Star Trek Finally Comes To VR & Actors And Players Are Loving It
How to lure the common Star Trek aficionados into another playable version of their beloved franchise? After all, the games were met with high criticism in the past and not a single one really seemed up to its ‘hype’. The answer may now be here with us and it has a lot to do with the latest final frontier coming to living rooms around the world — Virtual Reality.
So, after Ubisoft’s E3 press conference unveiled the all new Star Trek: Bridge Crew, specifically designed for Oculus Rift, it’s now possible to right all the past wrongs and get the ship literally back on course with an immersive multiplayer game that sees players take on various roles on the Enterprise Bridge.
Up to 4 Players will be enabled to join their forces and relive the sci-fi world of Trek and hopefully revive the cult series from a gaming perspective to restore its glory. Developed by Ubisoft’s own Red Storm Entertainment, the game was now launched by creative director David Votypka with a nice video of well-known members of Star Trek past and new casts to play the game.
LeVar Burton, aka Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Geordi La Forge, took the role of captain, supported by Karl Urban, the Star Trek movie reboot series’ Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy, and (male) fan favorite Jeri Ryan, also known as Star Trek Voyager’s Seven of Nine, alongside Votypka.
Now read their reactions, as LeVar Burton emphatically said:
If I could have imagined what I had wanted the Star Trek VR game to be — this is it! This is what I had been waiting for […] It’s such a blast. I think they really nailed it. The graphics — everything — it’s so beautiful, but you will forget all of that because the gameplay is really engaging.”
Burton, appearing onstage following the reveal, praising the game for creating the experience of being on the starship bridge even better than being on set.
We use our imaginations so much when we’re on the set. When you’re operating the console, it’s not connected to anything — you knew that, right?” he added, to laughter from the audience.
But here’s the thing: you don’t have to imagine in this game: you are existing in a completely rendered environment. You are on the bridge of a starship and you’re with your friends — it’s pretty cool.”
One of the most important aspects for Fans of Star Trek though, is the correct image of the values as a whole. So it’s pleasing to hear that the game has not only emulated the appearance of the world, but the values that come with it, as well.
We really had to work together to accomplish the mission, and what’s more Star Trek than that?” asked Burton.
“I mean you can play as the engineer, or you can drive the ship. You can be tactical or you can be the captain, but no one position is more important than any other. Everybody has to do their level best to get the job done, and that is at the core of what Star Trek is about for me.”
The presentation also underlined the social VR aspect of Star Trek: Bridge Crew even more, as Jeri Ryan chipped in on the social focus saying:
You’re interacting with each other and talking to each other and taking orders from the captain, and it’s really cool […] “It’s your own Star Trek experience in a virtual world where you can hang out with whoever you want, and that’s a pretty big deal,” added Burton.
Finally, with such a strong publisher like Ubisoft stepping into the world of triple-A VR games, it’s hopefully heralding a positive future for the platform in general.
At Ubisoft, VR is about more than just technology,” said Votypka. “It’s about creating games that just weren’t possible before, and exploring new worlds with friends, without ever having to leave your living room. It’s about fully immersing yourself in these worlds and going places and becoming people and doing things that you otherwise could not do […]Today VR is all about opening up the final frontier.”
This article was originally published on pionic.
