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Star Trek: Infinite review: Not exactly a strategy pioneer, but still an enjoyable journeySplitting it out
Splitting it out
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Paradox Interactive
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Paradox Interactive
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Paradox Interactive
First contact also requires an ongoing commitment and several decisions, or can be cut short when the ‘minor’ species reaches out and demands a response (my Romulan sensibilities say “they can eat my triangular hole”). It offers the fun thought that the Rommies and the Ker-plunk are all having their own versions of the Enterprise’s adventures, but with a totally different ideological approach. Or you canbethe Federation dorks, of course. I suspect it’s even a little weighted towards them, considering the rewards and unique named characters they get for doing their main missions, contrasted to the Romulans getting “luck your way into the right circumstances or your homeworld will explode”. This is absolutely a game that will wipe out your capital like that. But on the flip side, I totally accepted Janeway’s plan to defeat the Borg, then let them kill her. Sorry, humans! Could you send another one? Perhaps that bald feller, I bet we can do him too. I mean, do it with him.
There’s always something to do. Build a district here, send a governor to indoctrinate there, divert a scientist to that mission, refit the fleet to counter the Cardassian armour, tell the Ferengi who keeps spamming you to piss off. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Paradox Interactive
Much of your time will also be spent building up planets and their population. It’s an involved system wherein each planet has slots for farms, mines, and energy production, plus shared ones for broader, civic districts. Each provides specific jobs, and a second line of slots for special buildings that make those jobs more productive. You can also designate a category to the whole planet (e.g. farm world, admin world, DEMON WORLD), which adds a flat bonus to one area while detracting for another. There’s a lot of room to customise, and less rote building order stuff.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Paradox Interactive
There’s room for UI improvement too. Text is unreadably small, and I’m not sure if some missions glitched out, or I’d failed to understand how to trigger the next part. There’s no event log, and several events don’t pause the game but really should. The Borg appearing at my capital was a gentle “fleet in combat” icon, while a single alien immigrating might sound a terrifying siren; I know we’re xenophobes, but. The logic behind what counts as an upgrade to ships is also bewildering, with automatic ship designs being woefully underarmed. I got frequent notices that “the silent alarm has been triggered” but had no idea what to do about it. Plus some elements like its character system are fairly inconsequential, despite the thrill of realising you could totally kill Dukat in battle.
And yet… I recorded all these complaints with a detached sort of “hmm” rather than major frustration. It’s one of the most low-stress strategy games I’ve played this year, and its detail comprehensible once you’ve picked up the stone it’s hiding under. It’s a combination of engaging and undemanding that grand strategy seldom manages, and has enough Trek stuff to work for someone who’s seen most of the serieseses but only once, and can only sometimes tell if something’s a reference to an episode or wholly new. How the boon of such a familiar setting will stand against the weight of that setting’s expectations I do not know, but if you go in wanting an enjoyable game that you kind of already know, Infinite will be a pleasant little surprise.
