Sound Design: F

[Verenti]

The sounds in this game are just bad. Really bad.

Music: doesn't sound like Star Trek. Occassionally, I hear some music that makes me rethink this until I remember that I put the Lower Decks soundtrack on (which does a FANTASTIC job of capturing various eras of Trek music.) If your Star Trek game doesn't have a theme that anyone can say "That's Star Trek" then you've messed up and need to fix that.

Voice Acting: Wooooow. Bad. Star Trek has a history of employing Shakespearean actors and you can tell from their voices. This game... are they staff? Because the Romulans sound friendly, the Klingon and the Cardassians sound like "some guy" and the federation sounds... very peppy. It's just awful. Again, you should be able to tell the different empires apart from listening to the voice actors. SPEAKING OF WHICH, there are a number of actors from those shows who aren't famous but loved by the fanbase. You should have budgeted to get Dukat or Martok or SOMEONE. I know they are available: every 30 seconds Star Trek Online has new content with this actor or that actor.

Sound Effect: Not the worst. But also, if you have a fanbase who have been fans for 30-50 years or for their entire lives, then just get the sounds right. It's not hard and that will be proved in a few weeks when someone puts out an LCARs interface mod for your game.

 

[:Charlemunculus]

Ok ngl I saw the comment about the klingon voice a few times today while I was at work looking at comments and reviews and thought surely you all must be over-reacting. I finally have had a chance to sit down and play and ... wow. I am enjoying the game on the whole but those voice decisions are bafflingly unserious, it would have been better to have no voice acting than adding it in this weirdly.

 

[TehJumpingJawa]

"Hah! Mere target practice!"

 

[DanaDark]

The voice acting is definitely "stranger in line at McDonalds" quality. Nobody sounds as they should, at all. UI sounds don't bother trying to use any Star trek sounds, and the ship weapons are not Star Trek either.

My guess is they went with a "Tuesday" approach and might alter later with better? I hope? Else, Modders to the rescue!

 

[The Russian Empire]

The voice acting is definitely "stranger in line at McDonalds" quality. Nobody sounds as they should, at all. UI sounds don't bother trying to use any Star trek sounds, and the ship weapons are not Star Trek either.

No wonder they skipped out on a Dev Log addressing these themes...

 

[fabsh]

This is definitely the worst part of this game. Any random Critical Role episode has better voice acting than this game when they just try a voice totally without preparation.

Edit: I also do not understand how the above criticism by @Verenti is "targeting developers". Asking whether professional voice actors were used when these lines were recorded is a totally legitimate question, considering how off the mark this stuff sounds.

 

[AlphaOmega35]

This is definitely the worst part of this game. Any random Critical Role episode has better voice acting than this game when they just try a voice totally without preparation.

Edit: I also do not understand how the above criticism by @Verenti is "targeting developers". Asking whether professional voice actors were used when these lines were recorded is a totally legitimate question, considering how off the mark this stuff sounds.

The original, unedited version said specifically that the sound designer should be fired.

 

[fabsh]

Alright. While I might agree with the sentiment, I see why they would stick that warning on the post. Thanks!

I mean, people routinely call for me getting fired. I'm kind of used to it. Shouldn't really worry you unless you work at a place that gets influenced by random people on a message board. And then that is what should worry you, really.

 

[mightygaz]

The voice acting is definitely "stranger in line at McDonalds" quality. Nobody sounds as they should, at all. UI sounds don't bother trying to use any Star trek sounds, and the ship weapons are not Star Trek either.

My guess is they went with a "Tuesday" approach and might alter later with better? I hope? Else, Modders to the rescue!

its a relatively cheap game, and its no worse than stellaris. you ever heard the voice performances from the actual cast in some of the older games?

the sound effects though could do with a revision. though i suppose it would depend what they have a license for. mods often use stuff that you can't just put into a commercial product.

 

[Calvax]

I hope we can get some updates to the lines other empires use. "Dagger's talk, money howls" is an odd thing for the Klingons to say and it's repeated every time in a very un-Klingon voice.

EDIT: It's also odd that some minor factions have rude/aggressive voice lines that they use even when they're agreeing to treaties, including joining the Federation

 

[Cassilda]

I agree, sounds and music are underwhelming. The space background is too noisy, the music volume is awfully low and it's really difficult to hear. The music itself is not really on par with either the original Stellaris soundtrack or the original Star Trek ones.

 

[rick19572021]

I agree about the music being underwhelming. At times it is unrecognizable.

 

[RemingtonRyder]

I actually had a go at trying to make the space sounds quieter but, perhaps because there are so many sounds, it didn't really seem any different when I loaded into the game.

As for the music, I've already replaced that with a selection of tunes from the episode "The Doomsday Machine." I wouldn't say no to some music inspired by that.

 

[Verenti]

The original, unedited version said specifically that the sound designer should be fired.

To be fair, that was followed immediately with, paraphrasing, a statement that I wasn't actually advocating for their termination.

In context, it was pretty obvious that I was using hyperbole as a rhetorical tool to highlight the poor quality of the sound design and the baffling choice to use these as final assets.

I think the whole poor quality of the work is deeply unprofessional and anti-consumer. I'd really expect more from a mod than some of the quality of this game, let alone a product a company which is charging money for its services.

It's a bit disgraceful. I know people in the indie space who put way more care and attention into their work than this game would seem to reflect. Like, did no one who saw this game not stop and say "this klingon doesn't sound very klingon like"? How did no one, not saying the devs, but in QA or Pdox or any number of eyes (ears?) that got on this not stop and say "is this seriously what we're launching with?" After all, this isn't a Peter Dinklage and Destiny thing where his star power caused reluctance to question his choices.

If a company is willing to take peoples hard earned money for a production, then they should put the care and attention to ensure it's the best possible quality. Especially if said company stands to make millions, which is more than a lot of people will see in their life times. Especially when people have no chance to try the game to see what they're investing into before they buy. People are trusting companies and to violate that trust by launching with unsatisfactory assets or a broken preorder bonus? It's a disgrace.

 

[Triscopic]

I find the Klingon lines and voices the most jarring of all. “*daggers* talk”? There are so many Klingon bladed weapons to choose from. Did we really need to use “daggers”? And “money howls”? I don’t know where that came from. The whole thing is just bizarre.