Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Star Trek Timelines
If you aren’t the least bit interested in Star Trek, turn back. There is absolutely nothing for you here if you aren’t invested in Kirk, Picard, Spock, Worf, and the rest of the colorful characters from the long-running franchise.
For those that are enamored of Gene Roddenberry’s vision for humanity’s future, here’s what Disruptor Beam has planned for its upcoming title. Spoiler: it’s 100 percent fan service.
Star Trek Timelines is Disruptor Beam’s second title, following Game of Thrones Ascent. It’s a social title and, yes, it’s free-to-play.
You’ll build your crew from among the crews of the various Star Trek vessels, including the multiple iterations of the USS Enterprise. You’ll progress through the story, exploring familiar (and strange new) worlds as you meet and recruit multiple versions of characters due to a tear in the space-time continuum.
The missions I played sent us after Worf from a dimension in which Klingons are allied with Cardassians against humanity. Each segment of the mission requires that you assign a number of crew members, each of which has a set of attributes.
You’ll encounter different types of challenges, including military, diplomacy, and navigation. These play out in sequence, with the most capable crew member assigned to the task. A random roll adds to your base score, the total of which is compared against the victory threshold.
Each victory progresses you along the path to the end of the chapter, but it also depletes the stamina of the engaged party member. Thankfully, there is a meter on the preparation screen that shows how likely you are to complete the task. Assigning crew members to specific areas of your ship also has the potential to grant bonuses to different challenge types.
Star Trek Timelines is absolutely a casual experience, and there will be opportunities for social connectivity. Don’t go in expecting anything deep or excessively strategic.
The monetization methods aren’t yet ironed out, and some crew members might be up for sale. How that ends up working and whether that becomes pay-to-win is something we’re interested to find out. For now, Star Trek fans should keep an eye on it and fingers crossed.
At the very least, it’s an interesting use of the property. Whether the free-to-play monetization ends up diminishing that enthusiasm is in Disruptor Beam’s hands. Star Trek Timelines will be out on iOS, Android, and browsers this year.
Products In This Article
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
