Should You Buy Star Trek Infinite?

[@Ramschat]

Making the Borg the end-game-crisis is a slam-dunk in my book

[@OmiGundam777]

Yeah, but I'd wish I could play as them

[@LuminaryGames]

@@OmiGundam777 Allowing players to play as the Borg, was the worst thing that Armada did. They had to balance the borg way too weak, just to make it reasonable.

[@ejkalegal3145]

They're just copying what they did with Birth of the Federation, son.

[@WanderingCoyoteXVII]

I really hope they'd add in the Dominion later as another crisis.

[@Quinsec]

@@LuminaryGames Eh, I liked Armada quite a bit nonetheless, and despite the Borg being underpowered lorewise, they were still fun to play.

[@walkir2662]

Fully expecting playable Ferengi as a DLC.

[@MontuPlays]

That and the Dominion.
I want to play the Krennin Imperium though...

[@walkir2662]

@@MontuPlays The Dominion would be a full on expansion, the Ferengi just a species pack equivalent honoring the Rules of Acquisition.

[@FlaschenJoe11]

@@walkir2662 Rule of Acquisition 10: Greed is Eternal ^^

[@walkir2662]

"It's a cash grab."
"For the Ferengi."
"...the Grand Nagus approves."

[@firespark8455]

you should try new horizons for stellaris, you can play both and they have unique mechanics, ship types and even a unique temporal beam collosus weapon for the krenim. would be a cool comparison video @@MontuPlays​

[@Cramer19898]

I think it be awesome to have the Dominion as an endgame crisis option as well. Depending on what decisions you make in the campaign, you get them or the Borg.

[@jordansmith4040]

How would that work if you're cardassia?

[@JDWonders]

One thing that Stellaris doesn't have is "chaining crises". The closest I can think of is when the Unbidden don't get defeated quickly enough there's the secondary and tertiary Unbidden factions that appear. But they're all kind of the same.
Imagine if in Star Trek Infinite if a player could go from Encountering the Borg and then branching into two possible sub-crises depending on choices. Maybe Species 8472 gets unleashed into the galaxy as a result of one decision or the alternate universe Borg Kingdom shows up as a result from a different decision. There's no shortage of factions that could be considered a "crisis" in Star Trek.

[@jordansmith4040]

@JDWonders what we do get in stellaris is three crises in one game. My guess is an expansion or two could expand to other parts of the Milky Way, and each would have its own crisis.

[@zephyr8072]

The Dominion should be a faction, not a crisis.

[@gamemasterultima]

@@jordansmith4040cause cardassia ended up so well after the dominion war.

[@niallwatson6851]

In 6 months to a year, the modding community will make this a must-have Star Trek title, and I'm here for the ride!

[@rhel373]

No workshop support from what I understand. Which doesn't automatically mean no mods, of course, but still..

[@icytux3484]

@@rhel373 The video literally says full workshop and mod support.

[@cedricreiser2105]

@@icytux3484 although it does, there is no workshop on steam for the game yet. maybe it takes some time before they add it but it seems to not be included at launch

[@rhel373]

@@icytux3484 Doesn't seem to have one though. For games that have it you can find it just by googling it. For this one, nothing. Maybe it's planned to be added? I suppose that's possible.

[@underarmbowlingincidentof1981]

hopefully it will become like what happened with Empire At War. A good game infused with mods to become an all time classic.

[@spencerruston406]

Classic paradox launch syndrome. Always takes a while from its rocky launch. Same can be said for every Trek show lol
Really looking forward to this. Can't wait to see what mods will do to it

[@jRsqILVOY]

It's developed by Nimble Giant Entertainment not PDS. It seems worth it even just as a Stellaris-lite with a shorter campaign, I really like HoI4 for that - and I'm sure multiplayer will be more popular for the same reason.

[@briwanderz]

really, i would say the same for most gaming companies, if you get the game at launch, expect a few problems or balance issues at the very least.

[@Ezullof]

I mean, it's way better than a lot of Paradox games at launch. They decided to focus on few factions with content for everyone instead of making the game super wide and shallow like Imperator, which is great. The downside is that you can only play 4 factions, but it's easy to see that more will be added in the future.

[@tlpineapple1]

​@@jRsqILVOYParadox is still publishing the game and, with a few exceptions even the games they publish suffer from this issue.

[@creanero]

@@Ezullof Creative Assembly have a similar business model for the Total War Warhammer games. Few factions to start with, build the rest based on DLC sales.

[@DrRipper19]

The officers resource is a pretty great idea honestly. I wish stellaris had some kind of similar manpower resource (generated by fleet academies and naval admin buildings?) to prevent snowballing.

[@turosechil8798]

Closest is the New civilization mod for stellaris. It has some good ideas but balance wise it needs some work.

[@ToothlessDragon536]

The officer resource doesn't even work. It's an absurd problem from a proper developer.

[@garr_inc]

Check out Endless Space 2. Manpower is what makes your sieges possible, and you cannot replenish it unless you visit allied systems and wait there for some time. And your empire may not be able to produce enough manpower because your planets lack food, for instance.
Also, if your ship has more than 0 manpower it has bonuses in battle. More manpower adds more (slight) bonuses.

[@Ghosy01]

@@garr_inc turn based yuck.

[@garr_inc]

@@Ghosy01
Don't diss the game just because it has a different genre section. That's obnoxious.

[@ImpendingApotheosis]

It actually looks quite a bit more interesting than I originally thought!

[@Ramschat]

I can't wait for a DLC adding the Ferengi as a Megacorp xD

[@JamesC1981]

looks but ai offers no challenge and map is almost the same each game

[@pongsatornpaopongsawan8585]

Oh yeah, I need Foundation series scenario. Falling Galactic Empire, Seldon Crisis, The Mule Crisis, 1st and 2nd Foundations War, Gaia trying to consume the entire galaxy (dang you, Trevize!) , etc. 😍

[@austinguthrie5528]

This is perfect for us stellaris console players. They don't allow mods yet on the console. I've been jonesing to play a star trek themed version of stellaris. Now will be waiting for a FLC/DLC of the mirror universe or the option to start the in the Enterprise era and make the start to either Terran Empire or beginning the UFP. Like how New Horizons does it. I just want to bring glory to the Terran Empire and make the galaxy great again 😅

[@Vaprous]

Fundamentally everything about this definitely feels like a "this is meant for consoles but we did a PC port" type of deal. Even all the UI seems to be geared from the ground up for console rather than PC.

[@jacquesjtheripper5922]

​@Vaprous too bad, im on console as well, ps5, and would jump on a good star trek game.

[@iyziejane]

@@Vaprous do you know if the PC version of ST:I has gamepad support? It's not listed as a feature on Steam but that often happens when it's unofficially supported.

[@RisingFlag100]

Rip

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

This is one of the worst games ever made. I am disappointed beyond compare. Clear answer to the title question: NO!

[@apocalypticpioneers2116]

I see a lot of potential in this, especially if they make the galaxy bigger and include post TNG events, like DS9, Voyager and ESPECIALLY TOS. I would even love to see Enterprise era, the Federation-Klingon War should be one of the early game events.

[@Erianthor]

I agree with expanding the timeline, but if they have a go at it, I'd very much appreciate if it would be made a toggle to remove any and all content depicted in the post-Enterprise movies and series. I just do not wish to be playing anything from the "modern" Star Trek.

[@ignisking759]

I'm curious about the galactic map particularly regarding content, as we know what quadrants should have what from the show if they keep true to big things like the Borg, Dominion, etc.

[@vfxjess]

this game doesn't really look like something I would be interested in, but it does look pretty neat! The HOI4 national focus stuff is really cool as well, it gives you some goals to go for while stellaris is just kinda do your own thing which sometimes can get a bit on the boring side imo

[@urulai]

I'll probably sit this one out given I have GalCiv 3 and Endless Space 2 I still need to spend more time with. And I can always dig out Master of Orion (the remake) if I'm feeling particularly itchy.

[@paradox7358]

One day, Paradox will play test their games before release.

[@SBezmy]

Like Vulcan having a background image looking like Mexico. Never mind the cactus, VULCAN is not even RED! And this is a game that’s supposedly lore-heavy. Lol

[@svijj_]

​@@SBezmyMexican Vulcans is one hell of a mashup lmao

[@SBezmy]

@@svijj_ Vulcanos, vamonos!

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

I will never buy a Paradox game again. They suck!

[@playerone7663]

Cant wait to see what they do with all the races/mission trees/DLC when all the quadrants are 'unlocked'. And I know they are in the game already in a way but I think it would be so cool if you can let the Borg assimilate your race and they play on as them. Like a Stellaris Crisis playthrough. If they do this well they might get a shot at a Star Wars conversion too. Would love to see that.

[@tomhanks1769]

I hope the devs watch this video. You make some good points, which could really help develop this game in the right direction.

[@SharowbladyeGaymerPorate]

The permanent space weather/space climate zones sounds cool af and something I wish Stellaris has

[@AngelicHunk]

Well, I'm pretty sure it's adapted from Stellaris' nebulae, so Stellaris _does_ have static galactic weather.

[@jameslarkin4567]

Stellaris has this and more, there’s a mid game “crisis” which is essentially a massive amount of ftl pollution slowing down most of the galaxy

[@l.a.3680]

There is other stuff that could be interesting for stellaris. There are random war-related events for example. Stuff like loosing contact to one of your fleets, finding unethical stuff in enemy laboratories after an invasion etc. - or spies who can do espionage missions on other empires planets.

[@thomasmedveddubois4566]

Call me in a few years when the total of DLC with -67% will be less than 300$ if the dev did not give up
But Stellaris and Endless Space 2 are enough for me, stellaris should take inspiration for the ground battle and let us design our ground troup

[@Healbot2000]

Don't wait too long, this is one of those games that may disappear one day and be delisted due to licensing.

[@Daimo83]

Precisely why I won't buy it now. It's not a complete game and they didn't even bother to include an empty galaxy.

[@skylearion57]

I like the ending where he's like "but you'd like to see more stellar- if you enjoyed this video but you'd like to see more star trek infinite..."

[@BloodRider1914]

Wow, a Paradox game that's a little half-baked at Launch. Where have I heard that before?

[@Simalacrum]

I really hope both Stellaris and Star Trek Infinite will learn from each other - scenario galaxies in Stellaris with structured plot points could be really interesting, while it would be cool to see a randomised starter in Star Trek Infinite, utilising the same factions but randomising their starting positions etc.

[@Opusss]

Stellaris is a phenomenal game and some times a reskin like this can provide a whole new experience and bring in a whole new generation of players. I think I am gonna put this one in my "wait for modders to get their hands on this" category.

[@1fan996]

As for the idea of "Stellaris Scenarios", I think they could find a way to do that through the game settings and they could simply call it "Scenario". "Scenarios" may include: "Established Imperium" (where an long established Galactic Imperium is starting to crumble as entire civilizations decide to defect or remain loyal), "Established Community" (which would play out very similarly, with the difference being that any and even all Authoritarian civilizations could federate together in a Hegemony, Holy Covenant, or Martial Alliance), or just "Regular". They could even throw in new thematic Event Chains and soundtracks to liven up the experience and give it more depth. Come to think of it we've likely already seen the foundation for such a possiblity with the "First Contact" story pack. Now we come to the question of will we see it become a Story pack or an Expansion in the years to come, or simply not?

[@Quinsec]

I haven't played Stellaris in ages and I'm a huge Trekkie. Sounds like I'm part of their target market. I preordered, looks promising!

[@mikeymcmikeface5599]

Me too and should have requested a refund.

[@ghostbattalion1251]

Dunno if anyone’s said this but the officers idea would be nice to add into Stellaris. Can’t just mass produce ships unless you got the officers like this game

[@ThunderGod9182]

I'm sure there will be DLC for it that expands it to the whole galaxy and the whole time line, it'll probably take a few years. But I will buy this game and all the DLC's to come.

[@darcraven01]

im still hoping they add in custom species. theres plenty of unexplored territory in the star trek galaxy that those species could come from and that would allow for unique random species to pop up like in stellaris. this would add massive replayability. still, it looks fun snd i cant wait to dive in

[@KA-zv3yt]

I've put so many hours in Stellaris because every playthrough feels like a brand new campaign

[@Xiuhtec]

I'm a Trekkie and am always on the lookout for a good Trek game, but I'm going to let this one bake in the oven for a bit longer before I check it out. I suspect with a little DLC in the Paradox way (maybe Gamma/Delta quadrant stuff), and a little more fleshed out randomness to improve replayability this will be a game I'd really love, but right now I could see myself burning out fast.

[@TechtodaProductions]

Not made by paradox

[@Aeternum_]

Looks great but my issue is the lack of replayability. What's great about Stellaris is all the different ways to customize your empire, there's always something different you can try with each playthrough. However this game looks like once you've played through it once, you're done. I can't justify the price for that especially considering I already own Stellaris and could easily get a star trek mod that's arguably more expansive.. for free.
Thanks for the review, It answered all the questions I had and was unsure whether or not I should take the risk!

[@tevarinvagabond1192]

It's not that much money...if you can't afford this, then you definitely have more problems then whether or not to get a game lol

[@MrDoggo23]

@@tevarinvagabond1192 The point is why waste money on something when you have a better alternative for free (provided you own stellaris in this case).
It's just common sense.

[@ben8929]

​@@tevarinvagabond1192Having money doesn't mean you have to waste it on cash grabs

[@Aeternum_]

It's not a matter whether or not I can afford it. It's a matter of it being worth the money in the first place. I don't like wasting money.

[@prod_yasha]

Me seeing paradox do this gives me hope for a potential Star Wars game from them now THAT would be an instant buy.

[@Mystickrage]

the fact this exist when stellaris new horizon exists is just a fucking gut punch for that beautiful mod

[@creanero]

Looking at this, I can see a lot of DLC fodder, which really seems to fit Paradox's business model.
Assuming the base game gets enough sales for the dev to keep supporting it, it'll get bits added on. I would be shocked if the Dominion/Gamma Quadrant wasn't one of the early DLC packs. Another option would be a Voyager-themed Delta Quadrant pack, but if I had to guess, that'll be a while and include an extensive rework of the Borg.
You can also imagine "campaign packs" to change the starting date/map. Enterprise era (2100s), TOS/Discovery (S1/2) era (2200s), and Discovery (S3+) era (3100s) - where the Federation is essentially a Fallen Empire - are all options. My preferred one would be a "Birth of the Federation" mode (late 2000s) where you start on your homeworld like in standard Stellaris, and the minor powers are at least comparable to you. Presumably, in Enterprise/Birth of the Federation eras, UFP is replaced with United Earth, and you can get a decision tree of "Form the Federation" vs "Form the Terran Empire."

[@Nightstalker565]

I've always wanted some defined scenarios for Sellaris so I think ill be giving this a try, at $30 its basically a standalone stellaris dlc. I do hope they fix up some of the bugs and maybe introduce some stuff to keep the story aspects working regardless of what happens. I'd be playing this for the story and alt history type experiences and not a full sandbox like stellaris. So I'm fine with more guardrails to keep things working like id expect a star trek universe to work.

[@WilliamTehConqueror]

I think the game creation menu in Stellaris needs more options like which FTL method is used, the density of space weather phenomenon or inaccessible regions of space, the balance of weapons, things that can drastically change the way a game of Stellaris can go. I want to make my own game of Halo, Star Wars, Star Trek, or Warhammer without mods

[@Reoh0z]

> "More factions to play with..."
Captain, I've detected DLC at the edge of sensor range.

[@GabFrrost]

They could add Dominion, Species 8472 and Sphere builders to Borg as other Endgame Crisis.
Also civil wars within empires (Romulan Empire vs Republic, UFP vs Terran Confederation) would be awesome.

[@Hoopaugi]

Probably going to buy this and treat it as an extended tutorial for Stellaris.

[@NKGerydos]

2 Riker is certainly possible, and might be even possible. There was a transporter incident when he was duplicated. Altho it has been fixed according to lore, but there is the possibliity for an alternate ending.
So if Data dies, than that is a data-loss.

[@skywise001]

They need an option for "Q got mad and snapped his fingers rearranging everything." Like in Alpha Centauri where you can play Planet or a random map but it still has the points of interest in it somewhere. You can say its all put back in order by Q later to sell the story.

[@DavidGravesExists]

The fact that beta testers somehow missed the fact that cloaking doesn't work is... wow. That's like a major battle tactic.
Thanks for the review. I was considering buying this as a big Star Trek fan, but I'm gonna give it a miss and see what it looks like in a year. It's pretty telling that, even though they gave you early access and wanted you to review it, you had a hard time giving this game any genuine praise.

[@rachelthesheep]

Honestly, wish Ferengi were playable. Hopefully they'll come with a DLC, along with Breen, Dominion and the Kazon.
Gonna give it a miss for now, but maybe in future I'll get it

[@danielsolorzano8623]

I picked it up. I grew up on Star Trek even if its not my favorite sci-fi show or series of all time and I tried Stellaris a few months ago but its just too overwhelming. I am hoping that starting fresh with a Star Trek coat of paint will be a good jumping on point and who knows if it is Stellaris is waiting

[@tevarinvagabond1192]

Lol Stellaris is considered the "easiest" of Paradox games to learn...guess strategy games aren't your forte then, eh? :P

[@Chris-ey8zf]

@@tevarinvagabond1192 Relax bud. No reason to attack people for not understanding games. I know plenty of people that can play all the Paradox games without an issue, yet have no idea how to play something like dwarf fortress or CDDA. I don't laugh at them for not understanding CDDA while they play Project Zomboid, the massively inferior game that copies CDDA. Some stuff takes time and effort to learn, and not everyone has the motivation to do it.

[@bringbackdislikes3195]

Congrats on not having a job and social life.@@tevarinvagabond1192

[@wirbelchen5379]

@@tevarinvagabond1192 just because it is the easiest of a bunch of difficult games doesn't mean it isn't a challenge?

[@KashouWannabe]

I'd heard about this title a little while ago and I'm glad that it's a proper "Stellaris-like" and not an awful F2P mobile game which was my initial worry.
The problem will come whether Infinite is worth it over Stellaris with the reasonably polished, well put together Star Trek mod.

[@brentgauspohl9779]

I am proud of you for not shilling! Thanks for the review!

[@l.a.3680]

Cloaking works, its just different than we used to know. Its enabled by default, hiding your ships from other players on the map. The ships auto-decloak when combat starts.

[@SuzuTeamLiouss]

As a huge Star Trek and Stellaris fan, here is my opinion :
I agree with you the art work is excellent and it's the big strength of this game.
However, the unique reason I would start this game is I'm a big Star Trek fan, and even if they respected a lot of Star Trek lore (Khitomer, events, factions, characters, missions...) the speed of the game removes kind of all the fun : in 2372 in Star Trek lore, federation is supposed to be able to build Sovereign class, but I found it was almost impossible to get it from this date in the game, and only way later. And it's the same problem for every aspect relating to ships and technologies, for exemple being able to get Ceritos at the beginning is kind of weird ? The excelsior class was designed nearly 50 years before the game start in the lore, but you are supposed to discover it AFTER having the enterprise D ? Also, the lack of ships (compared to Star Trek mods of Stellaris) is really annoying, why would the federation send a fleet full of Intrepid and Miranda class ?
About game difficulty, the borg crisis was kind of REALLY too small imo, and the other empires were really easy to beat (I mean, Cardassia declared war on me as the UFP, I had literally not build any military, but I managed to destroy their fleet by build ships while they were destroying my outposts and I won after destroying a single of their fleet).
I didn't put a bad review of the game on Steam because I love what they are trying to do, and as I know Paradox games can get WAY WAY better with time, so I'm waiting to see the upgrades they want to put on the game. I would love being able to discover delta and gamma quadrant in the futur too.

[@kelmorian9064]

Great review Montu. I am a big Trek and Stellaris fan but I think I am going to give this some time to cook before buying. Cities Skylines 2 is just around the corner so I think I may give that a go. As always love watching your vidoes and cant wait to see what you have coming next.

[@DaGoook]

Downloaded STNH because of infinite. Having a blast so far so not really feeling the urge to get this until we see how it develops over a prolonged amount of time.

[@shawngillogly6873]

Hmm. It actually looks interesting to me. I would have preferred perhaps if they kicked the timeline back to the Original series era, and then let it play through TNG/DS9. But we can't have original Kirk when Paramount is still trying to find a way to get Discount version back on screen. Still, it looks very good thematically. And having Mission Trees is a very good shout.

[@francoarmani6461]

I’ve played stellaris only during the weekend when it was free and i’ve started watching Star Trek in the last year. So if there will be a discount i will surely buy it(30€ for 4 factions is too much for me).

[@mrfluffyhedgehog]

looks nice, i will definitely pick it up. however, what this game could do with is a random galaxy scenario like:
"a bunch of colony ships where sucked down a wromhole stranding them randomly across another galaxy. they have no choice but to colonzie a new world here now."
select your races, start a game. add a bunch of events and endgame crisis and some quest lines like "find your way to contact your old home or create a new civilization here" etc. for good measure. that would add the replayability that currently is missing.

[@Aci_yt]

My biggest question is, are fleet sizes more lore-accurate to Star Trek, where a single Star Ship is much more important and powerful than in stellaris? Or are fleets still composed of hundreds of ships?

[@MrCovi2955]

I will say, don't ever look at the dates. If you know anything about the Star Trek timeline, just... do yourself a favor and imagine you're in an alternate timeline where things... just didn't work out.
You start in 2346, that is between TOS (2266-2269) and TNG (2364-2370) according to the official timeline.
I am currently in 2385 and we've just made the engineering breakthrough of photon torpedos, finally replacing our older plasma charges.
You know... that tech that was already old-school by the beginning of TOS.
That I'm only discovering 120 years later.
I understand the tech progression, but it starts you in Enterprise tech levels for some things, but in TNG eras and politics. Its... a little weird.

[@TESI303]

Its nice that this game is including manpower/officers as a resource. Though not being 'married' to any particular franchise and with this using an older Stellaris engine/version - I think I'll just stick to Stellaris.

[@smokinggnu6584]

Would if i could. Down to my last $10 and wondering if i'll have enough food for the rest of the month.

[@midweekcentaur1050]

Same, it's cool but money is so tight I'm not paying full price for a better modded stellaris while I have stellaris itself

[@TheMasterPandaBear]

If the game launched a mode to play on constrained but random galaxies that allowed custom empires I would be interested. I am sure they will start making empire dlc instead. It has potential and it seems better than I expected

[@gracelandtoo6240]

I think you're better off just playing Stellaris with a ST mod for that

[@Stickers96]

Riker: "I plan to live forever"
Other Riker: "I am living forever"

[@ZeroDMs_]

There's so much potential with DLC and updates for Infinite. I mean, just based on lore alone you can do scenarios based on all sorts of times and places in Trek lore. Mirror universe too. I'd like to see more deviancy in historical paths with the factions. More options for weird things to occur. Maybe the Federation could turn facist, stuff like that.

[@hexidecimark]

Starfleet Command 2: Orion Pirates is pretty great, got the gorn, the hydrans, the lyrans, the orions, the kzinti, fed/rom/klingon, all playable, only missing the cardassians (and technically, borg).
It's also a cap ship game and you can have fleets, lotsa campaigns, available over the Hot and Spicy Forums at a great price!
Has galactic map and you can play with your friends on a server with some setup, too!

[@koshi6505]

It feels like the first Total War: Warhammer game. Awesome, but limited without much replay until more content came out.

[@schroecat1]

As someone who is both a Trekkie and a gigantic Stellaris fan, this game was really fun for about 4 hours. Then all of the weaknesses of the old engine, and the bugs in the unfinished game just constantly took me out of the bubble. I can't recommend it myself, not until they do at least several weeks of polishing.

[@LMarti13]

Oh man you just made me drool thinking about an official Foundation Stellaris scenario

[@ignisking759]

I'm not a mod person in any way, so for people like me this seems pretty good. I LOVE Stellaris, it has kept me going for years as grand strategy rts games get pushed further back as a focus for gaming companies regarding their popularity. The price is reasonable enough, but I'm also going to wait till a sale just because it does strike me as just another DLC for Stellaris(which I own almost all of but one).

[@darwoodtechnology]

As someone who played the old Star Fleet Battles and Federation and Empire games, a Star Trek Hearts of Iron would be great to see. A decently balanced map of pre-starting empires large and small to play for different objectives. Playing as Gorn, Tholian, Kzinti, and others with their own strengths and weaknesses.

[@gabrote42]

1:58 That's very good, then. Many developers have trown out mods when they did what they wanted to do. Said thing not happening is a big W for Paradox's reputation in my book

[@troelsdc]

Excellent review, as a major star trek fan and avid player of the New Horizons mod for Stellaris, this seems like the game for me. Hoping those immersion breaks you mention will be fixed. But remember, paradox may have lent the Clausewitz engine and published the game, but they weren't and aren't (at least AFAIK) the ones developing it: that would be Nimble Giant Entertainment.

[@eventdomain1]

UPDATE: Found out why the crashing happened - I booted my PC and noticed the game loaded fine, first screens were fine and then it just worked without issues. But I was curious about the constant crashing and noticed the launcher changed to Version 2, so it was the old launcher that was the problem. It works fine now, and it's not a bad game, although seems pretty repetitive, unfortunately, I couldn't take over enough new planets and nearly ran out of resources - hmmm not an easy game as there doesn't seem to be a manual yet.
I'll start a new game soon and see what it's like now I've got some experience with it. Does anyone know how I'm supposed to take over enemy planets?

[@dr.strangelove6118]

Got a lot of hoi4 elements , event trees, training officers. It nice to see some features that add some layers to controlling your empire

[@MediumRareOpinions]

I'm hopeful that mods or DLC may increase the number of eras that could be experienced.
An ENT or TOS era setting with their own starting scenarios would be appreciated.

[@Madivh1987]

Thanks for your Video. You can go to war with the Federation, but you have to choose the Conquest Tradition to to this. If you dont go the Sektion 31 Path.

[@MontuPlays]

I wasn't desperate to declare war.
The issue is that it seemed to block me off from completing some of the mission objectives like releasing the bajorans and getting them to join the federation.
They haven't declared an independence war in my 3 Federation playthroughs, and once they are in core Cardassian territory, I can't do much to get them freedom unless I go on an offensive war (not really what I want to do, but I do want to continue down my mission tree!)
Oh, unless Cardassia declares war on me, but that just hasn't happened either!

[@buffhugs239]

Montu knows his Star Trek lore, makes this a top-tier review

[@MontuPlays]

Hey thanks! I hope you enjoy the video and it helps!

[@kelly4187]

Your videos are always awesome dude. Darmok.

[@MrCovi2955]

I really REALLY hope this game does well. Because I would absolutely love to see Paradox start commonly licensing out their various strategy engines for other IPs. Having purchased Infinite at launch and played for longer than I should, I'm not as impressed with it as I'd hoped (though I am enjoying it and think for $30 I will definitely get my moneys worth). But hoping its the first of many "Paradox Engine" games, I think its a spectacular first step.
I really hope to see other Paradox Engine games in the future. I think a 40k game built on the Stellaris Engine would be amazing. Perhaps a Dune or Middle Earth game built on something like Crusader Kings could be really interesting and fun.

[@jaydub3047]

My favorite Star Trek game so far is Armada. Back when you could actually play as Borg. So OP

[@selorkiith4461]

26 hours in, just "finished" a Federation Run ("The Borg! They're everwhere!") and not going to stop anytime soon!

[@klabautermann6841]

I am anoyed by the lack of QA made, so there is a lot of polishing to be done. I hope they will do it till the end of this year.

[@Para0234]

All I gotta say is that while I like the idea, all that this makes me think is that "We really need a diplomacy expansion".
Plus a war mechanic overhaul :
-Add surrender option for a vassal/A non-primary attacker/defender (I mean... Does a vassal really have to die for the overlord that decided to figuratively piss off a fallen empire?)
-Add grand strategy (Allow the main attacker to act as a "High command", giving orders to all his allies for the war (Such as "attack here", "defend this area", "fall back" and so on and so forth), but with the final control of fleets remaining in the hands of the other players)

[@blakedirtyd6370]

After how well it became a fantasy to a sensation on Stellaris, I would say it is about time this game became a reality.

[@SeanUCF]

Ferengi and Dominion need to be added as playable factions. Would also like to see the Breen, Species 8472 and the Borg playable down the line too.

[@LordRunty]

I think what they need to focus on is the minors. Throw in a bunch, known ones like Tholians and some randomly generated ones. Then, every game a number of them are chosen to explode in power, Prikkiki style. It'd give more of that emergent gameplay factor, where people could share stories about how various minors expanded and took over one of the big 4, or even became something on a mini-crisis on the extreme end.

[@ClnlBogey]

Not sure a preorder is a good idea. Want to support it and put my money where my mouth is.
I do admit, hoping they add more minor faction choices.
The Breen or the Maquis (think that is the spelling).

[@danmacneil1895]

hope they add on the dominion as playable later on! their fleet line always intrigued me! maybe a superbattleship variant!

[@Mr_Waffle.]

Great review, answered most of my questions about it. Unfortunately it's already out where I live, so missed the "free" pre-order bonus, so I'm just gonna wait for it to go on sale before I get it. That's what they get for not allowing reviews earlier I suppose. Hopefully some DLC or whatever will be out by then

[@RhobarEisenblut]

Interesting look but I prefer Stellaris because of the story telling. I think this is definitely meant for the Star Trek Fanbase and Paradox did a good job with this.

[@athena3342]

Stellaris game, where you design an empire that is a fragment of a wider galactic empire collapsing. You have control of- like the other fragments, a high-tech"empire" era fleet you cannot replace, etc.

[@foreskinfairy8975]

the similarity of the UI is really fucking with my head, like it's some wild stellaris ui mod but this seems like it has a lot of potential! classic Paradox style moment in other words, lets hope it gets the love it needs to really take off

[@defies4626]

It is basically the New Vegas of Stellaris, the similarities are baked in and also part of the selling point.

[@GUNDAMURX73]

Two Rikers commanding different ships sounds like it could totally be an episode of Trek.

[@andrewgreenwood9068]

Honestly a "canon" galexy for stellaris with all the premade factions would be awesome.

[@DoinItforNewCommTech]

We need to have optional start dates, like Crusader Kings.
We need a 2151 start date, where we can actually form the Federation. We need a 2256 start date, with the Klingon War leading into Strange New Worlds, TOS, TAS and the TOS movies. V'Ger, the Gorn, and Khan would make great crises! We need a 3188 start date, where we have to actually locate the Federation remnants and get Ni'var and other planets to rejoin. A Kelvin Timeline start date would be a lot of fun, too! It could even be unlockable; you have to research the Romulan Supernova with Spock as your Scientist--and then, boom, you've got some replay value for the base campaign.
If they won't let us make our own empires, we need some VARIETY. It's a fine enough game, but it gets dull FAST.

[@pedroslol]

Riker was in fact duplicated in Next Generation, "Second Chances" episode. So it IS immersive xD

[@MontuPlays]

I did mention the Thomas - William split. In this case one Riker was 50 years younger and no event happened. I jsut got another Riker on the Enterprise

[@robertking345]

as someone whos' played the new horizons mod for stellaris i thing i stick to that for now before getting this game there just more empires to play with i mean species 8472 would be a better endgame crisis then the borg

[@JohnDoe-yx5dp]

I hope the mid to late game lag isn't one of those "extras" you mentioned....the other missing "quadrants" will be $24.99 priced DLC...that's my guess. As far as no armor.. Defiant had a blade of armor added at initial deep space 9 refit and voyager had armor added that was designed by B'Elanna Torres ( when Janeway went back in time to get them home ) so hopefully they will be added as options in a patch or modded in for immersion.

[@ATHFShakeZulah]

Some of us don't touch mods with a barge poll believe it or not. This is good.

[@ulruc]

In short, for me, it is a "Put on wishlist" answer. It might become a good purchase in 1-2 years with more content and a few mods.

[@jeffers9001]

And a hefty discount.

[@ulruc]

@@jeffers9001True. For myself in Canada, it is at 40$ right now. Not worth it. But in a Black Friday or a Summer Sales, maybe.

[@31337ification]

I have been playing this since launch and to me it feels like it needs work. However that is basically in line with most paradox titles these days. Give it a year and it will be a gem.
My main issues have been simple UI things that stellaris figured out so im hoping they can import some of those from stellaris or at least take inspiration from them.
Failing that im sure the modding community will get to it.
There is a lot of scope to add content to this game but im concerned that you dont get the HoI4 style starting scenario choice meaning it may not be possible to have different eras.
I would love to see the game expand into all 4 quadrants too but I dont know if they have closed those parts off given the game is all Net Generation era.
Overall I would say unless you are a hardcore star trek fan, wait 6 months - a year then pick this up.

[@GabrielHorne]

I think it would be good to extend lifespans to 180 years for human leaders

[@NephritduGrey]

Hm, if they expand it more with stuff like Species 8472 end game crisis, more species to play as like the Dominion, Ferengi, Tholians, maybe in the style of "become the crisis" the Borg Collective, etc etc and almost more importantly allowing changes to map size, how developed (or start year) the game start is, different victory conditions or being able to disable an end year, yeah it can become a great game beyond the relatively small scope of the game in it's current rendition.

[@Fatedcauze]

I’ve seen a lot of trolls in the Steam reviews. Thank you for providing some objective insight on this game.
It bothers me that people are never satisfied. If you gave them everything they want they would still cry about something. It clearly states in the game description that many of the Stellaris systems are in this game. How can someone buy it, then complain about that aspect?
This is a dream type game for many of us. The only thing I would like to see more than this is a game revolving around Stephen Kings book series The Dark Tower. I was very concerned about buying this while solely looking at the reviews so I came to YT to sort through the BS.
Your video has made a long time Paradox customer feel better about purchasing another game. I have over 8,000 hours game time between Stellaris, EU4, CK3, and HOI4.

[@FizzleFX]

"Devs are not going anywhere"
Reads actual steam reviews: "devs gave up / left" ... (June 24

[@ostegonation]

So you have the Romulans and Cardassians... How is the spycraft? Can you sabotage an enemy fleet, system, diplomacy?
I LOVED Birth of The Federation (BoTF) and used to play it all the time. I would play with my friend over dial-up, yes I'm old, and it was a blast. It was so in-depth in what you could do that I'm going to give you my favorite example:
My friend would ONLY ever play as the Klingons because he didn't care about diplomacy, the espionage system, etc. I was the Romulans because I wanted to check them out after always playing the Federation. We weren't allied because of our alliances with various major and minor NPCs and because my friend depended on his alliance with the Ferengi to offset the cost of his fleet. The Ferengi convinced the Cardassians and Federation to declare war on me, so I was fighting a losing battle on 3 fronts and I couldn't convince my friend to ally with me because he would lose his economic advantage with the Ferengi to build a big fleet (of Heavy Cruisers of course).
So I did what any good Romulan would do... I diverted my sabotage efforts to my friend and implicated the Ferengi. My agents stole one of his ships, which I quickly hid in one of my fleets because I was desperate, and I made it look like the Ferengi did it. We talked in the in-game chat (text only) and I told him that he shouldn't have trusted the Ferengi and that they'll just do it again. He declared war on them, wiped them out, then helped me mop up the Cardassians and Federation. I didn't tell him for 15 years... When I finally told him what had happened he didn't talk to me for 2 weeks lol.

[@neillindgren8992]

After playing it for a day, I had a lot of fun playing the Cardassians and the Klingons. Unfortunately, my favorites, the Romulans, were a sad lot where expansion was difficult and their home system blew up later in the game. I didn’t play the Federation, but I watched them being played by Montu. They played well, but their mission tree was busted. Also, cloaking devices don’t work.
Overall, it was fun, but the Romulans and Federation need a bit of fixing, as does cloaking. Fortunately, Paradox is pretty good with fixing games, even ones they’ve collaborated with other companies on, so hopefully the bugs and balance issues get fixed soon.

[@jlickley1118]

I wish they could have done something with the combat system. make it more in depth or even some kind of actual battle space for the player to control. I know people have made mods for crusaders kings 3 to use bannerlord and i think one for total war to resolve battles seems they could figure something out. even if it's making a seperate game that plugs into this one it's something. also I try to be wary of saying "modders can fix it." or "modders can add that." cause it can give the company an out. not have to put more effort into developing the game and get free labor from the modders. lastly I wonder what the difference between the standard and deluxe purchases are.

[@brennantmi5063]

About there being two Rikers there is a next generation episode were a transporter malfunction caused there to be two Rikers and the episode ends with the new Riker leaves to pursue other dreams unrelated to the enterprise.

[@celesyn]

one of them also has a trait literally called "Two Places at Once", so that seems very deliberate lmao