Star Trek: Away Mission Is A Free Roam VR Arcade Game

It’s time to boldly go to the final frontier in VR (again); a new Star Trek VR arcade game is in the works.

Star Trek: Discovery Away Mission is in development at Sandbox VR, Variety reports. In this 30 minute experience, up to six friends will investigate the icy surface of a moon in search of a lost ship. You’ll join Starfleet officer Sylvia Tilly to solve problems and even engage in a few shootouts. Yes, that means you’ll wield the iconic Phaser in VR.

Sandbox is working closely with CBS on the project. There’s a teaser trailer below, though it doesn’t tell us much.

Speaking to the site, Sandbox Chief Product Officer Siqui Chen called the experience a “0.1 version of the holodeck” that Trek itself made famous. The experience will debut at Sandbox’s Hong Kong and San Francisco locations this fall before coming to new facilities in New York, Austin, San Diego and Chicago.

Sandbox’s VR arcade offering includes full-body motion capture in free-roaming VR locations. You strap markers to your body to bring your hands and feet into VR. We went hands-on with one of its original games last year, and the company’s since raised $68 million in funding.

Of course, this isn’t Star Trek’s first VR mission. A few years back Ubisoft brought us Star Trek: Bridge Crew, a cooperative multiplayer game that let teams pilot iconic vessels. We’re big fans of it, but it only offers a small slice of the wider Star Trek experience. Away Mission certainly seems to be appealing to the other side of the franchise. We’ll be interested to check it out later on in the year.