The Top 25 Star Trek Games

[Louis_Cypher]

I played Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force over the Christmas holidays, since it was re-released on GoG.com. In the original game they initially couldn't get Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine due to some technical detail, but patched her voice in later, and the GoG version includes this restored voice work. One of the original devs mentions this in a user review. I installed a HD patch before playing, but I can't remember which one. The game is excellent, probably better than I remember it, since I wasn't a fan of Activision's handling of the license at the time. Technology is a logical progression from Voyager, and the show indeed was leaning more toward action in later years. There is a lot of good attention to detail, some nice imaginative alien species, and since the entire voice cast are there so it is fascinating for VOY fans especially.

The game opens during a holodeck simulation of a Borg away mission. Tuvok is less than impressed with your solution to the final force field you encounter. Voyager is then attacked by an automated warship, which is designed to filter species by whoever possesses the technology to defeat it, upon which eventuality, it's last action before destruction is to teleport the victim starship into a pocket dimension, full of other shipwrecked vessels. You then proceed to investigate other starships trapped by this dimension, via away missions, discovering new and familiar alien races. The mission is to gather information on what has brought the vessels to this region, and how to escape. The first vessel, a biological ship belonging to a previously unknown alien race known as the Ethereans, is quite an interesting start to the game.

 

[Cyberarmy]

First I thought " WTF there were more then 10 Star Trek games?" but then realized that I nearly played them all and some of them multiple times.
Birth of the Federation is probably one of my favorites.

 

[Morgoth]

Putting Klingon Honor Guard above Elite Force is heretical, but otherwise a good list.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Nice list. I remember having a lot fun with Judgement Rites. Ega Trek seems interesting too.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

I'm playing Star Trek: Elite Force II and unfortunately I don't have good things to say about this one. It's a playable game, but not one of the greats. I remembered it being a game with a lot of problems, and they are still as annoying years later. It's still worth playing once if you played the original, but I wouldn't recommend it alone. Only a few members of the voice cast are present, Picard, Barclay and Tuvok, and the game feels like it was made with either a much lower budget, or with much less time, or much less knowledge of Star Trek. Unlike the first, which was made by Raven Software, one of the oldest FPS teams in the world, the sequel was made by a Quake III mod team given the official license.

Weaknesses:

• Not as much fidelity to Star Trek's visual and procedural feel as the original Elite Force, but it has some good moments
  
• Weapons feel off somehow, sometimes behaving more like a ballistic gun than a phaser, with enemies dodging too often
  
• The main enemy are bland bug-like aliens that make up 9/10 missions, and are less interesting than an intelligent culture
  
• These same enemies are bullet sponges, which again does not feel like Star Trek, where all weapons have high lethality
• The story is alright, but presented poorly, with bad cut-scenes, poor voice acting by the aliens, and visual incongruity

The story is that after returning from the Delta Quadrant, the Hazard Team are re-assigned, only to be united again, this time under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard on the Enterprise E. Members of the original team return, like Lt. Munro, Ensign Murphy, Crewman Chang, and Crewman Chell continue their story. After the USS Dallas is attacked by an unknown force, the Enterprise investigates the Attraxian civilization, and their subject species, the Idryll, who may have once possessed a higher level of technology than their masters do currently. Have the Attraxians been suppressing the history of their Idryll subjects? It's not a bad concept, but unfortunately not told very effectively.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Always felt like modern devs are too reluctant to make (mostly) non-violent games for there to be proper Star Trek games.
I'd like to see that dev who keeps making those Sherlock Holmes games give it a crack.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Always felt like modern devs are too reluctant to make (mostly) non-violent games for there to be proper Star Trek games.
I'd like to see that dev who keeps making those Sherlock Holmes games give it a crack.

I think a modern 4x Star Trek game would sell like hotcakes, at least as well as a major Civ title. The IP has definitely been mismanaged for the last 25ish years though. The fact that there are 5(?) ST shows currently airing or in pre-production and no major ST video game releases on the horizon tells you all you need to know.
Has there even been a ST game since STO?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The fact that there are 5(?) ST shows currently airing or in pre-production and no major ST video game releases on the horizon tells you all you need to know

Maybe it's for the best.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

The fact that there are 5(?) ST shows currently airing or in pre-production and no major ST video game releases on the horizon tells you all you need to know

Maybe it's for the best.

Sure. It would in no way surprise me if, say, Brad Wardell has pitched a ST 4x to Paramount and been rejected for ideological differences.

 

[markec]

I'm playing Star Trek: Elite Force II and unfortunately I don't have good things to say about this one. It's a playable game, but not one of the greats. I remembered it being a game with a lot of problems, and they are still as annoying years later. It's still worth playing once if you played the original, but I wouldn't recommend it alone. Only a few members of the voice cast are present, Picard, Barclay and Tuvok, and the game feels like it was made with either a much lower budget, or with much less time, or much less knowledge of Star Trek. Unlike the first, which was made by Raven Software, one of the oldest FPS teams in the world, the sequel was made by a Quake III mod team given the official license.

Weaknesses:

• Not as much fidelity to Star Trek's visual and procedural feel as the original Elite Force, but it has some good moments
  
• Weapons feel off somehow, sometimes behaving more like a ballistic gun than a phaser, with enemies dodging too often
  
• The main enemy are bland bug-like aliens that make up 9/10 missions, and are less interesting than an intelligent culture
  
• These same enemies are bullet sponges, which again does not feel like Star Trek, where all weapons have high lethality
• The story is alright, but presented poorly, with bad cut-scenes, poor voice acting by the aliens, and visual incongruity

The story is that after returning from the Delta Quadrant, the Hazard Team are re-assigned, only to be united again, this time under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard on the Enterprise E. Members of the original team return, like Lt. Munro, Ensign Murphy, Crewman Chang, and Crewman Chell continue their story. After the USS Dallas is attacked by an unknown force, the Enterprise investigates the Attraxian civilization, and their subject species, the Idryll, who may have once possessed a higher level of technology than their masters do currently. Have the Attraxians been suppressing the history of their Idryll subjects? It's not a bad concept, but unfortunately not told very effectively.

I remember playing the game when it was released and found it hilarious that in far future when we travel among stars our technology for night vision is just a simple green image intensification.

 

[deuxhero]

Also EF2 has no Alexandria.

I'm quite frankly surprised there were a full 25 Star Trek games and only the last 5 or so were truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

I'm quite frankly surprised there were a full 25 Star Trek games and only the last 5 or so were truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There have been around 50 Star Trek games, in comparison to roughly 60 Star Wars ones, but toward the end, it was tough deciding what to omit to keep it under 25 titles. Recently though, attempts at developing Star Trek games have been confined to poor mobile cash-ins, arcade style downloadable games, etc, and the license now gets indiscriminately mixed up historically, damaging periodization.

A few notable ones I missed off are:


??). Star Trek: New Worlds (PC)
by Binary Asylum & 14 Degree East, 2000

New Worlds was an RTS game about a rush to set up colonies on new planets that have appeared due to a space anomaly, known as the "Tabula Rasa", if I remember right. Set around Star Trek V and Star Trek VI. However the idea of Federation, Klingon and Romulan ground forces fighting a hot war in the 2280s with tanks, doesn't really fit the setting that well. I gave it a play years ago, but it wasn't really appealing to me at the time. It's possible it's an okay game though, as my memory of it isn't that detailed. It's was a less famous Star Trek RTS game than Armada I & II.


??). Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Harbinger (PC)
by Stormfront Studios, 1996

A point-and-click adventure type game I think. You play as a new character, an envoy to a race in the Gamma Quadrant, looking in upon the crew of DS9, during a crisis where much of the station has been abandoned. It featured the entire DS9 voice cast, whereas Avery Brooks declined to appear in The Fallen, which is regarded as the best DS9 game. I've never played this one, so don't know how good it was. I'm just placing these speculatively, in positions 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30.


??). Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars (PC)
by Gizmo Games, 2001

Dominion Wars always looked quite good to me from screenshots, and I may have attempted to play it once, but the game has some stability issues if I remember right. Star Trek has produced quite a few space sims and tactical games over the years. Starfleet Academy, Klingon Academy, Starfleet Command I, II, & III, Tactical Assault, and Bridge Commander. Dominion Wars was developed for CBS in-house publisher Simon and Schuster, who's games I was less familiar with.


??). Star Trek: Starfleet Command III (PC)
by Taldren, 2002

This is one game that I know is decent for sure, and I should have perhaps just included this in the original top 25, but I thought that the inclusion of Starfleet Command and Starfleet Command II - Empires at War was enough without saturating the list. It would probably be above Star Trek: Elite Force II if included. I would however play the first two before this one, because they captured the original era of Starfleet Battles, the 23rd century, very well. This one was set in the 24th century, and attempted a campaign tied into the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.


??). Star Trek: Legacy (PC, 360)
by Mad Doc Software, 2006

Along with Star Trek Online and the awful 2013 JJ Abrams tie-in Star Trek game, Legacy was one of the more recent titles, from 2006, and is like those, one of the only ones ever released on console. I've never played it as it didn't receive a great reception, and Star Trek games were well into their decline phase. It does mix ships from all the eras together rather than having tasteful restraint, but they at least try to justify it a little bit with a time travel plot, rather than pretending that a 200 year old retired starship is still in service (like STO does, diminishing the brand). A starship from another century should be able to just one-shot a ship from any previous century with a single torpedo though.


Around 2002, good Star Trek games disappeared.

There were a couple of very bad console games like 'Star Trek: Encounters' and 'Star Trek: Conquest'. Then when the JJ Abrams films came out, crappy arcade games like 'Star Trek: DAC', and mobile games like 'Star Trek: Timelines' (which apparently meets 25 out of 32 criteria of exploiting players, with a -3.57 score for having "dark patterns" of user experience) appeared. How sad to see a franchise fallen so far, from producing gaming classics. Once Lucasarts, Interplay and MicroProse made some of the best games in the industry, which were also Star Wars and Star Trek games. That is because early gaming, particularly PC gaming, was dominated by actual nerds, so they put remarkable effort into verisimilitude, and understood their franchises.

There is an upcoming game by former Telltale developers, presumably in that style, but I don't trust CBS/Paramount to oversee a good game given what kind of people have control the franchise right now, and the trailer is tone deaf to the mood of the public because it uses Discovery music, pretty much the ultimate kiss of death given how truly universally loathed that show is:

 

[Lady Error]

Birth of the Federation is really quite good. The only other game on this list I played was "Star Trek: 25th Anniversary" (adventure) and I didn't like that one back in the 90's.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Anyone played Bridge Crew?


I think it's a TOS game due to the ship it has you flying?
But it might actually be nu-Star Trek instead.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

rusty_shackleford - No, I forgot about that. It was the last 'serious' attempt at a Star Trek game, before this upcoming Resurgence visual novel thing. I don't know how good it is. It looked pretty threadbare, like I bet most missions consist of auto-generated fetch quests, scan asteroids, battles, etc. The selling point was doing VR with your mates, but it seems like a gimmick that would get old fast. I think it lets you choose the nu-Trek or TOS like a re-skin.

 

[markec]

rusty_shackleford - No, I forgot about that. It was the last 'serious' attempt at a Star Trek game, before this upcoming Resurgence visual novel thing. I don't know how good it is. It looked pretty threadbare, like I bet most missions consist of auto-generated fetch quests, scan asteroids, battles, etc. The selling point was doing VR with your mates, but it seems like a gimmick that would get old fast. I think it lets you choose the nu-Trek or TOS like a re-skin.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Compare to this masterpiece:

LOL at the size of those subtitles and UI at 4K. Why even bother trying to play at those resolutions? I recently tried the Star Trek Bridge Commander "remaster" mod and the sloppy modder that put it together only allows 1 resolution (1920x1080) and even that makes it pretty much unplayable to me because the UI and fonts are so tiny. Such a shame too because the new textures and ship models look amazing.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Judgment Rites is fucking fantastic, absolutely incredible. The sequel they do to the Trelane episode has one of the best endings to anything in Star Trek.

I almost want to play this just to hear William Campbell's voice as Trelane again. I saw the original broadcast of The Squire of Gothos as a kid during it's first run on NBC. I tended to skip over any Star Trek episodes back then that didn't have a monster but I was fascinated by Trelane's character and by Campbell's manic performance in this so I watched the whole thing. One of my most memorable early memories of watching a TV show.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

I did a playthrough of Star Trek: Hidden Evil, finally, after all these years, and my ranking was unfortunately correct placing it so low on the original list. The game is poor, and I will consider changing it's rating from 'Acceptable' if I ever re-edit the list. The problem is gameplay, rather than it's conception. We know that the game was rushed out in one year of development, but even so, the choices made by the developer are really baffling, like they just didn't know what works from past experience playing other tank control games, or Star Trek games in the adventure genre. Simply testing the game briefly would have revealed how badly it actually came off in terms of unnecessary user annoyance.

Observations:

• The game uses Resident Evil style tank controls, rather than point-and-click adventure game controls
  
• The combat is woefully bad, yet surprisingly common, with enemies sharpshooting you while you struggle
• To do anything, you have to enter a menu and equip an item, leaving you vulnerable, if you need your weapon
  
• Even your bare hands need equipping like this, every time you want to perform a basic action like pressing a switch
  
• The puzzles are simple but sometimes annoying; in one, missing a certain item, has you backtracking long distances
  
• Your health is pretty small; I'm glad I hoarded hyposprays, but some enemies can kill you in a matter of seconds

The story is a direct sequel to Star Trek: Insurrection, in which Picard and Data embark on an archeological expedition on the Ba'ku planet, newly settled by the remnants of the Son'a. They find that it was once inhabited by another ancient civilization, billions of years before the Ba'ku migrated there. This civilization either utilized or was responsible for the life-giving metaphasic energy the planet is known for, responsible for it's 'fountain of youth' properties. It is strongly implied that this primordial civilization was the same 'First Humanoids' from Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Chase", including using the same voice actress who played the early humanoid holographic recording in that episode.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

I'm playing through Star Trek: Generations, which in my estimation is one of the best Star Trek games, despite it's issues. In many ways it's a lost game. Very interesting for a 1990s Doom clone. It featured the full voice cast, very varied levels, an inventory system, a star map, space travel, planet scanning, non-violent missions wearing surgical disguises, adventure game like puzzles, functional computer panels, and space combat. It's forgotten largely because it was a tie-in to a movie that was less popular, and came out three years late. Even most Trekkie gamers in my experience, have never heard of it, yet it has elements of Marathon and System Shock.

The story is the same as the movie Star Trek: Generations, but expanded into a television season-long series of adventures, visiting multiple alien planets, archeological ruins, alien fortresses, and even a living planet. Dr Tolian Soran, played by Malcolm McDowell in the movie (who returns here), is trying to get back to a paradise dimension called The Nexus by blowing up stars to redirect it's entrance point's comet-like trajectory through space. Over multiple missions you must prevent multiple attempts to fire star-destroying torpedoes into various solar system's suns. You must also prevent him acquiring Trilithium explosives from Klingon renegades and Romulans.







There are some very memorable environments. I remember visiting Arvada II was fascinating; an ancient factory still producing robot weapons for a long-dead civilization. There was even a living planet in which Dr Crusher must navigate veins and arteries to heal Dr Soran's attempts to extract Trilithium from the creature. A Klingon base on Halee II, full of renegades, criminals and House of Duras sympathizers gave very interesting insight into how the inside of such a facility might look. There is even a Chodak mission that serves as a sequel to 'Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity'. Overall, although this is a harder game to run, I recommend it to fans.


Compatibility Guide

The following section details methods of getting Star Trek: Generations to run in 2022, on modern hardware, and Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.

The Problems with Installation and Running:

Star Trek: Generations is one of the harder Star Trek games to run on a modern system, although not impossible, and easier if you have experience of messing with old programs in the past. Basic users may be familiar with right-clicking, then selecting 'Properties' on the .exe file, and setting things to Windows 95 compatibility, or limiting themes and colors. You can mess with these settings, or seek advice online, for what will work. However there is an added problem before this; the installer itself cannot run on many modern systems, even if it's program has been given adjusted settings. The installer for Star Trek: Generations is a 16-bit program, so won't work on a 64-bit system. A 32-bit system however can run the installer. Once installed, the game has compatibility issues, which as mentioned, may be solved by adjusting settings, but even so, videos may not play.


Installation Solution - Method 1:

Method one, is simply to install the game on an old PC, something running Windows 95 or thereabouts. Either that or emulate an older PC with older versions of Windows. I used an old system running Windows XP/Vista for my most recent playthrough, and with a few compatibility adjustments, this was also able to play the game, albeit without the movies (which can be viewed on YouTube or by opening them manually on the disc, as they are in .avi format).

You may want to edit the registry file of the game. One of the lines in the registry will show the installation directory; so that one says:

• C:\PROG~\GENERA~1

The second, which is normally a CD dir, can be made to match it, with \Data at the end, so that the game will run entirely off hard disk:

• C:\PROG~\GENERA~1\DATA

Simply add all the contents of the \Gens folder from each CD into your \Data folder inside the installation directory, for no CD swapping.


Installation Solution - Method 2:

Method two, is to emulate Windows, run the installer, to get an installation folder of the game, then copy that installation folder to Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10, or whatever Windows you are running, then apply any compatibility changes you desire now that the installer has created the game directory. It involves a bit of registry editing. This method is detailed here, on another forum: Star Trek: Generations videos won't play [resolved]

You may want to edit the registry file of the game. One of the lines in the registry will show the installation directory; so that one says:

• C:\PROG~\GENERA~1

The second, which is normally a CD dir, can be made to match it, with \Data at the end, so that the game will run entirely off hard disk:

• C:\PROG~\GENERA~1\DATA

Simply add all the contents of the \Gens folder from each CD into your \Data folder inside the installation directory, for no CD swapping.


Installation Solution - Method 3:

There are abandonware sites which claim to have patched the installer to work on modern Windows 10 systems, including a blog post from 2019, which seems to be by an earnest fan. I haven't tried any of these so use at your own discretion, bearing in mind they are not checked for errors, malware, etc. It might be that someone with a little more programming experience has patched or altered the 16-bit installer to work on more modern processors.

The Problem with the Mission to "Antilios I":

There is a well known bug on the planet Antilios I, visited by Dr Beverly Crusher, where a passage will not let you through, although hundreds of tries eventually work. It can be seen in the picture above. You are meant to jump through it while holding crouch. Some people attribute this error to modern processor speeds causing a timing issue. I barely made it through once or twice when I was a kid, even on an old system. What I found helped me this time however (where I managed to get through a few times, eventually completing the mssion), was either waiting between jump attempts for a split second (i.e. wait until the last jump animation is fully finished), or taking a slight 'run up' of a few centimeters. This made the entrance much more reliable, sometimes working after only a minutes of tries. You should however expect many attempts. Antilios I is not an essential mission to complete the game, but if you want to see every level to the end, it can be frustrating.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Can confirm that Star Trek: Generations works with the installer and Windows 95 emulator from that blog. There are a few minor annoyances though, like the slightly laggy mouse (which can probably be better tuned with a different DPI and/or USB polling rate) and a few screen artifacts in the form of thin white lines on the edge of the screen where the letterbox starts, but these seem to be minor niggles for someone that wants to play it. 1st five minute impression is that it's a nice space game that mixes genres interestingly at least. Never got to any of the 1st person shooter screens. For a challenge, I just like to tinker with ancient PC games designed exclusively for archaic operating systems to see if I can get them to play. Not really my thing, the game itself, at least not now.

 

[Don Peste]

Star Trek Bridge Crew delisted on Steam, Oculus. Expected to disappear everywhere else soon
February 11, 2022
Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft

One of VR’s most touted titles has sadly, and surprisingly, begun to disappear this week. Star Trek Bridge Crew from Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft has already been delisted on the Steam and Oculus stores. As of this writing you can still buy it from the Ubisoft Store for Oculus and Vive devices, and on PlayStation 4 for PSVR. Amazon and a few other sites appear to still have download codes but there’s no telling how long they’ll last. If you’re desperate to keep hold of the experience you can also grab a retail copy on PlayStation 4.

The delisting is almost certainly due to expired licensing of the Star Trek properties from Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios. However, the game has gone without much support since 2018 so compatibility issues may also have factored into its removal. It’s sad to see this one go as it was both a landmark Star Trek and virtual reality experience. Thanks to everyone who pointed out the news on this one.

 

[Sceptic]

I almost want to play this just to hear William Campbell's voice as Trelane again.

Do it, DO EEEEEEEEEEET! He's absolutely fantastic in the game, again. "You're no fun Kirk, no fun at all!"
It's a fantastic game all around, and the voices from the CD version add a TON.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I really preferred when Star Trek used their own unique looking computers/GUI. Nu-Trek UIs look like crap you'd find in the early 21st century and heavily dates it.

It's like someone sent the designers a message "make the most generic looking technobabble computer stuff possible"