Space. The final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of Invision Game Community. It’s continuing mission, to seek out new games and give you the best reviews. To boldly go where no game reviewer has gone before.
Yep.
I’m a Star Trek nerd!
Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is the latest Star Trek game by Outright Games. It is the most recent Star Trek console game in quite a while. The last was Star Trek Bridge Crew in 2017. While there have been a few mobile games in-between (Star Trek Timelines being the stand out of the few) there hasn’t been an abundance of Star Trek games like there was in the early 2000s.
Yes, there were the good old classics of Star Trek: Elite Force 1 & 2, Bridge Commander, Away Team, Legacy and Shattered Universe to name a few. Yet after the final series of Voyager and Deep Space Nine wrapped up along with the original film series ending with Star Trek Nemesis, the Star Trek brand kind of just melted away into the background for quite a while. There was the highly underrated Enterprise series that popped up for 4 seasons, but like all good shows, it got cancelled. It wasn’t until the 2009s Star Trek reboot that the brand finally picked up again. However, like Star Wars in the early years of EA’s dismal reign, there were very few games. Yes, there was Star Trek online, but if you are not an MMO fan like me, that didn’t quench my thirst for new Star Trek content. It wasn’t until the 2013s (based on the reboot) Star Trek game came out that I thought ‘this is the start of good things to come. How wrong I was. That game was bland, with a very boring story and felt like a rip-off of Mass Effect. Bridge Crew on the other hand in 2017 was a breath of fresh air. A fun VR experience which put you right in the captain’s seat and in command of your own Federation ship.
This brings us to now. I’m still not sure why it’s taken 5 years to get a new Star Trek game but I am happy nonetheless. The fact that this game is based off of the series with the same name is probably the answer.
Now if you are a fan of the series Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova then you can dive right in. However, I can imagine 50% of people who will play this game will probably go into it without having watched the series.
I for one implore you to watch series 1 first. The episodes are only 20 minutes long and they are so good. The story is amazing and the animation is hands down beautiful. Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova (in my eyes) is a sequel to Star Trek Voyager. A lot of characters and situations from Voyager are referenced in the show, also the fact that it is set in the delta quadrant of space just like Voyager. It follows a rag-tag team of young ‘cadets’ wanting to join Starfleet. They came together with a common goal of escaping the slave planet of Tars Lamora after discovering a lost Starfleet ship the U.S.S. Protostar. They are then chased across the galaxy by the Diviner (Tars Lemora’s ruler) who is hellbent on obtaining the Protostar for his own evil purpose.
I won’t say anymore as the show is 100% worth a watch. Also, it is worth watching the series as the game’s story takes place where season 1 left off. Without giving too much away about the series, the game starts with the crew of the Protostar on course to find Starfleet with the hopes of joining the federation. Their plans are altered though when the Protostar picks up strange readings from a nearby system with a sun similar to Earth surrounded by a ‘Dyson Sphere’. The crew then alters course to investigate. Once entering the system they find the star is unstable and are hit by a massive burst of energy sending the Protostar on a collision course for a nearby planet. In a desperate attempt to save his crew and ship, Captain Del beams the rest of his crew to safety while staying onboard along with Gwyn to try and level out the Protostar’s trajectory before being beamed to safety by the ship onboard Hologram of Captain Janeway (from Star Trek Voyager). And in true Star Trek fashion, we are treated to a scene of a Starfleet ship crashing along the planet’s surface.
We then assume the role of either Del or Gwyn as we explore the planet of Orisi with the task of making our way back to the Protostar and restoring its power. Once this is done, our job is to then save the rest of the crew and discover what is really going on before the system’s star goes supernova.
Now in terms of story, I love it! It’s a nice follow-up to the first series and a good filler while we wait for season 2. There are a lot of references to the events of the first series and a few surprises along the way which really add a nice layer of depth to the lore of this new branch of the Star Trek franchise. I won’t say any more as I don’t want to spoil the events of the first season or the story of the game.
Gameplay-wise it is a super simple game which can be classed as a ‘couch co-op game. It gives you the ability to play 2 player on the same screen with each of you taking on the role of either Del or Gwyn. This is nice as there seems to be a lack of split screen games now, but that’s a story for another time.
The style of gameplay is similar to other Outright Games ‘games’ like Paw Patrol Mighty Pups Save The Day (I’m a father and have game pass, deal with it). The camera angle is a mid-top down third-person view as opposed to the common third-person view of games that we are used to. The combat is simple too. You have both a ranged weapon like a phaser and also a close combat weapon like Gwyn’s sword. Phasers however tend to overheat very quickly so pick and choose your moments to use them.
You will be battling the main enemy type from the series known as the Watchers, robotic cockroaches. They are easy enough to kill, I tend to just use Gwyn’s sword which deals enough damage and use the dash feature to dodge incoming attacks. Your weapons do upgrade as you progress through the game and more weapons like the Phaser rifle are purchasable from Jankom onboard the Protostar.
There are 3 planets in total in the system to explore with 4 levels to complete. There are rewards as well to complete at the end of each level that comes in the form of finding collectables within the mission and completing the level within a certain time.
Graphicly the game is lovely to look at. While it’s nothing overly special, the locations and environments of the planets are colourful and vibrant that brings a real depth to the visuals. The opening cutscene as well is laid out like a hand-drawn storyboard which is a more creative way of doing a cutscene in my opinion.
Sound-wise there are a few issues here. The main issue is the lack of sound effects. This spans from a lack of environmental sounds to unimaginative enemy/battle sounds. The main letdown was the lack of the classic phaser sound. When firing the phaser in the game you can hardly hear anything, the sound that is audible before the phaser overheats sounds more like a ray gun rather than a Star Trek Phaser.
The music has a good score to it, however there is a moment where the music doesn’t fit the tone of the scene. For example, the first battle had calm music playing as opposed to the tense score that I was expecting.
Luckily though this is all overshadowed by the voice acting. All the voice actors from the show return to reprise their roles in the game, including Kate Mulgrew as Captain Janeway.
The fact that they brought back the original cast rather than use sound-a-likes like most tie-in games speaks volumes (no pun intended) it really helps with the immersion and the continuation of the story.
There was a little hiccup when playing on my Xbox One S with headphones on where the dialogue would cut off before the end of a sentence however I didn’t notice this when playing on the Series X with the TV speakers turned up.
One final thing I should mention with this game is that the load times are incredible. On the Xbox One S the load screen from the start menu/ship menu to the level is about 5 seconds. On the Series X however, the load time is barely even a second. This is incredible, hats off to the developers for this one.
Overall Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is a fun game with simplistic gameplay that is good to really shut off to after a tough day. Yet it’s the story and the continuation of the series with the original cast that really clinches it for me.
Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is available on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC. This review was based on a Series X and Xbox One S playthrough.
Grab your copy here https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/star-trek-prodigy-supernova/9ph907jn7vc9
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