancing act, and you need to decide what's best for you and your crew. I will say that I genuinely enjoyed the time I've spent playing Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown, and there will be a reasonable amount of replay value in discovering where the side-stories and the paths not taken lead.
If I have two criticisms, and I do, it's that the side characters I had survive seem to be done dirty in the end credits. The actual surviving characters of the show get their text outtros, explaining how they fared, and the characters who didn't survive in the actual series get what feels like a perfunctory "Janeway swelled with pride as they lived happily ever after". The remaining criticism is that, aesthetically, it's a mixed bag. The UI is a bit clunky, and visuals in combat feel like they were just the still models downsized. A minor thing that didn't honestly bother me, I play Football Manager after all, but some may have an issue.
Overall, I do genuinely enjoy Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown. I am certainly the target audience: someone who loves Star Trek, someone who likes playing this sort of tactical game, and someone who is a fan of these types of stories. If you're some of the above, I would say give the game a go, even if it isn't a masterpiece.
PC version reviewed. Copy provided by the publisher.
About the author: Chris Wray has been writing at Wccftech gaming section since 2015 and is an opinionated bloke from the north of the UK (think Ned Stark). He enjoys video games, films, books, beer, whisky and other alcohol. He also supports Manchester Utd and for some reason he writes profile pages in the third person. His expertise is in gaming and the games industry, primarily on the PC. In addition to this, he works with and contributes to the finance and tech sections.
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