Star Trek Officially Switches Genres In Across The Unknown

Published Oct 16, 2026, 1:00 AM EDT

Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. 

Star Trek fans have had an eventful year so far celebrating the franchise's 60th anniversary, and while 2026 is coming to a close in just a few months, Trekkies still have a lot to look forward to. One of the biggest releases yet to come this year is November's Magic: The Gathering x Star Trek new Universes Beyond expansion that celebrates six decades of the franchise's best characters, ships, momentous events, etc. The crossover promises cards spanning every era, including exclusive signed cards from Patrick Stewart and others.

Beyond MTG, the colony-building game Star Trek: Outposts Unknown launches October 20, while 2027's Shadow Frontier will give us a darker, horror-inspired adventure starring the incredible Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren. Further, recently at NYCC, Paramount also confirmed that Starfleet Academy will return for its second and final season in March 2027.

However, if you're looking for a change of pace from the typical Star Trek journey, Across the Unknown is available now and takes the franchise in a completely unprecedented new direction.

Star Trek: Voyager Returns & Switches Genre In Across The Unknown

Released back in February this year, Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown is primarily a narrative-driven survival strategy game that challenges players to guide the USS Voyager through the Delta Quadrant while you "manage the ship and resources ... and make difficult decisions." However, the game's latest update introduces an entirely different experience, effectively switching genres with a new roguelite mode called Q Trials.

Released October 1 as a free update, Q Trials replaces the original campaign with a faster-paced gameplay loop built around repeated journeys through procedurally generated sectors. Each run introduces different encounters, objectives, and challenges, forcing players to adapt their strategies each run.

Players can also experiment with unconventional crew combinations, including putting characters like Harry Kim or Seven of Nine in command. Meanwhile, special "Q Modifiers" introduce unpredictable advantages and disadvantages, from increased firepower at the expense of ship defenses to expanded crew capacity, etc.

Importantly, the new mode features persistent progression, meaning certain unlocked characters and researched technologies carry over between runs. This encourages experimentation and makes each attempt more feasible, even after you mess up and inevitably die in previous runs.

The entire experience is overseen by the omnipotent Q, once again voiced by John de Lancie, who gets a sadistic gratification from the whole thing. Although the original campaign already featured some roguelike elements, Q Trials fully embraces the genre's replayability, offering a considerably different way to experience the beloved Star Trek setting and Voyager timeline.

Across The Unknown Lets You Rewrite Star Trek History

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Probably the most fun aspect of Across the Unknown is that it lets fans "rewrite" Star Trek history in the sense that you can revisit some of Voyager's most iconic moments and make decisions that Captain Janeway never did. Rather than simply recreating the television show's seven-season storyline beat for beat, the game features "What If?" scenarios that let you see how things would play out if Janeway made different choices.

One of the earliest examples involves the Caretaker's Array, which Janeway famously destroyed to protect the Ocampa, stranding Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. Players can instead use the Array to return home almost immediately, essentialy ending the adventure before it even begins.

Another interesting scenario revisits the controversial episode "Tuvix," letting players save the titular character rather than separate him back into Tuvok and Neelix. Other possibilities include offering Seska a chance at redemption, altering Kes' fate, and embracing dangerous Borg technology that the original crew largely avoided. Even major characters aren't necessarily safe, as poor decisions can result in their deaths, which completely changes the crew's composition for the rest of the game.

Although the overarching storyline still follows the show's major events, these alternate outcomes are a cool way to let longtime fans experiment with Star Trek: Voyager's established canon, particularly for fans who've spent decades debating Janeway's controversial decisions from the series.

Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown

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