Ups & Downs From Star Trek: Voyager - Across The Unknown

The last few years have provided some real treats for Star Trek gamers. Star Trek Online continues to grow and develop, while Resurgence took players aboard a new starship, also honouring the franchise's rich legacy. The tragically short-supported Star Trek: Infinity offered the chance to run the galaxy, and if you need a real old skool fix, there are numerous places to head back into the '90's and 2000's with classics like Bridge Commander and A Final Unity.

The new kid on the block, looking to engage fans, is Across the Unknown. A new take on the travels of the USS Voyager, it provides some quirky new viewpoints on a series that fans will feel very familiar with.

Not the first game to be spun from the adventures of Captain Janeway, this is markedly different from the first-person shooting action of Elite Force. Across the Unknown lets fans be the captain and manager of their own starship from the inside right out to resource collection and crew assignments, leaving no Delta Quadrant stone unturned or Flotter left behind.

But it's not that straightforward, and retracing the exact path of the lone starship and her crew can prove treacherous, where knowing the events of the show isn't necessarily an advantage. Each click is a new path, every away mission selection is a careful choice of skills and abilities, and each resource allocation is a risk of misusing rare elements. It's all to play for, and more importantly, will Voyager make it home? Become the caretaker of the crew and their journey and step Across the Unknown!

Space combat is back!

Assign battle stations and take an offensive or defensive stance against a range of Delta Quadrant opponents straight from the series itself. While straightforward in its execution, the skirmishes between Voyager and her opponents allow the assigned crew to display their combat talents. Paris offers some added flair to the flight while Tuvok provides a tactical manoeuvre to better tackle an opposing ship. 

It's more than a few button pushes, though, because there's also a limited number of photo torpedoes to use, and damage sustained might affect future encounters. The impressive piece here is that there's no magic reset, so it's key to place the right personnel in the right areas to rebuild defences and repair the hull. This Voyager can take a beating, but, over time, the wear and tear does have an effect and a strain.  Even in battle, players have to manage shield power and could have to take on a new stance to allow their defences to regenerate. A full-on frontal assault on the Vidiians might not be possible if the forward shields are down. In that instance, players will need to pilot Voyager defensively and take damage to port, starboard and aft and bide their time.

This is one of the ways Across the Unknown is a more "realistic" Voyager than Voyager. The episodic reset more than occasionally gave the series room to breathe, but in this game, the effects are cumulative, and a phrase that will be echoing back to players in their sleep will be "Your Actions Have Consequences".

Only a slight gripe, but Voyager can only engage one enemy at a time, which does detract from the feel of the battles a little; however, one ship at a time is often just enough to deal with!