Star Trek: Resurgence (XS) - Review
by Lee Mehr , posted on 06 July 2023 / 3,180 Views
Reviewer's Note: Although quite limited, I do touch on early SPOILERS to make specific points in this review.
I'll admit: seeing marketing terms like "cinematic" next to Star Trek tends to worry me. Given the creative black hole that is J.J Abrams' 2009 revival – where only lens flare could escape its gravity – that shouldn't be a surprise either. But after seeing no Bad Robot nor Abrams/Kurtzman producer labels in the opening credits, Dramatic Labs thankfully opted for the televisual format instead. That may seem like a hair-splitting delineation, but it subtly informs Resurgence's emphasis on the series' original template and warps it well beyond many of its recent contemporaries.
You can tangibly feel that shift through each cold open too: the older template music with the episode's title splashed on the screen. After a terse "Captain’s Log…" voiceover, the game proper opens with First Officer Jara Rydek, a Human/Kobliad hybrid preparing to join the USS Resolute. Complementing the A plot is Petty Officer Carter Diaz, a winsome engineer who's fixing last-minute issues with Resolute following a tragic accident. Said repairs are critical for the crew's latest mission: a fractious dispute between two neighboring alien races. 
These separate storylines eventually intersect and overlap to showcase dual perspectives for the central conflict as well. Since neither race, Hotari or Alydian, is officially in the Federation, there's a palpable tension to negotiations. Further complicating matters, Alydian control over Hotari-based mines has been the de facto situation and one primary source for fueling the Federation. A classic political scenario to navigate. Even though the wider narrative evolves to something more campy, it's only after solidifying a great foundation beforehand. Through both character dynamics and meaningful context, enough time is given to subsume yourself within this world.
The most critical contribution to this is Rydek herself (voice acted by the talented Krizia Bajos). For all the loathsome pablum and accusations thrown against fans who dare to label a slate of recent female leads as Mary Sues, it's nice when writers avoid the discussion through competent craftsmanship. For clarity's sake, let's break down several of her compelling qualities into bullet points:
- Part of an alien race that narrowly avoided extinction and suffered atrocities from The Cardassians.
- Suffers from a race-specific affliction requiring special transfusions.
- Despite top ranks at The Academy, she’s not universally loved onboard, especially since the previous First Officer tragically died and she skipped past all other tenured crew.
- Her loudest critic validly corners her in a hypothetical scenario where her medical condition could leave the crew vulnerable.
- Ethical dilemmas over a captain growing exceedingly concerned with his legacy.
All of these dynamics are informed by critical plot points and dialogue choices too. Whichever decisions are made with your Rydek, she plays them out with composure – and sprinkles of wit – to reach a tangible goal. For the cherry on top, this well-rounded collection of strengths & foibles are explored within the first act. It'd take Abrams roughly… five Trek films to manage that much development for a female character.
Diaz doesn't enjoy that many intricacies, sadly; then again, an engineering subordinate has more routine expectations compared to a second-in-command. Even when trying to be fair, he could've had a bit more relational friction rather than personifying the professional pretty boy with a helping of Whedon-esque sarcasm. That aside, his affable & aspirant personality is enjoyable on a surface level, and his moral code is tested in later acts. You'll ultimately still root for him, but it's easy to tell how the early B story's construction limits more intriguing creative opportunities. He's satisfactory in his own right, but overshadowed by one of 2023's best new characters.
Zooming out from the leads, Resurgence also owes a great deal to other elements: secondary characters, pacing, maturity, and so on. I'm tempted to do another bullet point breakdown, but the overarching point is that by sticking to a televisual format Dramatic Labs is able to make an unofficial Next Generation spin-off season surrounding this conflict. While the Hotari/Alyidian fight eventually gives way to a more mysterious adversary, the drip-feed to that transition feels natural and still incorporates agents from both sides to learn more about their history. Writers Dan Martin, Andrew Grant, & co. succeed in scattering meaningful breadcrumbs, be it seemingly disconnected events or exposition, that make it so easy to infer what's happening outside of our two protagonists. It's impressive just how often I was caught off-guard.
Despite my effusive acclaim, that's not to say this is the videogame equivalent of War & Peace. While Resurgence does begin with dashes of action interspersed with interesting diplomatic scenarios and headier topics, the sci-fi serial aspect earns a greater share of screen time later. Even if those elements of Trek don't excite you as much, it's still easy to appreciate every storytelling cog turning in unison – consistently building up more personal and grander stakes. Even the little things like the prominent-yet-tasteful fan service and an impressive litany of solid voice actors are fresher in my memory than specific negatives, like lackluster resolutions for certain people. It's a hell of a ride, through and through.
Ah, but any fans' built-up enthusiasm can risk turning apoplectic at the sheer sight of the "TellTale narrative adventure" descriptor. Although I'll admit this simplistic gameplay foundation has gotten long in the tooth, it can be a suitable vehicle for Trek stories considering how action isn't the main focus. And given how often moral quandaries are baked into pivotal decisions, paring those down to basic dialogue options is a suitable method. Resurgence handles its consequences better than similar titles in both context and visual stimulus. Instead of a typical "someone will remember that" prompt, each character's response is transposed on-screen like a trading card, enabling you to instantly infer your decision's consequences across several characters simultaneously.
Beyond decision-making or the universally-beloved inclusion of random QTE trivialities, Resurgence branches out with other ancillary mechanics. The most brazenly obnoxious of those being… moving the cursor a few angstroms to grab an item. It takes more brain activity to open the game in the home menu. Stepping away from the most unctuous inclusion, cover shooting is the barebones equivalent of a light gun arcade cabinet: focus-fire on blinking enemies threatening to hurt your allies and go back into cover whenever a warning is emblazoned on your screen. Past that, mechanics also run the gamut of stealth and light puzzle-solving, both of which are incredibly basic yet sensibly-placed in the grander scheme.
By the time TellTale's name came up, what with memories of simple button-mashing and so on, most intuitively know what to expect. Aside from dialogue choices shaping the two protagonists, everything else is small pockets of mini-games shuffling you from point A to point B. They're incorporated more as treats between cut scenes. Neither the better nor lesser design snacks hang around long enough to leave a distinct aftertaste.
Like its spiritual precursors, presentation comes with considerations to its price range ($40) and extended runtime (11 hours). It's not hard to miss the jank or stiff animations, but it's also quite expansive with regards to locales and fun techie baubles. From art direction to Jared Emerson-Johnson’s respectable soundtrack, everything feels wholly in service to Rodenberry's universe. One surprising bugbear is the inconsistent audio design though. On several occasions without warning, in-game dialogue volume would vary from normal to low between characters. A shame it doesn't completely avoid such technical faults, but the overall experience is still fairly smooth (post day-one patch).
Mirroring the series' early legacy, admiring Star Trek: Resurgence comes with specific trade-offs: recognizing serviceable production values for a sincere narrative filled with great characters. Dramatic Labs lives up to the name in more ways than one. And though the QTE-bedecked moments and strictures common for the narrative adventure phylum are bound to make some people groan, they're quickly over and do serve in suffusing you further into one of the richest sci-fi universes. If that's not too high of a hurdle then you'll be rewarded with a wonderful Trek of a bygone era, as though encased in amber for years whilst avoiding any Kurtzman radiation.
Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee's obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, and TechRaptor! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.
VGChartz Verdict
7
Good
This review is based on a digital copy of Star Trek: Resurgence for the XS, provided by the publisher.
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Definitely going to grab this on a sale at some point, right up my alley.
Sounds good!
No Bad Robot/Kurtzman names attached is probably the biggest marketing plus imaginable for a Trek property nowadays. I've watched every Trek but I just couldn't deal with Discovery’s constant whispering, crying, pep talks, insubordination, and Burnham as Jesus of the Universe after 4 seasons and gave up. It was making me actively hate Star Trek, despite Voyager and DS9 being two of my favourite shows of all time. I can't adequately put into words how much I hate what they've done to Star Trek.
But even without that malign influence, the Telltale game template is more than enough to put me off – I haven’t enjoyed a single one of the ‘choose your own path but not really’ “adventure” game clones Telltale has made, even the ones that have properties I thoroughly enjoy bolted on to them.
Credit where it's due: you seem to have nerves of steel for sticking with it. Although I'm more well-versed with Kurtzman on the film side (since I've seen all 3), it's easy to see a similar mindset seeping into ST dynamics across TV/streaming series too. Aside from taste-testing Discovery & Picard, most of my attention there has gone towards reviews of their respective seasons lol. Apparently Picard S3 is a winner with most fans, so at least that's something. And though I'll happily sling shit at Abrams' two directorial films, I do think Beyond is a solid flick in its own right. I was going to fit that somewhere in the review at how Abrams gets handedly outclassed by James Wan, but it always felt awkward.
That's a shame. Have you tried Tales from the Borderlands? You never struck me as a fan of OG series, but that's also not a requirement to enjoy it anyways. It's one of the most interesting design-wise too. It doesn't mechanically advance the template, but it utilizes its own story structure to poke fun at its 'butterfly effect' decisions. Regardless, at least with Resurgence you can sense it casually branching out with certain nuances.
I'm yet to watch S3 of Picard (S2 was just dire, so I've taken a break), but I've heard similar things. I gather it was primarily produced by a Voyager and Enterprise veteran who grew up watching TNG, which perhaps explains the better results. I'm currently rewatching TNG and will watch Picard S3 once I'm finished.
The first Borderlands was decent but I never carried on with the series after that. As far as Telltale go, I've played the first few episodes of their (bizarrely GotY-hyped) Walking Dead and their Game of Thrones series. Your line in the review - 'risk turning apoplectic at the sheer sight of the "TellTale narrative adventure" descriptor' - basically sums up my attitude towards Telltale games following those experiences.
I quit Discovery after 9 or 10 episodes into season 1 (that show is some random SciFi with Trek label on it), watched Picard only because it's about "mon Capitaine", yet it was dreadful experience watching pale shadow of Jean-Luc, along with all the current sensibilities and general misunderstanding of writers of what made TNG great, and hoped to find spirit of old Trek in Strange New Worlds, just to find coat of paint of old Trek applied over all the usual Kurtzman's garbage, plus some.
If this game has any resemblance to being true to old Trek, I'll have to give it a go, since that's about as good as it gets - bar arguable attempts like Orville.
These conversations are reminding me of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnlxugk3Qb0
Discovery Season 3 was so bad (spoiler: a normal man cried when his mom died, that's the story, and every ship in the galaxy blew up because of him crying space magic, it is the dumbest story I've ever seen for a TV show) I quit a long time ago.
Good trek: Picard Season 3, Strange New Worlds Season 1 especially episodes 4-10.
Discovery was the worst Star Trek series EVER. It almost killed it all for me. I stopped after 1.5 seasons. It was soap opera that tried to fit in every social dynamic issue we deal with today. I watch this stuff to escape all of that, not have it jammed in my face, with a huge emotional spin almost every episode. In the 1.5 seasons I watched I had never seen so many people cry.
Thankfully Strange New Worlds is probably one of the best Trek series I have seen. It restored my love of the Trek universe.
