Beam Me Up: The Top 10 Star Trek Games in the Galaxy
Hey there! Let’s dive into the fascinating world of Star Trek games. As a fan, I’m thrilled to share with you the crème de la crème of these interstellar adventures, handpicked from the quadrant’s finest offerings. Buckle up, because we’re about to embark on a warp-speed journey through the top 10 Star Trek games in the entire galaxy!
It took a few years, but us Star Trek fans finally got the Federation-based starship combat sim we had hoped for with Starfleet Academy. Made by Totally Games, the same folks who brought us our favorite Star Wars games, Bridge Commander put me in command of the Galaxy-class USS Dauntless after the captain got killed during an away mission gone bad. When stars start going supernova without warning, Starfleet sends me to investigate, revealing a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the Federation.
Eventually, I upgraded to a Sovereign-class ship and my task was to uncover the mystery through exploration, diplomacy, and combat. And let me tell you, the combat is where the game really shines. I could choose to give orders to my bridge crew or take direct control of the ship through an exterior camera view. But don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a starfighter dogfight. These are massive capital ships, and they feel like it. They turn slowly and unleash devastating broadsides when multiple phaser arrays line up. Bridge Commander truly captured the feel of capital ship combat in a way that few other games ever have.
Aside from the story, which plays out as a series of “episodes,” I could also pilot a wide variety of other ships in single or multiplayer skirmish mode. There’s a dedicated community that has produced countless mods and add-ons to the game, including new ships from the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films. And there’s even a group of fans actively building their own spiritual sequel to the game called Star Trek: Excalibur.
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30 thoughts on “Make It So: The 10 Best Star Trek Games in the Quadrant”
So Star Trek Legacy is not even on here, wow that’s kinda lame.
Dizzle says:
Whoever wrote this list is a fool. I can forgive omitting DS9 Dominion Wars because of how horribly buggy it was, but Starfleet Academy? And placing the original Starfleet Command so low on the list? Really? Jeez, that’s horrible.
Hupy A Bevis says:
Can I get Birth of the Federation on my PS4 somehow?
SeekerLancer says:
Starfleet Academy was considered a disappointment? I remember it making a pretty big splash back in the day and it’s still kind of a classic, mostly for the FMV story. There were a lot of interesting missions as well.
Joel Hardman says:
I like Birth of the Federation a lot, though it can be tedious. I’m also interested in the Star Trek mod for Civ IV. The Star Trek Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion looks awesome, but I think I’m more of a 4x guy than an RTS guy.
I’m glad to learn that there are some decent Star Trek games. I had always heard that they are all hot garbage.
XeaKon says:
Where is the Best game: Star Trek Starfleet Command 2 Empires at War/Orion Pirates?
Mrflappywilly says:
They used Starfleet Command as the whole series, I think.
Richard McGornski says:
This is an old article, but as a list of the best (historical) Star Trek games, it’s incomplete without MTrek, probably the first online multiplayer Star Trek game ever. So addictive, it’s still being played today.
The image used for Klingon Academy isn’t actually the box art picture, it’s a reproduction of the box art picture that I made for my mod, Klingon Academy II (for Star Trek Armada II)
TekRevue says:
Thanks for catching that. I changed the image to the actual box art and added a note about the mod to the description.
John A. Gray says:
I’d be inclined to move BotF to #1, put Legacy at #2, Klingon Academy at #3, Judgement Rites at #4 and Elite Force at #5…with the rest in about the same order, though I didn’t like any of them enough to think Star Trek games deserve the full top 10…some are pretty bad. 😛
David Rodolff says:
Klingon Academy for sure. Loved the anti-matter beam on the Dreadnought.
John Min Lee says:
There was a Star Trek game in 1976 that also evolved into a game called, “Cube Wars”. It was a grid (you chose the size) usually 10×10 which meant Quadrants and then in each Quadrant you’d have another 10×10 area which could have a Starbase or Klingons to battle. Most of the ships’ functions were done with just the numbered keypad (which was just like in the TV show) and it was fun to play. Shooting torpedoes at various angles or phasers. Where did this game(s) go? They were simple but lots of fun to play…and fast action even by today’s standards.
Wayne Shook says:
It’s funny you should mention that game. I’m retired and wrote 3D flight simulators privately and DoD aircraft modeling software for the USAF and still actively write code. Just wanted to tell you some of my involvement with that game. I had absolutely ZERO to do with the original that was on a mainframe back in school. We played on the terminals. Before I left college I downloaded a listing of the game (written in a version of BASIC on our mainframe). Years later, my first PC was a Radio Shack Color Computer II. I rewrote that game but decided it needed some animation and had to use assembly language to accomplish it. A friend told me it was the funnest game he’d ever played, but I never even thought about marketing it. Later, my nephew and I used XNA to animate a version of it. We both got distracted before it was “ready for someone else” to play. I think what you’re looking for is Star Fleet I. Text graphics but similar to the old mainframe version.
The list leaves out Star Trek: Legacy, so I can’t take it seriously as Legacy is one of the best Star Trek games ever created.
Star Trek: Legacy got an 8.0 out of 10 when it was reviewed in 2006 in the Official XBOX magazine. Also, in a retrospective review done last year by the Official XBOX Magazine, they called the game “almost great.” Here’s why Legacy is the best Star Trek game in my opinion:
– All 5 Trek Captains reprise their roles by lending their voice talent to the game.
– The game covers all 5 Trek TV series and all 3 Trek eras.
– D.C. Fontana wrote the story, which is huge as she is a well-respected Trek writer with credits dating back to TOS. Most games don’t have professional writers, and their stories are often paper-thin or abysmal.
– It features all of the well-known ships in the Trek universe, including Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Borg.
– It lets players play as any of the 4 factions in deathmatches.
– The developer, Mad Doc Software, released developer tools to allow mods for the game, giving it extra value beyond the stock version on the XBOX 360.
I won’t be dishonest about it and admit that Legacy had a few issues, but none of them were game-breaking. The issues the game faced, like a few bugs and unimplemented developer-stated features, were a result of the publisher, Bethesda Softworks, forcing the developer, Mad Doc Software, to push the game to market before it was polished and completed. Sadly, this is common in the video game industry when publishers want to meet a certain target date or decide not to invest further funding in the game’s development. But despite a few flaws, Legacy is still a remarkable game that is fun and holds up well.
