Star Trek: Trexels Review

For some unknown reason, no one seems to be able to make a decent Star Trek game. Some argue the last time a good Star Trek game came out, it was for the Sega Genesis. Some would even go farther back, saying it was on the NES. Regardless, every Star Trek related game from older PC games up to the most recent one based on the J. J. Abrams adaptation of the series have not received high praise from critics. So, does a simulation/management style mobile game fare any better?

No. Especially when the game commits one of the biggest sins in mobile gaming: a paid game that has premium content and uses a similar structure seen in free to play games. In the grand scheme of things it isn't like the average user is going to be out an insane amount of money, but generally speaking, players don't enjoy having to pay for a game and then pay to do anything worthwhile in it. This is exactly what Star Trek Trexels does.

Star Trek Trexels also feebly attempts to use a game style similar to titles such as Game Dev Story or Star Wars: Tiny Death Star. In this case, the starship the player controls (which is pretty much the Enterprise sans its famous crew) requires rooms and stations to be built throughout. All of these rooms serve a purpose, from getting additional crew members to adding stats to their current crew. However, for every room that a player has access to there is also a premium version costing a hefty amount of dilithium crystals - the paid in game currency. A well-known element of the Star Trek series, the dilithium crystals in this game can be earned through completing missions, though at a very slow pace, and certainly not a high enough pace to grind long enough to unlock any of the original Enterprise crew. There's also additional premium content that costs $10 apiece, if players want to incorporate visual elements from the original Star Trek movie or Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The "missions" within the game almost always involve either sending a probe to some planet/sector or an away team mission. The away team missions boil down to the player collecting crystals, then tapping one of two commands on the screen they'd like the away team to perform. There is a time limit, so players have to act fast if they want to succeed. However, these mini games can grow tedious quickly, and there is very little that makes one stand out from another.

Star Trek Trexels tries to be a good game, however this pixilated nod to Gene Roddenberry's classic Sci Fi show seems as though it flunked out of Starfleet Academy. The repetitious and terribly uninteresting gameplay feels borrowed from too many other sources, rather than trying to be its own unique thing. It also suffers from just being plain old dull. She may have given it all she's got, but dangit Scotty, it's not good enough.