Topic: Star Trek Console Games

Since there are (at least 2!) other Trekkies around these parts - I wondered what your experiences are of Star Trek console games over the years.

I had the Next Generation game for MegaDrive, which was awful.

I had Star Trek Tactical Assault for PSP, which I thought I wouldn't like particularly, but actually bore itself quite well.

I still have a copy of Star Trek Encounters - which has to be the least Star Trek feeling Star Trek game I've ever played, but it looks and sounds quite nice.

I did have Shattered Universe briefly but traded it for the far superior Battlestar Galactica game on PS2.

Other than the highs of the likes of Bridge Crew and STO in this modern age, I'd say that my favourite Star Trek game is probably Elite Force.

@KALofKRYPTON i had Deep Space Nine Crossroads of Time on the old Mega Drive and it was pretty fun, HARD but fun

as for other games i have Star Trek 25th Anniversary on the NES and that game is HARD and makes no sense

Star Trek Voyager Elite Force on the PS2 and i loved that game, it felt like i was on Voyager and it was amazing

i had Shattered Universe too but like you i traded it in for something else can't remember what for though but the game was still fun

i also still have Encounters, kind of a strange one really that game

Star Trek Legacy on the 360, i LOVE that game but my 360 is dead so i can't play it, still in hope it will be added to the XB1 BC program but i doubt it

i also still have Star Trek Invasion on the PS1, i remember loving that when it first came out but i played it recently and it has not aged well, very very clunky

one game that i actually really enjoyed was Star Trek on the PS3, the one that takes place between Star Trek 09 and Star Trek Into Darkness, i know it got average reviews but i still enjoyed it, same as Star Trek D.A.C, the top sown arcade game, i even 100% torphied that game (it has no platinum)

then we come to the current gen, both Star Trek Online and Star Trek Bridge Crew have been loads of fun and i still play STO daily even though i have done everything with my original Starfleet character but i still have my 23rd Starfleet, Klingon and Romulan characters to finish not to mention the upcoming Dominion faction, then there is Bridge Crew it's great getting to be in command of a Starship, even if i mess up a lot

@FullbringIchigo
It's amazing people like Encounters really.
I have tried the DS9 game, but just ended up running left to right a lot!

I really wanted Legacy, but I'd have been buying a 360 just for that! So, no go.

I think I played invasion - don't remember ever owning it though. All fighter level stuff?

My general Kelvinverse aversion kept me well away from the PS3 game, as well as D.A.C.

@KALofKRYPTON hey when i first watched ST09 i was put off and confused but i gave it another chance and on a second viewing realised i was quick to judge, yeah it's not the same Trek i grew up with but it was still fun but it still had an underlying tale to tell like the previous treks did

plus the entire universe has been expanded in the comics and the characters too but i guess that's an issue with films, they have to have a beginning middle and end so large scale character development like with the shows isn't possible

not to mention when CBS licensed it out to Paramount (because why Paramount own the films they still need to licence it from CBS) they said it had to be tonally and visually different from the previous shows and films so not to compete with them, there were a lot of other restrictions put on the film too such as the writers strike which meant they couldn't rewrite any of the script so had to go with the first draft

to be fair with the restrictions they had it's amazing they made a film as good as it was at all and of course this also dictated how the others would go because the look and style had already be set by 09

honestly give the Kelvinverse another go with a clear and open mind, you may not love them but i think you will find something to enjoy there

@FullbringIchigo I gave it a go. I've seen the films several times over and have few of the comics. Other than a few good bits of casting (from a 'you could pass for a young....' standpoint) there's very little to like.

It's very simply lazy Star Trek. The majority of films, even those in the prime timeline are relatively lazy Star Trek as they're crafted to be action films so often. TMP is a brilliant film, but wasn't the Star Wars equivalent that Paramount wanted. It was crafted from ideas from Phase II and would certainly have worked better as a two-part pilot for a new series.
As it didn't give Paramount what they wanted, the next film HAD to be an action spectacle; so you get TWOK - which is a decent film, but not the best of Trek. And the series fluctuates massively in quality, direction, scripting and even reception from there forward.

JJ was wrong for Trek. Perfect for the rock & roll of Star Wars, but such a bad choice for something with so very much established lore and technicality.
He made a lazy reboot that looked flash and studio saw the dollar signs. Then made an even lazier remake of what many consider to be the best Trek film.
Beyond was easily the best of the 3 - but that's not saying much really.

@KALofKRYPTON i completely understand why some would feel that way but i can also see why others would love them, at least it's not Discovery anyway before we derail the thread before it's started

there was a Star Trek game on the Game Boy but i can't remember for the life of me what it was called and i think it was a Next Gen game

question is are there any console Trek games you want to play but haven't been able too?

@FullbringIchigo Indeed. Discovery does at least focus on character and ideas.

I'd love to have played Legacy actually. Conquest on the PS2 too. I recall having the choice of that or Encounters at the time.

I think the Game Boy one was a port of the NES game.

@FullbringIchigo I remember the 25th Anniversary one on NES, that game turned into one of those rentals for me that was a bust when I was a kid. My brother who was big into Star Trek at the time picked it out but man what a stinker.

I also believe there was a Star Trek game on Atari as well. Other then those the next Star Trek game I remember is Star Trek Online.

@Tasuki it was Strategic Operations Simulator on the Atari i believe

@FullbringIchigo @Tasuki
Check out that cover!

@KALofKRYPTON It's worth looking for a cheap copy of Star Trek: Conquest if possible (or if you still have your PS2 plugged in). It's nothing special, makes ZERO canon sense, but there's a certain easy-going satisfaction in slowly and tactically taking over the entire galaxy, one star system at a time. It's perfect for rainy weekends when you're between big releases (even if the starship combat itself is just Encounters, only steering six ships instead of one... it can get quite crowded, but it's okay for what it is, and you can skip it entirely if you're confident enough in your stats).

I was only able to play the first few eras of Star Trek: Legacy on a friend's Xbox360 whilst I was at university. I made it through Enterprise and the Movie Era, but Picard's first mission (aboard the Stargazer, deflecting an asteriod shower from a nearby colony) was tougher than raw leola root, and I never got the chance to go back and try to break through. I've subsequently watched a few of the later missions on YouTube and I really regret that game never coming to PS3. I think it might've been my favourite Star Trek game on last-gen consoles.

In fact, I had the same problem with Star Trek: Tactical Assault, the other Bethesda starship combat game (we're not talking about Encounters here, are we? No? Good) released at the same time. I first had it on Nintendo DS Lite and got stuck halfway through the Federation campaign, then got it again for PSP and got further, before getting stuck again. I really should go back and give it another try, because I liked how you could at least try to talk things through with your enemies before blowing them out of the stars. That's very Star Trek. I have little interest in playing the Klingon campaign, though. I've always found Klingons to be pretty dull and one-note (Worf gets a free pass because he's Worf, and I love B'Elanna because she's always complaining about how boring Klingon stuff is).

Never had any of the MegaDrive games. Part of me wishes they'd do what they did for Super Star Wars and re-release them for PS Vita (they'd be a great fit) but another part of me thinks I'd get frustrated with them, because they don't look simple enough to be timeless. I also know that any kinda Star Trek remaster or re-release is probably impossible, because of all the various rights issues.

My favourite Star Trek game of all time is definitely Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force. I only have it on PS2, I'm not a PC gamer in the slightest, and despite it being a really bad, chuggy port I still regularly replay it (usually when I'm re-watching the show; it starts on Stardate 53854.7 placing it between the Season Six episodes "Live Fast and Prosper" and "Muse"). It's missing the Captain Proton and Virtual Voyager expansions, which are probably the two bits I'd most enjoy (I've lost count of the amount of times I've lingered on the bridge or in engineering during the story, only to be thrown in the brig for insubordination), and therefore If you ever ask me what games I'd love to see remastered on PS4, a complete edition of this, with online multiplayer support, is always gonna be top of the list (aforementioned rights issues notwithstanding).

A close second is Star Trek Invasion on PSone. I remember it getting a nine out of ten in the Official PlayStation Magazine at the time, which also ran a demo of it on its free demo disc a couple weeks before release. I played the heck out of that demo and then eventually got the full game Christmas 2000, and despite it being quite tough in parts, it had cheats to skip around and get all weapons and what have you, so I could play all the Borg missions and fly around inside the shields of a Romulan Warbird and watch the CGI cutscenes for the three different endings.

You can tell that Star Trek: Shattered Universe is a spiritual sequel, but it lacks a lot of the polish (although Sulu and the Excelsior are bigger draws than Worf and the USS Flying Brick). Whilst I love it for retaining the Movie Era aesthetic, it calls back to a lot of TOS episodes and that's not "my" Star Trek; I love and respect it, but I've only watched it all through once and it's nothing compared to The Motion Picture onwards. Still, few other games task you with flying through a giant space amoeba, so it's worth a mention.

I somehow managed to platinum the Kelvin Timeline Star Trek: The Game back on PS3; don't ask me how, that trophy for keeping hull integrity above 85% during the space fight was near-impossible. I liked it for what it was, but viewed it in keeping with how I view the Kelvin Timeline in general, namely "something for when I'm in the mood for Star Trek but don't wanna think too much". I thought the cast did a brilliant job with their voice acting, though. Sometimes, a lot of big Hollywood names can't handle voice-only performances, or they simply don't put the effort in, but everybody was great across the board, and that helped carry me through. Annoyingly, I'd been dreaming about a game just like it years before, when watching Enterprise's third season, the arc of which I thought would make a wonderful third-person action adventure... but hey, I'm not in charge, and that's probably for the best.

@RogerRoger I might grab a copy of Invasion. I'm sure I played it, possibly on the OPM demo disc.

I'll take the recommendation and grab a copy of Conquest. As I say, it was that or Encounters at the time. I still have 2 PS2s in regular use. A Satin Silver fat and a Cinnibar Red slim (last version, still the most impressive hardware revision I've ever owned) HK machine for NTSC-J stuff.

@RogerRoger i got that hull strength one on my fist try, i didn't even know why i got it a first it was completely by accident

@KALofKRYPTON Invasion has some seriously impressive graphics for PSone, and it immerses you in that John Eaves, LCARS era of Star Trek really well.

Conquest has playable Xindi vessels. I adore Xindi vessels.

I had a Satin Silver PS2. Ran that thing into the ground, bless it. Good times... now I've just got a regular black slim (as soon as I got more than one console, they all had to match, so alternate colours are out of the question for me now).

@Fullbringlchigo Er... HOW?! My word, sir, you must have incredible reflexes!

@RogerRoger i dunno, i guess i was lucky that's all i can say

@KALofKRYPTON i have 2 PS2's but only one works sadly and that's my Silver Slim, my original Phat Black would probably still work today if i hadn't dropped it down the stairs

also this is off topic but as Trekkies/Trekkers (which ever you prefer) everyone has a favourite and i was just wondering what everyone's is, mine is the Constitution Refit

@FullbringIchigo D - always the D

@KALofKRYPTON what did you think of it's alternate timeline refit?

Ooh, rankings... okay, here goes...

1. Intrepid-Class (USS Voyager NCC-74656)
2. Galaxy-Class (USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D)
3. NX-Class (Enterprise NX-01)
4. Constitution-Class Refit (USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A)
5. Nova-Class Refit (USS Rhode Island NCC-72701)
6. Excelsior-Class, both (USS Excelsior NCC-2000 / USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B)
7. The Delta Flyer
8. Federation Mission Scout Ship (NCC-75227)
9. Prometheus-Class (USS Prometheus NX-59650)
10. Sovereign-Class (USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E)

I've limited myself to ten because I could go to thirty (or more, if I included shuttlecraft).

If we were to include alien vessels, the list would get very complicated. Special mention to the Romulan D'deridex-Class Warbird (in fact, shout-outs to all Romulan ships, they're all gorgeous), the Xindi-Reptilian ships, the Krenim Temporal Weapon Ship, the entire Son'a fleet, the Klingon Raptor-Class and the Borg Queen's Diamond.

@RogerRoger glad to see i'm not the only person who likes the Prometheus class, i would love a post Voyager series set on that ship

@FullbringIchigo Multi-Vector Assault Mode makes everything instantly amazing!

I should try and find a way to share some snapshots of my starship shelves (if we're not dangerously off-topic already).