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We share our first impressions of Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown! Here’s what stood out in this exciting new chapter of the Voyager legacy.
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00:00hello and welcome to trek culture we have a video game video for you guys today yay as you can
00:05tell
00:06sean is not here because he hasn't played a video game since 1996 the year i was born sorry you
00:13two
00:13um uh i am joined today with brie and clive our resident video game experts i'm just gonna make
00:21out you guys know everything that is video games so you can feel really embarrassed
00:26i'm here because i have at least played a video game unlike sean so hopefully i can guide us
00:32through this little discussion of the latest star trek game star trek voyager across the unknown
00:39so you guys have played the demo question mark if you just want to let us know your initial thoughts
00:47what was the demo like how did you get on etc i i liked it um i think it's got
00:55a lot of potential
00:55it sounds like very cliche this doesn't it um the the graphics let's let one thing that is
01:01is the graphics are amazing and and voyager has never looked quite as good as it does in this i
01:08think you know you go back to the 90s and the gra and the cg that used in voyager and
01:12the models even
01:13it looks beautiful um i would say upgrade your graphics card because when i put mine on
01:19and i played it the first time it looked like all the crew were in pbc uniforms um but after
01:25i realized
01:25that my graphics card was a little bit out of date i it did look a lot better after that
01:29right looking
01:30for a vpn well we've got a great deal from nord get 73 off and three months extra free just
01:39click the
01:39link in the description down below no i agree i think the graphics kind of surprised me because
01:44i'm not really sure what i was expecting i went into the game pretty blind because i hadn't played
01:48the game that uh you guys said it was similar to um i'm mostly an mmo or hero shooter first
01:55person
01:55shooter so i really liked it it was my first experience with this game genre loved the art i thought
02:01like you said the art blew me away i my graphics card always has to be up to date so
02:06i immediately was
02:06just like wow this is really nice um this also i've learned gives me anxiety like i didn't realize
02:14resource management games were going to give me that much anxiety but i have adhd so i'd be like
02:18doing one thing and then it's like i'd be like oh let me explore all the planets and then one
02:22of the
02:22quests is like collect resources i'm like but i just collected all the resources i went a little too
02:27quick i i did that thing where you do something before they give you the instructions you did that
02:32too that's all right yeah so i'm like i i got a little off track but thankfully they don't like
02:38lock you out of the story or anything if you do that um you just lose some crew yeah i
02:44lost i lost a
02:45couple yeah it's a good point it's it's it's because you start getting into it and and kind of exploring
02:51the story because the basics of it it's kind of um the demo is effectively caretaker it'll be
02:58interesting to see if when it goes into it they pick particular episodes i think there is a tubics
03:02kind of link coming in somewhere they have noted in the future and it depends what they kind of
03:06interesting but see what episodes they decide to kind of focus on and where they go with that
03:10um but yeah the whole decisions thing was was certainly different and then they're kind of
03:16building the ship as you're going along as well um yeah so definitely different from some of the
03:21other trek games that have been out recently i played civilization 5 um and obviously you have
03:27also the age of empires games and stuff like that so is it is in that realm where it's like
03:32you know
03:32you need wood you need gold you need food is it that kind of thing no in a way like
03:38in the in the same
03:39vein that any game requires that you have resources to do stuff but no this is a lot more uh
03:46because i
03:46played civilization and stuff it's very that one's top down you're just kind of building in one location
03:52this is it's a mix between a story game where it's a choose your own adventure
03:57uh exploration game because like mass effect you're going like planet to planet scanning the planets
04:02and stuff the build comes in when you can choose the option to like go to the ship and the
04:07ship gets
04:08cut like uh bisected right and so because there's no power you have to start by essentially repairing
04:14the ship i think uh what was the game that was referenced to was it vault
04:17vault something fallout shelter fallout shelter that's what it was yes it's very much fallout
04:23shelter style and i didn't play fallout shelter um i played new vegas and and three uh but yeah
04:30it's i learned very quickly that resource management heightens my anxiety i don't know why i think it
04:38was just the stress of like oh i'm i'm constantly like but that's me like you know i'm constantly
04:45stressing about having enough or too much or not enough and then like i like doing perfect runs
04:50of games so losing crewman i was like i'm about to restart this game this demo already like i but
04:56it's so much it's fun it's fun as long as you're okay with a game that stresses you know can
05:02give
05:02you stress but that's that's fun too you know like a boring game you know a game that gives you
05:08no
05:08stress or no urgency i mean that's animal crossing which is fun too but it's this is a this is
05:16fun
05:17this is a fun game and like you said the graphics have kind of blown me away one thing i'll
05:21say and
05:22i don't know if it's permanent is the placeholder cards i noticed in the beginning they were like cg
05:28render full rendered placeholder cards and then they started getting hand drawn
05:31look i loved the hand drawn look personally i hope to god that they actually keep putting
05:40hand drawn cards in there because i personally liked the hand drawn cards so much more it felt
05:45like it gave this game character it made it unique standing out from like your other game graphics as
05:52the best way i can explain it it felt it felt very like personable um i do wish they could
05:57do voiceover
05:57even if it's not the actors just any amount of like someone with a good impression someone who can
06:04do a good janeway impression or a good tuvok impression yeah because i will say without voice of
06:10any kind it it did feel a little more like a uh like a phone game like a phone game
06:17that was put on the
06:18computer because there's yeah zero voice acting none no words spoken the entire five hour demo
06:27that i played and i know that's going to be the case and i saw when i when i went
06:32into the comments
06:33i saw there was a few people that felt the same way and i was like i mean yeah maybe
06:36if they could
06:37just get like even a base voiceover would be better than like nothing it's very um without the voiceover
06:46as well you kind of have that background music which is very quiet and you kind of and and with
06:50it
06:50being pc we haven't clearly we haven't seen that the playstation version or the xbox version yet so we
06:55kind of don't know what the controls are going to be like for those but it's very you're clicking
06:59you're reading it you're clicking and you're going well i kind of know the story to some degree right
07:03um with it being with it being care effectively caretaker is the story um but yeah it's all about
07:09um fallout shelter because you've got that msd split where you get the kind of the the look through
07:14of the ship and it is very similar to that but with with fallout shelter being a mobile game from
07:19memory i think it's the one i'm thinking of um it does feel like you're right it kind of feels
07:23like it's a
07:24mobile game and then they've kind of gone let's put some extra bits into it with the with the
07:27choice the decision trees and the bits that you go down there but i did find on occasion that some
07:32of those decision trees were more kind of giving you more extra information about background than
07:38they were helping you progress the story so you got kind of diverted to go down a particular route
07:44that really sort of told caretaker anyway didn't give too many variations on on what we saw on
07:50screen there was like you could send different people on the on your away teams which is great
07:55because you could pick particular skills which reminded me a bit of timelines if people played
07:59that on on mobile gaming um but yeah it still kind of forced me down a particular a particular road
08:06so it'd be interesting if they do kind of vary that when they come into other episodes i think it's
08:10interesting about the voiceover stuff as well because i've just started and i've now forgotten it i've
08:14just started playing a game very popular game on steam that didn't have voiceover and then they added
08:20voiceover in um into like a newer version it's really annoying me i can't remember what it's
08:25called um and i i just avoided the game for ages because i'm someone who when it comes to video
08:34games
08:35if i have to read i get very very annoyed because i i'm like i want to read my books
08:40i want to play my
08:41games i don't have to read not everyone's like that and i think for these types of games as well
08:45you
08:45kind of have to get used to reading and looking at menu screens and figuring out what goes where
08:51um but yeah i do i understand the the want of well if there was a version of with voices
08:58it would just
08:59add a little bit of something to it the depth isn't it it's a bit of depth and a bit
09:04of that voyager
09:04feel i think it it visually looks great i think we both think we all agree it it visually looks
09:10fantastic yes that voice just and the fact that it is a lot of the information you kind of and
09:15and
09:15because you're a fan of it as well you you sort of know what you're going to be reading on
09:20in regards
09:21to this and that voiceover would have just given it that bit more ethos legend legendary status i think
09:27it would just just given that a bit more um weight to the to the sort of the legacy of
09:32voyager um not to
09:34take anything away from it i think it's a great game to play through i really am excited to see
09:38what they do and where they go with it i will be buying it yeah yeah absolutely absolutely and then
09:44there's there's different bits in there i think you've got your you know your away teams the space
09:48combat bit right at the end um and then there's different elements to it and then that core kind
09:53of piece which brings back the ship where you're building the victim and emptying the rooms and
09:56building your crew quarters and then you've got to remember to build morale up because if you don't
10:00build morale up then your crew are going to be unhappy and then you've got another piece that
10:04come and again as you say you kind of hang on a minute i've got about three or four things
10:08i need
10:08to be doing but i can't do all these because i've only got four cycles to do them in and
10:12suddenly
10:12you you've missed about three things and yeah that's where my anxiety was peaking as i was like
10:18i don't have enough time it's it's like real life when i've postponed too much and then i'm like
10:23hounded by way too many things to do one in like four cycles yeah i've got to build a cargo
10:29bay
10:29but i can't i haven't got the time to do that now because i've got to do this yes that's
10:34all right
10:34i feel bad because i didn't build it i didn't do that did you have the star trek vibes while
10:42playing it or did it feel like any other kind of it did feel like star trek it felt like
10:47people who
10:47like it did feel like a very almost one for one like one for one if you were given a
10:53few choices and
10:54like you said i wish maybe it's the fact that i'm absolutely a mass effect was a key game in
10:59my
10:59life but i like the ability to make more choices like you're it i'm trying i wish i had timed
11:06it i
11:06wish i had but the amount of time between when you start the game and you make your first decision
11:13is so long so long in mass effect it starts like i mean you're loading up your character and you've
11:21already made decisions so like i think it would benefit from either adding just a few more decisions
11:26or adding like an earlier decision just to get the player understanding that decisions are you know a
11:33key part of the game um because yeah i think it had to have been maybe 15 minutes 20 minutes
11:40maybe even
11:41longer before you ever actually make your first decision um and i did feel like that maybe held it
11:47back a little bit but i'm also you know it's again we're all talking about this in the terms
11:52of it's a demo like it's it's pre-alpha demo yeah this is so like that's what i'm saying and
11:58we're
11:59we're talking with all the love because this is a game that i think could have so much potential that
12:04i could see myself playing for days like non-stop as long as you know the progress they're making
12:12continues because if this is the demo i think it's only going to get better like this this is
12:18already really good um there's just a few things that need you know a little bit of polish here and
12:23there like uh one thing i noticed neelix showed up uh as like a helper when i was making some
12:29mistakes
12:29before he ever actually showed up on the ship if you were someone who's never played like never seen
12:34voyager and you were like oh you know i'll play this game you know someone actually said it's good
12:40because it does tell you the story even if you've never played it you're going to have this person
12:45who's like oh this is my helper character and then they're going to show up on a ship 15 minutes
12:49later
12:49and you're like wait i thought they were on the ship and then my immediate i wrote this down because
12:54i was like oh they could have just had another character to fill this role well they do a few
12:59minutes later there's the the crewman in the back that's in the very beginning i can't remember her name
13:03from like the actual original starfleet that she shows up after the fact whereas i think it might
13:11have been like i don't know if it's a coding error but she should have been in the beginning and
13:14neelix
13:15was in the beginning like you know what i'm saying i know it's a little bit confusing if you've never
13:19played it but your helper character that's helping you through it is a character that hasn't even showed
13:23up in the game yet but then when that character has shown up in the game neelix the other girl
13:29is still
13:30being the helper character here and there and it's like no now i think isn't it is it taurus
13:34at the back it's not taurus it's a character that looks a lot like her but it's it's like a
13:40human
13:40it's like taurus if she was just human and i someone said her name in here like the crewman
13:46and she might not even have a name but she's just a one-off yeah she stands in the back
13:51and it's the
13:51first episode but she gets like flip-flopped between like when she should be dead she's speaking
13:58and when she should be speaking it's neelix so that's what i'm saying there's just like
14:02little tiny like uh just like polish that needs to happen in and the demo would be perfect you
14:10know what i'm saying so if this is the out of the pre-alpha yeah i i only have the
14:15greatest hopes
14:16because my my complaints are little things like that there was nothing i ran into that was game
14:20breaking there was nothing that i ran into that was like oh you know this right here could destroy
14:27someone's playthrough or anything like that all my complaints are like oh if they just polished a
14:32little bit here it'd be better or a little bit there so i think this is it's on track really
14:38well
14:39yeah yeah i wonder if it's like uh you get them in a lot of sonic games do this for
14:44some reason where
14:44it's like it's almost like they put the tutorial level later on in the game so you're playing the game
14:52you got quite a way through and then suddenly went we're gonna drop all these tutorials on you
14:56it now and you're gonna have a minute these should have been five minutes ago when i kind of not
15:00necessarily needed what they would have been a good lead in um especially with that and the one i kind
15:05of think of is the the space combat one when i like the way they've done the combat piece i
15:09really like
15:09the way that you get each character has their own particular maneuver again felt very star trek
15:13timelines in the way they've built that that each person has a particular skill and ability
15:17and you can put them in the ship in particular areas bury timelines as the original idea was
15:23um but it was you kind of try to do space the the combat piece and suddenly you're getting all
15:27these
15:28tutorials that are coming up and you're going well hang on a minute you paused it now i just i
15:32could
15:33have done with this a minute ago to tell me what i was going to do and then i'm stilted
15:37through this this
15:38quite nice little combat piece where i'm kind of using the maneuvers and the different abilities
15:43and i wanted it just to be fluid but again as you said we are so far from the finished
15:50kind of
15:50product and it was very evident that there were kind of bits that were missing and there'll be
15:53bits that could that will definitely come later um but to see it and them to be quite willing to
15:59put a
16:00demo out at this point is amazing to do and then very not obviously not is it a risk possibly
16:06but it goes
16:08you know you're going to hopefully see that they are going to advance quite far with the way that
16:12the the demo comes on to be the full game and we see the whole end result and maybe you
16:16know we're
16:16saying about you know this being caretaker maybe they are going to go down an episodic route and do
16:20and we know we know the two things i've mentioned it already but are they going to do offshoots and
16:25do new stories and new lines again we we really don't know anything on that line but yeah i mean
16:31it's
16:31it's a great first it's a great first impression of something that that really can
16:35hopefully bring some life and think about the expansion possibilities you know there's so many
16:40from the start there's so many options that you go you build on packs and build extra bits and i
16:45loved on the msd that they had the aero shuttle in the hangar and when you drop down it was
16:51a nice
16:513d image through sorry little things like that it was just just beautiful see the thing about voiceover
16:57is like you can still get away with doing little to no voiceover a great example is final fantasy 14.
17:02they use very sparse voiceover it happens during cut scenes all the rest of it you read and it took
17:08me a long time to get used to that where you're reading your it's basically like a visual novel is
17:12what people would call it but broken up in that are cut scenes where there is full voice acting if
17:18this
17:19this all might all all this might need is something like that where instead of full voiceover you have
17:27like intro narration and then like a major event happens like them having an inner like an interaction
17:33with the kazon or something and there's just like a few second conversation that's all it needs to give
17:39it just enough of that flavor to avoid like the the walls of text that we were talking about but
17:47would
17:47you would you drop that in as um over the top of graphics or would you it's it's how would
17:53you how would
17:54you get that as well because i think of the style of it at the moment with the hand-drawn
17:57images and
17:57things like that it it flows really it's just yeah you're right how do you get that in right
18:02and i i think a good way to do that would be instead of full cut scenes like they do
18:07is in moments where
18:08like yeah you make a decision perhaps like where you get like oh this is where that screen pops up
18:14and
18:14you get like your your decision points or like where like who you can pick to increase your skills
18:20things like that where it's just like you can tell this moment has some kind of impact have them have
18:26some kind of like voice over in that lead up or something whereas all the filler stuff and like
18:31oh hey our thing's down or oh we need more resources or oh this and that like none of that
18:37really needs
18:37to be voice over you know just like the intro sequence that would have been perfect for voice over
18:43where the ship like the ship is coming in nothing would need to change none of that but having someone
18:48like do a janeway voice just in that intro would be enough to hold it over all the way up
18:53until like
18:54your first decision 20 minutes later you know and just read the the text in in between because i think
18:59final fantasy as much as people complain it's a hell of a lot of reading they do it right like
19:05you get
19:05used to the reading after a while because you know there's going to be a treat of a voice here
19:09and
19:09there or if you want to do it cheaply you do like a banjo and kazooie and just get everyone
19:14to go
19:15when they speak i think that's great you could do that kind of thing i don't know sure
19:23so do the uh the charlie brown
19:27to end off big recommendation from you guys yes yeah yeah absolutely i think yeah i think you've
19:35got it you've got to go and play the demo totally i wouldn't be tearing it apart this much if
19:39i didn't
19:40think it had a extreme chance at being a really great game like the only reason like if i thought
19:47it was a crappy game i'd be like i don't know it was fine and like it's probably not going
19:52to go
19:52anywhere you know i i talk a lot and and criticize games that i love a lot because i feel
19:59like that's
20:00the best way to like look at something and improve it so i could not recommend this game enough i
20:06made my
20:06fiance play the demo too and he loved it so i i yeah 10 out of 10 recommend i'm the
20:13same with my
20:14friends will be like i'll read this book and we'll both love the book and i'll reply being like love
20:18the book now let me tell you about the one thing i hated it yeah but yes so there you
20:24go guys pick up
20:25the demo and if you know once the game's out and you guys enjoyed this kind of conversation maybe we'll
20:30come back and discuss the game as a whole see where it went see if they improved on certain
20:36things see if the demo uh and the full game are different or if those glitches or those strange
20:43things still exist who knows but until then thank you guys for listening um uh you can you can you
20:51can
20:51subscribe if you'd like to and you can hit that like button and all that kind of stuff uh follow
20:56us
20:56along on all our social medias i'm on twitter etc tom c finn tom roberts finn tc roberts finn etc
21:04etc
21:05uh clive brie where can they find you guys uh clive um i frequent um facebook uh my page is
21:15some kind
21:15of star trek uh i i sometimes go on twitter um at scost um otherwise i'm on facebook as me
21:23there you go
21:24cool brie and what culture obviously i'm yes uh i'm just on uh blue sky and instagram trekkie brie
21:35lovely oh and i have books as well go read them if you like thank you everybody goodbye
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