Bloober Team maps Ro Laren to Star Trek horror, aiming for a 2027 Steam release

Bloober Team just announced a Star Trek horror game with a very specific anchor: you play Ro Laren, the Bajoran officer from Star Trek: The Next Generation who returned for Star Trek: Picard, with Michelle Forbes reprising the role. The game is called Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, and it drops you on a rescue mission to a planet taken over by an alien entity. The deeper Ro goes, the description says, the more the planet threatens to sever her connection to reality, pulling her into a corrupted labyrinth where memories twist.

This is not just “a horror game with spaceships.” Bloober’s pitch is psychological horror in a world built around exploration and morality, and it gives players concrete tools to match that tone. A Steam store description says you will use Ro’s tricorder to analyze objects and her phaser to both solve puzzles and zap some enemies. The store page also promises a mix of “exploration, puzzles, combat and cinematic set-pieces.” Translation for decision-makers: this is an attempt to fuse Star Trek-style discovery and sci-fi instrumentation with a horror loop that ramps tension through perception, not only jumpscares.

If you are tracking Bloober Team’s strategy, this announcement reads like an extension of an existing operating pattern, not a random detour. The studio is coming off Cronos: The New Dawn, and it has other high-profile work in flight, including a remake of the original Silent Hill and Layers of Fear 3. In other words, the company is leaning hard into psychological horror as its core identity while simultaneously stacking brand recognition through remakes and now a major IP universe. That combination can be a capital-smart move if those projects de-risk discovery through existing audiences. But it also compounds execution risk, because high-expectation franchises tend to demand both technical polish and tonal discipline.

The Ro Laren casting detail matters for how the game may land with fans. Ro was introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation and returned for Picard, with Michelle Forbes playing the character. The source also notes that this is not Forbes’s first videogame credit, pointing to her role as Dr. Judith Mossman from Half-Life 2. For a studio, familiar voice talent can be more than marketing. It can reduce the friction of translating a beloved character into interactive media, because voice performance and character interpretation are major inputs for immersion, especially in psychological horror where the boundary between memory and reality is part of the design.

Mechanically, Shadow Frontier is still light on details, but the promise outlines a plausible structure for a horror hybrid. The tricorder suggests an investigation system where “analyze objects” can drive puzzle progression and reveal clues, while the phaser is both an interaction tool for gameplay and a pressure valve for combat. That matters because Star Trek videogames sometimes emphasize shooting aliens more than the shows do, and the PC Gamer write-up explicitly flags that question: “something Star Trek videogames tend to emphasize a wee bit more than the shows.” In practical terms, fans will likely scrutinize whether the game builds dread through uncertainty and observation, or whether it slides into franchise habit. Expect that audience reaction, positive or negative, to influence how quickly the studio can iterate on future horror titles.

On timing, the plan is a 2027 release, with availability on Steam. The source does not provide a precise release date, but it does tie into near-term visibility. PC Gaming Show returns Sunday, June 7 at 12 pm PDT, and the article notes that viewers can visit the show’s Steam page to wishlist anticipated games and tune in for big reveals. For executives, that window matters because wishlist velocity and early visibility can shift how studios and publishers allocate budget and production urgency in the months leading up to launch.

There is also a second-order implication here for boards and investors, even if you do not care about Star Trek as a fan. When a studio is already juggling a Silent Hill remake, Layers of Fear 3, and a separate title like Cronos: The New Dawn, adding another project tied to a major IP universe increases dependency on schedule discipline, IP compliance, and cross-stakeholder alignment. Horror is hard enough when you control the world. It is harder when you must honor established canon and expectations while still delivering something that feels like a Bloober product. In short: Shadow Frontier is a high-potential brand bet, but it is also another test of whether Bloober can consistently ship polished, coherent experiences across multiple concurrent pipelines.

For peers in the horror and AA-to-mid-tier space, the headline takeaway is simple. Bloober is using a triple-track approach: production momentum with prior releases, tonal specialization in psychological horror, and franchise leverage via Star Trek plus major legacy remakes. The strategic question is whether that mix converts into durable player trust. If it does, Bloober strengthens its position as a go-to horror studio for premium licensing deals. If it does not, the cost is reputational and financial, because the gap between “ambitious IP horror” and “generic movie game” is where audiences quickly lose patience.