Star Trek: Shadow Frontier — Paramount Says 'The Goal Is for Bloober to Make the Best Star Trek Game of All Time'

Revealed exclusively astatine IGN Live, Star Trek: Shadow Frontier is the astonishment upcoming crippled from Bloober Team, the developer of the critically and commercially acclaimed Silent Hill 2 remake, and Cronos: The New Dawn. It stars Michelle Forbes, who reprises her relation arsenic Trek fan-favorite quality Ro Laren and finds herself stranded connected an alien planet. The recently formed Paramount Games Studio, which includes each Paramount and Skydance gaming studios, has invested heavy successful the game, and, arsenic Shawn Kittelsen, elder vice president, caput of originative and accumulation astatine Paramount Games Studio told IGN up of the reveal, it surely has precocious hopes for it.

“The extremity is for Bloober to marque the champion Star Trek crippled of each time, if we tin bring that to life,” Kittelsen said. There person been many, galore Star Trek games implicit the years, and everyone volition person their ain favorites. Birth of the Federation, 25th Anniversary, Judgment Rites, Bridge Commander, Armada, Starfleet Academy, Star Trek Online… the database goes on. Paramount, though, wants to apical them all.

To that end, Star Trek: Shadow Frontier is antithetic from erstwhile Star Trek games. It’s from Bloober, a fearfulness specialist, but Kittelsen says it’s much of a “psychological thriller.” He compares it to Ninja Theory’s Hellblade series, alternatively than Bloober’s erstwhile hits similar Silent Hill 2.

“It's interesting, Star Trek has had truthful galore permutations implicit the years,” Kittelsen said. “It tin benignant of genre bend. It's the uncommon sci-fi amusement that tin bash a Sherlock Holmes Victorian epoch enigma arsenic good arsenic interplanetary warfare connected an epic scale. And everything successful between. Bloober has an unthinkable way grounds successful the fearfulness space… Silent Hill 2 remake, Cronos: The New Dawn I thought was truly good done and showed them pushing into sci-fi horror. I deliberation we see Star Trek: Shadow Frontier much of a intelligence thriller than a fearfulness game, benignant of akin to Hellblade successful a batch of ways.”

So, expect plentifulness of “conflict wrong yourself” moments from Ro Laren successful a crippled that volition amusement Bloober “has much range.”

“If you look astatine the past of Star Trek, a batch of fans and writers ever would grumble astir the Roddenberry rule, wherever Gene Roddenberry famously did not privation interpersonal struggle betwixt unit members,” Kittelsen said. “But wherever that drove a batch of storytelling successful the archetypal bid and successful The Next Generation was into this benignant of inward travel of intrapersonal conflict, similar struggle wrong yourself.

“Ro Laren’s character, who's played by Michelle Forbes, who we're bringing backmost from The Next Generation, ne'er got her infinitesimal successful the spotlight capable for the fans who loved her connected The Next Generation. So bringing her backmost and having an escapade focused connected her, and past giving her that deeper interior intelligence struggle to enactment with, and making that the centerpiece for the intelligence thriller wherever she has to past connected a unusual planet, is close up Bloober's alley. And I deliberation this is simply a crippled that's going to amusement that Bloober has much range, that they don't request to beryllium pigeonholed successful a fearfulness category. They're trying to flex to a antithetic spot and amusement what they tin do.

“And due to the fact that of Trek’s innate qualities and the information that determination is simply a hopefulness and a truly beardown consciousness of affirmative and optimistic values that travel done erstwhile you're portion of Starfleet. That thread arsenic well, you tin spell really, truly acheronian astatine Star Trek, but it ever has to person immoderate anchor successful the airy of boldly going, and not boldly going to question and destroy, but boldly going to recognize and communicate.

“That is going to amusement radical a caller broadside of what Bloober tin do. But it's besides a accidental for Bloober to bring the things that they've been doing truly good successful their latest games, the unthinkable accumulation values, the truly beardown cinematic storytelling and conscionable stone coagulated third-person action, each of those pieces volition travel together, I think, for a precise peculiar crippled that's going to beryllium unexpected for a batch of Trek fans and a batch of Bloober fans.”

Paramount Games Studio had its large step-out infinitesimal past week, wherever it announced its beingness with the uncover of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin from Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames. Turtles is precise aboriginal successful development, but Star Trek: Shadow Frontier is further along, Kittelsen said. This was a licensed crippled that was already successful the works erstwhile Paramount formed its caller video crippled part past year, and Kittelsen and co. liked what they saw. So they invested successful the game, decided to people it themselves, and acceptable astir connected a merchandise program that, Paramount hopes, volition get Trek fans excited.

“We started talking to Bloober astir ways that we felt similar the crippled could beryllium pushed further and prime could beryllium improved, and they were ace collaborative and receptive to that,” Kittelsen explained.

“So we've had a truly bully narration moving with them. And arsenic they developed a vertical portion that went from bully to amended to best, it was wide that we felt determination was much imaginable for this game, and that we wouldn't privation idiosyncratic other to people it, that we would privation to enactment with it ourselves. And again, this is each about, however bash we mobilize Paramount's instrumentality channels and the Star Trek instrumentality basal arsenic overmuch arsenic possible? And we felt we could activate that amended than having idiosyncratic other people the title.

“So we invested successful it, we're contributing to the production, and we're collaborating with Bloober truly heavy and we're bringing it to marketplace with arsenic overmuch fanfare arsenic we perchance can, and making definite on the mode excessively that it's an authentic Trek experience, but it's besides a high-quality game.”

Star Trek: Shadow Frontier is owed retired successful 2027 connected PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC. Meanwhile, Paramount Games Studio is present publishing the precocious delayed Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, and Amy Hennig's Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, though it won't beryllium retired until 2027 astatine the earliest. The AAA Avatar: The Last Airbender RPG is nary more, however.

Wesley is Director, News astatine IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].