Star Trek: Infinite Preview – Boldly going for 4X TNG nostalgia

thesixthaxis.com:

Every nerd who lived through the 1990s has got a favourite Star Trek series. For me it’s the more morally ambiguous story arcs of Deep Space Nine, for others it could be the strong female leads of Voyager, but for most it will surely be The Next Generation. This was Star Trek’s return to TV screens in the late 80s, defining the look, feel and storytelling style of the decade of television that followed it, and with plenty of iconic episodes and moments. Whichever show you prefer, Star Trek: Infinite more than caters to 90s Trekkies.

Star Trek: Infinite starts off a little bit before TNG’s time period, with the Enterprise D not yet built or its well-known crew assembled, and while much of the Alpha Quadrant has been revealed to the Federation by their interactions with the comparable Romulan, Klingon and Cardassian empires – each of which is a playable race – there’s still an awful lot of space left to explore. The Federation is still only made up of its four founding races at this point – Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites – and with plenty of races still to encounter and make first contact with.

There’s a slightly uneasy peace at the start of the game after a Romulan attack on the Klingon colony of Khitomer, but while this gives you the first narrative thread and decision point to latch onto, really the main focus will be on exploring and expanding your borders.

As you send out science ships to survey systems around the fringes of Federation space, you’ll also be sending construction ships out to create mining and research facilities, as well as creating outposts to claim an uninhabited system as part of your territory.

Now, the Enterprise D’s continuing mission might have been to boldly go where no one has gone