Like in classic Star Trek
In 2371, the crew of the United Federation of Planets starship USS Voyager, led by Captain Kathryn Janeway, finds itself in a cosmic anomaly. The unusual phenomenon teleports the ship and its crew to the other end of the galaxy, 70,000 light-years from home.
The heroes find themselves in a region unknown to the Federation, but Voyager will have to find its way back to Earth, no matter how long it takes. And along the way, fulfill the main task of Starfleet — to explore places where no human has set foot.
The game accurately repeats the plot of the series. The Across the Unknown campaign consists of 12 levels. Each is a separate space sector with several star systems. All of them are based on the most important episodes of the series: from the pilot episode to the finale. Side quests encountered during exploration are also based on individual episodes. They do not advance the overall story, but they open up skill branches or affect the characters.
The game differs from the series in that there is a choice here. Many of the player's decisions affect the plot: you find allies, decide the fate of characters, replenish your team, and enter into conflicts.
I, for one, did not separate Tuvix, sacrificing Neelix and Tuvok, and also forgave Seska after her betrayal. As a fan of the universe, I was interested to see what would happen if I acted differently. You can even unlock a secret ending by acting according to the prime directive in the first chapter.
The game has five endings, and the main menu provides three slots for different playthroughs.
Difficult, but fascinating
The gameplay of Across the Unknown is a mixture of strategy, "survival," RPG, rogue-like, and visual novel.
Strategy is ship management. The player must constantly build and rebuild the starship's compartments, give instructions to the crew, create and explore things.
From the "survival" genre, there is resource control. You must monitor the condition of Voyager's systems and its crew. Find fuel, food, and other resources in time, monitor the mood and health of the ship's inhabitants. And also its integrity.
The role-playing element is revealed during landings, when extracting resources, and in dialogues. There is a check of characteristics, which determines the success or failure of your actions. But it is fair, and if the heroes sent on the sortie have indicators higher than required, then there will be no failure. But a critical success, increasing the reward, is easy.
A bit of "rogue-like" is that with each replay, the star systems on the levels are generated randomly. This increases the replayability of the project, even if you make the same choices in the plot.
The narrative is presented through text, almost like in visual novels. There are almost no cutscenes or voice acting — you will have to read a lot. Fortunately, there is a translation into Russian, and it is good.
The leveling is simple: we accumulate science points and a separate resource (dilithium), and then we explore various technologies and their improvements. It is better to do this in time, and not wait until the last moment.
The game also has a combat system. During the battle, the player is sent to a separate space where you need to give orders: which parts of the enemy ship to attack, which parts of Voyager to defend, and which heroes' skills to use. And also — to distribute energy between the ship's systems.
All this makes the gameplay of Across the Unknown interesting, but difficult, even at the lowest level of difficulty. After all, it is impossible to predict when problems will begin.
For example, I did not always understand how the ship's energy consumption works. At one point, I spent 60 units of deuterium (fuel) per game cycle, and there were no problems. And then suddenly, after the battle, the ship began to consume 110 units, which led to a quick defeat. Although all the systems were configured the same as before the battle. Perhaps I missed something.
The amount of resources for each level is limited, and it is important to think through actions in advance. But even this does not save, because difficulties can suddenly pile up, even when nothing foreshadows it. Enemy attacks, lack of resources, the inability to repair the starship in time, and the constant whining of the crew. You will have to urgently solve problems or go to the save point.
Although they do not always help. The game has manual and automatic saves, but there is only one slot for each of them. You can easily drive yourself into a dead end, and you will not be able to roll back the passage by several records. Only if the manual save has not been updated for a long time. So, in extreme cases, you have to restart the entire sector. Fortunately, this is possible.
Simple, but with problems
The graphics are at the level of games from the 2000s. On the ship, we are shown simple models of heroes and minimally animated scenes, and during the landing — drawn images.
The sounds in Across the Unknown are the classic musical theme from the series, devoid of innovations, as well as effects familiar to fans. Phaser shots, impulse and warp engines, transporter sounds, and so on. Voice acting is only at the beginning of each level, when one of the characters reads out their logbook.
Despite the simplicity, there are questions about the technical condition.
For the first half of the playthrough — five levels — "Star Trek" worked perfectly. There was no hint of problems. But starting with the sixth, the frame rate began to drop during dialogues, down to 2–3 FPS. Then the drops began to occur during the game, when switching from the ship to the system, sector, and back. This does not affect the gameplay, but it is annoying.
Then problems began with landings: with each attempt to equip an expedition, the game crashed with a fatal error. It seemed to be a specific side quest, but no. Reinstalling the game solved the issue, but temporarily. I had to switch it to DirectX 11 mode in the Steam launch settings.
Then a graphic bug appeared, which did not disappear even in the new playthrough. In space, incomprehensible textures appeared in the background, which spoiled the view. Perhaps this is due to DX11, but it's better this way — because otherwise the game could not be completed.
Verdict
Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown is a good game, but only for fans of the universe. Especially if you are a fan of "Voyager" specifically.
It goes well through the main plot and key moments of the TV show, placing them in 15-20 hours of gameplay. But it still misses a lot of important things and is not suitable for the first acquaintance with the story. But fans of the series will be interested in exploring alternative scenarios and feeling like the captain of their favorite ship.
The gameplay is captivating and challenging. Even at the lowest level of difficulty, you have to think several steps ahead, level up in time, extract resources, and not waste time. After all, difficulties can fall at any moment. But, having studied all the mechanics, you can go on a new and more difficult adventure, creating a second profile. Replayability and gameplay are the strengths of Across the Unknown.
The technical condition creates problems. Despite the simplicity of the appearance and animations, the frame rate sometimes drops below 10, there are errors and crashes, as well as graphic bugs. Perhaps the developers should have chosen a different engine instead of Unreal Engine 5.
But worst of all is the cost of the game. You will have to pay 1990 rubles for the basic version and 2500 for the Deluxe Edition — this is a huge amount for such a project, which is not suitable for every player. If it cost 600-700 rubles, it would be adequate.