Preview of Star Trek: Infinite. “Stellaris with a Story”

Star Trek: Infinite is not only an important project for fans of the Star Trek universe, but also an important step in Paradox Interactive’s development as a developer and publisher. We played a new strategy to talk about our impressions and answer the question: is the game a simple “reskin”? Stellaris or is it something more?

Let’s first surprise Star Trek fans – yes, here you can fully immerse yourself in the world of Star Trek, build your own Enterprise and meet many famous characters, including the famous Captain Picard, Spock and other heroes.

The story of the game takes place in the 24th century, which means that we will influence the events that take place in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Picard (Star Trek: Picard) , Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in the film Star Trek: First Contact.

Therefore, by the time you start, you control more than one planet and do not develop a civilization “from scratch”, as was the case in Stellaris – under your leadership there are already several inhabited planets, a small fleet and sufficient territory.

Therefore, the “active” phase of the game, with political events, wars and other events, comes faster – the game elegantly skips the “boring” period where you wait for the next hundred minerals to build a mining station.

Quick Start isn’t the only innovation, but let’s first explain why we’re comparing the game to Stellaris and how it differs from it. Over the years of developing 4X strategies, Paradox Interactive has collected many mechanics, developments and concepts.

The experience of developing Hearts of Iron, Stellaris, Europa Universalis and many other series allows the studio to no longer create from scratch, but to, like a designer set, put together new games based on proven mechanics.

Developers resort to this quite rarely, in an attempt to diversify the gameplay and please fans, but in the case of Star Trek: Infinite, even someone who has played Stellaris quite a bit will recognize the “roots” of the project.

Fleet construction, colonization and development of planets, political system, battles and ship designer – almost all major mechanisms migrated to Star Trek: Infinite without significant changes. Even the interface has remained virtually unchanged aside from a minor redesign.

But despite the “basics” that Stellaris players know, new elements change the game significantly and ensure that you get a completely different gaming experience. The most important innovation is missions. With their help, the developers of the Space 4X sandbox have turned the game into a story-based strategy in which we will repeat or even change the main events of the Star Trek universe.

There are four civilizations available in the game, each with its own storyline: the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire and the Cardassian Union. Each state has a unique design, features, missions, events and behavior.

To complete missions, you must meet certain conditions: collect a certain resource, explore five planets or conclude various non-aggression pacts.

As a reward, in addition to progressing through the plot, we will receive modifiers that give a bonus to science, unity and other parameters, as well as new decrees. By the way, we will not receive the Enterprise immediately, but after completing the first tasks.

In Stellaris, the game entered its final phase at the time of the onset of the ‘Crisis’ – a global event that affected the entire galactic community, as the Fallen Empire awoke from its slumber. In Star Trek: Infinite, of course, there are no Fallen Empires, but there are canonical enemies of all living things: the Borg. It is their invasion that will become the final ‘exam’ for the players.

Using mechanics familiar to fans of Paradox strategy games, the studio builds a unique story-driven adventure in the world of Star Trek. The appearance of civilizations, story events, technologies – all this has changed to correspond with the canon of the Star Trek universe.

Even the names of the planets appear in books, TV shows and films. Just for fun, we checked a few random system names and found mentions of them on the Star Trek Wiki.

Yes, maybe everyone. Of course, if you like strategies or are ready to master a new genre. Star Trek fans are getting a new game that pays tribute to the source material. Players of Stellaris can look at known mechanisms with a fresh look, not trying to create their own story, but looking at the development of events in a universe known to many.

Beginners who have not played Paradox strategies before can “join” the world of 4X strategies with relative ease. Some Stellaris mechanics have been modified or simplified to fit the game’s world. And the presence of story missions, which often suggest the direction of development, will help you master all the necessary aspects and not be confused about the possibilities.

At first it seems like Star Trek: Infinite is a simple ‘reskin’ of Stellaris, but after playing for a while you understand that the paths of these games, at least at this stage, seem to have diverged at some point.

Stellaris, with all its DLC, has turned into a monstrous simulator of space civilization, in which the number of mechanics runs into the dozens: ring worlds, megastructures, galactic confederations, doomsday weapons, necrophages, galactic guardians. Stellaris is a 4X strategy, not just capitalized, but caps locked; the content of the game is no longer hundreds, but thousands of hours long. Star Trek: Infinite, on the other hand, rewinded the Stellaris version a bit, removed its additions, and started telling its own story about the Star Trek universe. At the same time, Star Trek: Infinite doesn’t seem empty at all. It has all the mechanics needed for a global strategy, but there’s no exorbitant variety that just frightens and inconveniences the player at first. It seems we can now say the following:

“If you want to try Stellaris, it’s best to try Star Trek: Infinite first and get the hang of the basic mechanics. Then when you see the diversity of Stellaris, you will be happy and not afraid of the amount of content.”

So Paradox Interactive will not only delight Star Trek fans, but can also attract new players to Stellaris who will have fun developing their galactic civilization. And this strategy seems extremely attractive to us. If Star Trek: Infinite is successful, it’s entirely possible that we’ll see similar projects in other universes.

For example, Stellaris could be the basis for a 4X strategy game based on Star Wars, Dune or perhaps even Mass Effect. Based on Crusader Kings of Europa Universalis, you can make a game about Middle-earth or the world of Ice and Fire. And Warhammer will fit into both space and medieval ‘trends’.

Star Trek: Infinite is scheduled for release on October 12, 2023 on PC. Write in the comments whether the Star Trek universe is close to you, whether you are waiting for the release of Star Trek: Infinite – or Has Starfield overshadowed everything and everyone?