Ups & Downs From Star Trek: Infinite 

The landscape of Star Trek gaming has seemingly exploded into strange new worlds in the last 12 months. There have been the old classics now lurking around on the internet (who doesn’t want to spend a few hours on Bridge Commander or Voyager: Elite Force?) but a whole new generation has come to take PC, console, and mobile gamers to new heights. Fleet Command and Timelines have proved the potential and demand for "Trek Your Way" while Prodigy’s Supernova and the very recent Resurgence have paved a path back to action-packed ship-based adventures and phaser fights galore.

Now Paradox Interactive has joined the galactic fray with Infinite. A company with an illustrious history of grand strategy games such as Stellaris and Hearts of Iron, they have also delved into simulation and management games such as Cities: Skylines. Tackling both real-world and fantasy landscapes puts them in a great place to launch into the 24th Century.

Star Trek: Infinite ticks a lot of the boxes with a game that, while very challenging, is also highly rewarding once players have got to grips with the multitude of features that offer endless interpretations of the Final Frontier and even a chance to form that elusive pact with the Cardassians. Now there's a thing you won't see in canon!

The universe of Infinite might be familiar to begin with but it's actually got its feet planted firmly in the basics of a game called Stellaris, which was released back in 2016. Established players of that game will immediately recognise the engine and dynamics of Star Trek: Infinite. Both games tackle space exploration, combat, and empirical strategy.

Selling 200,000 units in 24 hours, Stellaris quickly became Paradox Interactive’s biggest game and has received a load of upgrades over the years to keep players engaged and expanding their empire. One can only hope that Infinite will travel the same path and receive the same type of updates and polishes that have kept the original in play. What we have with Infinite though is a game very much targeted at (obviously) the Star Trek market but with a stable and recognisable core.

The big appeal to fans of the franchise is the chance to take on a Star Trek game on the biggest scale ever perceived. Rather than a single starship as with the recent Prodigy and Resurgence games, this aligns itself more into the realms of the mobile Fleet Command albeit with a much larger scope.

So log on and step into the 24th Century. The situation could be grim and the odds may well be against you but it definitely sounds like fun.