Star Trek: Outposts Unknown Preview

One of the phrases that Star Trek coined long ago is “Infinite diversity in infinite combinations”. Well, when I first saw that Star Trek: Outposts Unknown is a city builder, that phrase came to mind, as you’re not flying through space and getting into fights with Klingons; you’re in charge of a new Starfleet research colony in the 23rd century (AKA The Original Series and Strange New Worlds era).

You, as captain of the U.S.S. Resonant, land a crew on Daegus, a planet in the X’Lehari System, in a region of space which Starfleet is starting to make ties with. The locals need help analysing an anomaly called “the Rift”, and in exchange you’re in charge of setting up an outpost or five.

Said anomaly causes the planets within the system to experience tetryon storms, which occur with frequency. Thankfully, your main outpost building has a shield easily capable of handling the radiation fallout. However, its range is limited, and it’s all too easy to run out of space within it.

Of course, your people and equipment can survive a bit of a storm, should they be gathering materials or investigating new types of plants. At least, they were during the 30-ish days which I was able to play through; things might change at other outposts on other planets.

You have a small crew to begin with, but you can request more through supply drops. The choice is usually either one crew member or between two different resources — not sure why an entire shuttlecraft can only carry one person or 10 hyposprays, but this is the game mechanic.

Since everything in Outposts Unknown requires a metal or a biological item, you will spend most of your time waiting for people to mine, then refine. You can speed things up… just don’t forget to slow them back down when you need to. Situations such as needing to reassign people, wanting to read what’s being said, or making certain choices, for example.

There were a few issues during my time with the game, such as a limited number of character models, the need of a run through a spellchecker, and the pathfinding needing some work. I accidentally deleted a facility (the button is quite close to the others) so set another one to rebuild in the same area. Once it had been disassembled the crew walked all the way back to the base to get materials, instead of using the pile they had just made.

Star Trek: Outposts Unknown has potential, though I don’t think it’s for me. I like to set things up and let them run, but with this you have to move personnel around depending on your needs. Require some sample containers? Then you need to reassign someone to make them, so decide whether collecting metal or gathering plants is more important. Everyone is busy but you need construction done? I hope you have someone to spare. So yeah, I was hoping for SimCity with phasers, but that’s not what this is.

Star Trek: Outposts Unknown is coming to PC later in 2026.