Star Trek: Bridge Crew has boldly gone back to The Next Generation
Use the force, Starbuck!
Originally released as a VR-exclusive game, Star Trek: Bridge Crew not-so-boldly went back to the mainstream back in December, opening its universe of co-op online Star Trek roleplaying to those with more traditional controllers. Now it's recapturing 90s nostalgia in a new expansion released yesterday (and back in May for PS4). Star Trek: Bridge Crew - The Next Generation is now available whether or not you've got a fancy space-visor.
In this expansion, players assemble aboard the Enterprise D, famous for being captained by notorious maniac Jean Luc Picard. Quite what Ubisoft hope to achieve by putting random players from the internet - the universe's second most unstable force - in charge of the Enterprise is beyond me, but I'm certain it's going to be hilarious. On the Enterprise D, the Engineering role is now replaced with Operations, who has to juggle a bit more than they used to, as you can see in this official DLC tutorial video.
While fully compatible with the original Ongoing Voyages modes (dynamic campaigns, in effect) from the original game, the Next Generation expansion adds two more, and two new enemy factions. In Patrol mode, you'll just wander space, bumping into procedurally generated trouble along the way. The Resistance mode sounds more interesting - your ship is being stalked by a Borg cube, and you need to complete several mission objectives before you can fight back against it. As well as the Borg, the sneaky Romulans are lurking out there, ready to cause some grief.
While the TNG expansion doesn't include any additional scripted missions, letting players crew the Enterprise D through all the procedural modes of the original game plus a couple more should extend the life of Bridge Crew somewhat, and seems a logical enough purchase if you've got a regular crew to play Pretend Trek with.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew - The Next Generation DLC is out now on Steam for £12.49/14.99/14.99, and requires the original game to play.