As Star Trek celebrates its 60th anniversary, the long-running science-fiction franchise is preparing to explore a new genre with its upcoming 2027 release, Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, states Screen Rant.
Over six decades, Star Trek has repeatedly experimented with different storytelling styles.
From the political and wartime narratives of Deep Space Nine to the mysteries and serialised adventures of Discovery, the franchise has continued to move beyond conventional stories of space exploration.
Other instalments have also explored courtroom drama, philosophy, survival, comedy, romance and even musicals.
Now, Shadow Frontier is set to take the franchise into the world of survival horror.
Developed by Bloober Team and published by Paramount Games, the upcoming third-person action-adventure follows former Lieutenant Ro Laren, voiced once again by Michelle Forbes.
The story begins after Ro crash-lands on a distant planet controlled by a mysterious hive mind.
The hostile world is filled with dangerous creatures, environmental threats and disturbing visions, while an unknown force attempts to invade and absorb her consciousness.
Unlike traditional Star Trek games centred on space exploration and combat, Shadow Frontier will focus heavily on survival. Players will have to decide whether to fight or evade enemies as they explore the planet, solve puzzles and use familiar Star Trek technology, including the Tricorder and Phaser.
The game has been described as a mature psychological adventure combining exploration, combat and survival.
Its darker tone could make it one of the franchise’s most horror-focused projects yet.
While Star Trek has explored horror elements in the past through stories involving the Borg, parasitic creatures, physical transformations and psychological terror, Shadow Frontier appears set to take those elements further by placing survival horror at the centre of the experience.
The upcoming game also represents another example of the franchise’s growing willingness to experiment with genre.
Recent projects such as Strange New Worlds have moved between comedy, romance, musicals and horror without abandoning the core identity of Star Trek.
With Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, the franchise is now preparing to test whether its familiar universe, characters and technology can support a full-fledged survival-horror experience when the game arrives in 2027.
