If it weren't for the absolutely idiotic mini games, this game would be an easy ten out of ten. But there are certain unskippable mini games that are near impossible to complete for mere mortals. I see everyone complaining about the Transporter game, but that one is pretty easy. It's the game were you have to push the stick towards the middle of the target that are a problem for me. It pushes the thumbsticks away, and resets your progress when you can't do it. I'd say it was poor game design, but it seems like it's absolute incompetence. I'd ask for a refund, but I'm already too far in. You don't see how dumb these mini games are until long after the 2 hours Steam gives you.

The story and branches are good and well enough, very Trekie. Its more of an interactive movie with decision points providing only a slight variation to results, but the storyline is pretty fixed and mostly changes the personal relationship attitudes.

The biggest turn-off are the mini-games, the mouse movements are horrendous to utilize and a thumbwheel mouse is just impossible to use in some of these. With some scenes refusing to allow you to advance until you pass the mini-game, it's just a road block. Combat is also rigged to be difficult when it's such a simple and non-complex mechanic; they just make your mouse incredibly difficult to move by either slowing it down to a crawl or by pushing away from your target.

A thumbs up for a good Star Trek story line, a big thumbs down on the mini-games.

*Update*
They've released a patch to fix most of the mouse issues, the center push-away is much more manageable now, though the slow mouse movement for combat remains. While annoying, it's at least no longer a roadblock so I'll throw the thumb up.

So, this was my very first experience with the Star Trek universe, and i have to say: I really wish it wasn't. This game, apparently, was made by a lot of the old Telltale crew who made a lot of my favourite "choose your own adventure" games back in the day, but this one does not even come close to those. But, first things first:
If you want to know whether this game is worth your time or money, it hurts me to say: Unfortunately, no.
And if you want to know why, let me explain:

You switch between 2 characters: First Officer Jara Ridec, and Petty Officer Carter Diaz. Your ship, the Resolute, is tasked with taking an Ambassador to an alien planet to help keep the peace between 2 hostile alien races at the brink of war.
As Ridec, you take an active role in the peace talks, while as Diaz you take a more "hands on" approach with whenever mechanical knowledge is needed.
During the talks however, you discover a more sinister mystery that, if left alone, might change the universe as we know it.

The story is well told, the characters are likeable, and during my first playthrough i was thoroughly entertained. The pacing could have been improved, at times it felt to slow, especially when i already knew what was going to happen, but it never took me out of the story.
Unfortunately, this is where my praise ends.


The gameplay is utterly unbearable! Every single minigame is horrendous. It goes from scanning machines, unscrewing screws, and turning levers to literally shooting ice. And you can not lose (most of them - but i'm getting to that). 90% of the minigames are time wasters, the game holds all progress until you get them right. And as I said, you can not lose. Until it gets to the QTEs.
Yes, in good old Telltale fashion, Quick Time Events are back, and basically the only danger in this game. Whenever you fail one, it usually ends in your death, but the timing is so generous, you will have to be blind, deaf and having a stroke to miss one.
The bread and butter of a Telltale game however are the decisions you make in dialogues. In other TT games, your decisions feel like they have more impact than they actually do, since the group affected by them was on a smaller scale, and you knew their names and faces.
Here, you are the second in command on a large spacecraft, so when you make a bad call that results in hundreds or even thousands of deaths you will feel nothing, since you never met any of them.
Puzzling is also the timer during dialogue: Whenever you can choose an answer, a timer goes down, so i assumed that, in TT fashion, if you don't answer your character will remain silent. However, that is not the case: The game just stops. It waits for you to make a call. Why is there a timer?
But, what bugged me the most are some decisions made in the story. A lot of you will be familiar with the concept of "chekhov's gun". For those who don't know, it is a rule in writing that says that
every element of a story must be relevant, must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. For example, if there is a gun in the story, there must be a reason for it, somewhere in the plot.
This game has multiple such scenarios, and almost all of them lead nowhere.
Ridec being a Kobliad and needing a rare element to survive? Leads nowhere. A possible love triangle with Diaz and his 2 love interests? Nowhere. Ridecs possible love interest? A possible cure for the infection? So many wasted opportunities, I am not sure why they were even brought up.
Telltale used to be better that this.

I am a big fan of the old Telltale games. It is save to say that without their "Walking Dead" games or "The Wolf among us" I would not be as much into story games as I am today, and "Tales from the Borderlands" is among my favourite games to this day. But this one... it just hurt.
As I said, I enjoyed the story itself, but whenever the "scanner" symbol appeared on screen I groaned, because I knew the next few minutes will be agony. I am glad however to see that they still make games, I just hope they get their groove back before long.