Which is the greatest Star Trek game ever made?

[saluki]

I'm still stuck at home and it occurred to me: I've never played a ST game on any platform in my life. I should change that.

Is there a game that stands out as the best? Age doesn't matter; I can play old games without too much issue. It just has to be a game that I can get a hold of without too much trouble.

I think I'd prefer a game that emulates the spirit of ST. You know, exploring the galaxy and discovering weird stuff. But I'll take anything as long as it's entertaining. Not like that lame cover based shooter that came out with the reboot (I never played it but I remember my friends complaining about it).

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[Do Make Say Think]

I remember the NES game being pretty cool (at the time).

 

[Commander Clueless]

I think my personal favourite was Star Trek: Bridge Commander. As one might expect, though, it was much more battle-oriented than exploration based (not sure which ST game is the best for exploration - might still be a gap in the "market").

I'm not sure if it meets the requirements, though...it certainly checks the old and janky boxes, but it's also abandonware and a bit tricky to get working on Windows 10.


Starfleet Command III was another gem, although I have no idea if it's playable anymore. It was really fun to customize starships in that one.


If you're more into strategy, I remember Star Trek: Armada II being quite fun. The Armada III mod for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is a good way to relive that as well.

 

[saluki]

Bridge Commander does look interesting.

I guess maybe ST Online would be a logical place to start since it's free to play.

It's kind of surprising to me that apparently no game in the spirit of the TV series exists. Just flying around exploring the galaxy, with maybe a main overarching plot to tie things together.

 

[Osprey]

It's kind of surprising to me that apparently no game in the spirit of the TV series exists. Just flying around exploring the galaxy, with maybe a main overarching plot to tie things together.

If you mean the original TV series, there are two games that are very much in the spirit of it:

Star Trek™: 25th Anniversary on GOG.com
Star Trek™: Judgment Rites on GOG.com

They're old (1992-93) point-and-click adventure games for PC broken into 7 or 8 individual episodes, each with a self-contained story, like the TV show. They also feature the recorded voices of the original actors (Shatner, Nimoy, etc.). Both are pretty dated now and might be a little hard to get into if you're not an old gamer (especially an old adventure gamer), but they're the closest thing in feeling to the original series in a game. I still play them from time to time for that reason.

Note that there was also a Star Trek: 25th Anniversary for the NES (which a poster mentioned above), but it's a different game tailored to controller play rather than mouse play. I recall not being very impressed and, because of NES limitations, it obviously doesn't have the voice acting. I believe that it's considered to be pretty inferior to the PC version.

 

[saluki]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm sure they're great games.

But I think I'm looking for something a little more modern.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Bridge Commander does look interesting.

I guess maybe ST Online would be a logical place to start since it's free to play.

It's kind of surprising to me that apparently no game in the spirit of the TV series exists. Just flying around exploring the galaxy, with maybe a main overarching plot to tie things together.

I haven't played for years, but STO was pretty cool. They had a neat idea to switch between ship and ground play, but the ground play used to be pretty bad....

 

[Osprey]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm sure they're great games.

But I think I'm looking for something a little more modern.

You did say that "age doesn't matter," so I thought that I'd test you on that . I completely understand, though. Unfortunately, if you're looking for games inspired by the original series, practically all of the newer games are inspired by the newer series, like TNG.

 

[saluki]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I meant a game that has actually space combat instead of a point and click adventure.

I do love old games.

 

[CaptainCrunch67]

I really loved Klingon Academy, especially after the did the AI patch that removed the ramming issues. IT was so far ahead of most other games of its time, especially in combat. Beaming over assault teams. Photon torpedoes ripping through decks and tearing off parts of the enemy ship.

There was a sick kind of thrill, when you command a bird of pray and take down a Federation Cruiser when you figure out how to use your cloaking device in combat.

Plus the cast including Plummer and other Klingons from Star Trek VI made it really immersive.

 

[Dolemite]

The Free one on PS4 is really fun.

 

[Drake1588]

A Final Unity.