Today marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of the original Star Trek series. That’s a lot of years’ worth of boldly going where no one has gone before as well as spin-off series, movies, tie-in novels, and video games. Unsurprisingly Star Trek, like most franchises that inspire games, has resulted in a number of bottom-barrel scraper merchandise tie-ins designed to prey on fandom. However, there have also been a number of quality games across several genres set in the Star Trek universe. To celebrate the franchise’s anniversary, we're taking a look at the most notable games that explored facets of the series in compelling ways.
Begin: A Tactical Starship Simulation (1981)
Though Star Trek isn’t in the name, Begin was a starship simulation that was set in the same universe and was the first Star Trek game to approach any sort of complexity, letting players choose their factions and battle other ships in space. Begin is a visually barren game, offering only text responses from your crewmates and a screen showing pointers serving as ships on the battlefield, but the tightness of the simulation leads to surprisingly tense stand-offs.
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1992)
Often considered one of the best Star Trek games by both Trekkies and casual gamers, 25th Anniversary is an adventure title that stars the crew of the original series. The game’s split into two parts: with players either manning the bridge or an away team that’s exploring locations off the Enterprise.
25th Anniversary is memorable for its episodic structure. Each section essentially serving as a game version of a TV episode with colorful aesthetics and fun point-and-click segments.
You can grab Star Trek 25th Anniversary on GOG.com if you want to see what the fuss is about.
Star Trek: Starfleet Command (1999)
An adaptation of the table-top game Star Fleet Battles, Starfleet Command is a fun, challenging space warfare simulation that let players choose one of six races from the series. While the graphics are a little hard to look at today, the game’s solid systems hold up well and its campaign is a good time.
You can grab it on GOG.com as well.
Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force Series (2000)
Considered by many to be the pinnacle of Star Trek video game adaptations, Elite Force is a strong first-person shooter developed by Raven Software that successfully bridges the gap between pleasing fans of the show while creating a satisfactory experience for first-person shooter fans who might not be intimately familiar with the franchise.
While many Star Trek games have captured the feel of massive battles between spacecraft, Elite Force is the only one to take the close-quarters combat of the show and make it exhilarating, letting players phase and blast the Borg to their hearts’ content.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to purchase the game digitally, so the only way to grab a copy is by deep-diving for old copies in places like eBay and hoping modders have released a patch to make it run on contemporary systems.
Check out the rest of our picks by boldly going to page 2.