For full clarity, I have completed the game, which took me several hours, some of this is due to cutscenes not being skippable, however after playing the game, this makes sense, as it is very narrative.
This review will not explore the story of the game, to prevent spoilers, but I will be touching on the mechanics of the game, which has an effect on the story. Starting with the decisions that you make, each decision is recorded, and the effect is noted. Many games that promise that decisions matter end up not really changing anything, however in Resurgence, you can feel the impact of each decision as the story progresses.
One big thing that has concerned people is the graphics, in the build I had, there were no graphic options to adjust, and character models do have a dated look to them, there is also an inconsistency in that some characters, like Spock, have very detailed faces. I will say that all of the graphical issues are vastly overshadowed by the story, once you get your teeth into the story, the look of the game doesn’t play a huge role.
Moving onto the story, you get to play as two characters, one an XO, the other, a petty officer on the lower decks, both playing an important role in the story. The switch between the two characters is a seamless transition, moving to another chapter within the story.
All of the characters involved in the story all have some depth to them, more important characters have more depth, and depending on your actions will depend on how characters respond around you. So when you are in control of Commander Jara Rydek, you can be the sort of XO who always follows the captain, or you can be a more outspoken XO, maybe even a mix of the two. The captain will react to the options you make, the same for every character.
In my playthrough as Jara, I opted for a bit of a mix, depending on the situation, now this did lead to some characters getting annoyed, making tough decisions isn’t very easy when you are presented with those decisions! Some of these are life and death, you get to choose who lives, and who dies at various points, which is one of the more simple decisions you will have to make through the course of the game.
From my point of view, the story overall does have a very Star Trek feel to it, there is a decent amount of Treknobabble to some of the discussions, in places that make sense, this shows a good dedication to the writing of the story. There are some throwbacks to various episodes throughout the game, but not too many, and they all fit together very well. The backing track in this game is also one I thought was a very good listen, and I am not usually one to leave the background music of a game on.
The negatives for the game, in my opinion, were largely graphical, the dated look to the character models, and there was a bit too much eyebrow movement going on during conversations for my liking. With no anti-aliasing options either, there was no way to smooth out the rough edges that occurred during movement, and the motion blur did nothing to help, with no option to turn it off.
There were some issues with the subtitles as well, not matching up with the voiceline being delivered, or in some cases, not showing up. I also discovered that if I run as a character, other NPCs who are walking will switch to running as well, even if they have no interaction with the player, not so much a negative, but an oddity.
As for things I would have liked to have seen in the game, other than graphical options, is a chapter selection, if I have completed part of the story, I would like the option to go back to it, and maybe change something, without starting again. The other is a section or two of downtime during the plot to explore the ship, and interact with the crew, the story, while good, is action all the time, there’s no time to stop for a raktajino.
Let’s progress to the game mechanics, a lot of it is dictated by the responses you make to certain situations, or quick time events, which if you fail, will have an impact on the story. There are also some things that will just lead to a game over, trust me, I have failed at parts, for review purposes of course!
There are also little puzzle games at points as well. When you play as Petty Officer Carter Diaz at the start, you can explore the shuttlebay, and experience some of the puzzles by looking around. I would recommend you do this, just to get used to controls, but you don’t have to.
Mechanics like combat, and stealth in Resurgence can take some getting used to, being a narrative game, these elements can feel clunky, but for full disclosure, I am not very good at stealth anyway, and Resurgence is very forgiving when it comes to both of these game mechanics.
Overall, could I, or would I recommend this game? Yes, I had a very enjoyable experience, it’s far more like an interactive episode of Star Trek than it is a dedicated game, which was problematic for me at parts, as I was enjoying the dialog. There are some very recognisable voices in the cast, and a very good impression of the late Leonard Nimoy for the voice of Spock, the voice actor responsible is Piotr Michael, who is very experienced.
Finally, I will admit, that while emotions might be irrelevant, and illogical, there are parts within this story which really made me feel, of which, I will now be off to sickbay to correct this flaw within my cortical implant.
How will you make your decisions?
This review was completed on PC with the following:
GPU: NVidia GeForce RTX 3600
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
WRITTEN & EDITED BY Three of Seven - rena.hobden@ufplanets.com
IMAGES FROM In game and press packs
