When I think about Star Trek, I think about the Prime Directive. I don’t think about the way the show deals with it, necessarily. But I try to consider what it would be like to be an explorer trying to catalogue the universe without interfering with it. And that’s exactly what Jett: The Far Shore is seemingly about — at least according to its latest trailer, which debuted in today’s PlayStation State of Play event.
In the new video, a voiceover walks viewers through the game’s concept. And more than anything, Jett is a game about flying a ship through an alien ocean planet. That motion looks kinetic and exciting. But then what do players do next? Well, the voiceover explains that developers Superbrothers and Pine Scented did not want to make a game about combat or resource extraction. Instead, players are supposed to avoid harming wildlife or disturbing resources. Jett’s conceit is one of observation and understanding, not exploitation
And it looks like a lot of the game will require players to go to extra lengths to evade violence. That’s true even when the fauna is behaving erratically toward the player character or her ship. The voiceover talks about adapting to the environment as part of that effort to avoid conflict.
But that doesn’t mean players should never go near the alien animals. Instead, a large part of the game is about using tools to seeing how those creatures react and then trying to understand that behavior.
Something about that pitch is very appealing to me. Conflict can exist in avoiding conflict and simply doing the science. And I want to experience that.
Jett: The Far Shore is due out on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 later this year.