best star trek games for pc

Best Star Trek games of all time

Boldly go where no one has gone before with our in-depth, ranked list of the best Star Trek games of all time.

10. Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova

9. star trek: klingon academy, 8. star trek: invasion, 7. star trek: elite force ii, 6. star trek: bridge crew, 5. star trek: deep space nine – the fallen, 4. star trek: voyager – elite force, 3. star trek: starfleet command iii, 2. star trek: bridge commander, 1. star trek online.

It's only logical that you check out our list of the best Star Trek games of all time.

Star Trek: Resurgence , a new narrative-driven video game based on the famous sci-fi franchise, has just hit the shelves and garnered positive reviews. While it looks like a perfect entry point for newcomers to the Star Trek universe , it also reminded us of all the older titles that deserve more attention nowadays, as well as recent releases that have flown under the radar. Below you’ll find our picks for the very best Star Trek games of all time, ranked worst to best.

Much like the movie and TV franchise they’re based on, Star Trek video games have traditionally been more obscure than Star Wars titles, or at least more demanding from players trying to warp into the unknown. Still, Star Trek has produced a handful of remarkable games well worth checking out if you’ve got the time.

If you need some recommendations to better navigate through the Star Trek movies released so far, be sure to check out our list of the Star Trek movies ranked, worst to best . Likewise, we’ve got plenty of other sci-fi gaming suggestions (old and new) with our lists of the finest Alien , Warhammer 40K , Marvel , and DC games of all time.

• Platforms: PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
• Developer: Tessera Studios

After a successful season 1 on Paramount+ in late 2021 and early 2022, the animated series Star Trek Prodigy received its own tie-in video game in late 2022. Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova is far from being the deepest nor most representative title the franchise has received, but it’s tailor-made for the next generation of fans.

There’s plenty of top-down action and adventure for the whole family here, coupled with reasonable puzzles and a co-op option which seems perfect for Trekkie parents trying to get their children into the universe. In an age when tie-in games are rare and normally undercooked, Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova has almost all the charm of the source material and doesn’t stumble too often.

• Platforms: PC
• Developer: 14 Degrees East

Klingon Academy is one of the many weird, overlooked Star Trek video games that were born from an era when the most obvious projects had already been developed. Movies and TV shows weren’t at their highest peak either during the late 90s and early 2000s, so many off-beat and fascinating titles came out during those years.

Star Trek: Klingon Academy was yet another space flight sim, with the main difference being that it followed a young Klingon warrior joining the Elite Command Academy in order to prepare for a future conflict with the United Federation of Planets. While it was designed as a successor to Starfleet Academy, the unique setting and storyline, coupled with complex systems that rewarded diehard players, placed it among Star Trek’s finest games as years passed.

• Platforms: PS1
• Developer: Warthog Games

The year 2000 also gave us Star Trek: Invasion, a pretty competent and good-looking space combat shooter for the original PlayStation. It perhaps didn’t get enough attention back then because it strayed a bit too far from the spirit of the franchise, but the quality and retro thrills are there.

On the downside, the music largely missed the mark and barely felt like a proper Star Trek soundtrack, plus many ships in the game weren’t canon-accurate. Still, Invasion landed critical shots with everything else and provided a Star Trek experience unlike anything that had come before it.

• Platforms: PC, macOS
• Developer: Ritual Entertainment

Star Trek tried its luck with the first-person shooter genre as well, and found great success twice. While Ritual Entertainment’s Elite Force II isn’t as remarkable as the first installment, there was plenty to love in it, including much-improved graphics.

Oddly enough, Elite Force II also serves as a semi-sequel of sorts to the largely derided movie Star Trek: Nemesis as well as the end of the Star Trek: Voyager series. As for the gameplay, it’s an exciting mix of FPS action and surprisingly solid puzzle-solving. The game resonated well with critics and veteran fans alike, but it was a commercial failure and marked the final Star Trek release by Activision.

• Platforms: PC, PS4, Oculus Quest
• Developer: Red Storm Entertainment

Star Trek: Bridge Crew was hard to fully recommend around launch to the average player or Trekkie because it was strictly a virtual-reality title, but there was eventually an update that introduced the option to play it without VR. It takes place in the Kelvin timeline (created by the 2009 movie) and sees the Starfleet ship USS Aegis searching for a new homeworld for the Vulcans.

Players can choose from four roles: captain, tactical officer, engineer, and helm officer. Many tasks, both story-related and randomly generated, are performed from the ship’s bridge, and it’s all about working as a team to come out unscathed from dangerous and stressful situations. It’s a rather unique and more casual experience that channels much of Star Trek’s distinctive soul without alienating newcomers.

If you do have a VR headset then that's the best way to play, but it's worth checking out regardless.

• Developer: The Collective

Back to the off-beat titles from the early 2000s, we find Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Fallen, a rather straightforward but surprising third-person shooter that made good use of the Unreal Engine and allowed itself to be creepy and scary at times.

Players can choose to play through the entire game as either Captain Benjamin Sisko, Major Kira Nerys, or Lt. Commander Worf. The different points of view shed new light on the overall plot, and the entire story isn’t fully revealed until all three paths have been walked. Another nice touch was the inclusion of gadgets and comm mechanics that break up the action and give the whole experience a deeper Star Trek feeling than some of the reskins we've seen.

• Platforms: PC, macOS, PS2
• Developer: Raven Software

The first Elite Force game was specifically linked to Star Trek: Voyager’s sixth season, and introduced the Hazard Team, a new elite security section created to deal with extremely hostile missions. While the USS Voyager makes some repairs after being trapped in a starship graveyard, the Hazard Team is tasked with protecting the ship and the crew.

“Set your phasers to frag”, said the game’s cover, and that certainly wasn’t a lie. Raven Software, generally known for their work on the excellent Star Wars: Jedi Knight titles, made great use of the id Tech 3 engine, which was the perfect choice at the time for top-tier FPS games. Its action-heavy approach also meant it was very appealing to players that weren’t big Star Trek fans. More than 20 years later, this one still feels fantastic to play.

• Developer: Taldren

The Starfleet Command series had a pretty great run, and its third entry remains the best Star Trek space sim and real-time strategy title the franchise has ever had. It packs great story-driven missions split across three factions (Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire, and the Federation), engrossing RPG elements, and RTS mechanics, and yet somehow never feels overcomplicated or obtuse. Moreover, a Borg Collective campaign was also added to the game as downloadable content, though it wasn’t connected to the main storyline.

If you only have time for a handful of Star Trek titles as you explore the best that Trek has to offer, Starfleet Command III is absolutely the must-play of the space sim bunch and also a great accompaniment to a full rewatch of The Next Generation, DS9, and Voyager.

• Developer: Totally Games

In many ways, Bridge Commander feels like a key predecessor to Bridge Crew, with its focus on the ship’s bridge and the crew working together to solve many problems and win battles. As this was a full-blown PC game made for diehard Star Trek fans, it offered a deeper experience than many other entries on this list, featuring tactical gameplay and hands-on control of the many ship systems.

While Star Trek: Bridge Commander might not be everyone’s cup of tea and requires a certain amount of commitment to learning the ropes, we can’t think of a richer game for massive Trekkies. Furthermore, customized scenarios in “simulated environments” can keep it going after the story campaign is completed.

• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One
• Developer: Cryptic Studios

It’s not often that a franchise’s best game is an MMORPG, but Cryptic Studios’ unyielding commitment to Star Trek Online has paid off for more than a decade now. Like many MMOs before, it originally launched requiring a game purchase and monthly fees, but later shifted to a free-to-play model with premium access to extra content and items.

Even if you don’t spend any money, Star Trek Online keeps expanding in meaningful ways and offers both on-foot and starship action that perfectly captures the IP’s magic with story quests and PvP battles surprisingly well-adjusted to the MMO framework. 

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Fran Ruiz is our resident Star Wars guy. His hunger for movies and TV series is only matched by his love for video games. He got a BA of English Studies, focusing on English Literature, from the University of Malaga, in Spain, as well as a Master's Degree in English Studies, Multilingual and Intercultural Communication. On top of writing features and other longform articles for Space.com since 2021, he is a frequent collaborator of VG247 and other gaming sites. He also serves as associate editor over at Star Wars News Net and its sister site, Movie News Net.

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15 Best Star Trek Games, Ranked According To Metacritic

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Star Trek has been around for over five decades and while there have been years-long breaks, the series has stuck around ever since Kirk met Spock. Over the years, fans have enjoyed dozens of Star Trek games, from first-person shooters to strategy games and, more recently, mobile games.

Some Star Trek games fall within the storyline of a show, featuring voices from the actual cast, whereas others are entirely new stories that expand the narrative universe. While not every gaming voyage into the stars is a successful one, there are some that offer fans a genuine Star Trek experience.

Updated on April 30 & September 12, 2023, by Ajay Aravind & James Lynch: The Star Trek franchise is arguably one of the most influential sci-fi media empires of all time. There are countless video games for multiple platforms, each of which is radically different from the next. As such, we've updated this list of the greatest Star Trek games out there, at least according to Metacritic ratings.

RELATED: Star Trek's 10 Greatest One-off Characters

15 Star Trek Away Team

Metacritic rating: 64.

With similar games proving so popular, it's little wonder developer Reflexive Entertainment saw the potential in a real-time tactical game tied to a franchise as big as Star Trek . In Star Trek Away Team , the player leads their squad of Starfleet Officers through various missions, taking on some of the most iconic enemies in the universe in the process.

The main criticism for Star Trek Away Team was that it didn't have anything particularly new. All of its features worked to an acceptable level, but it didn't have anything approaching fresh or exciting. For big fans of the franchise, it could be a nice way to spend a few hours, but many preferred to leave it on the virtual shelf.

14 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars

This time taking the real-time tactics to outer space and ship-based encounters Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars suffers from many of the same issues as Away Team . Players could select their crew, ship type and various upgrades to customize the experience and prepare for different encounters, but the game remained overwhelmingly bland.

An entirely linear experience, there is very little that would want to make players keep coming back for more after an initial playthrough. The narrative for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars proved forgettable, and the release was marred by several spectacular bugs that led to it being near unplayable for many.

13 Star Trek Armada 2

Metacritic rating: 65.

With the popularity of games like Starcraft still ringing in everyone's ears, developer Mad Doc Software did everything in their power to replicate its many successes. Unfortunately, this wouldn't prove to be enough. Instead, Star Trek Armada 2 became one of the many forgettable Star Trek games.

Set in the Next Generation era of the show, Star Trek Armada 2 isn't an objectively poor game, but there is no reason to recommend it above amazing genre entries like Alpha Centauri and Sins of a Solar Empire . With some iconic appearances from the Borg and Klingon, it remains one for the purists.

RELATED: Every Star Trek Series, Ranked By IMDb

12 Star Trek Online

Metacritic rating: 68.

It was only a matter of time before Star Trek turned its attention to the perpetually popular MMORPG genre, but, like many titanic franchises that attempted to do the same, it could have been a lot better. Star Trek Online had some cool features like a crew-based crafting system and the ability to beam down and operate as a player character in certain settings.

The ship elements in Star Trek Online were also fun, at first, but lacking in the depth necessary to offer the immersion people were looking for. After the developer couldn't maintain the numbers needed to keep the MMO functional, they switched to a free-to-play model. This wasn't enough to cover the glaring issues with the voice acting and roleplaying elements and it remains a deeply divisive game among the community.

11 Star Trek: Resurgence

Metacritic rating: 71.

Star Trek: Resurgence had all the right ingredients and could've permanently raised the standards for Star Trek tie-ins. Unfortunately, it couldn't fully capitalize on the potential it displayed early in development, though it remains a solid effort for dedicated fans to enjoy. A down-the-line action-adventure game, its greatest strength is its narrative direction and choice-based consequence system.

For a world that relies so much on diplomacy, implementing those features in Star Trek: Resurgence feels like a fitting decision on the developers' part. On the other side of the coin, the minigames leave a lot to be desired and some of the narrative threads don't feel as though they were properly resolved. Despite some poor gameplay mechanics, those who enjoy visual novels will appreciate the game's style.

10 Star Trek: Klingon Academy

Metacritic rating: 74.

While other Star Trek games focus on the Federation, Star Trek: Klingon Academy assigns players the role of a student in the Elite Command Academy of the Klingon Empire, headed by the fierce warrior General Chang. Klingon Academy is a space combat simulator that follows a story set between the two original series movies, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Klingon Academy was designed as a successor to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, mirroring the perspective shift of the Star Wars X-wing and Tie Fighter games. Star Trek: Klingon Academy' s gameplay is more strategic than many other space combat sims, making the battle experience much more tactical.

RELATED: Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Roddenberry Box, Explained

9 Star Trek: Invasion

Metacritic rating: 76.

In Star Trek: Invasion , players control an ace starship pilot in the Red Squad tactical strike force led by Lt. Commander Worf, voiced by the actual actor Michael Dorn. Players fight through a multitude of space combat missions while they try to uncover the mystery of a surprise Romulan attack, a Borg invasion, and a renegade Starfleet Captain.

Star Trek: Invasion looks and plays similar to the Colony Wars PlayStation games, featuring combat that's challenging but fun. While returning to this game from the 2000s may not be the best trip, it is still one of the best Star Trek experiences on consoles.

8 Star Trek: Bridge Crew

Metacritic rating: 78.

Star Trek: Bridge Crew puts players into the seats of the iconic starship Enterprise . The game was originally VR only, but Ubisoft updated it to allow standard gameplay as well. While gamers can play Bridge Crew on their own, the real fun comes when players enter a lobby with their friends.

Each player must operate a single position on the starship's bridge, from the Captain's chair to Navigation, Tactical, and Ops, barking orders at each other through in-game voice communication. Teamwork is key in completing missions. Bridge Crew features the original Enterprise bridge from Star Trek as well as the Kelvin Timeline bridge. Creatives later added DLC that lets players command Picard's Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation .

7 Star Trek: Elite Force II

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force put players on the elite Hazard Team on the starship Voyager . In the sequel, Star Trek Elite Force II , players return to controlling Alexander Munro, a member of the Hazard Team, but on the Enterprise-E.

The first-person shooter gives players an array of weapons as they take on dangerous away missions. Star Trek Elite Force II also featured more open environments, rather than just the confined hallways and cargo bays of the first game. The voice cast features actual Star Trek voice actors, including Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard and Tim Russ as Tuvok.

6 Star Trek: Starfleet Command III

Star Trek: Starfleet Command III follows its predecessors in allowing players to control their very own ship. Players can customize their starship to perform different strategies in combat, such as hit-and-run tactics, ambushes, or direct assaults.

This version of Star Trek: Starfleet Command improved the user experience, adding a new interface that allows players to focus more on combat than ship management. It also added RPG elements so players could upgrade their ships and officers. Players control Federation, Klingon, or Romulan ships across a variety of missions through the Deep Space 9 , TNG, and Voyager eras of Star Trek .

RELATED: 10 Star Trek Phasers, Ranked

5 Star Trek: Starfleet Command - Orion Pirates

The standalone expansion Star Trek: Starfleet Command - Orion Pirates builds upon the universe set up by the base game Star Trek Starfleet Command II: Empires At War. Players take control of one of the eight factions from the original game, such as the Federation, Klingons, or Romulans.

Players can either challenge the Orion Pirates and attempt to defeat them, or join up with them and move toward a goal of dominating the entire sector. The combat in Starfleet Command - Orion Pirates is very strategic and tactical as players control many starships that are both new and familiar to fans.

4 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen

Metacritic rating: 81.

Fans often consider Star Trek: Deep Space Nine one of the best Star Trek series . Its popularity led the show to receive a third-person shooter game adaptation in 2000. The gameplay is fairly generic for a third-person shooter, but the intriguing story and overall Trek atmosphere work well.

The story of The Fallen , which is loosely based on a series of extended universe novels, follows Captain Sisko, Major Kira, and Lt. Commander Worf as they try to secure powerful red orbs to prevent the resurrection of the Pah-wraiths, an evil race from Bajoran legend. Players can play as any of the three characters, but the game only reveals the full story when players complete each character's campaign.

3 Star Trek Fleet Command

Metacritic rating: 82.

Star Trek Fleet Command is a mobile strategy game that puts players in charge of a space station set in the Kelvin timeline. Players can explore systems and interact with NPCs and other online players while building up their fleet of starships helmed by iconic characters like Kirk, Spock, and Nero.

Star Trek Fleet Command gives players control of Federation, Klingon, and Romulan factions in their attempt to seize control of the Alpha and Beta quadrants. In true Star Trek fashion, players have the option of forging alliances or striking out on their own for pure domination.

RELATED: 15 Times Star Trek Changed Its Uniforms and Why

2 Star Trek: Bridge Commander

Star Trek: Bridge Commander lets players live out their Star Trek command fantasies. Gamers control a character who must take over captain duties when a sun erupts, causing heavy damage to the ship and killing the previous captain.

In Star Trek: Bridge Commander , players will fight against the Cardassians and join up with Klingons, all while investigating the conniving Romulans to solve the mystery of what happened in this remote part of space. This 2002 space sim offers great tactical space combat and an intriguing story that honors the Star Trek franchise.

1 Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

Metacritic rating: 86.

In 2000, Star Trek fans received a great FPS adaptation of Star Trek: Voyager . On the starship Voyager , players control a member of the Hazard Team, a group who must go on especially dangerous away missions . Voyager is trapped in a hostile starship graveyard and the player must discover how they got there and who is responsible.

Players take on several familiar factions like the Borg and Klingons, as well as brand-new enemies. The gameplay in Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force is fast and fun and includes the actual voices of Voyager' s characters. Elite Force plays a lot like Quake and Doom , and that is a compliment.

Den of Geek

The Best Games to Play If You Love Star Trek

From licensed adventures to flattering spiritual tributes, these are the best games that any Star Trek fan needs to play.

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It hasn’t always been easy to be a Star Trek fan and a gamer. While Star Wars fans have historically been blessed with an impressive number of great licensed games across a variety of genres, Star Trek fans have had to settle for slimmer pickings. Not only have there been very few truly great licensed Star Trek games over the years, but many of those games are sadly no longer legally available to purchase.

So we’re going to do something a bit different for this list. Not only does it include some non-licensed Star Trek games but I’m only including games that are still available to purchase via modern digital distribution platforms. Whether they’re official Star Trek titles or not, each of these games captures at least an aspect of the Star Trek franchise in a way that too few games ever have.

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary/Star Trek: Judgement Rites (1992/1993)

Developed during the golden age of point-and-click adventure games, these Star Trek titles clearly benefited from the rapid advances the genre was enjoying at that time. Yes, they can be as obtuse as the best adventure games of that era so often were, but that format really captures the feel of the “away team” experience in ways that few other licensed Star Trek games do. For that matter, no other Star Trek game has ever captured the timeless style of Star Trek ’s original series era quite like these games do.

And that’s the biggest selling point here. Between the dialog, the visuals, and the pure sense of adventure, these games have a uniquely powerful way of immediately unlocking your love of Star Trek without ever exploiting it. Even better, the episodic nature of their campaigns helps give the original series’ crew the final adventures they always deserved . 

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Star Control II (1992)

With the original Star Control , developer Toys for Bob established their ability and desire to make the ultimate PC sci-fi game in the style of Star Trek . For this sequel, though, the studio decided to focus a little less on the original game’s intense strategy gameplay and a little more on the narrative elements that the previous game often pushed to the margins. 

That change in direction resulted in a sequel that largely invalidates its incredible predecessor in the best ways possible. The way Star Control II fills its explorable galaxy with compelling story beats that slowly unfold based on your choices is a design miracle that has rarely been replicated. Few sci-fi games have offered so many narrative possibilities and delivered them in ways that allow you to feel as if you are genuinely discovering them as you chart the unknown. That not only makes this one of the best “ Star Trek -like” games ever but one of the best PC games ever made. 

Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force (2000)

You probably don’t think of first-person shooter action when you think of Star Trek . On-the-ground action has always been a small part of that franchise and rarely the highlight of any of its eras. Even still, there is no denying that Elite Force is one of (if not the) best licensed Star Trek games ever. 

Developer Raven Software’s considerable FPS experience and obvious love of the license joined forces in this action title that brilliantly straddles two genre eras. While the game’s atmosphere, narrative, and gameplay variety feel fitting for a shooter released in the post- Half-Life FPS era, Elite Force ’s combat and creative weaponry harkens back to the “boomer shooter” style in the best ways possible. Even if FPS titles aren’t usually for you, Star Trek fans will have a hard time resisting the allure of this game’s exceptional Voyager -based story. Speaking of resistance, it turns out that the Borg make for exceptional (and genuinely terrifying) video game enemies. 

Star Trek: Away Team (2001)

I’m tempted to call Away Team “underrated,” but it would probably be more accurate to call this 2001 tactical strategy game “flawed.” On paper, Away Team offers a strategy experience similar to the original X-Com games yet set in the Star Trek universe. In reality, it just doesn’t quite live up to the refined brilliance of those classic PC titles.

Still, if the thought of “ Star Trek meets X-Com ” briefly raised the hairs on your arms, then I’d certainly argue that this game is worth its modest price tag. Away Team is another Star Trek game that only captures a small part of the Star Trek experience (in this case, leading an away team on a tactical combat mission), but it’s also really the only game out there that bothers to tap into that aspect of the series in a substantial way. I’m an especially big fan of the series-accurate non-lethal options this game offers you as well as the ways it allows you to modify your strategies based on who you pick to join your away team. 

Star Trek: Bridge Commander (2002)

Though every Star Trek fan has their own franchise fantasy they’d like to live out (some of which I’d prefer not to know too much about), the allure of the captain’s chair may be the Star Trek ‘s most universal draw. Who hasn’t wanted to helm a starship and command a capable and loyal crew through a seemingly hopeless and fantastical scenario?

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Well, Bridge Commander offers you the chance to do just that. By casting you in the role of an upstart captain with a lot to prove, Bridge Commander allows you to divert all the power, fire all the phasers, and engage all of the warp drives that your heart desires. Some may be turned off by the sometimes dry strategic nature of this game and its generally sparse narrative but this is about as good as it gets so far as captain’s chair fantasies go.

Star Trek Online (2010)

Star Trek Online is not the Star Trek MMORPG that many franchise fans have begged for over the last couple of decades. Though the game has benefited from numerous improvements since its disastrous debut, it’s not nearly as deep as something like EVE Online nor nearly as refined as a game like World of Warcraft . Furthermore, its free-to-play model has too often been used as an excuse to experiment with a variety of microtransactions. 

For whatever it’s, quite literally, worth to you, though, that free-to-play model is also one of the best arguments for this game. There are pockets of brilliance in Stark Trek Online (such as its storylines, atmosphere, and ship combat) that are easier to appreciate when you realize they cost nothing to experience. This game has always fallen tragically short of its potential but it has ultimately landed in a place that is certainly worth exploring if only from time to time.

Though FTL has garnered fairly glowing Star Trek comparisons since it broke onto the indie game scene in 2012, you should know that this game is rarely interested in fulfilling your wishes. This roguelike title that sees you command and gradually upgrade a spaceship and its crew across a ladder-like series of threats and opportunities is notorious for its difficulty. Even skilled captains who can effectively manage their ship’s various subsystems will often have their runs cut short thanks to an unavoidable bit of bad luck.

Once you accept that losing is part of the “charm” of FTL , though, it becomes much easier to appreciate the game’s numerous other charms. This is a game for those whose Star Trek dreams include orders to manage their power levels, sending crew members to new decks, and targeting recently discovered weak points of unknown incoming enemy vessels. FTL may largely only focus on a specific part of the Star Trek experience, but it does so in a way that makes it easy to lose dozens (if not hundreds) of hours to this all-time great indie experience. 

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator (2013)

Artemis ’ Steam description confesses that it is “designed for anyone who watched Star Trek ,” and that’s certainly been the game’s biggest selling point for over a decade now. Even when compared to official (and licensed) competition, Artemis remains one of the absolute best ways to live the fantasy of commanding a spaceship bridge with the help of your friends. 

This local co-op title emphasizes true coordination by limiting what each participant has access to at any given time. Up to five players assume various ship stations (such as weapons and engineering) and are only able to view their station via whatever screen they use to access the game. However, the sixth role, the Captain, cannot view any screen and must rely on the information provided by their teammates to make decisions. Not only does that setup make teamwork more important than it sometimes is in somewhat similar games, but it also ensures that the Captain can’t simply take over the game by virtue of drawing the most traditionally prized role. 

Stellaris (2016)

Many grand strategy sci-fi games allow you to explore the galaxy and command nearly every aspect of a fleet of ships. While Stellaris is certainly one of the best options for those whose Star Trek fantasies can be converted to spreadsheets, the real reason it’s on this list is due to the quality of its Star Trek conversion mods. 

There are two notable Star Trek mods for Stellaris ( New Horizons and New Civilisations ) and each does an exceptional job of applying a necessary layer of Star Trek goddess to that game’s absurdly deep collection of strategy systems. Stellaris isn’t the absolute best sci-fi strategy game of its kind, but if you’re dying for all of that Star Trek iconography, you’ll have a hard time finding a more rewarding game to lose yourself in. 

Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander (2016)

Few games try to capture every element (or almost every element) of the Star Trek experience, and Halcyon 6 shows why. Through a combination of gameplay concepts that include 4X strategy, JRPG combat, and simulation-style base management, Halcyon 6 tries to allow you to do everything you’ve ever wanted to do in a sci-fi environment. It’s a noble attempt at an ambitious goal, but that buffet of gameplay means that parts of Halcyon 6 end up feeling undercooked.

However, if you’re willing to look at this as a turn-based sci-fi RPG that tries to offer more depth in areas that similar titles would overlook, you’ll likely fall in love with what Halcyon 6 has to offer. It’s a game that often asks you to manage a sometimes overwhelming amount of mechanics and resources yet consistently rewards you for your efforts through both in-game payoffs and the ability to look back at everything you have created and accomplished. 

Star Trek: Bridge Crew (2017)

Bridge Crew ’s VR functionality is its defining quality, greatest asset, and biggest detriment. Bridge Crew is at its best when you have four friends with four VR devices who are all willing to cooperate in a shared campaign. There are ways to play this game with fewer people and without VR, but every compromise dilutes the effectiveness of the intended experience. 

However, this truly is a dream Star Trek game when you’re able to play it the way it was meant to be played. It turns out that leading the bridge of a starship with the help of three friends in a virtual reality environment is just as much fun as many probably imagined such a thing would be when that scenario was as fantastical as any episode of Star Trek . Bridge Crew may be simpler than comparable video game experiences, but it’s a pure power fantasy in the best ways possible. 

Space Haven (2020)

One of the things I love about Star Trek that I don’t see replicated in a lot of video games is the communal nature of the Enterprise (especially Next Generation ’s NCC-1701-D). Yes, many Star Trek episodes typically focus on the bridge and away crews, but the idea that the Enterprise is essentially a miniature civilization with its own community and social structure has long been one of Star Trek ’s most fascinating and important sci-fi concepts. 

Space Haven is one of the rare games of its kind that allows you (or perhaps forces you) to explore that aspect of Star Trek while experiencing some of that franchise’s more cinematic adventures. Between the away team missions, ship-to-ship combat, and diplomacy assignments, Space Haven asks you to not only manage a ship full of people but turn that ship into a home. The game sometimes suffers from trying to do too much, but too few games offer what Space Haven does when it’s at its best.

The Captain (2021)

Despite its name, The Captain focuses a little less on commanding a starship (though that is an aspect of this title) and a little more on the difficult decisions that come with leadership. As Captain Thomas Welmu, you are tossed clear across the galaxy and tasked with making it back to Earth in time to save your people. Along the way, you will not only have to assemble a crew but also make incredibly difficult decisions about what you’re willing to sacrifice to make it back home.

It’s those choices that define The Captain experience. There are moral dilemmas in this adventure game that are as challenging and compelling as the quandaries presented by far larger and more famous RPGs. The Captain ’s brilliant story is worthy of the Next Generation episodes it was clearly inspired by and will allow you to experience exactly what it’s really like to need to make decisions in scenarios where there are no right answers. You may try your best to be the Picard this galaxy needs, but don’t be surprised if you often feel like you’re falling short despite doing your best. 

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Mass Effect Legendary Edition (2021)

From the moment BioWare revealed the first Mass Effect game, some couldn’t help but hope that one of the greatest developers in the world would finally make the Star Trek RPG they always dreamed of playing (minus the license, of course). Well, even though the Mass Effect games suffered through some ups and downs across the course of the trilogy, they ultimately proved to be just that. Compelling characters, difficult decisions, crew management, an entire galaxy to explore and impact…the Mass Effect trilogy remains the easiest game to recommend to anyone looking for the deepest, most complete, and overall best Star Trek -like gaming experience imaginable. 

What about Mass Effect Andromeda , though? Well, while that game was rightfully criticized upon its 2017 release for its many bugs and general decline in quality, I actually recommend giving it another look if you’re craving more Mass Effect . At the very least, that game’s basic structure and best ideas are easier to appreciate in a post- Anthem world deprived of BioWare-like RPGs.

Star Trek: Resurgence (2023)

If you’ve ever wondered what would have happened if the Telltale Games crew had made a Star Trek game during the company’s Wolf Among Us / Walking Dead glory days, then this adventure title is seemingly as close as we’ll ever get to that dream project. Actually, Resurgence was developed by former members of the Telltale team, and they were certainly not shy about bringing some of that studio’s best ideas to this project. 

It turns out that most of the things that defined those Telltale games (the episodic formats, the tough moral choices, and the narrative/character-driven scenarios) fit perfectly into the Star Trek universe and are enhanced by that universe’s style and lore. I’d go so far as to argue that this is the only official Star Trek game that not only excels at forcing you to make difficult decisions based on your relationship and ethics but even bothers to offer an interactive version of that aspect of the franchise in the first place. Hey, there is a reason it made our most underrated games of 2023 list. 

Matthew Byrd | @SilverTuna014

Matthew Byrd is Games Editor at Den of Geek and an entertainment enthusiast living in Brooklyn. When he's not exploring the culture of video games, he's…

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Star Trek Reveals One of the 21st Century's Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs Is Illegal in the Future

Star trek unveils the breen's terrifying ultimate weapon, the chimera, star trek’s where no man has gone before has 2 meanings.

When you are one of the longest-running science fiction franchises in history, you are inevitably going to spawn a few video game spin-offs. That has definitely been the case for Star Trek . The Original Series debuted on CBS in September 1966, with new series still in production today. The first video game showed up on computers in 1971 and was a text-based strategy game written in BASIC.

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Dozens upon dozens of games followed, on computers, consoles and most recently in the world of mobile gaming. But you can't have that many games without some inevitably standing out above the rest.

Star Trek: Legacy

In 2006, Bethesda, the game publisher behind the  Fallout  series, the  Dishonored  series, and the recent  Doom  games, released  Legacy  for Windows and Xbox 360. It allowed the player to control groups of Starfleet ships through three different eras. Featuring voice work from  Star Trek  actors, this was the first time William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula were part of the same project. The PC version of the game was panned due to numerous glitches and controls that simply didn't work. But the Xbox 360 version was much better, allowing users to experience the epic starship battles without the game falling apart in front of them.

Star Trek: Armada

Most Star Trek games put you in charge of specific crew members or a ship. Armada one-upped that by making you an admiral in charge of your own fleet. The real-time strategy game was based, for the most part, on the wold presented in Star Trek: The Next Generation . It even featured characters from the series and they were voiced by the actors who played them. That included Patrick Stewart voicing Jean-Luc Picard.

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Reception from critics at the time it came out in 2000 for Windows was mixed at best but fans seemed to enjoy it despite nagging issues. It still has a hardcore group of followers today.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen

The year 2000 also produced Deep Space Nine: The Fallen for both Windows and Mac, though this one is a third-person shooter. This game takes cues from a trio of novels written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. In case you didn't know, there are also a lot of books that expand the Star Trek Universe to enjoy. The Fallen gives you the option to play as Captain Benjamin Sisko, Major Kira Nerys or Lt. Commander Worf . While you can play through the game as one character, certain levels need to be completed by certain characters. This means the gameplay and story are somewhat different depending on which person you choose.

Star Trek: Judgment Rites

If you've been playing Star Trek video games for a while, this one is going to give you a little nostalgia. Judgment Rites was released in 1993 for DOS and Mac. It actually used the same engine as a Star Trek game released in 1992, but Judgement Rites  improved the graphics dramatically as well as upgrading both the gameplay and the story. The game gave fans new adventures with The Original Series crew.

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You control Captain James T. Kirk as he works with his team to complete eight different episodes that happen both on and off the Enterprise. Judgment Rites is also a key piece of Star Trek history as it was the last production that the entire cast of The Original Series was together for.

Star Trek: Timelines

In more recent years, there have been several Star Trek games created for mobile devices. Timelines was designed to be played on both iOS and Android devices as well as through Facebook. The story hinges on a temporal anomaly, a favorite plot device in any Star Trek  production. It has allowed characters from every TV series, movie, and a variety of other sources to come together. Like many mobile games, Timelines requires you to collect and upgrade ships and crew to advance through any aspect of the game. As such, it's filled with an array of ways to spend real money. But it's still cool that characters from so many eras timelines of Star Trek converged in one place.

Star Trek: Bridge Commander

Released in 2002, Bridge Commander is a straight-up, no holds barred space combat simulator for Windows. The story mode centered around a new captain taking control of a starship to face off against a new threat to the Federation.

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The game also featured a "quick battle mode" that allowed the player to set up unique, custom scenarios to work through. Modding made that even more interesting. The story was extremely linear but it's still a classic space combat simulator.

Star Trek: Starfleet Command

Starfleet Command was a 1999 Windows game based on the tabletop wargame  Star Fleet Battles, which came out in 1979. Another space combat simulator, this one had no central plot and gave players the choice to play as one of six galactic powers. Playing as each one of them provides different information that gives the player a wider understanding of an older race that has long since left the region. Fans and critics both loved the game, which is probably why the Gold Edition came out in 2000.

Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force

It's rare that a first-person shooter set in the world of Star Trek works but this game is the exception. Originally released for Windows and Mac in 2000, Elite Force was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2001. It featured both a single-player campaign and a multiplayer option that allowed up to 32 participants.

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The player is a part of a Hazard Team and is trying to help solve the latest crisis the Voyager team is subjected to in the Delta Quadrant. Critics and fans praised many aspects of the game even though the single-player campaign was quite short.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity

It might be hard to believe that a game released in 1995 for MS-DOS and Macintosh would be so high up this list but the game belongs here. A Final Unity was a commercial and critical success, often receiving praise for translating the world of The Next Generation faithfully and accurately to another medium. The crew of the Enterprise set out to help Romulan refugees search for a mysterious artifact. Naturally, the story isn't that simple. If you take the approximate stardate of this mission, it reputedly happens between episodes one and two of the seventh season of The Next Generation .

Star Trek: Online

This is Star Trek at its best. The nature of the franchise makes it perfectly suited to being a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Set 30 years after the events detailed in the film Star Trek: Nemesis , Starfleet faces off against various adversaries such as the Romulans , Borg and many more. Their treaty with the Klingons has also collapsed, leading to renewed hostilities. Each player gets their own ship and crew to use, allowing for varied gameplay options. Thanks to a series of expansions, the world has only gotten larger and more robust. It was originally released on Windows, and eventually PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. There was a period it was available on OS X but that version never worked right and was shut down after a couple of years.

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The 8 Best Star Trek Games To Play Now That Picard's Over

The 8 Best Star Trek Games To Play Now That Picard 's Over

We pick from the almost 50 star trek games to suggest the ones still worth playing today.

As the final fan-service-strewn season of Star Trek: Picard comes to an end, confusing everyone by not being absolutely awful, you may well be in the mood for some more Trek before the return of Strange New Worlds in June. But rather than heading to Netflix and struggling through the first three seasons of Deep Space Nine all over again, what about dipping into its rich history of video games?

There have been, depending upon how you count, approximately 47 official Star Trek games. Go back into the Wild West of the ‘70s and ‘80s and that number shoots up when you include the unlicensed, unofficial titles. This is, officially, too many. Fortunately, we have the authority to whittle the number down to a more manageable eight, in our legally binding list of the best among them.

While it’s fair to say that Star Trek games have not exactly gained the nostalgic prestige of Star Wars properties, that doesn’t mean there isn’t gold-pressed latinum to be found among them. Sure, it’s hard to argue there’s anything that can measure up against TIE Fighter or Dark Forces , but then nor is there really in the rest of gaming. But games like Elite Force and Judgment Rites showed that TV’s corniest license could offer a basis for some top-notch entertainment. More than you’d think, in fact, as hopefully this list—in no particular order—will demonstrate.

Star Trek: Judgment Rites

The 1990s were the decade of the point-n-click adventure, the era during which the genre was capable of being a blockbuster commercial success. While LucasArts and Sierra dominated, many others caught a piece of the action, including Judgment Rites ’ Interplay, Brian Fargo’s company that would also give us Fallout , Baldur’s Gate , and a miserable legal battle with Bethesda .

In fact, this entry should probably encompass two games, both 1992's Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and 1993's Star Trek: Judgment Rites , given they work so well as a whole. These were Sierra-style point-n-click adventures, depicting cartoon versions of the original series’ (TOS) bridge crew, and most astonishingly, entirely voiced by the original actors. That’s right, Shatner, Nimoy, Nichols, Kelley, and Takei are all there, at a point when their cinematic stars were shining brightly, agreeing to voice the reams of dialogue for a lowly video game. (As it turns out, Judgment Rites would prove to be the very last time the original cast all worked together.)

The first game took the form of seven individual episodic stories that could each have been a proper entry from TOS, with an astonishing amount of variation in how its puzzles could be solved. The second, Judgment Rites , repeated the format, but this time with an arc storyline running through its seven chapters.

Both games contain some colossal issues, with possible paths that lead to unacknowledged dead ends due to decisions you made hours previously, but also remain absolutely extraordinary examples of the potential of the adventure genre.

It’s very painful to acknowledge that it’s now more years since this game came out than it was between the game and the original series’ airing. But it’s wonderful that at 30 years old, these are still well worth playing today.

Where to buy: Steam , GOG

Star Trek: Bridge Commander

While 2017's Star Trek: Bridge Crew brought something similar to VR, it’s 2002's Bridge Commander that we want to herald in this list. This is a combat sim game where you don’t have to fly the ship, or even fire the weapons. Because you’re the captain, and it’s your job to tell everyone else to do that stuff for you.

You’re a newly-appointed captain, variously in charge of the USS Dauntless and USS Sovereign, charged with working out which of the traditional enemy races was responsible for the destruction of a star, and the resulting death of your ship’s former captain. Along the way you meet Picard and Data, voiced by Stewart and Spiner (the poor bastards must have signed some awful contract at some point, showing up for bit parts in these games).

You can absolutely switch to an external view of the ship and carry out the various actions for yourself, but that really does miss the point of Bridge Commander . It’s about sitting back in your captain’s chair and barking commands, like a real Jean-Luc Picard.

Where to buy: GOG

Star Trek: Borg

Yes, no, stop, you’re right. This is an interactive movie, and it absolutely has as much interaction as any other interactive movie of the godforsaken era. But it has one other thing, and it’s really important: Q.

Oh my goodness, if you didn’t live through video games in 1996, then count yourself lucky. The CD-ROM had suddenly gone mainstream, and developers the world over went from 1.44MB per floppy disc to an astonishing 600MB per shiny circle. This vast expanse of storage space was mostly just lying empty for the majority of games, until everyone at once had the idea of filling it up with the shittiest quality FMV they could barely pay for. The deluge was horrendous, but it also brought us the surprise delight of Star Trek: Borg , and John de Lancie at his impish, overacting best.

As someone who’s watched almost every episode of Trek that’s ever aired, while struggling to like most of it, Q has always been an important character. His arrival almost always meant pricking the pomposity of the ridiculously po-faced series, breaking the fourth wall as the writers allowed themselves to observe their own folly. In Star Trek: Borg , it’s like this on steroids. De Lancie has a field day, and it’s a pleasure to watch him indulge himself.

The plot, such as it is, has you playing as the son of a crew member who popped his clogs in the battle of Wolf 359 (the one where Picard became Locutus of Borg, and over 11,000 people died), who Q sends back in time to rewrite history. You’re given the opportunity to try to save your father through various choices, with “wrong” options seeing Q reset events to let you try again. Indeed, it’s an arch reflection on the mechanics of interactive movies, even featuring puzzles that can only be solved by failing, then using acquired knowledge once the game’s reloaded.

But this is really all about watching de Lancie chewing the scenery as he prances about, unfettered by the constraints of a TV episode, which you may as well do via the YouTube video above rather than trying to find a working copy of the game.

Where to buy: Nowhere, sadly

Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Final Unity

As TOS had its greatest gaming success via point-n-click adventures, so, too, did The Next Generation . While there were quite a few Picard-led outings, it was A Final Unity that proved the most successful, again released during the heyday of the genre, this one in 1995. While 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites came from Interplay, this TNG adventure was the work of Spectrum HoloByte, in the final throes of the once sim-focused developer that saw most of its success in the ‘80s.

A far better use of the then-new CD-ROM, I remember A Final Unity blowing my mind as footage of the Enterprise played out in a postage stamp window on my CRT monitor, then getting even more thrilled that the surprisingly well-rendered characters spoke with the real voices of the stars of the show. And for once in a game, Patrick Stewart didn’t sound like he was reading out lines in a hostage video.

Things are split between rather stilted conversations aboard the Enterprise, as Picard chats with the crew about their current mission, and the away missions, which play more like classic LucasArts adventures, letting you switch control between multiple stars of the show, exploring locations and solving puzzles.

What was so much fun about A Final Unity was just how Trek it felt. You got to use proper Star Trek computers and scan things with tricorders, all while hearing the original cast voicing their own characters.

Where to buy: Somehow, nowhere. But it’s on this abandonware site .

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Klingon Honor Guard

It feels like this Unreal   Engine FPS game has been completely forgotten by time, and that’s not entirely fair. Sure, it’s definitely not the best game, but it contains some absolutely fantastic elements that oughtn’t go unrecognized.

The main problem with Klingon Honor Guard is that, like its official title, it’s far too long. And boring. Huge stretches of this near-infinite shooter are just brown corridor after brown corridor, lacking in moments of inspiration. However, and this is why it’s listed here, it also features the mag boots.

KHG featured sections on the outside of the ship, where you could switch off your magnetic boots, jump forward, and drift weightlessly through space toward another section of the ship. Switch on the boots again and ker-chunk, you’d land back on the metal. (So long as you hadn’t messed it up and drifted off into the endless reaches of space.) It was so damned satisfying, and a movement mechanic that desperately needs to be the central feature of a modern shooter.

Accompanying this, in amongst a messy old game, is one of the best weapons ever to grace the FPS genre: the Spin Claw. It’s a spinning sawblade that you fire from a mechanism in your hand, that ricochets all around a room, before kwappinging back to you once more. Or, left click and it would come flying back from wherever it was currently bouncing, slicing through anyone between you and the blade. This offered the amazing trick of opening a door to an enemy-filled room, firing the Spin Claw inside before backing away, and then returning to the room to find everyone dead and your eager blade delighted to see you once again. Damn, that was good.

Where to buy: Once again, the game is completely abandoned .

Star Trek Online

Despite originally releasing in 2010, Star Trek Online is indeed still online . That’s no mean feat, and while the shine has certainly somewhat come off since it went free-to-play over a decade ago, it remains an enormously popular way to Trek , and features a huge number of original actors in little cameo appearances.

These are perhaps its last days, the game not having received a full expansion since 2018, since shifting to more regular, smaller updates and new seasons, but so long as  Gearbox leaves its servers online, the Cryptic-developed MMO will feature a core of players. It’s available across PC and consoles, and is packed with missions to complete in a very open and free galaxy.

Where to buy: It’s free-to-play

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen

We’ve had The Original Series , The Next Generation , and we’re about to finish on Voyager , so it seems only fair to make sure we include some Deep Space Nine. (And no, even if Enterprise had a game, which it doesn’t, I’d refuse to include it on principle.) And deservedly so.

The Fallen is a third-person shooter based on a trilogy of DS9 books by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, and features voice acting from the original cast of the show. In fact, you can play the game as Sisko, Nerys or Worf, the game changing based on which character you pick.

Rendered in the 2000-era Unreal Engine , the game still manages to look decent today thanks to that engine’s surprisingly forward-thinking resolution scaling. However, like too many games on this list, it’s not currently being sold anywhere. Quite how the rights to so much of the Star Trek collection have been lost is bewildering, although it does mean you’ll find unofficial versions on abandonware sites. Or, if you search eBay, you’ll find copies for around ten bucks.

Where to buy: Abandonware , or eBay

Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force  

What a pleasure to finish on a classic Star Trek game that you can still easily buy and play today. Where Star Wars has Dark Forces as its FPS classic, Star Trek has Elite Force , a genuinely great shooter that stands the test of time.

Why so good? Well, primarily because it was developed by genre experts Raven, the studio that brought us Hexen and Jedi Outcast . The result was a really mature realization of the Voyager universe, delivered using 2000's id Tech 3, and feeling far more legitimately good than Star Trek fans were used to.

The opening of Elite Force is just fantastic, set on a Borg cube, and delivering on that creepiest aspect of the cyborg horrors: they just don’t care that you’re there. You have a task to complete, as instructed by Tuvok, but you’re warned to avoid engaging in combat if possible. That’s a bold way to open an FPS! And it’s better still, given how it puts you in that position of moving about the cube while the uninterested Borg just mill about around you. Even better, should you start firing at them, they’ll pretty quickly develop immunity to your blaster fire, and you’re stuffed. (It’s all on a Holodeck, it’s eventually revealed, but still.)

You’re part of the Hazard Team, the titular elite force, challenged to protect a very damaged Voyager that finds itself trapped in a ship graveyard. There are over 30 levels to play across eight missions, with a bunch of favorite enemy types to shoot at. And best of all, between levels you get to mooch about on board the Voyager, chatting with the crew, and doing odd jobs.

There was a sequel, a game that despite being pretty good sold so badly it saw developers Ritual Entertainment go bust, that you can also pick up today.

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Top 10 Best Star Trek Games For PC | Have You Played All?

Star trek games for PC are like creating a potential series of games based on cosmology and space-themed gameplay. Trek fandom produces the most creative and never-ending bunch of games that deal with the universe and can be pretty enjoyable to play on PC. These games are mostly multiplayer games where you can experience the mesmerizing graphics of the space universe along with a wide range of spacecraft. The exploration in this kind of game is unique and full of adventure.  These games are incredible to watch and play with or without the VR effect among all-star- trek gamers.

Best Star Trek Games For PC

Initially, Star Trek was a text-based computer game. Eventually, an unlimited series of games are made with keeping in mind the gamer’s likes and dislikes. You have to face new challenges and missions. It has been more than four decades now, and it released quite a series of games since today. We are giving top star trek games for PC below so that you can experience the fun of space missions within the best gameplay.

1. Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

Elite Force is one of the most popular games on PC for star-trek fans. This is a shooting game with the peaceful environment of Starfleet. The game might feel incongruous in a striking way initially, but as you move further, it makes sense. This game is popular especially for its violent soldiers of the Fortune series. You play this game as a group and complete missions to complete the game. With a wide variety of weapons, enemies, and challenges, this game is all intense and beautiful.

• You will get to play as a member of the Elite Force against the dangerous races of the Delta Quadrant on various missions.
• You have to battle the Brog, Species 8472, Hirogen, and more other races of Delta where its enemies have different criteria to knock it down.
• Also, this game will seem pretty interesting as you find a wide range of weapons and upgrades of weapons eventually in the gameplay.
• The plotline is pretty good. You can literally relate to every detail with the star-trek storyline while playing.
• The main target is to rescue the trapped U.S.S. Voyager in starship graveyard, and so you have to reach to him and protect.
• However, this game is complete entertainment as you can finish it off instead of playing a couple of levels and leave it uncomplete. 

Pros: This game is full of adventure with all those shooting weapons and nasty aliens and given tasks along with the quality graphics and sound system.

Cons: The game has some plotholes and might feel kind of boring at the end because attacking those aliens are all you have to do at the last level of the game.

2. Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online is an online-based combat game themed on space combat and plenty of interesting elements to enjoy a star-trek game to the fullest. This game has an excellent foundry system that refers to player-made missions to play. The game has a great story and all the contents so that you can feel like an authentic star-trek game along with the character customization and reputation. You can enjoy your very own star-trek experience with your customized captain with 160 episodes. 

• You can play in contents both in space and the ground to explore strange things in the new world of star-trek. 
• This is a free-to-play online game with an ever-expanding feature with a triple-A MMO for free.
• You can choose your faction to fight for the federation, defense force with a wide variety of ships as the caption of the team and lead it in your own direction. 
• Not only your character but also your spaceship can be customized following your choice, starting from color to construction.
• Besides, you can encounter various alien species in the game based on the iconic star-trek franchise and the universal featuring the story.
• 100+ star-trek locations visiting all 4 quadrants to explore the galaxy and experience the real fun of star-trek gameplay.

Pros:   You can always find content updates that allow you new locations and iconic characters with customization of avatar, bridge crews, and ships, etc.

Cons: The space engine is great to operate in space, but it seems a bit laggy, buggy, and unsmooth in the ground.

3. Star Trek™: Bridge Crew

Star Trek: Bridge Crew is one of the most popular star-trek games for PC as you can immerse the universe of spacecraft with both VR and non-VR players. The main mission is to explore an unknown area of space called a Trench. You have to find a better place to make a new homeworld for the Vulcan population. As you play the game, you have to strategically decide the decision among the crew and coordinate actions to complete the mission. The game is complete gameplay for you and your friends as team gameplay.

• As it is a game of the crew, coordination, team play, communication, and group collaboration will be as important as individual skills to overcome the mission.
• You can make a crew of four members with your friends to act responsibly as Captain, Helm, Tactical, and Engineer.
• The great storyline with enjoyable audio and graphical representation will mesmerize you to enjoy a star-trek game completely.
• The game features an “Ongoing Mission” mode that basically generates missions for unlimited gameplay hours for all the solo and co-op adventures.
• You must need an Uplay account and Uplay PC application to activate and install the diverse experience of this gameplay with your friends.
• Besides, you can encounter mechanics like tactical scanners, engineer repair teams, counter subsystems, and phaser banks originally from the star-trek series.

Pros: This is online-based gameplay to spend the best experience with your friends having space missions together where each team leader is essential to complete the mission.

Cons: This game might feel difficult to co-operate if you do not have friends to play the 3 major roles apart from the captain.

4. Star Trek: Starfleet Command

Star Trek: Starfleet Command is one of the best star trek games for PC that deals with amazing real-time space combat experience. All star-trek elements like the Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, and the Hydran Kingdom are there in this game. You will have to choose from four classes of ships and over fifty 3D rendered hull designs. This can be the best choice for you if you are looking to relive a classic star-trek game.

• You will encounter a  30-year campaign that takes you in control of a task force where you face a task force consists of Destroyers, Heavy Cruisers, and Dreadnoughts.
• You will get instant access to critical systems like weapons, Shields, Transporters, Marines, Mines, Engineering, Science and Energy Management, etc.
• It is full of diverse challenges with unique missions created by the Dynaverse engine to make the game enjoyable in every step.
• A wide range of multiplayer options is there, along with “Pass the Tribble” and cooperative gameplay, consisting of up to six players in a single gameplay.
• The detailed ship-to-ship stimulator makes it easier to play with the skirmish modes to enjoy the game to the fullest.
• You can customize the skirmish modes starting from points to allocate the ship crew or extras to ship details of your enemies or allies receive.

Pros: This is a worthy game if you want to experience the classic star-trek gameplay along with all detailed factions and HUD.

Cons: The graphics of this game is not so amazing to play, but the sound is incredibly cool and gives you real pleasure.

5. Star Trek: Judgment Rites

Star Trek: Judgment Rites is one of the oldest star trek games for PC, which is very popular among gamers from the very beginning. This is a war-based star trek gameplay with an outstanding storyline and great challenges. The game is full of twists and interesting plots where you seek for the reason of detecting a life form in a dead planet and seek for the answer of advanced technology within a primitive race. You will know as you play it and discloses all the mysteries from the game.

Important features

• This game is pretty challenging and has a great plotline so that the players feel the tension as they play the game any further.
• The graphics might be outdated, but it doesn’t matter because the gameplay is way too good to notice the classic low-quality visuals.
• You might find yourself stuck when you miss out on some items or did not explore all the things you found in the surrounding. 
• This game doesn’t have any tutorials, so you have to find the book or key bindings on the internet for game manuals. 
• You have to employ the actual logic to solve the puzzles. Pixelated graphics can make it a bit harder to identify, but that’s enjoyable as well.
• This classic star-trek will bring back the old-time game vibe with an amazing gaming experience.

Pros: This game can be pretty enjoyable for any star-trek lovers, full of plots and RPG puzzles in a real classic star-trek gameplay.

Cons: This game doesn’t have the facility to autosave as it is a very classic game. You have to save it from time to time while playing the game; otherwise, you might have to redo the mission. 

6. Star Trek: The Next Generation – Birth of the Federation

This game is a turn-based video game for PC where the mission of the player is to build an empire by taking control of either the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Ferengi Alliance, or the Cardassian Union. Five playable races, along with some minor races, are there to colonize and expand the power all around. You can include many canons or non-canon starship classes. Hence, this game is worthy of star trek gameplay if you like turn-based war star-trek games.

• Includes two main modes, which are “Domination” and Vendetta,” where domination mode demands the player to conquer a portion of the galaxy.
• “Vendetta,” more in the gameplay, demands the player destroy the empire’s two racial enemies rather than conquer. 
• Enjoy both single and multiplayer in the game to experience both solos when you’re alone and group gaming when you want to play with friends.
• It offers a wide range of ships so that you can experience each ship according to your demand and don’t feel bored about it. 
• Even in the non-canon section, you will get a huge number of starship classes, including Federation ships, Klingon ships, Romulan ships, and many more.
• Play minor races from your conquered or voluntary area and gain a bonus.  Once they become a part of your area, you can construct the race-specific structure.

Pros: This game is pretty amazing if you like turn-based games. This deadly combination of turn-based and star trek gaming will leave a mesmerizing adventurous feeling as you play.

Cons: This game is visually unattractive in some cases, and this game doesn’t play in windows 8.1. You need to fix few bugs to play it more smoothly.

7. Star Trek: Armada

Star Trek: Armada is one of the best star trek games for PC with the theme of real-time strategy. It is gameplay with both single and multiplayer options to make it more enjoyable for all-time gamers who like to play solo or in a group. The multiplayer is an internet-based combat mode, and the single-player is a campaign mode. Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Borg are the main factions to build and maintain fleets. Moreover, each ship can build six types of spaceships, and the player has to complete twenty missions which include a wide range of motives.

• A huge range of starts and weapons you can find in the game as you go deeper in the game along with various upgrades.
• The venture, as one of the newest additions to Starfleet’s armenda, a highly maneuverable, lightly armored vessel for deep spacing and atmospheric flight.
• It has some restrictions of crew complement and limited space as it is made to fulfill short-range exploration. 
• You will get a temporal research facility to know more about spaceships and starships and the criteria of those ships so that you can make your strategy accordingly.
• You can get some special weapons while playing the game that will be completely unpredictable for the player.
• As a player, you can make your own ship as you go along in a single and multiplayer gameplay. Instant action is also a part of the game here.

Pros: It is indeed one impressive real-time strategy-based game that combines action, strategy, and star-trek elements all together. 

Cons: You can experience some glitches as you play the game, which is pretty disturbing at intense moments of your gameplay.

8. Star Trek: Away Team

It is a strategy-based game with a star-trek theme where the mission of the crew is to battle against a threat and survive. The crew has all special commandos, each having different capabilities. The threat is to galactic peace from a far-reaching conspiracy. You must choose members of the crew by keeping in mind the strength and weaknesses of the crew members. Nevertheless, in some cases, the member you pick can reward you with racial bonuses or special abilities, which will give you extra benefits in the game.

• This game has lots of customization processes that will give you a feeling of freedom in designing a crew you want to work with.
• You must choose the tools that should be carried by the crew members with strategical purposes which will give you benefits in wars.
• The objective of each mission can be changed based on the current circumstances, which makes it more realistic to conclude any result of the mission. 
• The plotline is amazingly done in the theme of star-trek, and the story is advanced with dialogues in between missions you are going to participate in.
• Also, it has some nice images of Starfleet along with cool tag lines like “Squad-Based Strategy: Unofficial, Unseen, Unknown,” etc. 
• You are in charge of the whole group, and so you will kind of feel like a leader and maintain a strategy to become successful in each mission.

Pros: This game is a solid and fun experience with not too tough or special in any aspect. It is relaxing gameplay for any level of players because of its average difficulty.

Cons: The AI in this game is really poor, and the puzzles get old real fast. The graphics are also adequate to fulfill the demand.

9. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Fallen

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a star trek game for PC which focuses on the rescue mission of the lost orbs and Pah-wraiths. A wide range of missions is incorporated in this amazing game to overcome the main target. The difficulty level goes high as you go further into the game. As a team, you have to break the force and stops the risky experiment from saving the world. The game has a strong and interesting storyline with a bit of plot twist. Henceforth, be prepared for any kind of turn while playing this game.

• It is a third-person shooter game not having a real engine, and it is not even pre-rendered, so it is pretty fun to play.
• With the scariest variety of aliens and other enemies, this game will keep you all focused on the game to complete the mission one by one.
• The game is originally from a book series on star trek, and the game is full of equipment to serve as a game of star-trek series.
• On top of that, it has awesome graphics and deeper gameplay which includes minor puzzles and varieties of weapons having a variety of strengths.
• The player gets to play Sisko, Kira, and Worf, the most popular characters that will keep your interest level high.
• This game is a great choice if you like old and classic star trek games and want to relive the classics with an excellent soundtrack.

Pros: This game can be played with the easiest access and relatively lower configuration on PC and a worthy star-trek game to enjoy.

Cons: There are some occasional glitches with the rendering of the video, which can be fixed with a patch and the graphics.

10. Star Trek: Bridge Commander

Star Trek: Bridge Commander is a space simulation gameplay of the star-trek series, which is a very popular one among gamers on PC. You are in command of your own Starfleet, and you have to coordinate the vessel with all your senior staff to complete the task and overcome the missions. The strong cinematic storyline will leave an impression of star-trek as you play the role of a first officer of the galaxy starship. Moreover, you will be able to solve the mystery and discover the underlying reasons for stellar explosion and prevent it.

• You will get to interest all the classic major races and some minor races during the gameplay that will give you a perfect star-trek gaming experience.
• The voice in this game character is done by several star-trek alumni, making it even more enjoyable to watch the storyline.
• Besides, you have to pick up the pieces and know your enemies to start the mission and fulfill the target.
• This game offers you both single-player and multiplayer options where you can enjoy both solo gaming or gaming with your group of friends and make the best use of it.
• There is a wide range of ships, and you can command two different ships in a single-player campaign so that your mission keeps under your control the whole time.
• You can choose a wide range of ships in multiplayer mode and enjoy playing this awesome gameplay with your friends.

Pros: This game will take you and your gaming mates to the classic star-trek gameplay with the quality plotline and audio visualization.

Cons: As with old gameplay, there are some glitches and technical bugs in the game. As you play longer, you might get used to a bit of it.

Our Recommendation

Star-Trek games are somewhat coming from a very old generation of games for PC. Not all star-trek games are that good to play. The graphics might not be as good as modern games, but it is still popular among those gamers who want to relive the classic star-trek experience. However, the true fans of the star-trek series are most eager to play these games. Old or not, these gamers are always enjoyable to almost every group of people.

Among all the 10 games, we recommend you to play Star Trek: Armada as it offers you a wide variety of star-trek experiences with the option to play single or as a group. Accordingly, it combines all the elements like action, intelligence, strategy, and adventure that too with the theme of star trek. This game is all you need to enjoy a star-trek game to its fullest.

Finally, Insights

From older to newer, all star-trek movies have a common background of star-trek series. The main characters of star trek games for PC are more or less similar. Yet, the freedom in building up gameplay or characters and their capabilities vary from each other on each game. Some of the gamers are so old that it was pixelated, but that doesn’t make the game any less interesting. The twists and missions are always favorite to star-trek fans as they experience the universe of spacecraft, ships, and various races. Follow our features, pros, and cons, along with the official link of each game.

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TREKNEWS.NET | Your daily dose of Star Trek news and opinion

A second Star Trek: Strange New Worlds novel coming April 2025

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Warps to Netflix in July

New photos + a sneak peek from the Star Trek: Discovery series finale “Life, Itself”

New photos + a sneak peek at Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 9 “Lagrange Point”

New photos + a sneak peek at Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 8 “Labyrinths”

Star Trek: Discovery Series Finale Review: “Life, Itself” An embodiment of Roddenberry’s lofty ideals

Star Trek: Discovery 509 “Lagrange Point” Review: A Black Hole of Poor Execution

Star Trek: Discovery 508 “Labyrinths” Review: The (Inner) Voyage Home

Star Trek: Discovery 507 “Erigah” Review: In the Shadow of War

Star Trek: Discovery 506 “Whistlespeak” Review: Decoding the Relationship Between Faith and Technology

From TNG to Enterprise, Star Trek VFX Maestro, Adam Howard, shares stories from his career

Strange New Worlds director Jordan Canning talks “Charades,” the versatility of the series & Star Trek fandom

‘Star Trek Online’ lead designer talks the game’s longevity, honoring the franchise, and seeing his work come to life in ‘Picard’

Gates McFadden talks Star Trek: Picard, reuniting with her TNG castmates, InvestiGates, and the Human Condition

Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating talk ‘Enterprise’, their relationship with Star Trek in 2023 and their first live ‘Shuttlepod Show’

57-Year Mission set to beam 160+ Star Trek guests down to Las Vegas

John Billingsley discusses what he’d want in a fifth season of Enterprise, playing Phlox and this weekend’s Trek Talks 2 event

Veteran Star Trek director David Livingston looks back on his legendary career ahead of Trek Talks 2 event

ReedPop’s Star Trek: Mission Seattle convention has been cancelled

56-Year Mission Preview: More than 130 Star Trek guests set to beam down to Las Vegas convention

Star Trek: Picard — Firewall Review: The Renaissance of Seven of Nine

2023: A banner year for Star Trek — here’s why [Op-Ed]

‘Making It So’ Review: Patrick Stewart’s journey from stage to starship

54-Disc Picard Legacy Collection, Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Complete Series Blu-ray box sets announced

Star Trek: Picard series finale “The Last Generation” Review: A perfect sendoff to an unforgettable crew

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds arrives on Blu-ray, 4K UHD and DVD this December

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Hegemony” Review: An underwhelming end to the series’ sophomore season

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Six Classic Star Trek Video Games Now Available for Download

Journey back to the late-90s and early-2000s with these classic Star Trek games.

Just in time for Star Trek Day , online video game retailer GOG.com has revealed that six classic Star Trek computer games are now available to download. This marks the first time these games are available on a modern video game storefront.

Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force (2000) and its sequel (2003), Star Trek: Bridge Commander (2002), Star Trek: Starfleet Command III (2002), Star Trek: Hidden Evil (1999), and Star Trek: Away Team (2001) are now available for $10 each. These games are promised to play on modern computers.

Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force –a first-person shooter set onboard the USS Voyager where you must take on some of the most dangerous special missions. Star Trek: Elite Force II – a stunning sequel set on Enterprise-E where you get your orders from Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself! Star Trek: Hidden Evil – a third-person adventure game with both Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner reprising their roles as Captain Picard and Lt. Cmdr. Data. Star Trek: Away Team – an isometric turn-based tactical game influenced by titles like Commandos and the X-Com series. Star Trek: Starfleet Command III – a simulation game with RPG elements where you can customize your starship and lead it into space battles. Star Trek: Bridge Commander – a space combat simulation game that sits you in an actual captain’s chair with a crew waiting for your orders.

Star Trek: Armada and its sequel are slated as “TBA.”

A few years ago, we looked back at Elite Force (often considered the best Star Trek game of all time) with the game’s director, Brian Pelletier, and found it holds up well after all these years.

To purchase the games, visit gog.com/partner/startrek .

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on Star Trek media releases, Star Trek: Lower Decks , Star Trek: Prodigy , Star Trek: Discovery , Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Star Trek: Picard , and more.

You can follow us on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram .

Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

Erik Szpyra

November 1, 2021 at 5:27 pm

I loved Elite Force, I remember in that game one of the first things I did was fire on the bridge crew, very satisfying.

David Wilburn

December 11, 2021 at 12:08 am

I would be willing to pay up to $40 if they would use more advanced game engine with high polygon and texture models on the games. I would pay as much as $60 for a single updated game including all missions and add expansions of Voyager Elite Force 1 & 2

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The Best PC Games To Play In 2024

By Chris Pereira , Eddie Makuch , Mat Paget , Michael Higham , Alessandro Fillari , Phil Hornshaw , Steve Watts , Jenae Sitzes , Steven Petite , Gabe Gurwin , and Mark Delaney on May 7, 2024 at 7:30AM PDT

GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

Without a generational divide, the PC gaming library just keeps growing. With such an ever-expanding list to choose from, we focused on the best PC games to play right now. Some of these games, like Balatro and Helldivers 2, are recently released gems. Others are live-service games or multiplayer favorites htat have stood the test of time, like Minecraft and Apex Legends. Our list of the best PC games spans across a wide variety of genres, so we imagine at least a few of these games will pique your interest.

PC gaming is quite different from consoles, as your mileage with each game on this list will vary based on your rig. That said, many of the games on this list don't require the latest and greatest graphic cards--they merely help these great games look even better. And if you happen to have a Steam Deck, a lot of these games are playable on Valve's impressive handheld PC. We regularly reevaluate and update this list, so you can always use it as a resource to find some fresh recommendations.

We've linked to Steam listings where possible for these games, but it's worth noting that you can often find better deals on storefronts such as Fanatical and GOG. We've included links to those stores, too. Also, some of our picks are available on PC Game Pass, Microsoft's subscription service.

Sign up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Get access to hundreds of games for $17/month

If you're thinking about upgrading your PC or starting a new build to play some of these games at higher settings, make sure to check out our step-by-step guide for building a gaming PC . We also have a dedicated list focused on the best Steam Deck games to play right now. If you're looking for accessories for your rig, check out our roundups of the best gaming keyboards , gaming mice , and PC gaming headsets .

Alan Wake 2

Another chapter in the mind-bending Remedy universe, Alan Wake 2 picks up right where the cult classic left off more than a decade ago. Alan is trapped in the Dark Place and his only way out is to write his own story. His campaign takes place alongside a concurrent one with FBI agent Saga Anderson, and the two complimentary campaigns can be played together in any order. The lightly spooky elements of the first game turn much darker here, for a horror experience full of unforgettable moments.

Read our Alan Wake 2 review .

Apex Legends

We've called Apex Legends the champion of battle royales in the past, and two years into its lifespan, that's something we stand by. Respawn Entertainment took its strong FPS foundation (namely Titanfall) and created a competitive shooter that refines all the core tenets necessary for a good battle royale. Its roster of characters adds a strategic layer and diversity of playstyle, gunplay is sharp and engaging, and quality-of-life features like the ping system and inventory management keep you focused on executing in combat.

Over the many seasons of content for Apex Legends, we've had multiple maps and game modes cycle into the experience. It has surprisingly deep lore that gets you invested in the world of Apex Legends, too. And because it's free-to-play, you have nothing to lose by giving it a shot.

See our Apex Legends review .

A deceptively simple concept with an incredible degree of replay value, Balatro is based around the familiar rules of poker. You'll build a hand of pairs or a flush and then accrue points based on it. But using that simple framework as a jumping pad, the roguelite card game lets you edit the rules of the game on the fly using special Joker cards, Arcane spells, and Planet cards that boost your multipliers. Building out a strategy as you work your way through increasingly difficult "blinds" with higher points requirements is satisfying for how it lets you feel like you're breaking the game in half, only to have the game come back at you that much harder the next time. When that inevitably happens, you need to think on your toes and modify your deck throughout the run to deal with new challenges. Jokers that may have seemed useless before can result in a sudden ah-ha moment of recognition as you take advantage of their unique strategies. And every time you make it to the end--or more likely, fail--it's hard not to start up another hand and do it all again.

Read our Balatro review .

Baldur's Gate 3

The triumphant return of a legacy CRPG series is also one of the best games of 2023. While Baldur's Gate 3 is also available to play on PS5, the PC version is the clear leader thanks to its intuitive keyboard-and-mouse controls--and it's a welcome return to form for longtime Baldur's Gate fans. This fantasy tale is set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, but the most incredible part is how it approximates actually playing a game of D&D, with all the freedom that entails. You can tackle problems and navigate the world with an almost overwhelming amount of choice and agency, making it easy to get lost for hours and then start all over again with a new character.

Before Your Eyes

One of the most original games of recent memory, Before Your Eyes has a simple premise that hinges on your ocular organs controlling the entire experience through a webcam. It's a short jaunt of a game that chronicles the life of a recently deceased person that you play as, but the catch here is that every time you blink, time moves forward. It's a terrific idea, incredibly well-implemented, and ties in perfectly with themes of memories, life, and storing those precious moments within ourselves. Unusual but packing a heavyweight emotional punch, you won't want to take your eyes off of this game for a single instant.

See our Before Your Eyes review .

The Case of the Golden Idol

The Case of the Golden Idol is a throwback to classic point-and-click adventure games and an exacting puzzle game. You investigate scenes and then piece together what happened in a linear story narrative by placing names and verbs in their proper places. And if the original release whets your appetite for more, developer Color Gray games has spun off additional "Golden Idol Mysteries" DLC--new stories and mysteries with the same narrative-building mechanic.

Civilization VI

First released in the '90s, Sid Meier's Civilization series is still going strong in 2021, thanks to continued support for its most recent release, Civilization VI . As in previous games, Civilization VI casts you in the role of a historical leader, such as Egypt's Cleopatra or India's Gandhi, and tasks you with building your civilization from the ground up, including growing your military, developing new research facilities, and engaging in diplomacy with other world leaders. Of course, Civilization VI expanded and improved on previous games in the series, with additions such as the inclusion of districts that let cities expand across multiple tiles, but it's also continued to receive new content in the form of two major expansions: Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm, both of which added new leaders, civilizations, and features to the game. Civilization VI earned a 9/10 from GameSpot when it initially released back in 2016, and it's still one of the best strategy games to pick up and start playing on PC.

See our Civilization VI review .

Children of the Sun

Children of the Sun is a dark, atmospheric puzzle game centered around a sniper with a single bullet. As you seek revenge on the cult who destroyed your life and attempt to track down their mysterious leader, you skulk around their compounds searching for an angle before taking your shot. The puzzle aspect comes from what happens next, as each shot that connects to a cultist or explosive object lets you choose its next path. Trial and error to find the right path gets increasingly complex as the game adds new magic bullet effects like the ability to slightly arc a shot as it travels, or even reverse direction in mid-air. Though the campaign is on the short side, it's very satisfying to meticulously plan your route through a stage, making a puzzle-shooter experience unlike any other.

Read our Children of the Sun review .

Control Ultimate Edition

Control 's blend of action, mystique, and the surreal is one that should not be missed, and while it's available on PS5 and Xbox Series X, you'll find no version better than that of the PC. The pairing of DLSS and ray-tracing makes Control a visual powerhouse, reflecting its impressive effects on the surface of the Oldest House's pristine waxed floors and shrouding its mysterious hallways in the uncertainty of shadow. And that's all accented by supernatural fights that can pop off at a moment's notice in any one of these enigmatic rooms as the world shifts and morphs around you. What makes Control truly special is exploring the unknown and uncovering secrets the world isn't supposed to know. The Ultimate Edition gets you both pieces of DLC, AWE and The Foundation.

See our Control review .

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The iconic competitive FPS is still going strong today with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . Though CSGO has undergone significant changes over its lifespan, it's still very much the core Counter-Strike experience that revolutionized the multiplayer FPS genre in the 2000s. The standard mode of play is a five-on-five demolition-style match on carefully crafted maps that emphasize specific positioning, sightlines, and team strategies. But beyond that, there's a hostage rescue mode, gungame free-for-all, and tons of custom content from years of work by its player base.

One of the most exciting things about CSGO is the high-intensity competitive matches where the slightest mistakes could spell doom for your team, or clutch plays could drastically shift the momentum of a match. Counter-Strike has historically been played with a level of precision in both the FPS combat and in its tactics, which makes a bit of a steep learning curve for newcomers. However, this classic game can be wildly rewarding, which you can see from its massive competitive scene. Recently, Valorant has adopted the Counter-Strike formula to great effect, but the high-stakes tactical combat of CSGO is still in a league of its own.

See our Counter-Strike: Global Offensive review .

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 had a divisive launch that by all accounts failed to live up to the lofty expectations placed on it. But CD Projekt Red didn't abandon the game, instead issuing a steady stream of updates culminating in September 2023's massive 2.0 update that overhauls many major systems, while also integrating the new Phantom Liberty DLC. The Cyberpunk of today is a sharper, more focused action-RPG with a greater variety of skills that let you navigate Night City your own way. The Phantom Liberty expansion received a 10/10 in our review , adding new systems and a compelling new story featuring Idris Elba. Best of all, it's still a gorgeous showpiece for your PC rig, so there's never been a better time to dive in.

Arkane Studios became the name to beat when it came to first-person shooter games that married well-crafted action with rich narratives, but Deathloop has raised the bar for those games to a glorious new level. Game of the year material at its best, Deathloop's homicidal Groundhog Day appeal is amplified by its terrific cast, layered levels of gameplay, hidden secrets, and so much more.

See our Deathloop review .

Destiny 2 remains one of the most popular live service multiplayer games around. While the sequel started off on a strong note, it has only gotten better thanks to consistent updates and expansions that delivered a steady stream of enthralling first-person shooter content. Destiny 2's plethora of content would be nothing without strong mechanics and overarching systems that keep you grinding away for new gear. Bungie crafted one of the best-feeling first-person shooters we've played in recent years, so it offers a constant source of fun regardless of whether you're making your way through story missions, going on challenging raids with friends, or battling in the Crucible. It's a wonderful game that digs its teeth into you the more you play, and it's easily one of the best cooperative PC games available today.

Disco Elysium

When it comes to writing, Disco Elysium is perhaps unrivaled. Developed and published by ZA/UM in 2019, Disco Elysium places you in the role of a detective suffering from amnesia and a serious bout of alcoholism. His quest to unravel a baffling murder and the details of his life that he's forgotten takes you on an absolutely stunning adventure that thrives on its choice-based gameplay and exquisite dialogue. Disco Elysium balances humor and serious life dilemmas with astounding grace, and the freedom it gives you to shape the narrative and your interactions with its many colorful characters you meet allows you to make this detective story your own. Its gorgeous world is teeming with life, and viewing it from the eyes of a nameless cop with memory issues makes it all the more immersive. It earned a rare 10/10 from GameSpot, and we can safely say there's nothing else exactly like it in modern PC gaming.

See our Disco Elysium review .

Dota 2 is not only one of the more daunting PC games to learn and master, but it's also one of the most rewarding and satisfying to play once you know what you're doing. Two teams of five assault each other as they try to destroy the opposing team's Ancient. It sounds simple, but the strategic depth is vast, and there's a lot to learn if you want to keep up. It requires learning the map, getting familiar with the vast array of characters, and mastering their mechanics to be successful. Of course, if this wasn't an exciting process, it wouldn't be as popular as it is--and if you haven't seen a match play out at The International, then you're missing out.

See our Dota 2 review .

From Software's latest dip into dark fantasy and brutal combat is the studio at its very best. The Lands Between are a massive sandbox in which to explore as a newly-risen Tarnished warrior, and every corner of this world hides a secret that'll take you down a path of danger in exchange for fascinating lore and powerful rewards. While Elden Ring doesn't stray too far from the usual From Software formula, it does polish the elegant gameplay and signature style of that studio to a mirror finish that's beautiful to behold and loaded with dozens of hours of content to dive into.

See our Elden Ring review .

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It's true that since its release in 2012, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been ported to just about every platform that can play games, including Amazon Alexa speakers and smart refrigerators. But the king of all Skyrim versions is the one on PC, and it's not even close. That's because the PC version gives you access to years of mods created by the Skyrim community. From adding serious RPG story content to providing ridiculous possibilities like replacing all dragons with Thomas the Tank Engine, the PC version of Skyrim adds nearly endless options to an already expansive, enormous game. You absolutely should play Skyrim on PC if you haven't, and you absolutely should mod it to see how the game has become so much more than it was when it was released. Skyrim is also available with Xbox Game Pass for PC .

See our The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim review .

Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters

The pre-PlayStation era of Final Fantasy won't be vanishing anytime soon, as Square Enix has managed to restore those classic games for new and future generations of fans who want to experience the origins of that best-selling franchise. From the first game to its very 16-bit best, these remasters aim to keep the restoration as pure as possible while sharpening up the titles with additional content found in previous ports across other consoles across the years. Outside of owning an NES or SNES console, the Pixel Remasters are simply the finest and most vibrant ways to play classic Final Fantasy in the modern age of gaming.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

The first chapter in a mammoth project, Final Fantasy VII Remake blends new and old ideas to create a uniquely nostalgic and fresh to what is considered by many to be the greatest video game of all time. Jaw-droppingly gorgeous to look at, the return of Cloud Strife and pals to the world of Midgar is a cinematic masterpiece that combines explosive blockbuster moments with fun action-RPG elements. While some story beats have stayed the same, Final Fantasy VII Remake also takes time to make some crucial changes to the plot. The follow-up, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is not available on PC yet, but Remake is a good way to prepare yourself for the next chapter.

Read our Final Fantasy VII Remake review .

Final Fantasy 14 Online

The Final Fantasy series is known for having a strong focus on storytelling with colorful characters who get into over-the-top battles, and the MMO Final Fantasy XIV manages to stay true to what the series is all about. Though you might assume the familiar Final Fantasy tenets of storytelling and strong character moments would be absent in an online game, FFXIV is one of the more story-driven MMOs out today. Final Fantasy XIV is the franchise's second crack at an MMO, and it features a sprawling story about rebellion, equality, and friendship that manages to hit the same highs of the franchise's best single-player games. Though MMOs have a reputation for being inaccessible and time-consuming, Final Fantasy XIV offers an excellent gateway for lapsed and new MMO players to jump into--and it's also a fantastic Final Fantasy game in its own right.

See our Final Fantasy 14 reviews for A Realm Reborn and its expansions.

Forza Horizon 5

Few games get the absolute thrill of driving a ridiculously fast car the way that the Forza Horizon series does, and its latest chapter is another example of pure petrolhead bliss. Shifting to the warm climate of Mexico, Forza Horizon 5 sticks to its template and hits top gear right from the start with its selection of vehicles, activities, and a constant sense of reward for being a speed demon. Beyond its superb gameplay, Forza Horizon 5 also takes time to emphasize a personal connection between man and machine, as it balances epic showcase events with personal moments of reflection and car culture.

Even if it took a few years, the wait for one of the best PlayStation games on the market to hit PC was well worth it. While previous God of War games emphasized gratuitous violence and a character with the personality of a very angry cardboard box, Sony's reinvention of Kratos helped create a more nuanced and layered hero. That doesn't mean that there wasn't a satisfying amount of carnage to engage in, though, as developer Sony Santa Monica expanded on Kratos' brutal abilities in methodical ways and gave him plenty of new tools to play with in a Nordic sandbox.

See our God of War review .

Grand Theft Auto 5

It may be surprising that a game from 2013 is still so pervasive years later, but when that game is Grand Theft Auto 5 , it makes a lot more sense. A story of deceit and betrayal, GTA 5 follows the exploits of three men as they make their way through the criminal world of Los Santos and join together for heists that rival those in the Michael Mann classic Heat. It's bolstered by an immensely popular multiplayer mode, GTA Online, where you can band up with friends and orchestrate your own rise through the criminal ranks. The PC version has a slew of settings that let you tweak the finest details, and GTA 5's incredible modding community has concocted creations that absolutely can't be missed.

See our Grand Theft Auto 5 review .

As far as roguelikes go, Hades is among the best. It nails the loop of jumping into the underworld and fighting your way out of Hell, providing players with an arsenal of unique weaponry and powers fit for a god (and borrowed from many of the Gods and Goddesses of Olympus). However, it's the slower moments in which you visit the friends and family of protagonist Zagreus between runs that grab hold and keep you fighting for the truth. In most roguelikes, you care solely about making it further than your last run, but Hades does more: It blends action and story, striking a delicate balance of clawing your way toward the overworld and growing your relationships.

See our Hades review .

Halo Infinite

Years in the making, the return of Master Chief saw the legendary hero hit the ground running with a new and epic adventure. Even after a lengthy amount of hibernation, Master Chief's newest odyssey shows no signs of ring rust and is augmented by a few new tricks up his Mjolnir-armored sleeve. While the main single-player campaign is a treat that's packed with massive setpieces and satisfying action, the multiplayer side is no slouch other and offers a ton of modes to try out. If you're feeling competitive or nostalgic, Halo Infinite hits a sweet spot for fans looking to revisit a franchise that has matured with them over the years.

See our Halo Infinite review .

Helldivers 2

This follow-up from Arrowhead Game Studios was a surprising success, not least because it was so different from the original game that inspired it. Helldivers 2 takes the hordes of enemies from the top-down first game and makes it a third-person shooter, and the new perspective works beautifully. Squadding up with your friends leads to tense survival moments and hilarious mishaps in equal measure as you fulfill objectives and call down Stratagems on your foes. And like the first game, there's a galaxy-sprawling meta-game at play, as you and every other Helldiver fights to free territory controlled by vicious bugs and robots. This was also a rare Sony Interactive game published simultaneously on PC alongside its PS5 release, with optional cross-play, which likely helped it find and sustain an active player base.

Read our Helldivers 2 review .

IO Interactive's grand World of Assassination trilogy reached its final chapter in 2021, as Hitman 3 built on the efforts made by its predecessors to create a perfectly executed experience. Bigger, bolder, and more cunning than ever, Agent 47's journey around the world saw him explore an opulent Dubai skyscraper, solve a murder mystery in an ancient British mansion, and turn a train into a slaughterhouse as he worked his way through each cabin. Each destination offers not only some devilishly delicious ways to eliminate targets, but also plenty of room for experimentation that leads to hilarious and grim demises for anyone who gets in your way.

See our Hitman 3 review .

Inscryption

At first glance, Inscryption looks like a mixture of tabletop card games with a healthy dose of deckbuilding thrown in for good measure as you risk your very life in a high-stakes game of survival. Throw in some roguelite progression, mystery, and a creepy art direction, and you've got the perfect mix for a game that hides more mesmerizing content beneath its surface. Absolutely strange while it deals out its ideas, that weirdness makes Inscryption the type of game that'll live rent-free in your head long after you've played your last card.

League of Legends

League of Legends is one of the most popular competitive games for a reason. From its strategic combat and mechanical depth to its colorful characters, it's hard not to get sucked into game after game of this MOBA. While there's a lot to learn, it's not as mechanically dense or difficult to master as Dota 2, providing a more welcoming experience to those wanting to get into the MOBA world.

See our League of Legends review .

Microsoft Flight Simulator

If soaring through the air and flying around the world is a dream of yours, there's no better game than Microsoft Flight Simulator . You can fly out of almost any airport in the world, including smaller airports in quieter towns, and go literally anywhere on Earth--though landing may be difficult in places like the Grand Canyon and Mount Everest. Microsoft used satellite imagery to recreate the world in-game, and it's improving both the game and map all the time. If there was ever a reason to invest in a flight stick or yoke system , it's Microsoft Flight Simulator. The game is available via Xbox Game Pass for PC .

See our Microsoft Flight Simulator review .

Minecraft is a global phenomenon for a reason. Its crafting, base building, and survival-lite mechanics are unmatched, providing both an engaging and accessible experience to people of all ages and walks of life. Crafting huge castles, cozy homes, or monuments to your favorite video game character is a joyful time, while venturing toward the Nether is a tense experience that you're not sure you'll return from. Whether you're building up a huge tower or exploring the depths of the perilous mines, Minecraft remains an exciting time that can be enjoyed with friends or by yourself. Just make those Creepers don't get too close to your house.

See our Minecraft review .

Monster Hunter Rise

After Monster Hunter World set a new benchmark for what the Capcom series was capable of, Monster Hunter: Rise had some big dragon leather boots to fill. Monster Hunter Rise is a showcase of what happens when you take the lessons learned from something new and apply it to an older example of Monster Hunter greatness, as the newest game in the series expertly shifted back to all-out action. Originally designed for the Nintendo Switch, Rise's port to PC came with a ton of free post-launch content, graphical upgrades, and performance enhancements that make this version the definitive edition of an already fantastic game.

See our Monster Hunter Rise review .

Pacific Drive

On the list of great PC games, Pacific Drive is both fairly new and quite weird, which is funny since it's also firmly planted in the New Weird genre alongside stuff like Welcome To Night Vale, The SCP Foundation, and Remedy's Control. Built as a rougelite at heart, Pacific Drive has you going on numerous runs through the Olympic Exclusion Zone, a sectioned-off mass of forest roads in the Pacific Northwest, all while you dodge head-scratching (and often spooky) supernatural elements like crash test dummies that move when you aren't looking at them and buzzsaws that skim the roads like the shark skims the waters in Jaws. Its super-deep systems, intoxicating atmosphere, and incredible audio design combine to create a one-of-a-kind survival game.

Read our Pacific Drive review .

Portal 2 remains one of the funniest and most inventive puzzlers in games. It successfully built on the mind-bending multidimensional ideas of the first game and somehow elevated its storytelling and characterization to become incredibly fun and memorable. Those things alone would make Portal 2 worthy of your attention, but there's additional content that comes with playing the game on PC. Not only is there online and local co-op that extend the game beyond its single-player offering, but there's a huge amount of user-created content that includes whole story campaigns. Portal 2 is great fun no matter where you play it, but with modding and puzzles built by other players, you get a superior experience on PC--and a ton more Portal to play for free.

See our Portal 2 review .

Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege is an adept mix of first-person shooting, strategic planning, and tactical teamwork. Two teams of five vie for control of a building, where the goal is to capture an objective, defuse a bomb, or secure a hostage. The brilliance of Siege comes in learning these buildings in and out and knowing how to work with your teammates to get in and out most effectively. Map knowledge can trump twitch shooting in the most dire of situations, rewarding its players for smart thinking and careful play. Siege is available on consoles, but the definitive way to play it is on PC with a keyboard and mouse.

See our Rainbow Six Siege review .

Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a phenomenal and engrossing video game that is easily one of Rockstar’s finest releases to date. A prequel to the original game, the story delivers some eye-opening revelations about the wider Red Dead universe. The gameplay and world-building are incredible, with lots of freedom available for players to do whatever they want as they set out onto the frontier as Arthur Morgan. The game is also gorgeous , especially on PC for those with a capable enough rig. The sweeping mountain visits and bubbling rivers shine on PC, making Red Dead Redemption 2 one of the best games we can recommend on PC.

See our Red Dead Redemption 2 review .

Resident Evil 4

Capcom's venerable Resident Evil series has been progressively producing remakes of its classic library, but none of them held the expectations and weight of Resident Evil 4. It's long been regarded as one of the best survival-horror games of all time, and a trendsetter for the action-focused style of the genre. Capcom approached this remake especially cautiously, giving it a light touch of upgrades that make the whole experience feel modern without losing its soul. It's also never looked more beautiful, so you can see the horrific monstrosities of Las Plagas with newfound fidelity.

Return of the Obra Dinn

Return of the Obra Dinn is a meticulous puzzle box revolving around a grisly scene. When a missing ship mysteriously reappears with all of its passengers and crew dead, you're dispatched as an insurance adjuster tasked with uncovering the causes of death for each one aboard. What follows is a massively connected logic puzzle as you uncover scenes of life aboard the ship alongside clues as to each of their identities and fatalities. This is all delivered in a stark lo-fi black-and-white presentation that remains perfectly readable in motion.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

A departure--though not a complete departure--from its previous games, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice takes the simple act of blocking an attack and turns it into a thrilling gameplay mechanic. Battles against bosses are not simply marathons to whittle down their health, but an exercise in perfection as you time your own attacks, parry your enemy’s, and then deliver a final killing blow. On PC, you can mod the game to speed up the pace or play as goofy characters who definitely don’t belong in its somber, violent universe. Without a dedicated easy mode in the settings, which is itself a subject of debate, the PC version’s modding potential also lets you lower the difficulty.

See our Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice review .

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

The unfortunate swan song for the tactics genre experts at developer Mimimi, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew let the studio leave on a high note. Starring a cast of cursed pirates aboard a living ghost ship, you'll have to use stealth and your wits to take down legions of Inquisition troops. Each of the crew has their own otherworldly powers and specializations, making it engaging to experiment with different combinations of abilities to take down the enemy without being seen. Shadow Gambit also learns from its predecessors by implementing save scumming into the story, making it that much more satisfying to pull off a perfect plan--and less punishing when you make a mistake.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

Only The Stanley Parable, a nearly unexplainable game where things get regularly weird and meta, could get away with hiding what amounts to a sequel within the frame of an expanded re-release of the original game. Like the original title, the strange and hilariously distracted nature of The Stanley Parable is something that you have to experience for yourself, as words simply do not do it justice. With the Ultra Deluxe edition, you're getting an experience that feels like a game within a game, adding the illusion of freedom and other surprises along the way. It's nothing short of a clever and thought-provoking examination of video games and the relationship that we have with them.

See our The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe review .

Stardew Valley

It starts with an old broken-down farm and a handful of seeds. You clear out the weeds and rocks until you get tired, and then you do it again. You get into the rhythm of daily life--visiting friends, watering crops, occasional light spelunking. Before you know it, it's been 75 hours and you're mostly managing your complex irrigation system and planning for next season's harvest. Stardew Valley is a friendly, relaxing experience that also somehow manages to be endlessly addicting. Fans know the feeling of assuring themselves they'll play just one more day before bed. And while it's appeared on just about every platform, PC often gets the first chance to test all of the little quality-of-life tweaks and new features that come with patches. Most recently, the massive Stardew Valley 1.6 update put a nice bookend on the game while developer ConcernedApe prepares for the next project, The Haunted Chocolatier.

See our Stardew Valley review .

Starfield has been one of the most anticipated RPGs from Bethesda, the studio behind Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. This game will seem very familiar to those who've played these types of games, but the new spacefaring setting introduces a variety of biomes and enemies, space combat, and refined gunplay with boost packs for extra mobility. While it's available on Xbox as well, only the PC version supports console commands and mods to customize the experience to your liking.

The Talos Principle 2

The follow-up to the philosophical first-person puzzle game is once again a contemplative experience that raises big questions even as you stay occupied with a series of clever puzzles. The philosophical underpinnings create a sense of expansive mystery as you explore deep existential questions and unravel the nature of the world. The first game was an unexpected treat but The Talos Principle 2 shows that developer Croteam can still create a delightful puzzle box even when we think we know what to expect.

If Death's Door didn't satiate your hunger for a Zelda-like adventure, then Tunic is well-equipped to fill you up with some nostalgic and cathartic gameplay. Not just an homage to Zelda games of the NES and SNES eras, Tunic's familiar green clothing and swordplay in a vibrant and colorful world is balanced by a collection of amazing puzzles and challenges that require quick reflexes and superb wits. Evocative of a bygone time and somehow still feeling like a completely fresh take on the subject matter, this love letter to the past was years in the making and more than delivers on its elevator pitch of exploration and wonder.

See our Tunic review .

The initial response to Valorant was that it's basically a mashup where Overwatch meets Counter-Strike--and yeah, that's pretty accurate. That's also a good thing, because Valorant draws on many of the strengths of those games to make something unique. It focuses on the round-based demolition-style game mode with two teams of five (attackers and defenders) on balanced maps with specific lanes and sightlines and an extremely fast time-to-kill. However, each agent (or character) has their own unique abilities that add another strategic layer to combat. Team composition plays a major role, and each agent affects what the team is capable of in each high-stakes situation. It's intense and demanding, but so rewarding.

Valorant is still early in its lifespan. But we've seen content updates and changes in its first year and it's been quite successful, so you can expect the game to get more support moving forward. If a competitive FPS with layered tactics, precise gunplay, and intense moments is your thing, Valorant is worth a try.

See our Valorant review .

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

One of the best RPGs of all time, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt brings the incredible story of Geralt of Rivia to a close. The Witcher 3 puts Geralt on a quest to find Ciri, a witcher in training who's like a daughter to him. He reconnects with old flames, friends, and adversaries as he searches far and wide for her. Of course, there's an abundance of side quests and characters to meet along the way, which will undoubtedly keep you busy for hours. Many of these quests require you to slay monsters, a witcher's main trade, and you'll have to prepare accordingly to defeat them by sword, witcher magic, and potions. All this--and we didn't even get into the two excellent expansions--makes The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt an essential PC game.

See our The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt review .

Finding the right balance in a strategy game is extremely difficult, as the best ones are challenging enough to necessitate smart play without being too punishing. XCOM 2 very nearly falls into the “too punishing” camp, but its mix of turn-based tactics combat and overarching management gameplay rarely feel unfair. Set after the first game, when aliens have nearly completely conquered Earth, XCOM 2 certainly casts you as an underdog, but it gives you the tools you need to take the fight to the invaders with careful planning. Ambushing a squad and delivering a mix of long-range sniping shots and explosive damage is immensely satisfying, and even more so if you’ve struggled on the same map for an hour or more. The game is certainly playable on consoles, but it’s at home on PC, as are developer Firaxis’ other games. Moving your units around and getting a view of the whole battlefield is perfect with a keyboard and mouse.

See our XCOM 2 review .

Removed Games

In our effort to curate the very best in PC games, sometimes we trim older games to make room for our latest recommendations. We don't want to forget those entirely, so this is where you'll find all of our previously removed games. All of these come highly recommended as well.

5/7/2024: Cocoon, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Loop Hero, Pizza Tower, Project Zomboid, Viewfinder

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8 Best Star Trek Games Of The 90s

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The Mad Max Game Is A Beautiful Reminder Of How Far Technology Has Come

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The first Star Trek video game appeared in 1971, and by the 1990s, the series was flourishing in the industry. A significant factor was the various gaming platforms, including the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sega Genesis, and home computers, where Star Trek games could appear. Genres ranged vastly, with developers pumping out point-and-click adventures that fit the spirit of the TV series, along with first-person shooters, strategy games, and flight simulators that may have caught more of the energy of the movies.

RELATED: Games Based on TV Shows That Get It Right

With Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and a variety of movies happening in the 1990s, it's easy to see why so many games also popped up to take advantage of Trek-mania decades after the original series aired.

8 Star Trek: Generations (1997)

For kids of the 1990s, this was the PC game to have as it was a valiant attempt to bring the first TNG movie into a video game. Star Trek: Generations follows the movie's plot and is an adventure game with different modes.

While considered a first-person shooter by some, it blends a ton of different game types and non-linear paths through the game. Though it's weird that this game was released three years after the movie's release, it's an excellent treat for Trek fans.

7 Star Trek: Birth Of The Federation (1999)

This absorbing turn-based strategy game had you managing one of the races in Star Trek's The Next Generation era. Launched around the same time Star Trek: Insurrection came out in movie theaters, this game hoped to cash in on Trek's popularity but ended up being a competent enough Civilization -like game.

RELATED: Best Tactical Games For Beginners

The game has a 3D combat mode that curiously uses developer MicroProse's Falcon 4.0 engine, originally intended to simulate F-16 battles. If you've always wanted to run the Federation or the Klingon Empire, this is probably one of the best classic PC experiences you will have.

6 Star Trek: Starfleet Command (1999)

Star Trek: Starfleet Commands combines real-time strategy with space combat in an engaging experience. You can play one of six Star Trek powers in this game, each with its unique campaign and story. The 3D graphics tie into the tactical moves you'll be making throughout the game.

Curiously based on the 1979 board game Star Fleet Battles, Star Trek: Starfleet Command spawned several sequels and has gone down as one of the best Star Trek game series by several publications.

5 Star Trek: The Next Generation SNES (1994)

While you would expect that Star Trek excels as some space combat simulation game, the adventure game genre is where the IP seems to shine. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Future's Pass on the SNES is a great action game that has it all for Trek fans.

RELATED: Best Star Trek Tabletop Games

You interact with characters and the game world on the main bridge and other parts of the Enterprise-D. You also take trips to alien ships and planet surfaces. It's like watching a cozy episode of The Next Generation on your SNES.

4 Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (1997)

This game screamed the 90s with full-motion video graphics in between missions. Featuring some of the original series actors and set during the original cast movie era, this game was a treat.

You play as a Starfleet cadet taking on simulated missions, and the space combat gameplay feels like Wing Commander, but each ship does handle differently and has different attributes. Along with the story, you can come up with custom scenarios, meaning Trekkies can pitch their favorite ships against one another.

3 Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1992)

Set during the original series, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary was an incredible home computer adventure game that made you feel like you were in an episode. There is a bridge mode and away team mode, and you can navigate through seven "episodes."

RELATED: Best And Worst Star Trek Games

It was well-received by critics and got ports to several consoles. It's easy to see why, too, as this is one of the best original series experiences. An NES port of the game also came out, getting good ratings at the time.

2 Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity (1995)

Another adventure game? Yes, this was Trek's bread and butter through the 1990s. On the home computer, this game offered you the ability to interact with the game world on the Enterprise-D and during away missions.

Adventure games can sometimes become messy, but this one had a well-structured plot. Many felt this game did the best to translate The Next Generation into a video game and was up for the Adventure Game of the Year awards.

1 Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1993)

While using the same game engine as Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, Judgment Rites was upgraded and polished. This game has eight "episodes," and you interact on the bridge, battle in space combat, and beam down for landing party missions.

Critics liked this game more than Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, and it was nominated for the Adventure Game of the Year awards. Not only was it considered one of the best Star Trek games of all time, but it's also considered one of the best PC games of all time.

NEXT: Minecraft Mods Every Star Trek Fan Needs To Try

• Triple-A Games

Best PC games of all time: Our top picks you should play in 2024

If you haven't played these PC games then you really ought to.

• The best PC games of all time
• Trending PC games (June 2024)
• MMOs & RPGs
• Action-adventure
• Multiplayer
• Strategy / simulation
• Family-friendly
• Platformers
• Editor's picks

Windows PC gaming is one of the oldest forms of virtual entertainment and there are several classic games that have come out through the decades. From massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) to fast-paced first-person shooters (FPS) there's something for everyone to enjoy. 

There are dozens if not hundreds of games we could highlight with several upcoming PC games that are likely to make it on this list. As such, we're building this list up over time. You're welcome to reach out to us with any suggestions. 

To determine the best PC games from the last few decades we took into account their impact at the time of launch, the legacy they left behind, any new innovations they brought to gaming, and the unique ways they presented themselves. Of course, we also made these decisions based on how enjoyable the games still are to play. Many of these games are available via Game Pass . 

Without further ado, here are the best Windows PC games of all time, listed by genre.

PC Game Pass | $30 at Amazon

Many of the biggest PC classic games are available to play via Microsoft's PC Game Pass. It costs $10 per month or you can get a three-month membership for $30. With it, you'll gain access to a large library of PC games new and old.

Buy from: Amazon | Microsoft

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Self-professed gaming geek, Rebecca Spear, is one of Windows Central's editors and reviewers with a focus on gaming handhelds, PC gaming, and laptops. When she isn't checking out the latest games on Xbox Game Pass, PC, ROG Ally, or Steam Deck; she can be found digital drawing with a Wacom tablet. She's written thousands of articles with everything from editorials, reviews, previews, features, previews, and hardware reviews over the last few years. If you need information about anything gaming-related, her articles can help you out. She also loves testing game accessories and any new tech on the market. You can follow her @rrspear on X (formerly Twitter).

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• What to Play

26 games we love on Steam Deck

Hundreds of games run on Steam Deck, but these picks make the most of the portable handheld PC

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Since it launched in 2022, the Steam Deck has quickly amassed a reputation as one of the best, if not the best, handheld gaming platforms on the market today— especially when considering the benefits of the OLED version .

With a library of games spanning much of Steam’s vast storefront, a docking station to play games on TV and monitors, and an increasing number of titles being optimized and verified for the Deck every day, Valve’s proprietary handheld is a perfect example of the viability and promise of portable PC gaming. That’s why we’ve collected 26 titles that showcase what makes the Steam Deck so special.

To curate the list, we’ve pick games that benefit the most from the Steam Deck’s special features. You will find PC exclusives, Switch games that benefit here from faster load times, and games that break apart nicely into short sessions.

Don’t expect to see some presumed contenders on the list. Not every game is compatible with the Steam Deck, nor is every genre a perfect match — we’re looking at you, RTS games. And for now, this list also excludes emulation and cloud streaming.

We intentionally limit our lists to avoid overwhelming readers, so be sure to share your personal picks that didn’t make the cut in the comments.

Our latest update added Animal Well , I Was a Teenage Exocolonist , and Stardew Valley .

Animal Well

For at least a few of the games on this list — like, say, Elden Ring — you’re going to mess with the game’s settings on Steam Deck in order to make sure you’ve got a decent frame rate and the game feels good to play. Not a concern at all for Animal Well , a pixel-art masterpiece that feels like it could’ve been at home on the Game Boy. With a file size of just 33 MB, it sure won’t take long to install, either. But Animal Well packs quite a bit of mystery and time-intensive puzzle-solving into its very small package. What starts off as a compelling Metroidvania soon spirals into an extensive Easter egg hunt with items hidden behind delightfully esoteric clues. You may as well play it on the go, since it’s going to take over your brain for a while and you’re carrying that around with you already. — Maddy Myers

Hyper Light Drifter

Last weekend, on a whim, I booted up Hyper Light Drifter on my Steam Deck for the first time since playing it back in 2016. Nine hours later, I finally managed to wrest myself from the siren-like call of its pixelated tableaus, blistering combat, and melancholic score, having completed it again and earned the game’s secret ending. Such is the magnetic appeal and power of Heart Machine’s debut even eight years after its release.

Game director Alx Preston and co. set out to create a 16-bit action-RPG that channeled the very best elements of the Legend of Zelda and Diablo series, with a story not so much told as it is felt through its dialogue-less cutscenes that play out as if they were fugue-like visions of some doomed alternate universe. Hyper Light Drifter achieved all of that and more, coalescing into an action-RPG that stands the test of time. —Toussaint Egan

The Yakuza series spans hundreds of hours across seven mainline entries, along with a handful of spinoffs. Which is to say, the portable Steam Deck provides the best chance at seeing the entirety of this Japanese gangster epic, especially in the form of short missions on lunch breaks. If you don’t have time for every game, or just need a place to start, we recommend Yakuza 0 . A sort of prequel to the series, the adventure takes place in 1980s Japan and provides lots of colorful backstories. Don’t be fooled by all of the violent combat and seedy locales; this series (and especially this entry) has more heart and joy than 99% of games from big-budget publishers. Hero Kazuma Kiryu wants to make the world a better place, one city block at a time. —Chris Plante

Cult of the Lamb

Deep breath: Cult of the Lamb is Animal Crossing meets Hades meets the dark side of Catholic history meets Happy Tree Friends meets American cultism meets European occultism meets Dark Souls meets 1980s Satanic Panic meets Fractured Fairy Tales meets the waking dreams of Peter Molyneux.

Cult of the Lamb is like a stew. If you look closely, you can spot all of these delicious individual ingredients, but when slurped from a big spoon all you’ll taste is one distinct flavor. —CP

Dave the Diver

There are few mobile gaming experiences as serene and enthralling as Dave the Diver . Dave dives not just to collect fish and cooking materials for the sushi restaurant he staffs every night, but to uncover ancient secrets. Regardless of your objective, navigating the deep feels like a blend between Animal Crossing and a roguelike, where you’re amassing better tools to uncover what (and who) is lurking in the depths.

Dave the Diver is a family-friendly game (if you can look past small clouds of blood when you harpoon a fish) that is startlingly good at blending many game genres in one. You swim; manage a restaurant; farm fish, veggies and more; and are solely responsible for reversing a climate change-inducing threat under the sea. And on the Steam Deck, it’s so much easier to fit in just one more dive session. —Cameron Faulkner

You might not expect Dredge to feel at home on the Steam Deck at first glance, but it totally does. This haunted seafaring adventure tests the protagonist’s psyche, and the gameplay loop is perfect for quick pick-up, put-down sessions. Not to mention, it’s a lot of fun being set free to fish, solve mysteries, and complete objectives before the sun goes down. And if you dare, dredge the depths after dark for some spooky surprises. —CF

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Part coming-of-age visual novel, part exploration-heavy sci-fi RPG, part poker-esque card game, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a brilliantly captivating game that you’ll want to play again and again (and again). You take on the role of a young kid in Earth’s first planetary colony, and follow their life on a strange new alien planet over the course of 10 years. Every activity you pick impacts your personal journey and the relationships you make — and also plays a huge role in the future of the planet.

What really makes I Was a Teenage Exocolonist so compelling is the replayability — finishing a playthrough gives you knowledge that you take through to the next, allowing you to make different (and possibly better!) decisions. For instance, there’s a character who dies very early on in the first playthrough that can’t be saved at all. Their death haunts that first run.

But in the second one, you can save them because you have a hunch as to how things will go. It’s a game that invites you to play through another round and another and another — just to see if you can get it all right this time (or make things go horribly wrong! Or crack the secret as to why you’re living these lives over and over again!). — Petrana Radulovic

My love for the Star Fox series has evaporated with each new entry, to the point that I began to wonder if I ever really enjoyed those games or if I just liked chunky ’90s 3D graphics. Ex-Zodiac ’s creators have done what Nintendo couldn’t for the past couple of decades: bottle the original magic of the space flight franchise and add just enough tweaks to make the adventure palatable for our collective evolved tastes. (Hey, video games have come a long way since the SNES!) Developer MNKY also created bonus levels inspired by other retro classics, like Space Harrier , emphasizing its knack for refueling once exciting genres that have spent way too long collecting dust in the garage. —CP

Stray is a game about being a cat. You don’t talk like Garfield or wink at the camera like Bubsy. You stretch, scratch, and occasionally leap between ledges at perilous heights. Your cat participates in a harrowing adventure set in a dystopian, cyberpunk underworld in which robots echo the lives of their long-dead human counterparts. But most engagement happens on your behalf through an adorable, English-speaking, artificially intelligent drone named B-12. The game’s creators keep your cat’s direct involvement ambiguous. Is the cat the savior of a dying planet? Or is the cat just a cat who happens to be the incidental shepherd of historic change? Like I said, typical cat stuff. —CP

Stardew Valley

There’s a reason Stardew Valley is still so beloved after eight years: It’s just damn good. The latest big update adds so much to the already robust game, fleshing out Pelican Town and its inhabitants. It’s not just farming, but mining, fishing, foraging, and getting to know all the townspeople (and possibly marrying them). Rebuild your little community and get really invested in perfecting your farm’s layout! Or travel to the deepest, darkest levels of the mines. Or just spend a lot of time fishing.

There’s just so much to do in Stardew Valley . It’s clear to see why this game revitalized the farming sim genre and why every farming sim these days wants to be just like it (with a twist). — PR

I am proud of the work we do at Polygon, but every publication has its weaknesses. I’ve accepted that we’re not the go-to experts for old-school side-scrolling shooters and shmups. That honor goes to our pals at Eurogamer, specifically Martin Robinson, who I trust more with this genre than I do any pundit with American politics. When he proclaimed Drainus is “ the most spectacular side-scrolling shooter since Gradius 5 ,” I had to give it a try. Is it the best? I said I’m not an expert. But I can say, with confidence, it’s been a blast on Steam Deck, a delicious digestif after hours in a modern open-world game, and an unusually accommodating entry point for a notoriously impenetrable genre. —CP

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade

One of the best games of all time received one of the best remakes of all time, and now you can play its most complete version whenever and wherever you want. I mean, I could write more reasons you should play this game, but let’s be real — either you have played a version of Final Fantasy 7 already or you’ve been told countless times to bump this one up your queue. Throw this recommendation on the pile. —CP

Meet the Steam Deck’s killer app. It’s not perfect — I play on low settings and occasionally experience frame rate dips — but Elden Ring works, and that’s all I need to farm souls (er, “runes”) in FromSoftware’s open-world expansion of its Dark Souls formula. This is the game that has kept me awake past midnight. I promise myself that I’ll stop once I see what’s at the end of a moss-lined cave or over a burning horizon, but then I see some new curiosity, and suddenly, I’m pummeling my way through another dungeon. The convenience of a portable device turns what I meant to be a 15-minute grind session into a two-hour journey through a labyrinthine dungeon. —CP

Vampire Survivors

So you’ve dropped half a grand on a portable video game machine capable of powering the most complex and expensive 3D video games on the planet. Now prepare to burn dozens of hours on a $2.99 2D dungeon crawler that nearly plays itself. Vampire Survivors is the unholy union of clickers, roguelikes, and Gauntlet. Runs take 10-30 minutes and pair well with an audiobook or podcast. The developers have discovered the formula for a perfect portable game, but for the time being, you can’t find this one on Switch or smartphones. —CP

Jusant has been my go-to chill-out game of choice this year, and I can’t imagine playing it on anything other than the Steam Deck. The post-apocalyptic fantasy climbing game from French developer Don’t Nod ( Life Is Strange ) has a lot going for it: a mysterious and compelling world with beautiful art design, a moving orchestral music score, and tight controls that are easy to learn and gratifying to master.

It’s that last point that makes the Steam Deck my preferred platform of choice to play Jusant . The satisfying sound and haptic feedback of the Deck’s left and right triggers makes the challenge of climbing the cliff faces of the game’s impossibly vast and looming tower as painless and pleasing as possible, and the visual and sound quality of the Deck is terrific at rendering the gorgeous vistas and ambient soundscapes of the world. If you’re looking for a relaxing yet exciting adventure game experience that plays great on the Steam Deck, this is the one to play. —TE

Dragon Quest 11

The best place to play Dragon Quest 11 has changed over the years. The JRPG to end all JRPGs first launched in 2018 on Steam and PlayStation 4, only to be bested a year later by a Definitive Edition for Nintendo Switch, which included additional content and could be played on the go. The Definitive Edition then came to Steam in 2020, but, of course, it lacked the portability of the Switch version, forcing players to choose between visuals and convenience. With the Steam Deck, folks can now have it both ways. —CP

Nier: Automata

My blurb for Polygon’s best games of the 2010s applies to why Nier: Automata belongs on every Steam Deck:

Nier: Automata is the game I most often find myself wanting to play instead of the many fine-but-forgettable shooters and open-world distractions that land on my desk. I think about it every week partly because its soundtrack is my favorite writing music, partly because its toys litter my desk, and mostly because it’s just that good. Yes, you have to beat it five times, but in hindsight, I wish I had a reason to play it another five hundred. —CP

Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo

While Paranormasight is available for Switch and iOS, it looks and plays best (and is often the most affordable) on Steam Deck, whether you’re using it in handheld mode or if it’s docked to your TV. This spooky, rather mature episodic visual novel is tough to put down, especially when you begin to uncover how it progresses.

You assume the role of multiple characters, who are all trying to survive a supernatural cataclysm that’s out for everyone’s soul. The story is told to make you care about each one of them, not knowing who’s about to bite the dust at the next turn of events. —CF

Red Faction: Guerrilla

In 2009, Volition created an open-world terrorism simulator set on Mars. With a hammer and construction-grade explosives, a bald space bro destroys landmarks, government office complexes, and mining facilities piece by piece. Where its open-world peers focused on realism and narrative, Red Faction emphasized chaotic fun. Publisher THQ planned to convert Red Faction into a “transmedia” property, but little materialized beyond a mediocre sequel and a made-for-TV movie. The closest we’ve seen to a spiritual sequel is 2020’s Teardown , an indie heist game that invites players to bust through buildings made of chunky voxels. Speaking of, I should install Teardown on my Steam Deck. —CP

Zero Escape: The Nonary Games

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward were two of the most beloved visual novels on the Nintendo DS, 3DS, and PlayStation Vita. Unfortunately, Nintendo and Sony no longer support the DS and Vita online shops, and the 3DS online storefront will close in 2023 . Meanwhile, The Nonary Games , which bundles the two titles, remains just as available today as it did when it launched on Steam in 2017, with no threat of disappearing anytime soon. —CP

Spelunky and Spelunky 2

Spelunky HD kept my PlayStation Vita within arm’s reach long after Sony gave up on the cult handheld. Last year, developer Mossmouth ported Spelunky and its sequel to the Nintendo Switch — and I finally moved my Vita into its long-term home in my storage bin of gaming artifacts. I won’t say the Steam Deck is a better home for Spelunky than the Switch, just that it’s another portable home. And any portable that can play Spelunky should play Spelunky. —CP

Wildermyth made Polygon’s top 10 games of 2021 list by reimagining the D&D experience without the need for a part-time Dungeon Master. The combat is clever enough (your magic can convert any object into a deadly weapon), but I especially cherish its creator’s dedication to characters. Party members find lovers and nemeses, they acquire weapons and battle scars, they age and eventually die. Quests are broken into 10- to 15-minute episodes of story and combat, ideal for filling any gaps in your day. The controls on Steam Deck do take a little practice, but the game has benefited from an active community of modders and storytellers, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see improved user-made control settings soon. —CP

Half-Life 2

In 2004, Half-Life 2 helped launch Steam, attracting thousands of players to Valve’s then-unproven video game ecosystem. In return for joining Steam, players could download a first-person shooter that was far ahead of its time. Today, Half-Life 2 (and its pair of supplemental episodes) works as another example of Valve’s magic. I installed a PC game I bought nearly 20 years ago onto a portable computer, and it only took a few minutes to enter the streets of City 17. —CP

Death Stranding

What if Hideo Kojima made his magnum opus, but most people wrote it off as a tedious walking simulator? Reader, it happened! Death Stranding is my personal game of the decade, an astounding mishmash of everything to appear in a Kojima game: earnest critiques of capitalism and the pain points of democracy, eerie premonitions of global pandemics and a gig economy forced to carry society on its shoulders, and enough mommy issues to justify a lifetime of therapy. Plus, the game itself is fun. Like, very fun!

No, you don’t get to shoot much stuff, nor do you conquer the giant open-world map. But you do make the world a little more manageable for you and other players, slowly building bridges, roads, and ladders that will inevitably be destroyed by nature. Where other games ask you to become the ruler of their world, Death Stranding reminds you that we are all merely tourists awaiting our one-way flight off of this rock. Did I mention the poop grenades?

Plenty of folks didn’t give the game a shot on PlayStation 4 or PC. Maybe the Steam Deck will make the game convenient enough to win over a handful of curious people to take the plunge into Death Stranding ’s sticky, inky depths. —CP

2024 games: All the PC games scheduled for launch this year

2024 is here, so take a look ahead at what's confirmed for the PC release schedule.

• More upcoming

Delayed to 2025

We're well on our way through the first chunk of new games in 2024, and hey, is it just me, or are there already too many games to keep up with?

2024 games : Upcoming releases Best PC games : All-time favorites Free PC games : Freebie fest Best FPS games : Finest gunplay Best MMOs : Massive worlds Best RPGs : Grand adventures

After an inarguably huge year for games, it's possible that the 2024 schedule will wind up feeling a little quieter—but the first couple months have already been stacked with celebrated releases. January saw the all-encompassing arrival of Palworld, while February brought a pile of surprise hits like Helldivers 2, Balatro, and Pacific Drive

We're in store for some anticipated sequels like Dragon's Dogma 2, Homeworld 3, and World of Goo 2. There are still-to-come indies definitely worth watching as well, such as little builder Tiny Glade, witchy adventure Reka, and magical-girl inspired life sim Field of Mistria. And Hollow Knight: Silksong has to make it out in 2024. Right?

Keep up with the launch calendar for the year here as new release dates land, inevitable delays crop up, and new announcements hit the books.

New games in January 2024

January .

• January 17 — Dominions 6 - Rise of the Pantokrator - God war 4X ( Steam )
• January 18 — New Cycle (Early Access) - Post-solar flare city builder ( Steam )
• January 18 — Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - PoP platformer spinoff ( Epic )
• January 19 — Palworld (Early Access) - Open-world gun Pokemon ( Steam )
• January 23 — Lil' Guardsman - If Papers, Please was Adventure Time ( Steam )
• January 24 — Anomaly Agent - 2D timewarp cyberpunk brawler ( Steam )
• January 24 — Enshrouded (Early Access) - Valheim plus polygons ( Steam )
• January 25 — Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Yakuza new and old ( Steam )
• January 25 — Unforetold: Witchstone (Early Access) - Freeform CRPG ( Steam )
• January 25 — Phantom Abyss - Asynchronous multiplayer tomb raids ( Steam )
• January 26 — Tekken 8 - next installment of the fighting series ( Steam )

New games in February 2024

• February 1 — Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Spinoff ARPG ( Steam )
• February 2 — Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Cape killing ( Steam )
• February 2 — Persona 3 Reload - a P3 remake ( Steam )
• February 8 — Helldivers 2 - Third-person starship troopin' ( Steam )
• February 12 — SpellRogue (Early Access) - Wizard deck-building ( Steam )
• February 13 — Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - 1600s RPG ( Steam )
• February 13 — Islands of Insight - Open world online puzzles ( Steam )
• February 13 — Lysfanga - Time clone action tactics ( Steam )
• February 13 — Ultros - Psychedelic Metroidvania ( Steam )
• February 14 — Solium Infernum - Grand strategy in Hell ( Steam )
• February 16 — Skull and Bones - Ubisoft's pirate game ( Epic Store )
• February 19 — Nemire - Undead army tactics RPG ( Steam )
• February 20 — Balatro - Poker hand deckbuilding roguelike ( Steam )
• February 20 — Nightingale (early access) - Fae realm crafting survival ( Steam )
• February 21 — Last Epoch - ARPG dense with skill trees ( Steam )
• February 21 — Penny's Big Breakaway - 3D yoyo platformer ( Steam )
• February 21 — Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance - RTS against Skynet ( Steam )
• February 22 — Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator - Green-thumbing ( Steam )
• February 22 — Pacific Drive - Road trip survival sim ( Steam )
• February 23 — Promenade  - Cute cartoon platformer ( Steam )
• February 27 — Wrath: Aeon of Ruin - Quake-like retro shooter ( Steam )
• February 28 — Brothers A Tale of Two Sons Remake - Lads redux ( Steam )
• February 28 — Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster - Katarn++ ( Steam )
• February 29 — Ad Infernum - Demonic gas station immersive horror ( Steam )

New games in March 2024

March .

• March 4 — The Thaumaturge - Occult CRPG in 1905 Warsaw ( Steam )
• March 5 — Expeditions: A MudRunner Game - Dirty trucks! ( Steam )
• March 5 — Quilts and Cats of Calico - Sewing, puzzles, felines ( Steam )
• March 6 — Reveil - First-person puzzle thriller ( Steam )
• March 7 — Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley - Cozy Moomin game ( Steam )
• March 7 — Zoria: Age of Shattering  - Fantasy tactics RPG ( Steam )
• March 8 — Summerhouse - Casual building designer ( Steam )
• March 12 — Tribes 3: Rivals (Early Access) - Tribes returns ( Steam )
• March 19 — Lightyear Frontier (Early Access) - Chill mech farming ( Steam )
• March 20 — Alone in the Dark - 90s horror classic reboot ( Steam )
• March 21 — BattleJuice Alchemist (Early Access) - Strongest potions ( Steam )
• March 21 — Dragon's Dogma 2 - Capcom's open world fantasy ( Steam )
• March 21 — Horizon Forbidden West - Another Aloy adventure ( Steam )
• March 22 — TerraTech Worlds (Early Access) - Rover-centric survival ( Steam )
• March 25 — Acolyte of the Altar - Monster-hunting deckbuilder ( Steam )
• March 25 — Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the mist (Early Access - Steam )
• March 26 — Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles - Falconeer city building ( Steam )
• March 26 — Outpost: Infinity Siege - FPS RTS with mechs ( Steam )
• March 26 — South Park: Snow Day - The next South Park RPG ( Steam )
• March 27 — Distant Bloom - Cozy alien planet restoration ( Steam )
• March 28 — Omega Crafter (Early Access) - Programmable Palworld ( Steam )
• March 28 — Pepper Grinder - 2D drill-based platformer ( Steam )
• March 29 — Felvidek - Monochrome medieval RPG ( Steam )

New games in April 2024

• April 3 — Planetiles - Planetary puzzler ( Steam )
• April 5 — Sons of Valhalla - Viking game that reminds of Kingdom ( Steam )
• April 9 — Botany Manor  - Plant-tending walking simulator ( Steam )
• April 9 — Children of the Sun - Bullet-bending sniper puzzles ( Steam )
• April 10 — Broken Roads - Post-apoc Australia RPG ( Steam )
• April 10 — Sky: Children of the Light ( Early Access ) - Peaceful MMO ( Steam ) 
• April 16 — Harold Halibut  - Claymation space story ( Steam )
• April 17 — Morels: The Hunt 2 - Fungus foraging sim ( Steam )
• April 18 — No Rest for the Wicked (Early Access) - Ori devs' ARPG ( Steam )
• April 23 — Bellwright (Early Access) - Medieval management and survival ( Steam )
• April 23 — Phantom Fury - 3D Realms shooter ( Steam )
• April 23 — Rumble Club - Fall Guys with punching ( Steam )
• April 23 — Tales of Kenzera: Zau - Bantu-inspired metroidvania ( Steam )
• April 24 — Oddsparks (Early Access) - Pikmin meets Factorio ( Steam )
• April 25 — Another Crab's Treasure - Crab soulslike ( Steam )
• April 25 — Sand Land - Vehicle ARPG based on Toriyama manga ( Steam )
• April 26 — Manor Lords - Highly wishlisted medieval city builder ( Steam )
• April 29 — Echoes of the Plum Grove - A Georgian-era life sim ( Steam )
• April 30 — Gray Zone Warfare ( Early Access ) - an Arma-like FPS ( Steam )

New games in May 2024

• May 2 — Abiotic Factor - Survival crafting a la Half-Life ( Steam )
• May 2 — Foundry - Paradox-published take on Satisfactory ( Steam )
• May 8 — Indika - Psychological adventure as Russian nun ( Steam )
• May 7 — Heading Out - Driving adventure game ( Steam )
• May 8 — V Rising - Vampire survival game hits 1.0 ( Steam )
• May 9 — Animal Well - Surreal neon cave Metroidvania ( Steam )
• May 9 — Crow Country - 90s nostalgia survival horror ( Steam )
• May 9 — Little Kitty, Big City - Feline adventure ( Steam )
• May 10 — Gatekeeper - Top-down Risk-of-Rain-like ( Steam )
• May 13 — Homeworld 3 - Sci-fi space RTS classic revival ( Steam )
• May 13 — Fabledom - Fairy tale city builder ( Steam )
• May 14 — Braid, Anniversary Edition - Puzzle game remaster ( Steam )
• May 14 — Dread Delusion - Old-school open world RPG ( Steam )
• May 15 — Men of War 2 - WW2 RTS ( Steam )
• May 15 — Baladins - Bardic co-op RPG ( Steam )
• May 16 — Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut - Sony's samurai port ( Steam )
• May 16 — Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - Surreal Annapurna puzzle game ( Steam )
• May 16 — Robobeat - Robot bounty hunter rhythm shooter ( Steam )
• May 20 — Songs of Conquest  - Turn-based fantasy strategy RPG ( Steam )
• May 21 — Paper Trail - Puzzles in a foldable world ( Steam )
• May 21 — Synergy - Weird scifi city builder ( Steam )
• May 21 — Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2  - Psychological action sequel ( Steam )
• May 23 — Crown Wars: The Black Prince - Medieval tactics ( Steam )
• May 23 — Duck Detective: The Secret Salami - Poultry PI adventure ( Steam )
• May 23 — Galacticare - "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor" simulator ( Steam )
• May 23 — Hauntii - Gorgeous twin-stick afterlife adventure ( Steam )
• May 24 — Sonar Shock - First person horror RPG old school style ( Steam )
• May 27 — The Rogue Prince of Persia - Early access roguelite ( Steam )
• May 28 — Multiversus - WB's platform fighter relaunch ( Site )
• May 29 — Capes  - turn-based superhero tactics ( Steam )
• May 29 — Nine Sols - Hand-drawn 2D Sekiro ( Steam )
• May 30 — SKALD: Against the Black Priory - Retro party-based RPG ( Steam )
• May 31 — F1 24 - Annual Formula One racing game ( Steam )
• May 31 — Mutant Football League 2 - Arcade football with mutants ( Steam )

New games in June 2024

• June 4 — Destiny 2: The Final Shape - The year's D2 expansion ( Site )
• June 4 — Killer Klowns from Outer Space  - Horror throwback ( Steam )
• June 4 — Songs of Silence - RTS with turn-based management ( Steam )
• June 6 — Blockbuster Inc. - Movie studio sim ( Steam )
• June 6 — Chornobyl Liquidators - Cleanup/bureaucracy focused sim ( Steam )
• June 14 — Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance - Bring a fusing FAQ ( Steam )
• June 18 — #BLUD - '90s cartoon vampire dungeon crawler ( Steam )
• June 18 — Pax Dei ( Early Access ) - Medieval sandbox MMO ( Steam )
• June 19 — Crab God - Crustacean strategy ( Steam )
• June 19 — Republic of Pirates - City builder for freebooters ( Steam )
• June 19 — Murky Divers - Underwater co-op horror ( Steam )
• June 18 — Still Wakes the Deep - Oil rig horror from Chinese Room ( Steam )
• June 20 — Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree - Tarnished DLC ( Steam )

New games in July 2024

• July 16 — Cataclismo - Hand-built tower defense ( Steam )
• July 16 — EvilVEvil - Vampire co-op shooter ( Steam )
• July 16 — Magical Delicacy - Cozy, culinary, magical Metroidvania ( Stream )
• July 18 — Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus - Okami aesthetic Metroidvania ( Steam )
• July 18 — Dungeons of Hinterberg - Stylish dungeon diver ( Steam )
• July 18 — Norland - Medieval colony sim ( Steam )
• July 18 — Schim - Frogger-ish shadow platformer ( Steam )
• July 18 — Vampire Therapist - Darkly comedic narrative adventure ( Steam )
• July 25 — Earth Defense Force 6 - EDF! EDF! EDF! ( Steam )
• July 25 — Frostpunk 2 - Grim, snowy city management ( Steam )
• July 30 — The Garden Path - Slice-of-life gardening ( Steam )
• July ?? — Breachway - Space dogfight deckbuilder ( Steam )

New games in August 2024

• August 2 — World of Goo 2 - Slimy physics puzzle sequel ( Epic )
• August 5 — Fields of Mistria - Magical girl life sim ( Steam )
• August 8 — SteamWorld Heist 2 - 2D pirate robot tactics ( Steam )
• August 15 — Farewell North - Do you want to cry about dogs? ( Steam )
• August 19 — Black Myth: Wukong - ARPG from controversial dev ( Steam )
• August 20 — Dustborn - Future dystopian American roadtrip ( Steam )
• August 21 — Enotria: The Last Song - Italian folklore Soulslike ( Steam )
• August 23 — Concord - PvP shooter from ex-Destiny 2 devs
• August 28 — Gundam Breaker 4 - Build-your-own gunpla brawler ( Steam )
• August 30 — Star Wars Outlaws - Open world scum and villainy ( Epic )

New games in September 2024

• September 5 — Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl - The Zone awaits ( Steam )
• September 5 — What the Car? - Silly golfing devs do driving ( Steam )
• September 9 — Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 - Astartes sequel ( Steam )
• September 12 — Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown - Open world driving in Hong Kong ( Steam )
• September 19 — God of War Ragnarök - Big Papa Kratos returns ( Steam )

New games in October 2024

• October 11 — Metaphor: ReFantazio - Fantasy RPG from Atlus ( Steam )
• October 7 — Silent Hill 2 remake - 2001 horror revisited ( Steam )

New games in 2024 with unannounced release dates

New pc games 2024 with dates to be announced.

• 33 Immortals - Co-op roguelike with up to 32 friends ( Epic )
• Alliance of the Sacred Suns  - 4X Space Strategy ( Steam )
• Aloft - Crafting survival in the sky ( Steam )
• The Alters - What if Fallout Shelter had a story ( Steam )
• Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator - life-saving sim ( Steam )
• Anger Foot - Kick-heavy FPS ( Steam )
• Ara: History Untold - Civ-like 4X strategy ( Steam )
• Ark 2 - More dinosaurs, plus Vin Diesel ( Steam )
• Ascent of Ashes (Early Access) - Dystopic colony sim ( Steam )
• Avowed - Obsidian's first-person fantasy RPG ( Steam )
• Awaken: Astral Blade - Bionic girl Metroidvania ( Steam )
• Baby Steps - Bennett Foddy's next torture engine ( Steam )
• Beastieball - Pokemon but volleyball ( Steam )
• Beyond These Stars - City builder on a space whale ( Steam )
• Blue Protocol - Online anime action RPG ( Steam )
• Bounty Star  - Mech combat meets farmsteading ( Steam )
• Brighter Shores - New MMO from Runescape creator ( Steam )
• Broken Arrow - Real-time modern warfare tactics game ( Steam )
• Bugaboo Pocket - Entomology life-sim ( Steam )
• The Casting of Frank Stone - Until Dawn devs do Dead by Daylight ( Steam )
• The Constructors - Construction company sim ( Steam )
• Corpus Edax  - Immersive sim with punchy physics ( Steam )
• Crashlands 2 - Open world crafting RPG ( Steam )
• Creature Keeper - Real-time combat creature collector ( Steam )
• Creatures of Ava - A gentler creature collector ( Steam )
• Critter Cove  (Early Access)  - Castaway Animal Crossing ( Steam )
• Crypt Custodian - Top-down afterlife Metroidvania ( Steam )
• Dead Season - Zombie survival tactical XCOM-like ( Steam )
• Deathbound - Character-swapping soulslike ( Steam )
• Demonschool - High school demon-fighting tactics RPG ( Steam )
• Demonsomnia - Co-op horror banishing nuclear demons ( Steam )
• Diesel Legacy: The Brazen Age - Steampunk 2v2 2D fighter ( Steam )
• Dystopika - Cyberpunk city-building sandbox ( Steam )
• Earthblade - Action-platformer from Celese devs ( Steam )
• Earth from Another Sun - Open world galactic scifi sandbox ( Steam )
• Elin - Roguelike RPG sequel to Elona ( Steam )
• Empire of the Ants - Photorealistic ant strategy ( Steam )
• Europa  - Ghibli-inspired platforming adventure ( Steam )
• The First Descendant - Nexon looter shooter ( Steam )
• Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn - Soulslike for musket fans ( Steam )
• Follow the meaning - Hand-drawn point & click mystery ( Steam )
• GI Joe: Wrath of Cobra - Throwback beatemup ( Steam )
• Go-Go Town - 3D Stardew with town management ( Steam )
• Greedfall 2: The Dying World - Fantasy flintlock RPG ( Steam )
• Hyper Light Breaker (Early Access) - Hyper Light Drifter co-op sequel ( Steam )
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - First-person Nazi whipping ( Steam )
• Intergalactic Pawn Shop - Adventure sci-fi pawn shop sim ( Steam )
• Iron Meat - Gnarly Contra-like side-scroller ( Steam )
• Kingmakers - Change medieval history with machine guns ( Steam )
• Level Zero: Extraction - Extraction horror shooter with monsters ( Steam )
• Light Odyssey - Top-down boss rush Souls-like ( Steam )
• Little Nightmares 3 - Frightening platforming ( Steam )
• Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP - Remake of the zombie hack-n-slash
• Lost Isle - Procgen fantasy survival ( Steam )
• Lost Records: Bloom and Rage - Life is Strange meets Yellowjackets ( Steam )
• The Lost Wild - Dinosaur survival horror ( Steam )
• MechWarrior 5: Clans - Bad guys of Battletech ( Steam )
• Megaloot - Inventory management roguelike RPG ( Steam )
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 - Next iteration of Flight Sim ( Site )
• Mika and The Witch's Mountain - Zelda meets Kiki's Delivery Service ( Steam )
• Mirthwood - Sandbox fantasy life sim RPG ( Steam )
• Nivalis - Cyberpunk slice-of-life ( Steam )
• The Operator - Forensic analyst sim with bonus conspiracy ( Steam )
• The Plucky Squire - Colorful storybook escape adventure ( Steam )
• Pragmata - Outerspace action adventure ( Site )
• Pyrene - Deckbuilding dungeon crawler ( Steam )
• Reka - Witchy woods crafting ( Steam )
• Remnant Protocol - Sci-fi flight sim plus rebellion management ( Steam )
• Replaced  - Sci-fi action platformer ( Steam )
• The Rise of the Golden Idol  - Detective adventure set in the '70s ( Steam )
• Simon the Sorcerer Origins - Point & click prequel ( Steam )
• Skate Story - Surreal skateboarding ( Steam )
• Space Prison ( Early Access ) - Alien prison tactics RPG ( Steam )
• Star Trucker - Trucking, but in the stars ( Steam )
• Stormgate - New RTS from ex-Blizzard devs ( Steam )
• Streets of Rogue 2 - Immersive roguelike sandbox ( Steam )
• Sulfur - Cel-shaded goblin-blasting FPS roguelike ( Steam )
• Surviving Deponia - More Deponia, now a colony sim ( Steam )
• Sword of Convallaria - Final Fantasy Tactics-like ( Steam )
• Tales of the Shire - A wholesome Hobbit life sim ( Site )
• Tempest Rising - Archetypal base-building RTS ( Steam )
• Thank Goodness You're Here! - Delightful English "slapformer" ( Steam )
• Thrasher - Rhythm game follow-up to Thumper ( Steam )
• Tiny Glade - Medieval building toy ( Steam )
• Trash Goblin - Casual trinket upcycling ( Steam )
• Unrailed 2: Back on Track (Early Access) - Chaotic railroad co-op ( Steam )
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 - Revamped RPG ( Steam )
• Visions of Mana - A new RPG in the Mana series ( Steam )
• Voidwrought - Hollow Knight with more cosmic horror ( Steam )
• Voyagers of Nera (Early Access) - Ocean-going survival ( Steam )
• Warside - Tactical Advance Wars-styled wargame ( Steam )
• We Might Die - Mech-based roguelike shooter ( Steam )
• Wild Bastards - Space western roguelike FPS ( Steam )
• Windblown (Early Access) - New roguelike from Dead Cells devs ( Steam )
• Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori (Early Access) - Ride horses in Mongolia ( Steam )
• Worshippers of Cthulhu (Early Access) - Cultist settlement sim ( Steam )
• Zenless Zone Zero - Genshin dev dungeon crawler ( Site )

More upcoming games

While these aren't committed to 2024, they're headed our way and could easily settle into a 2024 release date in the future.

• Arknights: Endfield - Action RPG spinoff of the mobile gacha game ( Site )
• As We Descend - Roguelike deckbuilder with a strategy bent ( Steam )
• Battle Crush - Top down mythological brawler ( Steam )
• Big Boy Boxing - PunchOut with progression ( Steam )
• Blade - Third-person Marvel action game from Arkane ( Site )
• Blue Prince - Surreal architectural puzzle adventure ( Steam )
• Cart Life - Street vendor life sim ( Steam )
• Chrono Odyssey - Fantasy MMO ( Site )
• Crimson Desert  - Singleplayer RPG from Black Desert devs ( Site )
• DeathSprint 66 - Fall Guys, but cyberpunk-dystopian ( Steam )
• Den of Wolves - Co-op fururistic heist game from Payday devs ( Steam )
• Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero - Dragon Ball-series fighting game ( Steam )
• Echo Generation - 80s voxel adventure with turn-based combat ( Steam )
• Edge of Sanity - 2D lovecraftian survival horror ( Steam )
• Eternal Strands - 3rd person spell-em-up ( Steam )
• Everywhere - A vague metaverse dream from GTA producers ( Site )
• Exoborne - Extraction shooter with a sci-fi apocalypse vibe ( Steam )
• Exodus - Time-traveling sci-fi action RPG with Mass Effect vibes ( Site )
• The First Berserker: Khazan - ARPG based on Dungeon & Fighter ( Steam )
• Flock - Co-op sky-shepherding and bird-shearing ( Steam )
• Harmonium: The Musical World - Musical adventure with deaf protag ( Site )
• Hordes of Hunger - 3D "survivorslike" ( Steam )
• I Am Jesus Christ - First Person Savior ( Steam )
• Industria 2 - Narrative FPS in AI infested otherworld ( Steam )
• Jump Ship - Co-op sci-fi FPS with seamless ship-to-ground transition ( Steam )
• Jurassic Park: Survival - Action-adventure set right after original film ( Site )
• Kemuri - Urban fantasy parkour from Ikumi Nakamura's new studio ( Site )
• Knights in Tight Spaces - Tight fights go fantasy ( Steam )
• Last Sentinel - Dystopian action game by Lightspeed Studios ( Site )
• Light No Fire - Survival exploration on Earth-sized map ( Steam )
• Mecha Break - Multiplayer mech combat ( Steam )
• Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater - What a thrill ( Steam )
• Metal Slug Tactics - classic run-n-gun goes tactics RPG ( Steam )
• NAIAD  - Vibrant underwater exploration as a sea nymph ( Steam )
• Nighthawks  - A vampire RPG from adventure game veterans ( Steam )
• No Players Online - Vintage desktop simulator horror ( Steam )
• OD - Hideo Kojima's latest, collaboration with Jordan Peele ( Site )
• Off the Grid - Blomkamp Battle Royale ( Site )
• Outward 2 - FAFO RPG sequel ( Steam )
• QubiQuest: Castle Craft - Voxel-based castle building and defense ( Steam )
• R-Type Tactics I - II Cosmos - Tactics spinoff of side-scroll shooter ( Steam )
• Realm of Ink - Ukiyo-e-ish action roguelike ( Steam )
• Ruffy and the Riverside - Colorful character platformer ( Steam ) 
• She Dreams Elsewhere  - Retro-surreal adventure RPG ( Steam )
• Stellar Blade - Flashy scifi hack-and-slash ( Site )
• Sunset Devils - Western top-down shooter ( Steam )
• Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter - Rat soulslike sequel ( Steam )
• Tenebris Somnia - 8-bit horror with FMV cutscenes ( Steam )
• Towers of Aghasba - Open world ecosystem sandbox ( Steam )
• Witchbrook  - Wizarding school life sim ( Steam )
• Wrestle Story - turn-based pro wrestling RPG ( Steam )
• Zoochosis - Mutant zoo animal body horror ( Steam )

Games delayed to 2025

• Falling Frontier  - Logistics-heavy space grand strategy ( Steam )
• Umbratica Tactics - Vampire-hunting tactics ( Steam )

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Lauren started writing for PC Gamer as a freelancer in 2017 while chasing the Dark Souls fashion police and accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as the self-appointed chief cozy games enjoyer. She originally started her career in game development and is still fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long books, longer RPGs, has strong feelings about farmlife sims, and can't stop playing co-op crafting games.

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