Star Trek – Redshirt Genocide [Review]

Star Trek caught a lot of flak when it was released back in 2013. It was a broken and boring game with supposedly no redeemable features at all, according to game journalists at the time. So, it was a given I had to try it. But first, before we get into the game, I want to say that I’m not the biggest fan of the Kelvin Star Trek universe which this game is set in. It’s too flashy, with focus on action, and making everything typical “Hollywood”, instead of the cerebral entertainment of the old show.

Despite that, I had to give it a go, since I have a soft-spot for third-person cover-based shooters, and military science-fiction. Yes, I’m a pop-a-moler at heart, or at least partly.

New Vulcan
The story is honestly coherent and makes sense in this universe, with the narrative taking place between the movies Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. It’s essentially a direct continuation of the first movie that unfortunately shares its name for maximum confusion. In other words: it’s a sequel, between two movies, that has a story that stands on its own. Pretty damn cool for being a budget tie-in title, I must say.

With it being set in the Kelvin universe, Vulcan is no more as it got blown up, killing billions in the movie Star Trek that takes place before this game. Vulcans being emotionally stunted with no time for tears, waste not a minute and set out to form a new Vulcan with a device with immense powers: The Helios device. It’s being used to terraform a new planet for our dear friends with pointy ears, but as these things go—bad stuff follows quickly.

Thanks to it being misused in a foolish experiment, the Helios device creates a rift in space to the dominion of the lizard race of Gorn. Yes, the one and only Gorn, which Captain T. Kirk fought in a legendary episode of the old show: Star Trek: The Original Series. Slow motion rock throwing and all. It’s genius and awesome if you get the reference, seeing as it made me all giddy. And even if the Gorn are not as campy and fun as in the old show, they do come off as capable, kinda cool and entertaining to fight, making a good antagonist to blast. Nothing more classic than evil space lizards!

Cleaning this mess up falls to our duo: Kirk, and Spock. They will be forming the away team, taking them all over the place—from New Vulcan to multiple space stations and ships, with plenty of aliens to melt with phasers during the adventure.

Not deep, but fun
The story is rather simple, but it works for what it sets out to be. The characters, while they might be a bit exaggerated and jokey, are written like their movie counterparts. This is also enhanced by having the respective actors voicing their roles. It’s impressive, for being on the budget, and being part of the Star Trek franchise I personally don’t care that much about, but credits where it’s due.

I found the story enjoyable, but once again, it has to be pointed out that it’s nothing special. It just fits this timeline, the alternative Kelvin universe really well, and it surprised me reading that it’s not actually considered canon. A real waste of a good story, if you ask me. Perhaps it would have been, if it was better received, and had a little more polish—who knows? Yet, it’s satisfying as it is, which was much more than I expected going in.

Set phasers to disintegrate
The gameplay is pretty standard for third-person cover-based shooters. You blast aliens, while seeking out walls and waist height boxes to hide behind, so you don’t get disintegrated yourself. It’s also clear that focus has been made for co-op play, since you will always have your trusty partner with you—with gameplay mechanics made for light teamwork. However, this is of no detriment if you play it solo. Your companion’s AI is capable (most of the time). He will respond to commands, and help you with puzzles when needed, but he gets confused in battle occasionally—choosing to stand around and daydream while the enemy takes potshots at him. Snap out of it, Spock!

Overall, it works, and is only a minor immersion hit, albeit a funny one when it happens. The enemy AI is for the most part very aggressive, which fits the ruthlessness of the Gorn warrior race, essentially wanting to kill everything that is not a lizard as fast as possible (and then even other lizards, to be honest). 

Sneaking
That’s not all, though, as Star Trek got a working stealth system too, that is more than just the random mission to switch things up. The best part: It’s not mandatory, if you just want to go full gun-ho, ignoring subtlety altogether. The system is not overly complex, but it works well, with the AI existing in more than one state of awareness. It’s presented (especially later on) with “combat arenas”, where you get to decide to just start blasting, or sneak around to take out enemies quietly, and prepare traps for clumsy lizards by hacking their own equipment (all in real-time).

On top of that, you can scan all kinds of things with your tricoder, like enemies, their weapons and just random alien tech. This gives you XP, and knowledge that expands the world with lore texts. The XP is used to upgrade your equipment in three ways, with only one being active at once. For example, the stun setting on your standard phaser comes with three upgrades/changes to functionality. I picked the increased stun effect that put my victim to sleep with just one shot, which turned out to be completely overpowered, even for normal combat. Goodbye kill setting, welcome stun for victory!

All in all, the combat, the stealth and tricoder scanning is enjoyable. However, it can come off as a tad janky and unpolished, but I remember reading that this game was beyond saving back in the day—and that is just not true at all. I think it was another case of journalists doing what they do worst: writing fair reviews, unless it involved a discreet handshake under the table and the transfer of something.

Looks like Kelvin Star Trek
On the visuals, there is nothing to complain about. It looks great, runs smooth, and all the sounds and voice acting are here from the movies, well, except the Gorn noises. The effects of lasering lizard men are satisfying, and you can actually see the scorching effect on their bodies, which is admittedly rare tech, and very cool. There was one soft melancholic synth tune I really liked during the Enterprise segment, but sadly I couldn’t find it on the YouTube OST collection. It was excellent, yet the music overall was great, lots of drums keeping up the action. 

Conclusion
I had a lot of fun with Star Trek, much more than I initially thought, considering its reputation. It’s not a great game, or an especially memorable one, but it served its purpose of a science-fiction romp, with a Star Trek flavor. 

I played it on Steam, having bought it years ago, but sadly, it has been removed from the store since. It’s not on any abandonware sites, but I did find the game being sold on key-sites. Hilariously priced at 60 bucks! Not worth it. Otherwise, it was released for Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3 too, which I guess could be emulated, or bought for those systems. I did a quick search and found it on a Swedish second hand webpage for around 10–20 bucks. Not sure if it’s worth that price either, but it’s there as an alternative.

Thanks for reading.

– Thomas

Bonus lizard video: