Star Trek: ESB
My buddy Hatman asked me yesterday, “…what’s a dream come true Star Trek video game idea?”
That’s a hell of a question to ask a Trekkie. We’ve had such a glut of bad video games, that we certainly know what we wouldn’t do, and I’d wager we all have some good ideas. Hatman prompted me to think long and hard before answering, and here’s what I’ve come up with.
An Inceptor-class starship, by bloknayrb (posted as “To boldly go” at reddit, used with permission)
I want a game that focuses on mystery and adventure, solving the galaxy's problems. Unlike my experience with Star Trek Online, I want a game truer to the ideals of Star Trek.
Tonally, I want something like the painfully-named Star Trek: 25th Anniversary game (it’s like a Trekked-out LucasArts 1990s point-and-click adventure). I want to navigate it with the fluidity and ease of a Far Cry or Control, but with the scanning (i.e. tricorder) and clever interactability of Cyberpunk 2077, and the environmental story-telling of a Fallout. First- or third-person POV? I can't decide. Let the player switch between the two, depending on the environment and circumstance (like FO4, but… better).
Make it episodic; most of Star Trek certainly is. Do a mission. Return to your ship. Time passes. Maybe have some mini-games or ship-explorability or other fun that can be done between missions, and when you're ready for the next mission, go back to [somewhere] > fade to black > and the next whatever will begin (maybe with a brief cutscene).
I'd eschew an established ship and crew, because that limits what stories you can tell. Let the player name their ship, and design their character. When missions happen, they choose companions—based on Trek archetypes—to accompany them on away missions, but those companions are named and real and evolve across missions (and are present onboard the ship between missions) if they survive. Those companions, on missions, also serve the gameplay with their specialized skills that the player directs.
What missions? Solve the mystery of the Andorian colony recently plagued by 'ghosts'. Investigate the abandoned starship that's in a decaying orbit around a pre-warp planet. Help the Maquis with a plague that's ravaging Bajoran crewmembers. Rescue the Enterprise from a bubble of static time. Ethically purge your own ship of Wesley Crusher's damned sentient ship-eating nanites. Solve the crisis of the lost ancient Romulan sleeper ship that's drifted across the Neutral Zone.
Try to engineer the missions so that the player is usually stuck with whatever team they chose before leaving their ship, and if they made sub-optimal choices, they're not completely screwed, but it'll be more difficult to succeed (and maybe impossible to achieve certain goals). Did you take that science officer because we wrote him to be the one you enjoy spending a lot of time with? Hope you don't come to regret that decision…
I'm unsure about larger story-telling. Either there could be a thread running through several missions that culminates in one-or-more bigger missions. Maybe a game-ending mission, you beat the game. However, what about this, instead: the 'game' is just a framework of your character, your ship, and your companions, and it's free to walk around your ship’s areas and look at stuff and maybe play a few mini-games. Then, the missions are sold either individually or in story-bundles for $5 each, with 5–10 hours of initial playability each (with replayabilty to try and achieve 100% or all goals or PS trophies or whatever). This'd also allow modders to create their own mission modules, and hell, sell them on a fan-marketplace for the good ones.
Also: multiplayer? Yeah, instead of taking Science McCompanion with you on a mission, you take [your friend, Kriegal] and he'll embody your one of the NPCs you chose for the mission.
Something I've left out is combat. I don't want a combat game. Combat is so little of what Trek is usually about. It does happen, and it can be a terrific component of an adventure, but I'd do it differently. Combat availability will be triggered by mission variables; for example, one of the Romulans was awoken automatically when you beamed aboard, and has just walked into the room. Then you get a cross between FO4's VATS and a QTE where you have a couple of seconds to react in slowed-time: your phaser is drawn automatically and you can shoot anywhere you want (or not) at either the stun or higher setting. Maybe you stun the Romulan, but in his weakened state, you kill him unnecessarily, instead. Maybe you disintegrate the floor below him and cause him to fall into a previously-unknown compartment under the deck. Maybe you don't do anything at all, and he'll just stumble to the floor because he's so weak after 300 years of cryo-sleep. Live with your choices and move on. (Also, the phaser is one of your standard tools for solving problems, which may or may not be a good idea, depending on circumstances.)
