Here's one I wasn't quite expecting: Silent Hill 2 remake and Cronos: The New Dawn developers Bloober Team are working on a Star Trek game in collaboration with license owners Paramount. As you might imagine, given Bloober's pedigree, it doesn't appear to be a very uplifting Star Trek game. It is not a Star Trek game in which you would expect to have an Earl Grey teaparty on the Holodeck, with Data playing the viola. Called Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, it's a "psychological thriller" set on an uncharted planet that has become a spaceship graveyard. Something with tendrils lurks hereabouts, and it's trying to eat your mind.
In Shadow Frontier, you play no less than Ro Laren, a Bajoran Federation officer (and later, Maquis turncoat) introduced by Star Trek: The Next Generation back in the 90s, with original actress Michelle Forbes supplying voice and motion capture. She's come to the planet to answer a distress call, which is never a great opening move. "As she explores the planet's corrupted surface and crosses paths with other survivors, she must face twisted creatures, a hostile ecosystem, and an entity that seeks to envelop her body and mind," explains the press release. The aesthetics slop Zdzisław Beksiński-flavoured effluence over what could be Romulan or perhaps Klingon interiors. Yeah, we're a long way from the campy fixtures of the original Star Trek series. Here's a trailer.
Bloober are making Shadow Frontier in partnership with Paramount Games Studio - a new "unified" development operation that encompasses Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media, announced amid layoff-ridden restructuring as Paramount complete their $82 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. In a statement, PGS head of creative and production Shawn Kittelsen enthuses that "we have full confidence in Bloober’s ability to deliver a game that does justice to the Star Trek name while bringing something bold and new to the beloved franchise".
Bloober CEO Piotr Babieno is similarly flush with ecstasy for things both bold and beloved. "As lifelong fans of science fiction, Star Trek has always held a special place in our hearts,” he says in the release. "By combining that passion with what we do best, horror, we’ve partnered with Paramount to create something truly unique: a new adventure set in a beloved universe, enriched with our own signature layer of dark, psychological thriller. We’re genuinely excited about this journey, and our hope is to honor the legacy of Star Trek in a way that feels both respectful yet refreshingly different.”
As a recovering Trekker, it's been years since I thought about Ro Laren, but off the top of my head, her backstory would suit a "dark, psychological thriller". She's a convict, defector, secret agent - an absolute piece of work, basically. The Bajorans at large are Star Trek's one-size-fits-all analogy for displaced and traumatised peoples throughout history. Bloober have never been particularly subtle in how they depict trauma, and I confess, I can imagine their attempts to plumb Star Trek's subconsciousness going very badly. I am, however, intrigued by the pitch in general.
It's out in 2027, and you can read more on Steam. Curious about the ins and outs of adapting Star Trek? You might want to peruse this interview with the founder of Zachtronics about their abandoned pitch for a Next Generation engineering sim.