For as long as stories have been told, humanity has wrestled with the ethics of command — the weight of decisions made under impossible conditions, far from home, with no one to answer to but one's own conscience. At Gamescom in Cologne, Daedalic Entertainment announced Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, a survival game that places players in the captain's chair of the USS Voyager, stranded 70,000 light-years from Earth. Where the television series could move past its hardest choices by the next episode, this game asks something more demanding: that players inhabit those choices, and car
Star Trek: Voyager Game Lets Players Make Captain Janeway's Controversial Decisions
Every decision compounds when you're stranded 70,000 light-years from home
Mark
So this is basically a chance to replay Voyager's entire premise as a game. What's the actual appeal beyond just being a Star Trek fan?
Mimi
It's about agency. The show was episodic—each week Janeway made a choice and moved on. But this game forces you to live with consequences. You're managing a broken ship, limited resources, crew morale. Every decision compounds.
Luke
But we should be clear: we don't know yet how deep those consequences actually run. The announcement says "story-driven" and mentions decisions "inspired by" the show. That could mean branching narratives, or it could mean cosmetic choices. We'll need to see the actual game.
Mark
Fair point. What about the rogue-like elements? That seems like an odd fit for Star Trek.
Mimi
It's actually perfect. It means you can fail. Voyager can be destroyed. The crew can die. That's something the show almost never allowed—real stakes, real loss.
Luke
Again, we're assuming that's how it works in practice. Rogue-like is a design framework, but how it's implemented matters enormously. Is it punishing? Forgiving? Does it encourage experimentation or just frustrate?
Mark
Why has Star Trek struggled in games for so long?
Mimi
Because most games want you to shoot things or solve puzzles. Star Trek is about decisions and systems. You need a game designer who understands that the drama isn't the phaser—it's the choice to use it or not.
Luke
That's the pitch, anyway. We'll see if Daedalic actually pulls it off. They've made good narrative games before, but this is a different scale—survival mechanics, resource management, rogue-like structure. That's a lot of moving parts.
Il Polso
- Star Trek has long struggled to translate its true appeal — ethical tension, systems thinking, the cost of survival — into a video game, and Across the Unknown is a direct attempt to solve that decades-old problem.
- Players must manage not just ship repairs and dwindling resources, but crew morale and the temptation of dangerous Borg technology, with rogue-like mechanics ensuring that bad decisions can end a run entirely.
- Away missions, ship combat, and team management layer constant pressure onto the captain's chair, making every choice feel like it carries the weight of 150 lives.
- The game arrives on PC with no confirmed release date, but is already available to wishlist on Steam — and for fans who have spent years debating Janeway's most controversial calls, the wait may feel like the longest stretch of the Delta Quadrant yet.
For as long as stories have been told, humanity has wrestled with the ethics of command — the weight of decisions made under impossible conditions, far from home, with no one to answer to but one's own conscience. At Gamescom in Cologne, Daedalic Entertainment announced Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, a survival game that places players in the captain's chair of the USS Voyager, stranded 70,000 light-years from Earth. Where the television series could move past its hardest choices by the next episode, this game asks something more demanding: that players inhabit those choices, and carry their consequences.
For years, fans of Star Trek: Voyager have argued over Captain Janeway's most controversial decisions — the ones that lived unresolved in forums and comment sections, abstract and consequence-free. A new game from Daedalic Entertainment may finally change that.
Revealed at Gamescom in Cologne, Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown is a story-driven survival game that puts players in command of the USS Voyager, stranded 70,000 light-years from home in the Delta Quadrant. The premise mirrors the show's, but the experience is fundamentally different: rather than watching Janeway bear the weight of command, players must bear it themselves.
The mechanics are built around what actually sustains a starship under duress. Players repair systems, manage resources, research Delta Quadrant technology, and wrestle with whether to risk using Borg innovations. Crew morale demands attention. Away missions carry real danger. Ship combat is unavoidable. Rogue-like elements mean that choices have lasting consequences — runs can end badly, and there is no clean reset between episodes.
This is precisely where most Star Trek games have fallen short. The franchise's deepest appeal has always been ethical tension and systems thinking, yet its games have historically defaulted to action. Across the Unknown seems to understand that Voyager's real drama was never the firefights — it was the decisions about what the crew would sacrifice, what rules they would bend, and what lines they would cross to get home.
The game is coming to PC, with no release date announced. It is available to wishlist on Steam now.
For decades, fans of Star Trek: Voyager have debated Captain Janeway's choices across the show's seven seasons. Should she have killed Tuvix to restore two crew members? Should she have allowed herself and a senior officer to be hyperevolved into amphibians? Should she have deleted that wife? These arguments have lived in forums and comment sections, abstract and unresolved. Now they might become playable.
At Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, publisher Daedalic Entertainment unveiled Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown, a story-driven survival game that puts players in the captain's chair of the USS Voyager. The premise mirrors the show's central premise: the ship is stranded 70,000 light-years from home in the Delta Quadrant, cut off from Starfleet support, and the player must navigate the crew back across years of unexplored space. But unlike the television series, which moved from episode to episode with relative narrative closure, this game asks players to live inside the weight of command decisions.
The mechanics are built around the systems that actually matter on a starship. Players will repair Voyager's internal systems after its initial displacement, scavenge and maintain resources, and research ways to adapt Delta Quadrant technology to sustain the journey. They will manage crew morale, decide whether to use Borg technology despite its risks, and conduct away missions into unknown territory. Ship combat is part of the equation. Team management for both away teams and internal duties requires constant attention. The game incorporates rogue-like elements, meaning choices have lasting consequences and runs can end badly—a mechanic that forces real stakes into every decision.
What makes Across the Unknown potentially significant is how directly it addresses what Star Trek games have historically struggled to do. The franchise has a long history in gaming, yet has rarely translated its core appeal into interactive form. Star Trek, at its best, is about difficult choices and systems thinking—the tension between competing values, the cost of survival, the ethics of command. Most Star Trek games have defaulted to action or exploration. Across the Unknown seems to understand that the real drama of Voyager was never the occasional firefight. It was Janeway deciding what her crew would sacrifice, what rules they would bend, what lines they would cross to get home.
The game is coming to PC, though Daedalic has not announced a release date. It is available to wishlist on Steam now. Players who have spent years second-guessing Janeway's decisions will soon have the chance to make their own and live with the results.
Vuoi la storia completa?
Leggi l'originale su Gizmodo ↗
Science & Space