Recent reviews by docprof

I 100% completed this game over 16.3 hours, according to Steam. I enjoyed it and feel good about my purchase (as well as casting an economic vote for more non-F2P/gacha Trek games) but I don't necessarily recommend it for absolutely everyone. Like with every game it's important to know what you're getting into.

For one thing - I played it solo and I definitely think it'd be more enjoyable in co-op. Dal and Gwyn have different abilities for both combat and puzzles, and while I still enjoyed figuring out how to best use the available tools in a given situation, working together with a friend/sibling/SO/whatever would probably be more fun. If you want to play a co-op Trek game with someone young or not experienced with games, this is a great choice (especially if they like Prodigy in specific). It's less of a selling point if you're playing alone.

There are gameplay videos if you want to see what it looks like, but I'd describe the basic structure as this: play a series of mostly-linear levels, exploring for collectibles and secrets along the way, with two primary types of gameplay setpiece: combat and puzzles.

Combat is generally dealing with waves of attacking robots with several different abilities (projectile vs melee attacks, healing nearby robots, exploding on death, etc.). It's relatively simple as action games go, which means it's approachable, and there is depth from the fact that Gwyn and Dal each have a few different weapons that work differently. Gwyn is also better at melee while Dal is better at range. So you can experiment and mix-and-match your approach to the particular set of robots attacking at that time - or you can be lazy like I was and just use Dal's dual hand-phasers for everything. :) There are also a few boss fights which tend to be a bit more involved and have some gimmicks, as is common for this kind of game.

Puzzles generally involve picking up and relocating energy sources and reflectors in order to get energy where you want it to go, to do things like open doors, disable laser barriers, activate lifts, etc. Some are very simple but most require Gwyn and Dal to work together and use their unique abilities through several steps. None of them have time pressure and I don't think you can make any of them unsolvable. As an adult who's played a number of puzzle games, I found these puzzles pretty satisfyingly chill and they never stumped me. They may be more challenging for younger players.

Along the way, there's flavor from a fairly simple story and a lot of character dialog (plus some unlockable decorations for Dal's quarters that make references to most Trek series. And the other crew members help out in a couple ways - Jankom and Rok sell you upgrades, while each of Jankom, Rok, Zero, and Murf have an ability to help in combat (though I kind of disliked how this is implemented) and can open certain kinds of barriers you find in levels. That latter mechanic is one way replaying levels is encouraged, since many levels have secrets behind barriers for which you won't have the right crewmate the first time you play the level. Levels also have a few different optional objectives (complete in a certain amount of time, die fewer than three times, and find a certain amount of resources) that I usually didn't get all of the first time through (I like to explore levels thoroughly so I generally had to come back for the speedrun objective). Though, given this replay encouragement, it's a little frustrating that you can't skip tutorials and dialog scenes on repeat plays.

So, that's the kind of game this is. (I've seen some comparisons to LEGO games, which I think is a bit misleading but there are some parallels.) I think it's a solid execution on that structure (there are some bugs but nothing game-breaking that I've encountered). If that structure doesn't sound appealing, I probably wouldn't recommend the game. But for me - an adult Trek fan who is an experienced player of action and puzzle games - I found it to be a great way to relax. Spending time with the characters this way also made me like Prodigy more, which I had previously been kind of lukewarm about, and I'm excited to check out the new episodes. Younger players might find it an even more engaging experience, and I imagine that if someone introduced their child to Trek through Prodigy, they could have a great time playing this game together.