Star Trek makes a great basis for multiplayer VR—Star Trek: Bridge Crew proved that much when it launched for consumers back in 2017. If you’ve got a Dave & Buster’s nearby, starting today you’ll be able to jump into an all new take on Star Trek multiplayer madness with Star Trek: Dark Remnant, a Dave & Buster’s exclusive.
In Star Trek: Dark Remnant, you step aboard the U.S.S. Galileo, an advanced stellar research vessel accompanying the Enterprise on a routine mission to evacuate a stellar observatory located in the middle of the Klingon Neutral Zone.
Of course, as with all things Star Trek, the mission is everything but ‘routine’, as a neutron star collapses that leaves the Enterprise incapacitated, forcing you and your team to run interference as the Klingon ships roll in. Users will be able to control Galileo’s phasers, deflector shields, and sensors. Let’s just say the Gene Roddenberry days of ‘diplomacy first’ are taking a backseat here.
Image courtesy VRStudios
The experience was created by VRStudios, a company building location-based VR attractions, and Strange Reptile, a Salt Lake City-based indie game studio made up of veterans from The VOID, EA, Disney, Ubisoft, and Microsoft. Important to note: the location-based game is unrelated to Star Trek: Bridge Crew, a separate creation from Ubisoft’s Red Storm Entertainment.
In a bid to keep users coming back for more, Star Trek: Dark Remnant is also said to include “several completely different endings combined with other elements of variability, including subtle differences in gameplay, randomized player characters, and dialogue that responds real-time to your performance,” VRStudios says in a press statement.
This isn’t Dave & Buster’s first VR rodeo. Star Trek: Dark Remnant uses Dave & Buster’s proprietary multiplayer VR motion platform, the very same that was first used in the franchise’s timed exclusive Jurassic World VR Expedition.
It’s uncertain which branches are hosting Star Trek: Dark Remnant, so make sure to check your local Dave & Buster’s first to before you pop on your communicator badges and strap on your Vulcan ears.
For fans of Star Trek the release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew was a dream come true, finally giving fans the chance to step into the role of a Starfleet officer aboard one of the most famous spaceships in all science fiction. For one group of fans however, the release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew heralded the end of a passion project.
Stage-9 was a fan project which had been ongoing for two years, which aimed to recreate the Enterprise-D as depicted in Star Trek: The Next Generation TV show.
The detailed virtual reality (VR) recreation was built using Unreal Engine 4, and could be explored using HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, or fans could simply use a monitor for a 2D view of the ship. The recreation allowed users to travel in turbolifts to the various decks, enter rooms, interact with objects and even fire a phaser.
However, after receiving a cease and desist letter from CBS, the head of the project, identified online as ‘Scragnog’, was forced to pull the project after failing to reach a compromise with the CBS lawyers.
Though Star Trek in all its various forms are of course owned by CBS, Stage-9 made it clear from the outset that it was not an officially licensed project, was not affiliated in any way with CBS or Paramount and the VR creation was, in effect, simply elaborate fan art, since they creators were not making any money from the project.
Scragnog said in a statement that the team became concerned when the Star Trek: Next Generation DLC was released for Star Trek: Bridge Crew earlier this year. “Internally this was an exciting development, but at the same time it concerned us,” Scragnog said, going to to explain that the Stage-9 crew had been hoping to pitch the project to CBS. “Throughout all of this we knew it could end at any point.”
Scragnog released a video explaining the situation and making an emotional goodbye to the Stage-9 project, that video statement can be viewed below.
For future coverage on VR projects, keep checking back with VRFocus.
Lenovo unveiled Star Trek Enterprise designed PC at its Tech World Conference, packed with Nvidia's latest next-generation GeForce RTX 2080 GPU and an overclocked ninth-generation Intel CPU.
William Shatner’s legacy in science fiction goes back more than 50 years. From TV to film to books to videogames, his voice and visage remain an iconic part of 20th century popular culture. The evolution of technologies that were merely imagined at the start of his career and realities by the end also gives Shatner some interesting perspective.
With regard to virtual reality in particular, it is clear Star Trek’s original captain has had some up close encounters in VR that left him concerned about how the technology is used in the future.
“It’s so real: it’s the stuff of nightmares … We’ve got to be really careful because you could put somebody into a psychosis,” Shatner recently told The Guardian.
Shatner just released a new memoir and spoke about VR in recent weeks with The Guardian. In the book he discusses getting himself captured digitally with “everything necessary to enable technicians to make my image move and speak realistically”.
“Shatner will now ‘live’ forever,” he jokes.
He also notes how VR capture technology can allow family members to essentially speak to loved ones from beyond the grave.
“The possibility of people, prior to dying, [making] a little speech to a virtual-reality camera. Then you could put that by their grave and people who loved them, or were curious about them, could see them in their entirety, in absolute reality … There they are, saying, ‘my darling, I love you’,” Shatner said.
For those Star Trek fans out there with a good memory, you’ll recall this basic premise playing out in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In season 4 episode 2 of TNG (“Family”) Wesley Crusher comes face to face with a message from his long-dead father in the Holodeck.
Star Trek’s Captain Kirk voices concerns about virtual reality after simulating a walk on Mars
As Captain Kirk in Star Trek, William Shatner took us to places “where no man has gone before”, with stories that foreshadowed the invention of the mobile phone and tablet computers. Now, in real life, the actor is exploring virtual reality – but he wants the entertainment industry to be aware of its potential detrimental impact on vulnerable minds.
Shatner told the Guardian: “The use of technology to affect our minds is so powerful now that we need to be on guard in the future.”
Star Trek franchise veteran George Takei spoke to Digital Trends about the current state of science-fiction, diversity in Hollywood, and his new political app, House of Cats, as well as the approach to social media that's made him an internet icon.
Star Trek fans might be enjoying some gameplay sessions on Star Trek: Bridge Crew The Next Generation DLC at the moment but those interested in learning about its history can do so in a new immersive way today. Sansar and Roddenberry Entertainment have collaborated on the Roddenberry Nexus, a portal into the Star Trek universe where fans can see the best of Roddenberry’s science fiction properties.
The Roddenberry Nexus houses a treasure trove of Star Trek memorabilia, including never-before-seen art and artifacts from Star Trek’sfifty-two-year history and new stories such as the short film Instant.
Looking to further involve fans in the history and lore of the TV shows and films fans now have virtual access to its archives, from anywhere in the world whilst providing a hangout space that will serve as a venue for future Roddenberry events and fan meet-ups.
“Roddenberry Entertainment always strives to be on the forefront of innovation, going where no one has gone before,” said Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment in a statement. “Sansar Studios is a leader in VR development and we are proud to partner with them on this new initiative, combining the history and legacy of Roddenberry with their groundbreaking technology.”
“We really do see VR as a new frontier for fan engagement,” says Jason Gholston, Head of Sansar Studios. “We’re not just tapping into fans’ collective nostalgia; we’re actively empowering them to reach out and touch television history, in a way that might not be possible in the real world. We’re thrilled to be able to preserve these pieces for future generations, and to find such amazing collaborators in Roddenberry Entertainment.”
Visitors to the Roddenberry Nexus will be able view and virtually interact with artifacts from the show’s development – everything from props to costumes and artwork – across three distinct levels, with original voice-over content to offer guidance.
The new virtual experience can be accessed here and debuted today at the 2018 Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas. For any further updates from Sansar or Roddenberry Entertainment, keep reading VRFocus.
When most people think of Star Trek and virtual reality, they’re imagining the holodeck, a staging environment that lets users seamlessly travel to other realities as if they were real. Many companies are on quests to realize something like that with modern VR technology, but Ubisoft isn’t one of them. Instead, in partnership with Red Storm Entertainment, they’re setting their sights on the bridge experience instead.
But in terms of Star Trek as a whole, there is nothing more iconic than the shot of a crew sitting on the bridge of a powerful starship. With last year’s release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew, Ubisoft was successful in delivering one of VR’s most memorable and immersive multiplayer experiences to date. There’s nothing quite like barking orders at your friends, sitting side-by-side as things go spectacularly wrong, or valiantly triumphing over dastardly enemies in the final frontier of space.
When it debuted, you could take command of a crew aboard the new Aegis ship, which is themed as a futuristic vessel with lots of whites and grays and sleek designs similar to the modern era of Star Trek films, or the original Enterprise from the very first Star Trek TV show. But it was missing something extremely important: The Next Generation.
As perhaps the most popular era of Star Trek as a whole, The Next Generation’s bridge and crew are immediately recognizable. So in the form of a DLC pack which includes brand new Ongoing Voyages missions, new enemies, a new player race, a new role to play, and yes, TNG’s iconic bridge, Bridge Crew is getting a major overhaul.
The main draw of this DLC is going to just be the experience of sitting on TNG’s bridge, feeling like your part of the crew, and that general sense of presence that only VR can afford — but that’s only a brief slice of what this expansion offers.
Functionally, the TNG bridge is pretty much identical to the Aegis bridge with regard to the captain, tactical officer, and helm positions, but Engineering has been totally overhauled. Instead, you’ll take on the role of Operations, which is what Data did in TNG’s show. And along with that inclusion is the ability to create Android avatars as well (shown below).
In the Ops role, you’ll not only have to do all of Engineering’s job through re-routing power to different subsystems, charging warp coils, and transporting things onto the ship, but now you’ll also have to manage the NPC crew across the entire ship to send them out to different areas and start repairs. It’s a game of predictive micromanagement that adds a ton of chaos and helps liven up an otherwise boring role.
The romulans are a fun new enemy to deal with, as they can actually target parts of your ship to disable during fights. Since the player has always been able to do that, this feels like an evening of the scales a little bit. Combat certainly feels more lethal this time around. Romulans can also flee and cloak themselves now as well, making it tough to keep track of them if you’re not agile.
But the real highlight of the new enemies has got to be the borg. There is an entire new mission type that’s specifically focused on fighting an enormous borg cube, fleeing to upgrade your ship, fighting it some more, fleeing to upgrade your ship, and so on until it’s been defeated. And each time you flee the cube gets stronger from learning your tactics making it one of the more intense ways of challenging yourself.
All of the additions that this DLC makes feel great and welcome, but ultimately it’s not that large of an overhaul. The campaign is still untouched, Ops, even after its changes, is still probably the least fun role to play, and the new enemies mostly feel just like the Klingons with a few minor changes. This isn’t to say TNG is a bad piece of DLC — it improves the game and gives us more of what we loved — but it’s also not going to really draw in a new audience other than those holding out for TNG’s bridge to begin with.
Final Score:7/10 – Good
Star Trek: Bridge Crew’s The Next Generation DLC is pretty special. The attention to detail afforded to the Enterprise-D is mind-blowing, the overhaul to Engineering (now Ops) is much-needed, and the expansion of Ongoing Voyages missions and new enemies add variety to an experience that can otherwise grow stale over time. However, it doesn’t do enough to really shake up or improve the core experience enough to elevate the game as a whole. It’s basically more of the same with slight alterations. Unless you’re a massive fan of The Next Generation and are desperate for more Star Trek: Bridge Crew, you’re not missing out on too much if you give this a pass.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew’s The Next Generation DLC releases today exclusively for PSVR and non-VR PS4 players for a limited time. The Next Generation DLC will also be available for Rift, Vive, Windows VR, and non-VR PC players starting July 21st.
It’s been a long time since I’ve played Star Trek: Bridge Crew. That isn’t to say that I don’t like the game — I stand by my mostly glowing review I wrote last year — but in this line of work it’s tough to play a game much after you’re done reviewing it. There are just so many new things always coming out right around the corner. So even though we at UploadVR have had a ton of fun in Bridge Crew, we had to set it aside for games like Skyrim VR, most recently Beat Saber, and others.
But now with brand new official DLC in the form of The Next Generation’s Starship Enterprise D on the way soon including that ship’s iconic bridge, a brand new player race, and a brand new role to play, it’s time to squad up and set our coordinates for the stars once again.
When I met with Brian Tate, Creative Director on Star Trek: Bridge Crew at an Ubisoft preview event, he told me that The Next Generation’s bridge was by far the most-requested bridge in the entirety of Star Trek’s long legacy. The teams at Ubisoft and Red Storm worked closely with CBS to reconstruct the setting in VR, going to painstaking lengths to reconcile differences with the ship’s exterior over the course of various seasons and even accessing ship blueprints, digital models, sound archives, and more from the CBS vault.
According to Tate, “it’s a “fanboy’s dream come true.”
This new bridge will be fully playable in the randomly generated “Ongoing Voyages” game mode, along with the Original Enterprise and the newly crafted Aegis, but not in the main campaign — that remains as an Aegis only experience.
In addition to this new ship, the Engineering role is being evolved into the Operations (or Ops) role for TNG’s bridge and there will even be a brand new race for players’ to pick at avatar creation: the Androids.
In the new Ops role you’ll do a lot of what the Engineer did already by adjusting power levels, but then you’ll also have to assign crew members to different areas of the ship to perform repairs and provide boosted features. It’s all about foresight and planning and can actually be one of the harder roles in the whole game to play.
On top of all of that, if that wasn’t enough, the Ongoing Voyages mode is getting improvements as well. Some improvements, such as improved mission shuffling and generation, will release as a free update for everyone, but then the more advanced improvements are included only as part of TNG’s DLC.
Specifically, Ongoing Voyages will receive two new mission types: Patrol and Borg Resistance. I got to try a bit of both during my TNG demo and Patrol feels like an extremely welcomed mission structure. Instead of the game telling you where to go and what to do at all times, you can just freely explore different systems and plot your own course. Once you reach a point of interest of some kind, NPCs will reach out and attempt to provide you with objectives, but the pacing and flow of gameplay is up to you this time around.
In the DLC they’ve also added the Romulans as one of the enemy races that you must contend with. Many of their ships are much faster than the Klingons from the base game, they can cloak themselves to enter and exit combat, and can even target specific areas of your ship to disable them — which was previously only something the players could do to the enemies.
When we tried this game mode we had to deal with a particularly incessant scientist that wouldn’t stop hailing us and bugging us to get him some data delivered. We were tempted to just bail and leave him hanging, but decided to follow through anyway. Near the end a random Borg invasion occurred and nearly wiped us out, forcing us to change course and flee.
The new Patrol missions really do a good job of making Bridge Crew, as a whole, feel much more dynamic.
In the new Borg Resistance mission structure you’ll be tasked with facing a steep uphill battle. Similar in difficulty to the original game’s Kobayashi Maru mission, the Borg Resistance missions present a major challenge for players. If you try to fight one of the imposing Borg cubes head-on from the start then you really don’t stand much of a chance.
Instead, you’ve got to flee. That’s right: turn around, jump star systems, and live to fight another die while the cube continues to hunt you. In doing so, you need to recover new, experimental weapons technology from the federation that can be used in your battle and improve your odds.
The catch though is that each time you face the cube and flee, it’s constantly learning and improving as well, so it’s a bit of a race. As you collect prototypes and become more powerful it’s studying your tactics and becoming stronger at the same time. Mustering up the power to take it on is a big moment and it’s something that should lead to a lot of climactic battles on VR bridges across the metaverse.
A brand new bridge, a new player race, a new role to play, and brand new missions is a lot for a single DLC package. TNG’s popularity did not go unnoticed and the teams at both Ubisoft and Red Storm seem to have put in a lot of love and care when crafting this DLC. It’s truly content made for fans by fans and that absolutely shows.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew’s TNG DLC will release first on PS4 and PSVR on May 22nd for a limited time before coming to PC, Rift, Vive, and Windows VR on July 21st. Once it releases on all platforms it will be entirely cross-platform just like the base game is already.
Check out our gameplay video showing off TNG’s bridge in the video up above at the top of this article and let us know what you think of the news down in the comments below!
“Star Trekhas always been about pushing technology forward, so in that spirit we are happy to be continuing our partnership with IBM Watson,” said David Votypka, Sr. Creative Director at Red Storm Entertainment, the Ubisoft studio that developed of Bridge Crew, in a prepared statement. “Watson is standing by to await players’ orders in Star Trek: Bridge Crew and will be usable in upcoming content that is currently in development.”
Ubisoft and IBM also explained that the support is planned to continue through 2018 for both existing and upcoming content.
“We are excited to continue IBM Watson voice recognition in Star Trek: Bridge Crew throughout 2018,” said Joel Horwitz, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships & Offerings, IBM Digital Business Group in a prepared statement. “We look forward to our ongoing partnership with Ubisoft and to keeping our communities apprised of updates.”
The IBM Watson voice functionality has never been an integral feature of the game for most players, but it is a crucial facet for those that prefer to play as a solo captain. If you’ve got a full squad of friends on the bridge then you can rely on them for support, but being able to issue orders vocally to the AI is a huge boon when playing alone. Using only menus is frankly a bit cumbersome in a complex game like this. While this news is far from definitive on the future of the program’s support, it at least ensures another eight or so months.
Another great example of voice recognition in VR is with PSVR-exclusive psychological thriller, The Inpatient, in which you speak to NPCs using your real voice. Ideally, this type of support will become commonplace in VR over time instead of an ancillary bullet point feature.
Have you tried the voice recognition features in Star Trek: Bridge Crew yet? Fore more on the game, read our full review. Let us know down in the comments below!
