Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova (PC)

Geoffrey Wright | March 15, 2024 | Mini Review | No Comments

To be honest this went under the radar about a year ago, even as a Trekkie, due to not being familiar with the show either – not surprising given it looks to be a Nickelodeon gateway into the franchise for kids. Still, with not much Star Trek gaming outside of GAAS these days, maybe we’ll Picard manoeuvre around my preconceived pitfalls and give it a fair chance? Boldly onwards we go…

Stranded on the planet Orisi, the Protostar picks up strange readings from a nearby dying star, which seems to be closing in on a catastrophic event. Dal R’El and Gwyndala must race against time to save their friends, their ship, and an entire planetary system filled with new alien species before the impending supernova destroys them all!

Having never watched the show some aspects of the story were a bit unknown, such as who or what the watchers are, but its still relatively easy to follow as they aren’t the focus and the games does explain enough about them early on. Captain Janeway is a surprise inclusion to the crew for old timers like me and adds a little calmness to the young crews shenanigans. With 3 planets to explore and several crew members to find, let a lone a ship to fix and aliens to save, the game surprisingly clocks in easily past the dozen hour mark, more or less depending on how serious you are or if playing local coop with a younger crew-mate.

Looking like its lifted straight from the show, the visuals are generally decent across the board with the odd flourish – audio is elevated by a surprisingly copious amount of voice acting throughout. There’s some weak animations and the like obviously, but the game does a decent job with its visuals in matching the style of the show it is based on – from what I have seen anyway.

You shouldn’t need to worry about performance, my system (R7 5800X3D/32GB/RTX 3090) had things maxed at 4K with a smooth 120fps without really maxing the hardware. This means you should be able to get great performance lower down the stack too, the visual style of the game will also help when reducing details so you won’t miss out on much.

Like the old toon based games of yesteryear or the various LEGO games, Supernova offers a light mix of combat and puzzles to keep one entertained. The combat itself is relatively basic, mostly focused around melee, ranged fire and well timed dodges, tho the enemy variety gradually increases so you’ll need to be on your toes at times. The various characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses in this regard too, I mainly played Gwyndala given the better melee ability she has – downside was the single phaser that overheated quick compared to the dual wielding other chap Dal R’El. Switching on the fly between the two is possible during combat as well, something most integrated into the other side of the game.

PUZZLES. Lots and lots of puzzles. Have you ever wanted to lift crates, Flick switches, Block beams, Climb ledges, and switch character several times, to finally open that one gate to the next area? Well now you can! Put all that Starfleet exploring to one side and roll those sleeves up a bit for this one. To be fair the puzzles ain’t that bad given the target audience, creates something of a chill adventure, but is a better time if you have a younger family member to take up the second controller. The whole game becomes a bit less cumbersome due to no switching and you can kick back more leaving all the puzzles to the lil ‘un.

Going in cold, having no idea what Star Trek Prodigy was, there may not be much to entice the older Trekkie out there as its a series aimed at new and younger audiences. To those outside of that demographic, Supernova can still be a decent game that’s simple and relaxing for older audiences, but it does come alive if there’s a younger sibling or friend to pick up another controller – most niggles with the game are glossed over with 2-player coop active. Not a bad way to spend several hours with a fellow adventurer at the right price.