Bugs are just the start of it – Star Trek Timelines Review

I’m an Original Trekkie. That means old. Ok, so two major issues here. I think the premise is interesting, and it’s interesting to casually play through. But this game relies heavily on Minecraft-style building, which means grinding and farming for components, which means using chronitons (a finite resource that governs how many missions you can perform to get those components) which means spending money if you don’t want to wait for them to regenerate. First major issue is that after crafting something, the game will sometimes (and this happens to me at least once a session) lose the crafted item and I must begin again. Yeah. Annoying if the game is free, but intolerable in a game that ALWAYS has a hand out for more money. Real money. This bug is compounded by finishing missions or events where I am rewarded with a component or schematics or whatever which somehow...disappear. Again, for a game that solicits money (and the amount is significant -$10 to $100) this is bad. BUT, that is a technical issue. Worse is the very abbreviated storyline. There are, near as I can tell, 11 episodes of 6-10 missions each. And that is it. Get to the end and nothing resolved, the storyline doesn’t advance, and you are left replaying old missions to get components (which disappear disturbingly often) to make things (which also disappear disturbingly often) for no real in game reason other than to do it. The game itself doesn’t offer much in the way of choice or anything either - it’s like it’s on rails. Gauntlet - don’t waste your time. Faction missions - ditto. Cadet Challenges - lose the stupid SJW themes in there - I’m here to play, not be preached at about “equality in Starfleet.” Events - treated as a money making vehicle, with plots that don’t tie into anything in the larger game. In sum - don’t waste money on this game. There is little value here. As I said, it’s interesting as a casual (read: free) diversion, but I really balk at paying premium prices in game for sub-par storylines and game design. This game exists to cynically vacuum as many dollars as possible out of your wallet. Resist. It is NOT futile.
Review by Goaltender66 on Star Trek Timelines.