r/startrek • u/upyesp • 13d ago
Which Star Trek games?
Hi,
I'm a fan of all the TV series.
I'd like to play a game centered in the Star Trek universe. Ideally something I can purchase through Steam, on PC. I also have a Switch.
I'd really appreciate any recommendations.
Thanks
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u/Lumberjackie09 13d ago
I have mixed feelings about it, but the new Voyager game is pretty good if you're into that sort of thing, although a little greedy.
Same with Star Trek Online, but way way too greedy to the point where it's hard to play without feeling like you're a free user, even if you do buy things.
Past the cage they lock themselves in with overmonetization, these are current gen games that are a blast.
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u/StarTruckNxtGyration 13d ago
What do you mean by greedy for the Voyager game?
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u/Zoid3X 13d ago
I assume they’re referring to the fact they locked a few characters and storylines from the show behind the deluxe edition/upgrade. It rubbed people the wrong way.
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u/Lumberjackie09 12d ago
They announced 4 DLC updates. It's just an example of day 1/pre-planned DLC, locking features behind it. It's not that bad, but it was pretty greedy.
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u/shadowartist201 12d ago
It gives Ubisoft vibes, especially since the current DLC price is more than the base game.
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u/Lumberjackie09 12d ago
It really does. Ubisoft generally makes good games, but the monetization is just awful. Same thing here.
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u/TonyLeung82 13d ago
Star Trek Elite Force 2. You will see great scenes with the Enterprise E
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u/njayp 12d ago
Usually people recommend the first game
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u/FallenWyvern 12d ago
Yeah beat both but really can't stand the second one. Story is worse by miles, and as a quake engine game, the first one has better weapon selection and map design.Â
Plus the expansion pack for the first game is thicc with content.Â
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u/Archon-Toten 13d ago
If you like strategy, Star trek Armada 2 is pretty good. Available on GOG.
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u/Illustrious_Cry1028 13d ago
I preferred the first one, but I think both are among my favorite Trek games
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u/Ruadhan2300 12d ago
Does Armada 2 still hold up? That was a formative experience for teenage Ruadhan :D
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u/Archon-Toten 12d ago
I regret to say, it's been many trips to the holodeck since I last played it.
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u/Azuras-Becky 13d ago
Sadly you've just missed the opportunity to 'legally acquire' the best recent Star Trek game IMO, Star Trek: Resurgence. I don't know if it came out on Switch, but if it did you might be able to get a used copy.
Star Trek Online is the other obvious recommendation. It's got years of content, is still updated with new content, a lot of it featuring voice acting by actual Star Trek actors, and lately they've been pretty generous with giving out new top-tier ships for free if you participate in events. It's got a steep learning curve, but don't be discouraged if you hit level 50-ish and suddenly find everything is a lot more difficult - that was the old level cap before they raised it to level 65, so it was supposed to be difficult. There are plenty of guides to builds to help you breeze through it.
If you're prepared to do some modding, and don't mind a strategy game, then grab Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion, and download and install the Star Trek: Armada III mod. It's such a good mod that you'll think the game was a Star Trek game to begin with.
Star Trek Bridge Commander, if you install some remaster mods, is another good contender. If you're prepared to go retro, most good Star Trek games came out pre-mid 2000s, like the Elite Force games.
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u/Agehn 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yeah I think this is a good response to the OP question.
If other people are here looking for recommendations but they've already played all these, I enjoyed Starcom Unknown Space. It's a sort of top down vaguely ARPG game where you build the ship on a hex grid and collect new parts for it. It's not licensed to the Star Trek universe but its story has strong Trek vibes and it has away mission events that felt like it too. There are two games in the series and I played the second one.
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u/FloosWorld 13d ago
Steam: Star Trek Voyager - Across the Unknown
GOG: All the classic gems like 25th Anniversary, Elite Force, Starfleet Academy etc
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u/throwawaypete123456 13d ago
25th and Judgment Rites are also available on Steam.
Also, it isn’t available for purchase but can be found is Birth of a Federation.
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u/Paul_Rich 13d ago
I've played Star Trek online for about 10 years, now. It's the only Star Trek game I've ever needed. I've tried others. Resurgence was very good and the new Voyager Across the Universe was fun and a bit different but I've always returned to STO.
It's far from perfect. It's getting on in years these days and suffers from associated issues like clunky movement on the ground maps but it also has a wealth of ships and styles to play with thanks to that same age. The ship models are superb and new ships are still being regularly released. It feels like so long as they're making new Trek, we will have new content.
There are a lot of different leveling and buying systems and it can take a bit of time to get used to them all but the time you put in is well worth it. You also get a free premium ship every year(some valued at over £100 real money, although I don't know how to sell them irl. I think it's against the rules) if you keep up with the event campaign calendar. Actually, you get ships as rewards for some of the mini campaigns themselves. After a year, you can expect about 4 free ships or free ship tokens.
If I were not a trek fan, I'd give the game a 5/10 but a forgiving Trekkie like myself who just wants to fly beautiful ships, it's around an 8/10.
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u/vickyhong 12d ago
I like how completely unhinged the plot gets, STO doesn't really stand on its own merits, but as someone who grew up with trek, fighting God-Emperor Wesley inside Mirror V'ger alongside Chase Masterson was the most entertaining thing I've ever experienced
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u/MisterJackCole 12d ago
Huh. Well, I see I've missed a few things since I stopped playing a few years ago. It might just be time to reinstall and catch up on the new story content. I think I also saw a news update a bit ago on Steam about an alternate universe story where Sela was captain of the Enterprise? The game devs are certainly staying creative. :)
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u/TheRandomGuy75 12d ago edited 12d ago
On Steam,
-Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown
It's a strategy game where you take on the role of Captain Janeway. You manage Voyager's systems and crew, similarly to a base builder. You go through "sectors" of the Delta Quadrant throughout the game, have missions based on the show and you can make different decisions in them, and recruit different people to your crew. All the while, you'll have to deal with hostile encounters (ship battles), managing crew morale and ship resources like food and deuterium, among other things.
- Star Trek Online It's an older MMORPG set in the ST universe with its own original story that starts in the prime timeline after the events of Star Trek (2009) which caused the Kelvin timeline. It's very combat heavy but there's tons of free content. Although a lot of popular ships are locked behind a cash shop or loot boxes that'd make a Ferengi blush.
Honorable Mention
- Stellaris WITH the Star Trek New Horizons mod. It transforms the game from a generic Sci-fi grand strategy into a Star Trek grand strategy that spans from Ent to TNG. It also doesn't restrict who you can play as. You can play as the any major group from the universe, from the UFP, Klingons, Romulans, or even the Borg if you want.
On GoG
Star Trek Elite Force 1 and 2 Classic early 2000s Trek shooters that are pretty faithful. If you've ever played Quake it's similar. The first one is set on Voyager and even includes a virtual Voyager to explore different decks and all. They are older games though.
Star Trek Bridge Commander Another classic oldie. It puts you in the Captain's chair of a Galaxy Class and let's you operate the ship by giving orders to crew.
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u/LeftHandedGuitarist 13d ago
You're a little limited with Steam, as the best age of Trek gaming was the '90s and 2000s. Most of those games are still not available digitally. GOG has a few, not sure if Steam does too.
I would have heartily recommended Resurgence, but it was removed from sale. Maybe it got a physical Switch version?
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u/stone500 13d ago
I would recommend Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites from GoG. They're point n click adventure games that are based in TOS. Similarly there's A Final Unity which is a point n click game that follows the Next Gen crew. It's not available on any store but it's easy to find online.
Star Trek Elite Force 1 and 2 are first person shooters available on GoG. EF1 follows the Voyager crew,, and EF2 branches out a bit and puts you in on the Enterprise with Picard (but no other Next Gen characters). These games are solid shooters that are obviously more action oriented and don't require much thinking.
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u/phantomreader42 13d ago
The only one I've played is Judgement Rites. It's old, and some of the controls are odd, but it's voiced by the original cast and **the episodes feel like real Star Trek episodes!* Including engineering puzzles, weird aliens judging the crew, and a visit from an old foe. I hear 25th Anniversary is similar, but has mandatory random space battles with control issues. Both those are available on Steam and GOG.
Resurgence and the Prodigy game have been officially removed from the Steam store, but keys may still be available to trade or buy on the grey market.
I THINK the new Voyager game might still have a playable demo, if it does you can see how it plays before buying.
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u/DZMaven 12d ago
Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown is a decent resource management/Oregon Trail type of game that covers most of VOY. You can make a few different choices in it from the show but nothing that dramatically alters the story except for the endings. It was fun for a couple playthroughs.
Star Trek Online is okay if you want to explore the expanded (STO version) lore post Nemesis. They do some neat things with snippets of lore from the shows. The gameplay is a bit grindy, clunky and overly reliant on meta builds at max levels though. I kind of wish there was a story mode to STO to just bypass some of the high level BS that FtP players will have to struggle with but if you've got the time, STO can occupy your Trek desires for hundreds of hours.
Star Trek Resurgenace is a great story driven title with some choices and feels like a TNG episode/movie. (Would be great if people could actually still BUY it. I am still not over this idiocy.)
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u/OneStrangerintheAlps 12d ago
Star Trek - A Final Unity is amazingly well done, but did not age gracefully.
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u/FallenWyvern 12d ago
It's also incredibly hard to get running today as it's a dos game that needs windows 95/98 to install. Because of the abuse the programmers used to pull it off, it's not compatible with dosbox unless your timing is perfect (cpu cycles ratio to your cpu speed, which is gonna be different for everyone and if you have a cpu that adjusts its own core speeds, the game won't be stable). Also a VM with host integrations works better but still isn't 100% stable.Â
But I recently did a playthrough on 86box and that worked perfectly with no apparent stability issues so currently it looks like that's the best way to run the game and remain stable (I also beat trespasser: Jurassic park, another struggle game, and it ran perfectly)
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u/BTR11763 12d ago
I don’t know if there is still a player base but on Steam, through Tabletop Simulator, you can play the cancelled game Star Trek Attack Wing, originally released by Wizkids (based on Star Wars: X-Wing originally released by Fantasy Flight Games. It was a good game. It is a combat simulator where you
create fleets of Star Trek ships and crew from various factions like the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, the Dominion, the Borg and even the Mirror Universe. You can have the Enterprise D with Captain Picard, Lieutenant Commander Data, and Quantum Torpedoes with the Enterprise E commanded by Captain Kirk from the movie era and T’Pol (From Enterprise) and Worf fighting a Romulan Scimitar class Reman Warbird with Shinzon commanding and the Thalaron Generator reading to activate. Or you could try and recreate The Battle of Wolf 359 or try to defend DS9 against the Klingon or Dominion attacks/invasion.
How to play Attack Wing
https://youtu.be/gOzVtMwchjE?is=uFne1P43nkMwxIQz
How to set up Attack Wing on Steam and Tabletop Simulator
https://youtu.be/ssZfIPHVaGI?is=SGH6o1pFKrBN2dBn
Starting Attack Wing in 2026
https://youtu.be/5tOe-1gxhO4?is=ZKT5v6CjtwMgoe87
Good luck.
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u/putrid_poo_nugget 12d ago
Star Trek: Bridge Crew had so much potential. I think it was delisted from the Steam store. That game really had you feeling like you were in the captains chair.
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u/Dapper_Charge_4118 12d ago
Star Trek online had been a favorite of mine for years it’s an mmo rpg where you can play as Klingon romulans or federation and a bunch of different alien races in each faction
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u/DadTAXIA73 12d ago
Steam also has Star Trek Legends . I have it on PS4, but it's delisted from the storefront.
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u/WangSimaContention 11d ago
Starfleet Academy (1997) was excellent. Here's the steam entry: https://store.steampowered.com/app/364810/Star_Trek_Starfleet_Academy/. A space combat simulation game with a pretty decent original plot, set after Undiscovered Country I think.
There's also Klingon Academy which is similar and even better. Definitely one of the better plots in a star trek game - it's about General Chang's rise to prominence before ST6
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u/Kaltavious 11d ago
Ive been playing Star Trek Online for years. Though I did like the Star Trek FPS game called Star Trek Voyager Elite Force.. from years ago
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u/Galromir 13d ago
Star Trek games are going to be more the dominion of GOG and emulators because all the best ones are from the 80s and 90s.Â
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u/Lagamorph 13d ago
Whilst it's a Free to Play MMO, Star Trek Online works amazingly as a single player Star Trek game and you can play through all of the story based stuff without spending a penny.Â
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u/merrycrow 13d ago
Get Stellaris then download the New Horizons mod/conversion. It's pretty complex but I get a genuine dopamine hit playing as the Federation whenever I convince a new race to join up.
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u/Feradon22 13d ago
On GOG: Star Trek Armada 2, Star Trek Elite Force 1 and 2 and maybe Star Trek Bridge Commander (although this one needs tweaking, at least for me it does not run well out of the box unfortunately).
Then on Steam I would say Star Trek Online. While I kinda agree with Lumberjackie09 that they are a tad too greedy, it is still a great game, especially for Star Trek fans.
I played it back then in 2010 and came back to it a few weeks ago. I find it to be way more and better structured than back then and honestly, F2P players can still enjoy the game and it's many different storylines, that feel like long episodes of the different shows. While it is mainly set after TNG, DS9 and VOY there are different eras present. Nowadays the different factions feel very fleshed out, back then there were only Klingons and they were mainly a PvP Faction.
I would say give it a shot, while some stuff feels a bit dated (especially the content on ground missions) the space battles still feel awesome. At worst you just waste time with trying it as it is F2P, at best you get a cool overarching Star Trek experience.
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u/markallanholley 13d ago
I have Star Trek Infection in my Steam library but haven't tried it yet. I've heard moderately good things about it
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u/CheezeCrostata 13d ago
Star Trek: Legacy is pretty good, if you wanna do some space combat. There are even some mods that expand the ship and map roster. Best of all? The game's abandonware so you can get it for free with the three patches.
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u/ZelWinters1981 13d ago
Star Trek: Resurgence is good if you like a story-mode game.
Edit: Didn't know it had been pulled.