As seems to be my M.O. of late, here’s a follow up post to my hot take on Star Trek: Resurgence.

Shortly after I had quit my initial session with the game, the story took me to a place where I actually had to do combat. I don’t have any screenshots of this phase because I never remember to take screenshots, but also because the combat in this game is kind of nuts. I found myself set upon by about 8 different enemies, and several of them were gaining indicators that it was time for them to fire. I had to prioritize which ones to shoot when, but with several of them being the most potentially dangerous enemies simultaneously, that was tricky. Then the situation switched over to have me defend an ally NPC, so I had to take out enemies before they could get a bead on them.

I died. Twice. I had expected that if I were to fail any combat situation it would be because of the janky controls, but the controls actually weren’t bad at all. It was just that every time I popped out from behind cover to shoot at one enemy, another had already lined up on my position.

The interesting thing about the combat, though, is that after losing all three “lives”, I was given the option to play through the sequence in “story mode”. This makes the player invincible, so there is no life tracking involved. Some might question the point, because if this is a game, then losing is part of that, but considering how the story is the overwhelming draw to this product, I am glad for the opportunity to just plow through unpalatable segments. Once the combat phase was over, though, the game automatically switched back to normal mode without intervention.

I maintain that the story here is fantastic. Just this morning, I ran into several plot twists that I didn’t see coming, which is always a welcome addition to any story. What started out as an apparently simple situation of trying to broker a peace agreement between opposing factions during a nasty ion storm has turned into something far more involved, a benefit I attribute to being in the story and not just observing the story.

I also ran into several new mini-games. Combat is basically “line up and shoot”, and the tricorder sequences are standardized whenever they become relevant. I’ve also played through shuttle piloting through a navigation corridor (not my favorite) and transporter targeting and activation (a multi-step process that’s kind of fun from a “I have always wondered how that might work” perspective). The QTEs are still around, and I still don’t care for them very much, but they only appear here and there.

My final assessment still stands, more or less, that if you’re a Trek fan this game is a good buy (still at $30USD on the Epic Store), but for everyone else looking for a Star Trek game, wait for a sale.