BERLIN: Could you have done better than Captain Janeway?
Direct your very own space saga in Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, a survival game developed in Hamburg by Gamexite and publisher Daedalic Entertainment.
The starship Voyager is transported to the other end of the galaxy by a powerful being. On the return journey, which under normal circumstances would take 75 years, the crew must overcome numerous adventures, make important decisions, find allies, fight enemies and explore new worlds and civilisations.
The goal always remains to return home.
In the television series, the Voyager reached Earth after seven years and 172 episodes. But while the series followed a script, in the game you have control over how, when and under what circumstances the spaceship returns home.
Lots of storytelling and hero-making
Across the Unknown combines text-based storytelling with character development and resource management. There are also action sequences. The plot is loosely based on the events of the series, with many episodes appearing as main and side missions in the game. Some will later be available as downloadable content (DLC) for purchase.
Happily, you don't have to do it the same way as on television. Players can choose between several solutions to a problem:
Do I help a spaceship in distress, or do I fly on?
Do I seek a peaceful solution, or do I resort to conflict?
Do I solve a problem with science or with diplomacy?
And those are just three of many possibilities, as in addition to the many decisions, there are also the heroes, special crew members – mainly the main characters from the series.
You can assign them to rooms in the ship for bonuses, but you can also send them on missions to planets and spaceships.
Here, they advance the plot based on their respective abilities, so if you send the weapon-wielding survivalist on a mission where engineers are more important, some storylines will not be available to him. That is another way to control the outcome of the game.
For successfully completed missions, the heroes advance to new performance levels and gain better abilities – but despite his proven brilliance, Harry Kim always remains an ensign in the game.
Essential: research and resource management
Alongside the story, you have to maintain the spaceship. Don't underestimate that as resources are scarce so far from home. You constantly have to keep an eye on energy production, develop the ship's laboratories, quarters and weapons, manufacture components and ensure there is enough food. And each time things are going well, Across the Unknown throws a new challenge at you.
Take food. Once all crew members have been provided with quarters, you no longer have enough energy to produce food from the miracle machine, the replicator. You need to scour planets for food, which costs time and energy. Or you can grow food, which again costs energy. Resource management becomes quite complex, especially later in the game.
Don't paint yourself into a corner – if you don't upgrade your shields and weapons and suddenly all your enemies in battle are too strong. All you can do then is jump back and find a new path – also an option in the game. Each of the 12 sectors can simply be restarted.
That makes for a myriad of possibilities – and also poses problems for people who want to replay the series verbatim. It's really easy to stray from the path – Captain Janeway's job is one of the hardest after all.
Ambitious game with lots of imagining involved
Lots of text, lots of management, lots of Star Trek – all this works fantastically in practice. The action is mostly not shown but told through still images and text boxes. But you have your imagination and, as a fan of the series, mental imagery.
Places, people, dialogues – the game manages to bring them all back. The log entries narrated by actors Tim Russ (Tuvok) and Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) at the beginning of each game sector also help. Even without any elaborate graphics, videos or the like, you're right in the middle of it all.
It sticks so closely to the series, meaning you can also just turn on the television for inspiration. Take the Tuvix dilemma: Two crew members are fused together in an accident to form a being called Tuvix.
Do I kill this being to get the two important crew members back?
Do I let Tuvix live and lose my two friends in the process?
A difficult decision, which, after rewatching the episode thanks to streaming, was resolved to Tuvix's disadvantage.
Across the Unknown invites you to revisit the series, which has aged really well, with most episodes standing up to more recent scrutiny. That also makes it easier for players without much knowledge of Voyager to get started.
Conclusion: Successful simulation with only minor weaknesses
Diplomacy, morality, decency, doing the right thing – that's what the Federation stands for in the Star Trek universe. And as captain of the starship Voyager, you quickly realise how much responsibility comes with great power. And how quickly you can stray from the noble path of virtue when the pragmatics of the situation require it.
All in all, Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown is a lot of fun and – at least on the low difficulty setting – a manageable challenge.
The combination of decisions, hero management, management and action works well, even if you find some minor technical problems and glitches at times and may need to do a lot of clicking. The game delivers on its promise of letting you shape the Voyager's journey in your own way with great attention to detail.
Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown is available for PC (RM109/$31.49/€35 and RM139/€45 for the deluxe version with additional missions), and for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S (RM172.18/€40 and RM212.94/€50). The additional content of the deluxe version is also available separately for €13 (RM39.73). – dpa
