My first-ever videogames job was over twenty years ago, a project that I fell into half by luck and half by skill – Star Trek: Invasion, a space-combat action title developed by Warthog Games for Activision for the Sony PlayStation (aka PSOne)…
Stardate 54101.02
It is the 24th Century: Borg vessels are rapidly approaching Federation space, Romulans are attacking Starfleet vessels and a respected fleet captain has turned renegade, taking his starship with him!
As a hotshot pilot in the elite Red Squad tactical strike force, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Worf, you must uncover the truth behind this deadly pattern of events, and fight back to save the galaxy from a doomsday scenario!
Flying a prototype single-seat combat fighter code-named “Valkyrie”, you and your squad members are in for the fight of your lives…
One of the things that gamers and Star Trek fans loved the most about Star Trek: Invasion were the ‘hero’ ships of the story – the agile Valkyrie fighters and their formidable carrier vessel, the U.S.S. Typhon. In the time since the game came out, I’ve spoken to many fan artists, podcasters and youtubers who love the ships and have kept them alive in Trek fandom – and it’s great to see something you’ve worked on inspire people years after the fact.
So it was amazing for me to get a call from Thomas Marrone, art director for the Star Trek Online massively multiplayer game, and learn that the Typhon would be returning to the world of videogames this month in a new “Heritage” pack of starships for STO, featuring vessels from classic Star Trek games from years past. Along with the Typhon and the Valkyrie II/Valor fighter from Star Trek: Invasion, the new pack also includes the U.S.S. Premonition from Star Trek: Armada and the U.S.S. Achilles from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Dominion Wars – but obviously it’s the Typhon I’m thrilled to see back in action. Check out the trailer below…
I was blown away by the care and attention to detail in the new digital models. The team at Arc Games have taken the venerable PS1-era ‘space brick’ from Invasion and given it a full Starfleet glow-up in line with current graphics standards, enabling STO players to launch squadrons of Valkyries and take the ship into ‘Fortress Mode’ – and it looks incredible!
Thomas and I have done some interviews where we talk about this project at i09, Screen Rant and Collider (click the links to read on) and you can learn more about the Heritage Starship Bundle at the official Star Trek Online website.
