Star Trek: Infinite

Star Trek: Infinite does a great job of capturing the look and feel of Star Trek, but those enticing bones splinter under the weight of its bugs and glitches.

A serviceable, sometimes-engaging official Star Trek version of Stellaris that makes sense for generic space war fans, but flounders when it comes to narrative logic and Trekkie authenticity.

Compelling, but not quite there yet. Needs two seasons to grow the beard.

Players face a variety of crises, anomalies, and dilemmas throughout the campaign, presented in the form of two- to three-paragraph story cards and an array of options for pushing the story forward. Some of these stories are directly based on episodes of The Next Generation, while others are original to the game. They're all written in a prose style that's more flippant than you might expect from Trek, though in line with the flavor text of Stellaris or a tabletop strategy game. What's impressive about the setup of these story scenarios is how, despite their costs and rewards being the same across campaigns, I found that the material needs of whatever empire I was playing nearly always guided me towards making the kinds of choices that my faction would likely make on the show. Choosing the most humane or diplomatic option was always practical as the Federation, but often not affordable as the Klingons or Cardassians. It feels appropriate to Trek's ethos that the galaxy's more brutal powers make some dubious or cruel choices, not because they're "evil," but because that's where their circumstances lead them. Disrupting that is possible, but it takes a lot more work.

An undemanding but enjoyable large scale 4X, with an emphasis on exploration and remixing possibilities in a familiar but somewhat flexible setting.

Star Trek: Infinite is a fun strategy game and a great entry point to the genre for newcomers that doesn't cost as much as many big games, but a plethora of bugs bog down the gameplay and mission design.

As a lifelong Star Trek fan I want to love the new 4X grand strategy game, but there's so much going on that I can't connect with any of it.

Star Trek Infinite is a challenging game to recommend. Grand Strategy games on their own do appeal to a certain mindset, and a Star Trek coat of paint isn’t going to make someone like Stellaris if they didn’t enjoy the gameplay before. A Star Trek fan might be more willing to try the game to sit in the big seat and have the feeling of running the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Star Trek Infinite will reward you with incredible depth and replayability if you stick around long enough to learn its intricacies. You need to meet Star Trek Infinite at its own level, and if you’re unwilling to learn all of its systems, then this might not be the game for you.

Star Trek: Infinite is a fine science fiction grand strategy experience, designed to appeal to fans of the TV and movie franchise. The development team has tried hard to deliver as many familiar elements as possible and mostly succeeded. The game creates a more focused experience than the New Horizons mod for Stellaris and its mechanics are easier to understand.

Star Trek: Infinite gives us a damn solid 4X experience doused in the rich history of the Star Trek universe, and with plenty of space to include more Deep Space Nine, Voyager and other quadrants of the galaxy through expansions. Even if you're not a fan of the source material, it can still stand alone as a good experience which will only improve over time.