Star Trek: Infinite Critic Reviews

This game is as great as Captain Pike’s hair. If you’re ready to blink away three hours of your life in what feels like three minutes, Star Trek: Infinite is for you.

If you’re a strategy fan, you’ll enjoy this, and if you’re a Star Trek fan you’ll absolutely gobble this up. As well you should.

Star Trek: Infinite is a fine science fiction grand strategy experience, designed to appeal to fans of the TV and movie franchise. The development team has tried hard to deliver as many familiar elements as possible and mostly succeeded. The game creates a more focused experience than the New Horizons mod for Stellaris and its mechanics are easier to understand. Some players have been complaining of game-stopping bugs, which have not impacted my campaigns, so it might be a good idea to wait for a patch or two. Some mechanics, like spies and governors, also feel under-backed. But the ability to create stories and play out scenarios makes Star Trek: Infinite a great experience for both veterans and newcomers to the grand strategy space.

This game is made for Star Trek fans through and through. From the well-crafted story elements to the small random easter egg events, there is something for those with various entry points into the fandom.

Star Trek Infinite is basically exactly what I wanted. And yet, I am not entirely happy with it. You could criticize the game for being too reminiscent of Stellaris, but then again the price of 30 euros is quite fair What bothers me more than that is that it feels like there's still a lot to come in DLC form. But well, it's a bit annoying, but it doesn't ruin the fun of the game for me. And I had a lot of that with Star Trek Infinite and regularly forgot the time while exploring and conquering the galaxy.

Star Trek: Infinite gives us a damn solid 4X experience doused in the rich history of the Star Trek universe, and with plenty of space to include more Deep Space Nine, Voyager and other quadrants of the galaxy through expansions. Even if you’re not a fan of the source material, it can still stand alone as a good experience which will only improve over time.

A scaled-down Stellaris look-alike with Star Trek flair that would have deserved more love and scale.

Compelling, but not quite there yet. Needs two seasons to grow the beard.

On a technical level, Star Trek: Infinite has been a stable experience for me, though not without some rather annoying hiccups that I’d describe as typical Paradox launch shenanigans. Some missions were bugged and could only be completed by reloading to previous points in the game due to the wrong conditions being given, for example. Nothing in terms of visual glitches or crashes on my end, though.

Yes, you can send your starships out to discover new worlds and assist friendly nations, but the Stellaris warp drive that powers the game encourages conquest and expansion — an ambition totally out of step with the original show creator's vision. If Trekkies can stand that cognitive dissonance, they'll find a home in Star Trek: Infinite, but experienced grand strategy gamers might find it too familiar for comfort.

Star Trek: Infinite is a fun strategy game and a great entry point to the genre for newcomers that doesn't cost as much as many big games, but a plethora of bugs bog down the gameplay and mission design.

Having spent many hours on Infinite, I think I’ve seen all I need to see. Expansions and DLC might bring me back, but now we are talking about gating content behind another paywall. That sounds less enticing to me, especially when there is a more interesting mod available for free. Someone patiently waiting for new Star Trek games will definitely have some fun puzzling through Star Trek: Infinite, but I think I am probably going to go back over that New Horizon.

A deep and interesting Star Trek game that doesn’t quite scratch the strategy itch, but Trekkies will appreciate the chance to explore a new twist on a familiar universe. Still, I found myself itching for the depth of the very similar strategy powerhouse Stellaris.

I'm sure some fans will enjoy moving their fleets around on the galactic map, expanding their territory, and completing the long list of tasks the game offers. For me, it feels too much like meaningless busywork without a performance to anchor it all, which explains why games like Star Trek Online and Star Trek: Resurgence -- which both put so much effort into honoring the experience of watching a Star Trek episode over recreating the political reality of the universe that those episodes transpire in -- resonate with me more strongly.

Star Trek: Infinite is already a worthwhile experience. With the depths of its systems, there’s plenty for players to sink their teeth into here, and the four different factions provide more than enough replay value to keep them coming back. Tutorials make the game more accessible to 4X newcomers, even though they’re sometimes lacking. Those who are interested in a more complicated strategy experience might be better off sticking with the original Stellaris. But for those who really want to step into a Federation admiral’s shoes, there’s no substitute for Star Trek: Infinite.

Star Trek: Infinite does a great job of capturing the look and feel of Star Trek, but those enticing bones splinter under the weight of its bugs and glitches.

This is a game for hardcore Star Trek fans who are not afraid of grand strategies and don't know how to play Stellaris with mods.

A serviceable, sometimes-engaging official Star Trek version of Stellaris that makes sense for generic space war fans, but flounders when it comes to narrative logic and Trekkie authenticity.

And yet... I recorded all these complaints with a detached sort of "hmm" rather than major frustration. It's one of the most low-stress strategy games I've played this year, and its detail comprehensible once you've picked up the stone it's hiding under. It's a combination of engaging and undemanding that grand strategy seldom manages, and has enough Trek stuff to work for someone who's seen most of the serieseses but only once, and can only sometimes tell if something's a reference to an episode or wholly new. How the boon of such a familiar setting will stand against the weight of that setting's expectations I do not know, but if you go in wanting an enjoyable game that you kind of already know, Infinite will be a pleasant little surprise.

Star Trek: Infinite’s flexibility accounts for a lot of its replay appeal — as does the presumption that, as a Paradox game, official expansions and polished community mods are surely forthcoming. There is, after all, still half a galaxy to explore.