Star Trek’s blend of dialogue and action feels ideal for a Telltale-style game
Fans of Telltale Games’ style of story-focused games may have been disappointed when the studio closed back in 2018. The studio was later revived with multiple in-development projects, including The Wolf Among Us 2 and a game based on The Expanse. But Telltale’s style lives on beyond Telltale itself, thanks to Dramatic Labs’ Star Trek: Resurgence.
After playing a version of Star Trek: Resurgence, where I sampled three separate scenes, I got the impression of a game that sticks closely to the Telltale formula, but differentiates itself, the developer says, with more action and less complacency from players.
In a post-Telltale world, the former Telltale designers at Dramatic Labs have switched to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4. They credit Epic’s engine with letting them build bigger environments and set pieces with more direct action that don’t consist entirely of quick-time events. In addition, they’ve updated their philosophies around familiar Telltale game tentpoles like dialogue, removing the “stay silent” option in order to force players to actively engage with the game.
“When we looked at what you get from a Star Trek experience, we wanted to deliver on every angle of that,” said Dan Martin, Star Trek: Resurgence’s narrative lead. “So while a huge piece of the franchise is people sitting around talking, debating heavy issues, there’s also plenty of action and other types of scenes: mystery, investigation, […] everything you think of as Star Trek, you’re going to get a piece of that with this game.”
In Star Trek: Resurgence, which is set after the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation, players assume the roles of two Starfleet members: first officer Jara Rydek and engineering ensign Carter Diaz. Together, they will,
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