LOS ANGELES -- Timed to release in 2012 with JJ Abrams’ new movie, the new Star Trek game for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 from developer Digital Extremes, publisher Paramount Interactive Entertainment and Bad Robot Interactive introduces an original story line that’s set after the events of the 2009 film. Digital Extremes was at E3 to showcase a pre-alpha demo of the new game and talk about this fresh co-op take on the new Star Trek universe.

In development for more than a year and a half, Star Trek was playable at Paramount’s E3 booth – at least for two players from the Digital Extremes team. The developer is working in close collaboration with the 2009 Star Trek filmmaking team - Bad Robot, writing team Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci (K/O Paper Products) and Damon Lindelof. Star Trek features an original story by BAFTA award winner and God of War writer, Marianne Krawczyk, in collaboration with the writer/producers of the 2009 Star Trek films, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. DNA of the game is co-op, every design decision made during the development was made with co-op in mind.

The demo was shown with two HD screens to highlight the depth of asymmetrical co-op gameplay. Digital Extremes said the new game will also support Sony’s new PlayStation 3D TV, which will allow two players to view the game on one screen without splitting the screen in half. The demo began with Kirk and Spock (featuring the likeness of the film actors with their voice acting to be added later) making a dramatic shuttle jump to re-board the Enterprise that is under attack. Navigating deadly mines, players control the breakneck jump, complete with a near-crash landing by Kirk (while Spock managed a near-perfect landing).

Once aboard, Kirk and Spock make their way through the Enterprise using their tricorders to unlock doors and scan fallen red shirts to try and figure out what’s captured the Enterprise and what caused it to go into Command Lockout. After receiving a distress call from a crew member, they head to the nearest turbo lift to make their way to the Shuttle Bay.

As they find the source of the transmission, they discover it’s a trap, and are ambushed by a group of enemies, triggering a playable cut scene. Kirk and Spock see the event from two different points of views through cinematic camera cuts, and each dives for cover in a scripted event where both players keep full control of their weapons.

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.