Make It So: The 10 Best Star Trek Games in the Quadrant
6. Star Trek: Klingon Academy (2000)
1997’s Starfleet Academy made a lot of big promises about finally letting players take a seat in “the center chair,” but ultimately disappointed fans when the game was finally released. Although promising, Starfleet Academy missed the mark with subpar graphics, limited ship options, and buggy controls. Luckily, Klingon Academy arrived a few years later to fix the majority of Starfleet Academy‘s mistakes, although instead of sitting in the polished chair of a Federation cruiser, players now found themselves in command of a fearsome Bird of Prey as a Klingon warrior.
Klingon Academy sported significantly improved graphics — including fully destructible ship models that let players blow Federation dogs apart piece by piece — and much more varied ship types and weapons. Incredible performances from Christopher Plummer and David Warner, who reprised their roles as General Chang and Chancellor Gorkon from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and a great soundtrack were icing on the gagh. While the Klingons are a fascinating race and provide a great backdrop for Klingon Academy’s story, the only regret we have is that Starfleet Academy wasn’t this good. I mean, just check out this trailer, which looks incredible even today.
Looking for more of that Klingon Academy feel? Check out the Klingon Academy II mod for Star Trek Armada II.
30 thoughts on “Make It So: The 10 Best Star Trek Games in the Quadrant”
I’m glad to learn that there are some decent Star Trek games. I had always heard that they are all hot garbage.
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.
take it seriously as Legacy is one of the best Star Trek games ever created.
Star Trek: Legacy got 8.0 out of 10 when it was reviewed
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 is why Legacy in my opinion is the best Star Trek game ever:
* 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 (this is huge as she is a well respected Trek
writer with credits dating back to TOS. Most games don’t have professional
writers and stories are often paper thin if not abysmal)
* It Features all of the well know ships in the Trek universe (Federation,
Klingon, Romulan and Borg)
*Lets the play be able to play as any of the 4 factions in deathmatches
(Federation, Klingon, Romulan or Borg)
* Also the developer (Mad Doc Software) at the request of fans of the game
released the developer tools to allow the mods to game (that means: new ships
or tweaks to the existing ships and new missions). This is huge as this is
almost unheard of for this to be done and gives the game a lot of extra value
beyond just the stock version on the game that is on the XBOX 360.
I am not going to be dishonest about it and will admit Legacy that ad a few
issues but nothing them were game breaking. The issues the game faced (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 & completed. This sadly is all
too common the video game industry and often is due the publisher wanting to
meet a certain target date or deciding not to invest further funding in the
development of the game. What often happens in these instances are for the game
in question to be cancelled or the developer to threaten to cut funding. In the
case of Star Trek: Legacy the it was the latter and the developer decided to
take a game what was essentially in the beta stage of development and release
it rather than have the entire game canned. I personally am glad they made the
decision to publish that game regardless of it not being the completely
finished game that the developer had envisioned because the game truly is still
a remarkable game that is fun and holds up well despite a few flaws.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Game_Show