Rating of
3/5
Boldly Mediocre
Chris Kavan - wrote on 11/19/20
One would think that after all these years, someone could develop a truly revolutionary, fun, exciting and just overall "good" game based on one of the most popular sci-fi series of our time. Yet time and time again, Star Trek games have failed to deliver. Yes, I admit I'm a hardcore Star Wars fanboy - the opposite side of the spectrum - but, let's face it, Star Wars has provided a bevy of memorable games while Star Trek has had barely the impact. That is why when a VR game promising to transport the player to an integral part of the crew was announced, I thought maybe we would finally have a worthy entry into Star Trek games. Alas, after finally experiencing (albeit in a non-VR version) the game, Bridge Crew once again squanders a worthy IP into something far too bland and repetitive to leave much of an impact.
Looks and Stuff: The game looks and feels about as bland and pedantic as the missions. Aside from characters headbanging and flapping their lips while you look around and talk, they look like mannequins of their respective species. And in space, no one can hear you scream... about how uninteresting it looks. Sure, the game got your console right (and all the bleeps and boops any Star Trek fan will recognize) but otherwise the game utterly fails to transport you into the Star Trek universe. Maybe it was better in VR.
Story: After the traditional, introductory Kobiyashi Maru test, you are thrown into your role on the U.S.S. Aegis and tasked with exploring an area known as The Trench - where something, something Borg, something, something Klingons is happening, involving a secret weapon that cannot fall into the wrong hands. Also, you scan a bunch of stuff, avoid bad things that can hurt the ship, try to avoid ship battles with the Klingons, help a few distressed ships and so on. The plots is as thread-bare as the graphics. And it's super short - six missions and some random content does not make for a very long experience. I feel bad for anyone who paid full price for this on launch.
Gameplay: Who do you want to be? The Captain Now? Scotty bo-Botty? Tactical Man? Ship Steerer Extraordinaire? Well, hopefully you like pushing buttons, levers, knobs and paying attention to levels - because that's all you'll be doing in each station. Sure, you can look at the pretty screen, maybe occasionally fire phasers and torpedoes, but often you'll just be sitting there. Yes, I did try all that stations, but I was mainly relegated to Tactical because obviously I'm the most violent so pew pew pew - but also shields, scanning and transportation duty (though I shared part of this with Engineering I believe). For the most part it was people yelling at me shields down - teleport that thing (or person) - OH GOD, Klingons, shields up - oops, interrupted the transport, shields down - OH SHIT we just got shot - shields back up! Scan that guy, disrupt something and on and on. Sounds exciting, but it really wasn't - it was either entirely too boring or (in the case of the final mission) completely frustrating. I guess I had enough to do - and I think my station was one of the better ones (sorry captain and helm), but even so, it never felt amazing or anything.
Final Verdict: It's a sad state of affairs when one of the best Star Trek games I've played is a gatcha-filled mobile title. Someone design a game that is equal parts Mass Effect and No Man's Sky and get back to me. Bridge Crew is not the Star Trek game we need or deserve.
Presentation: 3/5
Story: 2/5
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Overall (not an average): 3/5
