Make It So: The 10 Best Star Trek Games in the Quadrant

3. Star Trek: Bridge Commander (2002)
It took a few years, but Star Trek fans finally got the Federation-based starship combat sim they had hoped for with Starfleet Academy. Made by Totally Games, the same folks who brought us our favorite Star Wars games, Bridge Commander thrust the player into command of Galaxy-class USS Dauntless after the captain is killed during an away mission gone bad. When stars start going supernova without warning, the player is sent by Starfleet to investigate, revealing a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the Federation.
Players eventually upgrade to a Sovereign-class ship and are tasked with uncovering the mystery through exploration, diplomacy, and combat, with the latter being where the game really excels. Players can choose to give orders to various bridge crew members (raise shields, fire at will, divert emergency power to engines, etc.) or take direct control of the ship via an exterior camera view. But don’t let this direct control mode fool you into thinking you’re involved in a starfighter dogfight. These are massive capital ships, and they feel like it, with slow turn rates and devastating broadsides when multiple phaser arrays line up. Bridge Commander really captured the feel of capital ship combat in a way that few other games ever have.
In addition to the story, which plays out as a series of overarching “episodes,” players can pilot a wide variety of other ships in single- or multi-player skirmish mode. A dedicated community has also produced countless mods and add-ons to the game, including new ships like those from the J. J. Abrams Star Trek films, and a group of fans are 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”

Will says:

June 28, 2019 at 4:54 pm

So Star Trek Legacy is not even on here, wow that’s kinda lame.

Dizzle says:

December 20, 2017 at 3:54 pm

whoever wrote this list is a fool. i can forgive omitting DS9 Dom wars because of how horribly buggy it was. but Starfleet Academy? and placing the original Starfleet command so low on the list? really? jeesus. thats horrible.

Hupy A Bevis says:

May 20, 2017 at 12:45 am

Dose anyone know if i can i get birth of fed on my ps4 somehow?

SeekerLancer says:

March 13, 2017 at 10:19 pm

Starfleet Academy was really considered a disappointment? I remember it making a pretty big splash back in the day and it’s still kind of a classic if only mostly for the FMV story. There were a lot of interesting missions as well though.

Joel Hardman says:

March 1, 2017 at 3:06 pm

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:

June 8, 2016 at 12:19 pm

Where is the Best game: Star Trek Starfleet Command 2 Empires at War/Orion Pirates ?

Mrflappywilly says:

September 28, 2016 at 6:38 am

They used Starfleet command as the whole series I think.

Richard McGornski says:

April 26, 2016 at 8:06 pm

http://mtrek.com

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.

Robert Palfrey says:

March 18, 2016 at 5:22 am

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:

March 18, 2016 at 5:38 am

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:

January 13, 2016 at 9:36 pm

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. :P

David Rodolff says:

January 7, 2016 at 6:39 pm

Klingon Academy for sure. Loved the anti-matter beam on the Dreadnought.

John Min Lee says:

December 3, 2015 at 2:32 pm

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 fun to play. Shooting torpedos at various angles or phasers. Where did this game(s) go? They were simple but lots of fun to play…and fast action even to today’s standards.

Wayne Shook says:

December 20, 2019 at 2:24 pm

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 down loaded a listing of the game (written in a version of BASIC on our mainframe). Year later my first PC was a Radio Shack Color Computer II. I re-wrote that game but decided it need some animation and had to assembly 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 our attention diverted before it was “ready for someone else” to play. What I think you’re looking for ins Star Fleet I. Text graphics but similar to the old mainframe version.

VGer says:

July 19, 2015 at 12:06 pm

The list leaves out Star Trek: Legacy therefore I cannot
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.

Kenneth Emerson says:

July 15, 2015 at 8:52 pm

Forgot Bridge Commander 2 http://stbc2.net | http://facebook.com/STBC2

David Hogue says:

May 6, 2015 at 11:06 am

What about Star Trek: Legacy on the Xbox 360. It was pretty good.

voiceofreason says:

March 28, 2015 at 12:11 am

To me the best wasn’t even a game that carried the name in it’s title and it goes WAY back in the wayback machine. We’re talking 1980’s here. A game called the WARP Factor, everything about it screamed star trek from ship designs, to shields, to phasers and photon torpedos. My college buddies lost a lot of time playing that game!.

TSD says:

March 12, 2015 at 1:27 am

Activision’s Star Trek: Away Team. How about Starship Creator. Which allowed you to build customizable ships and add them to games like Bridge Commander

techraan says:

March 11, 2015 at 11:36 pm

You’ve all done too much LDS in the 60s! Star Trek Online is by far the best Star Trek game ever made. It’s a true Trek victory in gaming. STO just had it’s 5 year anniversary. It’s the most immersive and expansive Star Trek experience to be had until someone builds a holodeck.

obi ron says:

March 11, 2015 at 11:19 pm

Im going real old school here. You missed the best. The sit down star trek the motion picture arcade game. When you sit in that chair and hear “welcome aboard captain” at that time you felt you were on the enterprise. I wasted tons of quarters on that game. I wish i had one now.

YX Ra Kage says:

March 11, 2015 at 10:57 pm

Didn’t anyone like WinTrek?

Mark Ward says:

March 11, 2015 at 9:19 pm

Ok Ok I am quite shocked that Star Trek Legacy want on the list I thoroughly enjoyed it from Archer to Picard the story was good the ship upgrades were good :) played it more than once from start to finish 5*

Jasterisk says:

March 11, 2015 at 5:32 pm

Armada was by far my favorite. Great storyline.

Aaron says:

March 11, 2015 at 4:36 pm

How could this list omit Star Trek: The Game Show? ;-)

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Game_Show

Andy Blevins says:

March 7, 2015 at 9:09 am

Most of these games I wish they would remaster for 64 bit so I can play them again.

James Garren says:

March 7, 2015 at 8:37 am

I have a copy of Deep Space Nine Harbinger that I enjoy playing. It’s a very interesting strategy game. I used to have the 25th anniversary judgement rights but someone took that one from me when I wasn’t home, & I never got the opportunity to install it and play it.

Charles James Scudamore says:

March 7, 2015 at 8:20 am

Please don’t forget ST Legacy with the Ultimate Universe mod! Absolutely outstanding!

Trezore says:

March 7, 2015 at 4:09 am

In 1982-83 when I was in 8th grade, there was a Star Trek game… Played off a 5 1/4 floppy… would have been nice to see that game again lol

WAS says:

March 7, 2015 at 12:14 am

No star trek legacy? Bizarre.

Jeff Molloy says:

March 6, 2015 at 9:57 pm

I always thought DS9: Harbinger was a really spiffy game and should have been in the 10

Jason Harris says:

March 5, 2015 at 10:15 pm

Really enjoyed star fleet academy

Eric Sweeten says:

March 5, 2015 at 7:51 pm

The only game on this list I’ve played is Star Trek 25th Anniversary, which I am glad is on this list. I was hoping to see it, and thought I wouldn’t see it, then it popped up as #1, which is pretty cool. It was a very cool game, with cool graphics, for its time and still I think. I remember the space battles with the Klingons.