Star Trek: Infinite

[bbmike]

I'd prefer TOS, but I can take TNG if it's done right. Any Jar Jar, however, and I'm outta here! 

[Steelie]

Frankly, if the game had started in TOS timeline (or even before) with tech progression towards TNG, I would have bought it day one. As it is however, I'm sure I will end up grabbing it on a deep discount down the road but there is no urgency for me otherwise.

[bbmike]

I wonder what Martok thinks about this... 

[BanzaiCat]

I almost bought it yesterday, but figured I have other things to do right now

But, I'd be open to it on sale, like Steelie said.

[Staggerwing]

I wonder what Martok thinks about this... 

Speaking of which, where is that Minnesotan ba'tleth wielder? Maybe working double secret probation overtime?

[Steelie]

I mean, seriously....if a Star Trek game doesn't drag Martok out I might begin to worry!

[JudgeDredd]

Not happy about the lack of ToS...no purchase for me either (I wasn't much invested in Enterprise, DSN, TNG, Voyager?)

[bayonetbrant]

I mean, seriously....if a Star Trek game doesn't drag Martok out I might begin to worry!

Heard from him this morning....  combination of this game + work schedule has sucked up all him time 

[bbmike]

 

[Steelie]

Sounds like Martok all right   

[BanzaiCat]

That sounds like a positive review to me, without a word being said 

[Martok]

Sigh.  What a disappointment this one turned out to be.   



What really gets me is, it wasn't a bad game overall.  The basic gameplay was solid, and I appreciated how the devs made an effort to differentiate it from Stellaris by including things like "hero ships" and mission trees for each of the playable empires -- they were all good ideas. 

Unfortunately, it also suffered from numerous bugs and balance problems, not to mention a few underlying issues.  Having only 4 playable factions on a single fixed map (widely assumed to be due to restrictions by Paramount, though this was never officially confirmed) definitely hurt replayability as well -- why should Star Trek fans bother playing Infinite, when they could simply load up the New Horizons or New Civilizations mods for Stellaris (both of which have multiple maps and over 100 playable factions)? 

Paradox deciding to pull the plug all too soon after release ( ) before any of these issues could be addressed, and then most/all of the dev team being let go when the Embracer group (somewhat infamously) laid off a bunch of game developers late 2023/early 2024, were simply the final nails in the coffin. 


A project like Star Trek: Infinite *could* have worked -- and still could -- but this game was probably doomed from the start.  And goodness knows now when, if ever, we'll see another Star Trek 4x/grand-strategy again.   

[bayonetbrant]

most/all of the dev team being let go when the Embracer group (somewhat infamously) laid off a bunch of game developers late 2023/early 2024

Embracer has fucked up all sorts of things in the game world.  First, but courting some, uh . . .   "questionable" investment partners, and then pinning all their hopes on that money, and then having to shed a ton of workforce & IP when it fell apart.

They spun off the Asmo-borg into their own company, and dumped about $800 million in debt onto that spun off company to balance Embracer's books and no, that wasn't a typo or an extra zero.


They've turned out to be one of the shittiest vulture capitalist funds out there b/c of the way they treated the underlying creatives of the gaming industry as utterly interchangeable commodities to be swapped around like they were game pieces themselves.

[Martok]

I can't disagree with your assessment.  (Though I confess I'd managed to blot out the Asmodee fiasco from my memory, dammit.) 


That being said,, Embracer's massive bullshittery was merely the final nail the coffin for Star Trek: Infinite.  The seeds of its failure had been planted long before they came along, sadly. 

[bbmike]

They could have just updated Birth of the Federation for modern PCs and been more successful. Sigh.