At E3 2011, there were a lot of games that we had to look at and while there was a lot of talk about the popular sequels on the show floor, there was one video game title that literally left that inner fanboy in us, so excited of what we saw and making me say many times while walking out the door… “Wow! That was absolutely awesome!”.
I’m talking about Paramount Digital Entertainment’s upcoming game “Star Trek”. And obviously, other gaming publications were excited as well.
“Star Trek” received 4 awards at E3 including:
Playstation: The Official Magazine: Most Valuable Game of E3 2011 – Star Trek
Official Xbox Magazine: Most Valuable Game of E3 2011- Star Trek
Electric Playground: Best of Show – Star Trek
Pixelated Geek:Â Best Awesome
Listed as one of the top five games of E3 by CNN
The game is developed by Digital Extremes, the Canadian computer and video game developer known for “Bioshock”, “Unreal”, “Unreal Tournament”, “Dark Sector” and Epic Pinball” to name a few. The developer worked closely with Bad Robot, K/O Paper Products and Damon Lindelof.
The upcoming “Star Trek” game casts players as Kirk and Spock (the younger version of the characters from the recent film) in an original co-op experience. The game continues the adventure that director and producer J.J. Abrams’ had envisioned with “Star Trek” (2009) and features an original stand alone story filled with action-packed combat as Kirk and Spock are working together to stop a legendary enemy race bent on conquering the galaxy.
The video game features an original story by BAFTA winner and “God of War” writer Marianne Krawzcyk in collaboration with the writers and producers of the 2009 “Star Trek” film, Robert Orci and Alex Jurtzman.
What are the key features of “Star Trek”?
The main key features of “Star Trek” are:
- Ultimate Co-Op – Built from the ground up as a co-op experience, “Star Trek” packs two vastly different gameplay styles with unique abilities into one game.
- Kirk and Spock Reborn – Play for the first time as two of the most well-known characters in sci-fi. Players must rely on each other.
- Epic Adventure – Set after the events of the “Star Trek” (2009) film, the game continues their journey to a new universe with a completely original story and discovery of a legendary alien race bent on conquering the galaxy.
- Scope and Variety – Epic set pieces and ever-changing gameplay underscore the adventure in “Star Trek”. Swim through subterranean waterways, hijack enemy battleships and jump prevariously through zero G onto moving spaceships.
- 23rd Century Weapons – In “Star Trek”, you get a chance to use a wide variety of weapons and gear ala 23rd Century tech including unique signature weapons for Kirk and Spock. Combined with your character’s special skills, every puzzle, every encounter, every no-win situation will turn out differently based on who, how and what you play with.
So, What Did We See?
When we saw what was on display at E3 was a very early first look at the game, including never-before-seen pre-Alpha gameplay. We were shown on how the buddy system came into play between Kirk and Spock. The demo was shown with two screens to show us the depth of asymmetrical co-op gameplay and we watch as Kirk and Spock make a dramatic shuttle jump to reboard the Enterprise that is under attack.
We watched as Kirk is navigating through deadly mines and the players were controlling the characters and seeing how both landed on the Enterprise.
Once aboard, both Kirk and Spock make their way through the Enterprise using their tricorders to unlock the door and a common theme for fans of the series, yes, fallen red shirts are seen. As they are being scanned, they try to figure out on how the Enterprise was captured and what caused it to go into Command Lockout. After receiving a distress call from a crew member, both Kirk and Spock head to the nearest turbo life and make their way to the Shuttle Bay.
When the two find their source of transmission, they quickly discover that it was all a trap and are ambushed by their enemies. We then see a playable scene in which we see Kirk and Spock on the two screens seeing things much differently.  We see different point of views through cinema camera cuts and each dives for cover in a scripted event where both players keep full control of their weapons.
Kirk is knocked down and paralyzed by an enemy nerve toxin and Spock helps Kirk get to Med Bay. As Kirk drags himself behind crates for cover, more enemies beam into the shuttle bay deck, punning them down. Using one hand, we see Kirk providing cover fire while Spock is busy trying to move and drag Kirk.  The difficulty of this sequence is based on how many red shirts are scanned and data that is collected, the more data you collect, the easier things will be.
And as the demo began to wind down, you can only imagine how excited we were. The game is not shipping for another year but from what we saw from the demo, we were impressed by the gameplay, the look and detail and we can’t wait for the finished product.
“Star Trek” was definitely among our top 5 favorite games that we saw at E3 and with this collaboration between Paramount and Digital Extremes, we look forward to the final version of the game!