star trek 90s pc game

8 Best Star Trek Games Of The 90s

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Elden Ring PSA: Don't Play Shadow Of The Erdtree On NG+

Elden ring: how to get the mimic tear ashes, games where you don't win in the end.

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

Hi, what are you looking for?

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

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”

New photos + video preview from Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 7 “Erigah”

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

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 finale “Hegemony” preview + new photos

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 209 “Subspace Rhapsody” Review: All systems stable… but why are we singing?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds “Subspace Rhapsody” preview + new photos

Star Trek Day 2021 to Celebrate 55th Anniversary of the Franchise on September 8 with Live Panels and Reveals

Paramount+ Launches with 1-Month Free Trial, Streaming Every Star Trek Episode

Paramount+ to Officially Launch March 4, Taking Place of CBS All Access

STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS Season 2 Now Streaming For Free (in the U.S.)

[REVIEW] STAR TREK: SHORT TREKS “Children of Mars”: All Hands… Battle Stations

‘U.S.S. Cerritos Crew Handbook’ Review: A must-read Star Trek: Lower Decks fans

New photos from this week’s Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 finale

Star Trek: Lower Decks “The Inner Fight” Review: Lost stars and hidden battles

New photos from this week’s episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks

Star Trek: Prodigy begins streaming December 25th on Netflix

Star Trek: Prodigy lands at Netflix, season 2 coming in 2024

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 sneak peek reveals the surprise return of a Voyager castmember

Revisiting “Star Trek: Legacies – Captain to Captain” Retro Review

The Wrath of Khan – The Making of the Classic Film Review: A gem for your Star Trek reference collection

The events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture to continue in new IDW miniseries “Echoes”

Star Trek: The Original Series “Harm’s Way” Book Review

William Shatner’s New Book ‘Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder’ Review: More of a good thing

Star Trek: Infinite release date + details on Lower Decks­-themed pre-order bonuses

‘Star Trek: Infinite’ strategy game revealed, set to be released this fall

Hero Collector Revisits The Classics in New Starfleet Starships Essentials Collection

New Star Trek Docuseries ‘The Center Seat’ Announced, Coming This Fall

Star Trek Designing Starships: Deep Space Nine & Beyond Review: a Deep Dive Into Shuttlecraft of the Gamma Quadrant

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Illustrated Handbook Review: Terok Nor Deconstructed in Amazing Detail

Robert Beltran Is Officially Returning to Star Trek as Chakotay on ‘Prodigy’ + More Casting News

Robert Beltran Says He’s Returning to Star Trek in ‘Prodigy’

John Billingsley Talks Life Since Star Trek: Enterprise, Going to Space and Turning Down Lunch with Shatner and Nimoy

Star Trek: Enterprise Star John Billingsley Talks Charity Work, Upcoming TREK*Talks Event

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

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending Articles

Preview: Star Trek: Discovery 509 “Lagrange Point” With the finale of Star Trek: Discovery just over a week away, today we have a clip...

Preview: Star Trek: Discovery 507 “Erigah” The seventh episode of Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth and final season “Erigah” premieres this Thursday, May 9th. The...

Review: Star Trek: Picard – Firewall Seven of Nine, a heroine who has resurged in popularity thanks to Jeri Ryan’s return to the franchise...

Preview: Star Trek: Discovery 508 “Labyrinths” As we near the end of Star Trek: Discovery’s fifth and final season, the 8th episode “Labyrinths” will...

Screen Rant

All 15 star trek: the next generation games (& when they take place).

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The Rarest Item In Stardew Valley May Have Just Been Discovered By One Lucky Fan

Every honkai: star rail 2.3 livestream code & reward, 10 best steam deck games, ranked.

Star Trek: The Next Generation spans fifteen years, seven television seasons, four movies, and fifteen video games, which can make it difficult to determine the chronology of events. Beyond Captain Picard and his crew, there’s an entire galaxy full of alien civilizations and complicated interplanetary politics that are hard for even the biggest Trek fans to keep straight.

The Next Generation was a cultural phenomenon that resurrected the Star Trek franchise and created a whole new generation of Trekkies. The television series was set in the years 2364-2370 and then was followed by the movies Star Trek Generations (set in 2371), Star Trek: First Contact (2373), Star Trek: Insurrection (2375), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2379).

Related:  Star Trek Theory: Seven Of Nine Was Rejected From Starfleet

Many of the Star Trek: The Next Generation video games fill in the gaps between movies, with several games tackling the Dominion War that occurred after Insurrection . Other TNG games explore alternate timelines or let players serve aboard the Enterprise-D under Captain Picard himself. Here are all fifteen Star Trek: The Next Generation games and when they take place.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Birth of the Federation

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Birth of the Federation is a 1999 PC game developed by MicroProse and published by Hasbro Interactive. This turn-based strategy game gives players control of the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Ferengi Alliance, or Cardassian Union and features empire-building mechanics similar to the Civilization games. Though this game ties into TNG , the actual timeline is all over the place because players are controlling empires from their first inception through to the events of The Next Generation .

Star Trek: Conquest

Star Trek: Conquest is a 2007 strategy game for the Wii and PlayStation 2 developed by 4J Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Players can command the Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Dominion, or Breen fleets and are responsible for building support structures, managing admirals and other officers, and commanding ships during combat. Star Trek: Conquest takes place in a non-canon alternate reality, but it's set in the year 2364 which places it during the first season of The Next Generation .

Star Trek: Borg

Star Trek: Borg is a 1996 point-and-click adventure game from Simon and Schuster for Windows and Mac. The player is a Starfleet cadet who encounters Q and is sent back in time to the Battle of Wolf 359. This battle took place in the two-part episode “The Best of Both Worlds” at the end of season 3 and beginning of season 4 of TNG, in which Picard is assimilated by the Borg and leads an attack on a Starfleet armada.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993)

Star Trek: The Next Generation is a 1993 Game Boy and NES game by Absolute Entertainment in which the player takes the role of a Starfleet cadet participating in a training simulation.

Related:  Star Trek Discovery Season 3 Ending Explained

The game takes place on board the Enterprise-D, and though there’s no specific date mentioned, the bridge officers on duty in the game line up with the command structure during seasons 2-7 of The Next Generation .

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1994)

In 1994, Spectrum HoloByte developed a Star Trek: The Next Generation game that was published under the subtitle Echoes from the Past for Sega and Future’s Past for Super Nintendo. It’s an adventure game in which players are investigating a temporal device being sought after by the Romulans and the Chodak. Echoes from the Past / Future’s Past doesn’t mention a specific date or year, but it takes place onboard the Enterprise-D with the same crew and bridge officers as seasons 2-7 of The Next Generation .

Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity

Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity is a 1995 point-and-click adventure game developed by MicroProse and published by Spectrum HoloByte for PC and Mac. Players control Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D who are all voiced by the original cast of The Next Generation . The storyline of A Final Unity takes place around the year 2370, between the first two episodes of season 7 ("Descent" and "Liaisons").

Star Trek: Klingon

Star Trek: Klingon is an interactive movie/RPG released by Simon & Schuster Interaction in 1996 for PC and Mac that was directed by Jonathan Frakes. The player is a young Klingon about to pass his Rite of Ascension when there is an assassination attempt on Chancellor Gowron, forcing the player to embark on a blood oath to avenge the Klingon High Council.

Related:  How The Captain Is Dead Adapted Its Star Trek Parody Board Game For PC

The exact timeline of Star Trek: Klingon is unknown, but it has to take place during Gowron’s chancellorship, placing it sometime between his election in season 4 of  The Next Generation and his death in season 7 of Deep Space Nine .

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Klingon Honor Guard

Star Trek: Klingon Honor Guard is a 1998 first-person shooter for Mac and PC released by MicroProse. This game is very similar in concept to Star Trek: Klingon , with the player in the role of a young Klingon investigating a plot to assassinate Chancellor Gowron. Klingon Honor Guard also takes place at some unspecified point during Gowron’s chancellorship.

Star Trek: ConQuest Online

Star Trek: ConQuest Online is an online strategy game for PC developed by Genetic Anomalies and published by Activision in 2000. The player is a member of the Q collective fighting against other Qs for control of the galaxy using game mechanics similar to Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering . As with anything relating to the Q, the timeline of ConQuest Online is hard to pin down, but it loosely takes place during The Next Generation .

Star Trek Generations

Star Trek Generations is a 1997 first-person shooter developed for the PC by MicroProse. Star Trek Generations essentially just follows the plot of the 1994 movie by the same name, so it takes place in the year 2371, shortly after the events of The Next Generation .

Star Trek: Hidden Evil

Star Trek: Hidden Evil is an adventure game for the PC developed by Presto Studios and published by Activision in 1999. The player takes the role of Ensign Sovok, a human raised by Vulcans who must foil a plot to use a rare genetic seed’s destructive powers to control the galaxy.

Related:  Star Trek: Discovery's Explanation For The Burn Is Very Disappointing

Star Trek: Hidden Evil was marketed as a direct sequel to Star Trek: Insurrection , which took place roughly five years after the end of The Next Generation .

Star Trek: Invasion

Star Trek: Invasion is a 2000 space combat game developed by Warthog Games and published by Activision for the PlayStation. Star Trek: Invasion takes place during 2377, after the end of the Dominion War, which means it occurs after  TNG and between the S tar Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis movies.

Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II

Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II are PC games from Mad Doc Software and Activision that were released in 2000 and 2001 respectively. The Armada games are real-time strategy games in which players build and maintain fleets as either the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, or Borg Collective. Star Trek: Armada takes place in 2376 and Armada II occurs in 2377, placing both games in between the events of Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis .

Star Trek: Away Team

Star Trek: Away Team is a 2001 PC strategy game from Reflexive Entertainment and Activision. Players serve aboard the USS Incursion, an experimental Starfleet ship equipped with holographic technology that allows it to impersonate any vessel. Star Trek: Away Team takes place after the end of the Dominion War in 2377, after Star Trek Insurrection , and before Star Trek: Nemesis .

Star Trek: Bridge Commander

Star Trek: Bridge Commander is a space combat simulation game for PC developed by Totally Games and published by Activision in 2002. The player is a newly promoted captain who is assigned to investigate an exploding star. Star Trek: Bridge Commander occurs just after the Dominion War, which means it’s in between Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis .

There are Star Trek: The Next Generation video games in every major genre, spanning across the entire fifteen-year run of the TNG era, providing fans with a variety of ways to interact with Gene Roddenberry's vast and complicated universe.

Next:  Star Trek: Every Failed Romance (& How They Ended)

• Game Features
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

• June 6, 2024 | Paramount/Skydance Deal Runs Into New Snag, And Now Another Bidder Has Emerged
• June 6, 2024 | Interview: Doug Jones On ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Finale, Saru’s Happy Ending, And If He Was Ready For More
• June 5, 2024 | Connor Trinneer And Dominic Keating Launch ‘D-Con Chamber’ Podcast; Season 3 Of ‘InvestiGates’ On The Way
• June 4, 2024 | Netflix To Release All 20 Episodes Of ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 In July; Also Coming To SkyShowtime
• June 4, 2024 | Nog Is Faced With A Ferengi Existential Crisis In Preview Of ‘Sons Of Star Trek’ #3

‘Elite Force,’ ‘Bridge Commander’ And More Classic Star Trek PC Games Updated For Windows 10

| September 8, 2021 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 40 comments so far

A frustration for fans of classic PC games is that they become unplayable on modern computers, or maybe you can’t find those long-lost game discs. But this will no longer be a problem for a selection of some favorite Star Trek games of the past.

Activision Star Trek games on GOG.com

The digital storefront GOG.COM and Activision are celebrating Star Trek Day by bringing some of the franchise’s favorite and critically acclaimed video games back, updated to work on modern operating systems. According to GOG “Preserving classic games is at the very (reactor) core” of their business and they have set their engineering crew to make sure that all of these games are up-to-date and running smoothly on Windows 10. Some of the titles even work on LAN multiplayer.

The six classic Star Trek games now available on the GOG.COM store include:

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.

In addition, two real-time strategy titles, Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II, are coming soon to GOG.COM and can now be added to the user wish lists.

The games are priced at $9.99 each. For more details, please visit the Star Trek games page on GOG.COM .

Find more news on Star Trek games .

Related Articles

Star Trek Online , TNG

Denise Crosby Returns As Captain Sela From Another Universe For ‘Star Trek Online: Unparalleled’

Games , Kelvin Universe

Star Trek Event Coming To ‘World Of Tanks’ Online Game – Watch Mission Preview

Collectibles , DS9 , Games , Lower Decks , TNG

Star Trek Merch: TNG And ‘Lower Decks’ CCGs Announced, Dr. Bashir 12″ Figure Revealed, And More

‘Star Trek: Legends’ RPG Game Launches On PC With New Exclusive Content

Star Fleet Command was way better when it was based off Starfleet Battles (I think I and II)! Are they going to update that version because would love to play that multiplayer! Had great weapon and ship variety and awesome tactics! The most memorable Star Trek games to me was 25th anniversary (PC) and Judgement Rites; it was like playing a TOS season. They should continue that series!

Yes, please, please do I&II. III was not bad, but was dumbed-down (no doubt by marketing drones) for “broader appeal”, it was/is not NEARLY as deep as I&II…

Yes, I’ll never get why story writers were like “let’s give everyone cloaking devices”, “everyone uses photon torpedoes”, “everything is generic!” and then wonder why a TOS with Romulans having cloak and plasma torpedoes, Klingons having battleships, disruptors, Kzinti/Hydrans with fighters, Lyrans, transporter marines. mines, expanding sphere generators, drones, etc is so much more exciting in a game. SFB expands on that with the Andromedians invading the galaxy with repulsor beams, displacement Devices and the Tholian Web, etc – that should have been SFC III.

Yeah, the first two Starfleet Command were based on SFB. They have the first one but oddly not the second.

GoG also has both 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites!

Star Feet Command 1 is already on GOG

Oh, thanks!

Darn. I have a Mac.

You always have the option of boot camping a Mac – not all hope is lost.

Is it an x86 (Intel) Mac or one of the new ARM ones? If it’s the former you might be able to install Windows in a VM or natively and play them that way. I think DOSbox is probably available for macOS for the DOS-based ones. Even 64-bit Windows can’t run DOS games.

Awesome! I have all of them on disc, and so far the ones I tested (Armada II and Elite Force) were running fine in compatibility mode. But this is of course great for people who don’t own the old discs anymore and don’t want to pay excessive amounts of money on ebay for those games (I saw bridge commander go for 100+ Euros)

This is a nice little surprise. Played most of the games back in day. A pity Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – The Fallen is not included. A decent third person shooter.

Would be so much easier were they on steam.

I don’t know about “so much easier.” GOG is great!

Agreed; I love GOG!

1st: Be patient, the Trek titles from Interplay became available on Steam after just a short time of GOG.com exclusivity.

2nd: Why, just why would you say such a thing? GOG Galaxy is at least as comfortable as Steam, and you can even use it to access your Steam library. On top of that GOG.com does not bother you with DRM. You can actually download and install the games from a stand-alone installer without a client, if you fancy that. No internet activation required. Also, GOG.com takes care of the classic games published there and will keep them compatible on Windows 11 and into the future. The only actual downside is the lack of an integrated modding library like the Steam Workshop.

You are aware that you can bind games into steam to launch them from there?

Elite Force was so sick back in the day. There was even a multiplayer death match, too!

I LOVED Armada and Armada II!!! So pleased to see these coming back!

Me too! I just played it today on my old windows xp computer which I kept because of that. Would love to play it on windows 10.

This is great news. The only remaining 90’s Trek game I really want to play again is “Birth of the Federation.” It was such an underrated game.

One of my favourite Trek games and it’d be fantastic to play it again.

Man I used to deliberately cheat to keep the game going and have about 80 starships protecting each system, the Klingons would almost always still give me a run for my money though if we hadn’t reached an alliance. For some reasons the Cardassians were always the first to fall haha.

Add to that my game would go for too many turns and each turn would end up taking like 5-10 minutes to process or something ridiculous.

Bridge Commander!! Finally playable on modern hardware! That’s awesome!

I’ve missed these old friends. That activision lawsuit was such a blow to me in high school. I wanted my EF2 expansion!

Hope they get the rest of the Interplay Trek games up like Klingon Academy, Starfleet Command 2 and New Worlds. To add to that get the Microprose titles too like A Final Unity, Generations, Klingon Honor Guard and Birth of the Federation

Never have I ever been so happy in my life, with the exception of asking my fiance to marry me of course haha.

I loved Armada I and Armada II as well as Bridge Commander. I had the Hidden Evil demo but I never got to play it. I am seriously purchasing all of these games. I am so stoked.

I hope they add DS9: The Fallen!

Could they bring Starfleet Academy and Klingon Academy back from the dead too??

Gog has Starfleet Academy listed for sale.

Thank’s for that. Actually I wish the Klin Acad. A LOT! :)

I love both Star Trek and games, but I’d prefer a Star Trek game that’s NOT about fighting. Are any of these about exploring and making friends with new peoples?

Try 25th anniversary and judgement rites. You basically play a TOS season.

Thanks! I’ll check that out.

There’s a bit of exploration in Bridge Commander. But also a lot of combat. Despite this it stays true to the series and films.

No Star Trek: Armada? That was the only one worth playing. Haven’t been able to play it for years.

On the GOG website both Armada 1 and 2 are listed as coming soon. Can’t wait to play them again!

I was always a big fan of the Elite Force games. Can’t wait to try them out again.

Since I own Elite Force 1/2 on disc – can I download a patch somewhere for Windows 10? I DID manage to get it working recently, via unnoficial means, but I’d like a proper patch to install or whatnot.

I lost a lot of sleep to Elite Force back in the day. And cookies. First person shooters give me motion sickness, but I’d still play that one in online group battle mode for hours. I seem to remember finding a server somewhere where someone had patched it with a limited TOS environment. It was so cool that I’d just walk around like a tourist getting blasted.

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. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

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.

'We awaken to take what is ours:' Watch the haunting new trailer for 'Warhammer 40K: Mechanicus 2' (video)

Lego wants you to vote on a new color for its astronaut minifigures

1st telescope removed from controversial astronomy hub on Hawaiian volcano

Most Popular

• 2 What time is SpaceX's Starship Flight 4 launch test on June 6?
• 3 'They're going to test this thing from izzard to gizzard:' NASA hails success of Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch
• 4 Boeing's Starliner launches astronauts for 1st time in historic liftoff (photos, video)
• 5 NASA exoplanet hunter finds 'weird' world surviving a star's relentless bombardment — it's named Phoenix

Filed under:

Star Trek Resurgence understands what makes great Star Trek

Telltale Games veterans veer away from combat and into philosophy

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Reddit
• Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: Star Trek Resurgence understands what makes great Star Trek

Unlike its esteemed counterpart from Lucasfilm, Star Trek’s history with video games isn’t exactly stellar.

There are licensed Star Trek video games going back 50 years, but there’s never been a truly great Star Trek game, one whose appeal outstretches the limits of its existing fan base. Moreover, even the most celebrated Star Trek games, such as 2000’s Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force , 2002’s Star Trek: Bridge Commander , and the long-running MMORPG Star Trek Online , place an overwhelming emphasis on combat, which is only ever a last resort in Star Trek stories. Gene Roddenberry’s cosmic polemic often contains action, but it’s never about action; Star Trek is about compassion, curiosity, and camaraderie. To truly capture the essence of the spacefaring adventure series, a video game should be as much about talking as it is about flying and shooting, allowing players to explore new worlds, build relationships, and confront complicated moral dilemmas.

This seems to be the aim of Star Trek Resurgence , the debut release from Telltale offshoot Dramatic Labs, and the first Star Trek game in ages to be as character- and dialogue-focused as the television series. Set aboard a new ship and starring an almost entirely new cast, Resurgence is a branching narrative whose balance between interstellar intrigue, interpersonal conflict, and explosive space action hews closer to that of its source material than any Star Trek game in decades — maybe ever. As a game and as a piece of software, it leaves a lot to be desired. But as a Star Trek story, it definitely earns its pips.

Resurgence alternates between the perspectives of two player-controlled characters aboard the science vessel Resolute, incoming first officer Commander Jara Rydek (Krizia Bajos) and enlisted engineer Petty Officer Carter Diaz (Josh Keaton). The Resolute is recovering from a recent disaster that cost the lives of several of its crew and the reputation of its captain, Zachary Solano. Solano fears that he’s lost the confidence of his staff, and is counting on Academy protege Rydek to help restore his honor as the Resolute embarks on an important diplomatic mission. Over the course of the story, Rydek takes point on unraveling a mystery with galactic implications, earning the trust of the crew while also evaluating whether or not Solano is worthy of her own. Meanwhile, engineer Diaz deals with more of the nuts-and-bolts problems aboard the ship, as well as navigating a romance with a fellow officer.

As in a good peak-era Star Trek episode, the “problem of the week” is tackled from more than one angle, with some of the crew handling a social or interpersonal conflict while others investigate some related scientific or technological puzzle. Teamwork is an essential ingredient to Star Trek, and Resurgence highlights that it takes a variety of skill sets and perspectives to solve complex problems. There is a two-way relationship between the bridge crew handling the big picture and the specialists below troubleshooting the finer points. Alternating between these A- and B-plots also breaks up the story and the gameplay nicely, and introduces the player to a variety of likable, memorable characters with whom you interact differently depending on your protagonist.

The narrative moves along at a steady clip, with the stakes escalating organically from that of a typical Next Generation episode to something closer to a modern season-long arc of Discovery . Crucially, for a video game and for a Star Trek story, the player faces consequential, difficult, and timely choices.

In contrast to the (still far superior) Mass Effect games, which present players with clear-cut Paragon or Renegade paths to pursue, Resurgence ’s dialogue trees don’t always offer an obvious ethical binary. Will you risk a dozen lives to save one? Will you disobey a direct order to follow the advice of an impassioned subordinate? Which member of your crew do you trust more in a crisis, and will they trust you in a pinch? These decisions are all made on a short timer, forcing the player to think quickly and trust their instincts. This instantly makes Resurgence feel closer to the “real” Starfleet experience even than the expansive open world of Star Trek Online , which dictates most of your objectives for you; nearly every path ends with “fire all phasers.”

More than anything, it’s your relationships with the supporting cast that shape the variations in the narrative. It’s not simply a matter of passing each one’s individual loyalty check, allowing you to achieve some 100% “perfect” ending. You cannot please everyone and you cannot save everyone. (Or at least I haven’t yet in my two playthroughs.) Not only does this place the full weight of duty and command on the player and offer an incentive to replay the 12-to-15-hour game multiple times, but it also underlines one of the essential tenets of Star Trek: It is possible for two parties, in good faith and good conscience, to disagree. Sometimes a compromise can be reached, sometimes conflict can’t be avoided, but no one needs to stay enemies forever.

On the other hand, commitment to the Star Trek ethos does have its drawbacks. Starfleet’s strict code of conduct means that the players are somewhat railroaded. For instance, when enlisted engineer Diaz’s love interest is caught accessing files she’s not supposed to, you, as Diaz, can’t lie to cover for her. In a move typical of the franchise whose reputation for political radicalism is somewhat overblown, its core political conflict between a colonizing empire and their long-suffering protectorate sniffs of some unfortunate bothsidesism. Some of the sci-fi twists that complicate the plot do so at the price of nuance, introducing an overarching threat that forces all parties to work together without ever actually addressing what drove them apart in the first place. It’s a flaw found in a lot of past and present Star Trek, demonstrating the liberal-moderate belief that we can all just get along without committing to any meaningful change in the status quo.

It’s in the non-dialogue-driven gameplay elements that Resurgence truly stumbles. While the stealth and cover shooting portions are smooth and fun, a lot of the other mechanics are sluggish, tedious, or both. This particularly applies to PO Diaz’s engineering tasks, which feel less like puzzles or minigames and more like busywork. (Pull R2 to open this conduit, now LS+R2 to remove this isolinear chip, and then the next one, etc.) Fail conditions of certain minigames or stages can be disabled via a Story Mode option, but there is no way to avoid the game’s more mindless chores.

Star Trek Resurgence also suffers numerous technical glitches at the time of release, at least on PlayStation 4. It’s not uncommon for lines of dialogue to start late or cut off early, costing the scene important exposition or flavor. Keeping subtitles enabled can sometimes compensate for this issue, except on random occasions when the subtitles disappear altogether for a line or two at a time. Busier cutscenes, such as the game’s space battle finale, load sluggishly on PS4, creating seconds-long gaps between shots, killing the momentum of what should be a thrilling climax. These issues may be resolved in future updates, but at launch, they’re an undeniable drag.

Despite these glaring flaws, Star Trek Resurgence offers a space-worthy experience for Star Trek fans. Where other titles have offered a more complete picture of the Star Trek universe — letting players explore the breadth of the galaxy, walk the decks of their favorite starships, or build their own — only a rare few have looked beyond lore toward story . Fans don’t love Star Trek merely for the cool ships or deep mythology, we love it for the friendship between Kirk and Spock, and Picard’s growth from stiff loner to proud patriarch; for Sisko’s impossible moral dilemmas and Burnham’s quest for redemption.

Not even Resurgence ’s nearest spiritual ancestors, classic ’90s point-and-click adventures Star Trek 25th Anniversary or Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity , have captured that essential human element that makes for a great Star Trek story. Resurgence ties a worthwhile cast of characters to an interstellar adventure. Does Resurgence qualify as “great Star Trek”? Probably not, but it’s hard to argue that any video game has come closer.

Star Trek Resurgence was released on May 23 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PS4 using a pre-release download code provided by Double Fine Productions. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here .

Loading comments...

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, star trek: resurgence is a welcome throwback to '90s trek.

While “ Star Trek ” has enjoyed quite the long history of video game adaptations—dozens of games spanning almost every system known to man, though the best ones end up on PC—it’s a difficult franchise to get right . It’s not “ Star Wars ,” where lightsabers and space dogfights are the order of the day, a single hero saving the galaxy against pure-evil antagonists. (Even the best “Trek” action games, like the “Elite Force” series, have to bend their utopian premise just enough to make room for the run-and-gun antics the genre demands.)

But “Star Trek: Resurgence,” just released from developer Dramatic Labs and publisher Bruner House, hews more closely to the spirit of classic “Trek,” more focused on exploring strange new worlds and new civilizations than blasting them to smithereens with a photon torpedo. In so doing, it proves a welcome addition to the broader universe—even if its narrative choices are more compelling than their actual gameplay.

If you’re familiar with the choose-your-own-adventure flavor of Telltale Games, you’ll feel right at home in the narrative-focused gameplay of “Resurgence.” (Dramatic Labs is made up of 20+ former Telltale artists and producers.) Set just a few years after “ Star Trek: Nemesis ,” the last TNG movie, the game eschews the relative familiarity of the Enterprise for a smaller ship, the Centaur-class science vessel Resolute . It’s not the Federation flagship, nor is it particularly beautiful to look at (diehards will recognize the design as a “kitbash,” where modelmakers would glue together bits of existing models for random ships in the background of ‘90s Trek). But that’s the point: You and the Resolute crew are regular, everyday joes, doing the grunt work of Starfleet while Picard and co. get all the attention. 

Like the A/B-plot structure of many a classic “Trek” adventure before it, “Resurgence” flits between the perspectives of two different crewmembers. There’s Commander Jara Rydek (Krizia Bajos), the new first officer of the Resolute ; the ship’s previous officer, along with several other crew members, was recently killed in an accident, and the captain (her former Academy mentor) is counting on her to help him weather the new scrutiny to his command. In the trenches, we also follow Petty Officer Carter Diaz (Josh Keaton), a happy-go-lucky enlisted engineer more focused on a potential romance with a fellow crewman than the big decisions of the brass.

Together, they and the Resolute crew embark on a dangerous diplomatic mission that wouldn’t be out of place in an old episode of “The Next Generation.” There are two warring factions with centuries of animosity between them, and it’s your job to mediate the dispute before it explodes into all-out war. 

In classic Telltale fashion, the game itself plays out largely like an interactive movie, with a heavy emphasis on dialogue and relationship-building. As either Rydek or Diaz, you’ll talk to crewmembers and alien guests alike to mediate conflicts, come to decisions, or exert your will on your subordinates. As Rydek, the weight of command lies heavily on you: Will you force a crewmember to risk their life to save several others? Which of your second officers will you lean on for support during a difficult test? Do you safeguard the reputation of your captain or make an unpopular decision that may protect the crew from danger? 

It’s this relationship management that feels paramount (no pun intended, considering “Trek”’s parent company) to “Resurgence”’s gameplay: the pause menu even gives you a rundown of how each character feels about you depending on how you’ve treated them thus far. Moreover, the dialogue tree isn’t as clear cut as something like “Mass Effect,” and your decisions are on a timer: You’ve got to think fast about what you say, and it’s not always clear how your statements will come across. It’s a great simulator of the soft skills and quick thinking required for Starfleet command.

These elements are compelling and appropriately tense, and the script and voice acting are top-notch. (Special mention goes to Piotr Michael as Ambassador Spock, whose Leonard Nimoy impression spices up one of the game’s few cameos from existing “Trek” characters. You can practically hear the dentures.) Writers Dan Martin and Andrew Grant have built a charming, likable cast of characters both on and off the Resolute , which lends additional impact—though the late-game addition of an Ancient Big Bad renders many of your thornier ethical decisions a bit inert. 

The fissures in the warp core, so to speak, come when “Resurgence” juggles additional gameplay elements on top of its interactive-movie structure. This comes into play most with Diaz’s sections, which (unlike Rydek) are focused more on scanning and fixing things. In his shiny Starfleet boots, you’re often stuck with tedious tricorder minigames or quick-time events with frequently-unclear mechanics. Sure, it’s fun the first couple of times to scan something or work a transporter panel, but the novelty gets old quickly. There are cover-shooting and stealth sections to break up all the politicking, but they feel unpolished enough to read more as intrusive. 

The game’s technical issues, at least at the time of publishing, sometimes take you out of the immersive “Trek” vibe the developers are going for. Subtitles will randomly not appear, walking and facial animations read as stiff, and the audio will get frustratingly staticky sometimes (I played this on an Xbox Series X). And the aforementioned scanning sections grow more tedious in the rare moments where the anomaly you’re supposed to scan for doesn’t appear on your tricorder. 

These mechanical hiccups aside, it’s hard to think of a recent game that captures the spirit of classic “Star Trek” quite like “Resurgence.” It feels like an upscaled episode of the classic "The Next Generation," from its wood-paneled Starfleet bridge sets to its motley crew of characters and sociopolitical dilemmas. Its graphical detail may not touch something like “Jedi: Survivor,” but that’s part of the charm: “Trek” heroes aren’t grizzled loners with laser swords. They’re principled members of a team who work together to boldly go where no one has gone before. In this respect, “Resurgence” works great as a “Star Trek” simulator, putting you in the captain’s chair with all its attending burdens. It’s hard to think of a Trekkier game than that.

Clint Worthington

Clint Worthington is a Chicago-based film/TV critic and podcaster. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of  The Spool , as well as a Senior Staff Writer for  Consequence . He is also a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and Critics Choice Association. You can also find his byline at RogerEbert.com, Vulture, The Companion, FOX Digital, and elsewhere. 

Latest blog posts

Handmade Magic: Jason and the Argonauts

House of the Dragon Returns with a Captivating Yet Convoluted Second Season

Hulu's Queenie is a Masterful Study of Self-Growth

Fear, Hope, and Joy: Ramata-Toulaye Sy on Banel and Adama

Latest reviews.

Brian Tallerico

The Watchers

Peyton robinson.

I Used to Be Funny

Monica castillo.

This Closeness

Christy Lemire

Banel & Adama

Glenn kenny.

• The Inventory

Star Trek: Resurgence Is the Best of '90s Trek With the Worst of '90s Gaming

Dramatic labs' adventure game excels at capturing the vibe of star trek 's heyday, but even diehard fans will struggle getting through its awkward mechanics..

Star Trek has an up and down history with video games moreso than most storied franchises. It’s rare for a singular game to properly capture Star Trek as an experience when, at its best, Star Trek debate, diplomacy, and scientific investigation don’t quite line up with gaming hallmarks. But the adventure game genre is one where Trek has succeeded in the past—and for the most part, Star Trek: Resurgence adds to that history... with some significant caveats.

Related Content

Out this week, Star Trek: Resurgence is a narrative-driven, choice-based adventure game in the vein of Telltale Games’ episodic gaming series, such as The Walking Dead , Batman , Guardians of the Galaxy , and more (developer Dramatic Labs was founded by several former Telltale staffers after the studio first effectively shuttered in 2018; the revived studio is currently working on a game based on The Expanse ).

Whereas traditional adventure games lean heavily on puzzles, these games are driven by player choice through multi-pronged dialogue scenes, allowing the player to shape the path of the narrative—a perfect fit for a series like Star Trek . Unlike the oeuvre of past Telltale games, however, what sets Resurgence apart is that it is a singular, 12-ish hour story, rather than being broken down into episodic seasons of game slices. The feeling it creates is less like watching an interactive episode of Star Trek , and more like a choose-your-own-adventure novel coming to life.

Resurgence is set in 2380—a year after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis —and follows the crew of the U.S.S. Resolute , a science vessel rocked by a recent accident that resulted in the loss of 20 of its crew, including its first officer. When new XO Commander Jara Rydek is brought aboard, the Resolute is tasked with participating in diplomatic negotiations between two alien species, the Alydians and the Hotari, over a mining world—only to discover the source of the conflict has dire, far-reaching implications for the entire galaxy.

Where Resurgence stands out from prior adventure games of its ilk, and where it plays to Star Trek ’s strengths the most, is in dividing the player’s perspective between two primary characters: the aforementioned Commander Rydek, a Kobliad officer thrust into the politics of not just a new command but a senior staff splintered over the loss of one of their own, and Petty Officer Carter Diaz, an engineering crewperson trying to navigate life in the lowest of the lower decks on a Federation starship with his best friend, a Trill named Nili Edsilar. By making the audience viewpoint cover such a broad scope of Star Trek ’s command structure, Resurgence deftly manages to explore life aboard a starship from multiple narrative and mechanical angles.

If Jara’s sections of the story are driven around establishing herself as a senior officer and the politics of diplomacy, from command of the bridge to staff meetings, Carter’s leans a little more on the practical side of the adventure game genre, problem-solving and puzzling to get his job done in environments where his rank means he’s not often the go-to for big, splashy Star Trek action. Even when things go sideways and the whole Resolute crew is thrust into an epically staked mission to save the galaxy, this divide in perspective remains throughout, capturing the broad Star Trek experience.

This is just one of the many ways Resurgence revels in capturing the vibe of Star Trek —and more specifically the vibes of his heyday in the late ‘80s and the ‘90s, the peaks of The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager defining a modern era of the franchise beyond the original series’ retro aesthetic. Resurgence shows its love of Star Trek not in cameos and references (although their are a few notable characters who make appearances, including Ambassador Spock and Titan captain Will Riker), but in aping classic story elements and structures from those shows, weaving a largely original take through nods and connections to prior stories. Like Star Trek itself, the action is largely sparing, with the most tension and conflict coming from how your characters navigate tough command decisions or debate—and even when things do come to blows and conflict becomes violent, Resurgence more often than not eschews direct combat to instead focus on the decisions its characters are forced to make in those moments, rather than how good they are at firing a phaser.

This is amplified even further by the fact that Resurgence focuses on a completely original crew of characters. The decisions you make, from the mundane to the life-threatening, all feel like they carry a weight of uncertainty, as no character is necessarily guaranteed to make it out of the story in one piece. You’re watching your relationship to these characters grow in real-time as you decide who to put faith in and who to keep at arms’ length, or in how you shape Rydek and Diaz themselves grappling with the morals of Starfleet coming up against the desperation of their increasingly hazardous mission. Resurgence is still largely a story of Starfleet heroes saving the day, but there is a level of tension running throughout that most Star Trek stories can’t quite capture when you know the crew you’re following is going to be largely fine by the end of the tale.

All of this narrative interest, however, often comes into conflict with the other truth of Resurgence : it’s simply not a very fun game to play. The moments you are given control of Jara and Carter are defined by awkward controls, clunky animation, and an erratic graphical consistency where character models look great but the environments they’re in decidedly do not (it’s worth stating that Resurgence will run you $40, under the typical price of a major AAA game but still enough that it feels very rough around the edges for that cost).

Although moments of direct action are rare in Resurgence ’s focus on dialogue choices, that’s not to say they’re absent entirely. But you find yourself thankful that phaser shootouts are few and far between because they’re the most frustrating sequences of the game to play; weightless action and swimmy controls are matched by frustrating fail states that often feel like they’re asking far too much of what Resurgence can mechanically handle. This is further impacted by the simple fact that, for an adventure game, there’s very little actual adventuring to do. Resurgence ’s decision to lean heavily on cinematic dialogue choices for its interactions means there’s little in the way of interesting puzzles or tools to interact with the world around you. There’s one way to do most things, and it’s not about figuring that out as much as it is shepherding you from one dialogue sequence to the next.

That linearity also adds to Resurgence ’s core weakness: it’s linear to the point of frustration. Awkward moments where you’re asked to take control of your character to clunkily navigate a corridor—only for a cutscene to immediately take over—make you feel relieved that for the next few minutes, the game might only ask you to make a few dialogue choices instead of more directly play it. The single-minded thrust of the game also means there’s little downtime between major story beats for you to casually explore your surroundings, or get to know your crewmates better. Every interaction is in the name of driving the main story arc forward, with limited opportunities for reflection and exploration. By the end of Resurgence ’s 12-hour trek, that makes you feel like a lot of those big story choices you’re being asked to influence are mostly impactful on the immediate following scenes rather than the larger story, taking the bite out of the weight and tension the narrative leans on as one of its greater strengths.

Not quite as major but still frustrating is that at least on PC with Resurgence ’s press-build, the game is equally clunky in its bugginess. While it’s nothing severe enough to cause a loss of progress, Resurgence on PC was a pain to navigate with menus not functioning right, certain menus not recognizing a gamepad (which even on PC, is the recommended control option), and, bizarrely enough, the game locking up every time I tried to close it after a session. Although gameplay is largely spared from these issues, there are still some persistent bugs while playing, in the form of dialogue subtitles either not correctly displaying or, sometimes, showing incomplete or totally different lines to what was being said—a pain point from both an accessibility standpoint and a narrative standpoint, where several modified subtitles provided the player with contextual information that wasn’t actually said in the scene, making it hard to tell what mattered.

Ultimately, how willing you are to grapple with the awkward gameplay of Star Trek: Resurgence will depend on how much you really want a new, original Star Trek story, in a time when there’s more Star Trek available in various formats than arguably since its giddy heights in the ‘90s. Resurgence will very much give you a solid Trek tale populated with compelling characters and interesting leads that perhaps comes closest to making you feel like you’re taking part in a classic Star Trek narrative—certainly more than many other games have attempted in decades. But that success is often in spite of itself, a not-quite diamond in the very-much rough of its clumsy, awkward mechanics.

Star Trek: Resurgence launches tomorrow , May 23, on PC (exclusively through the Epic Games Store), PlayStations 4 and 5, and the Xbox Series X, S, and Xbox One.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

Star Trek: Borg is a '90s FMV game that doesn't completely suck

Rewrite history in this interactive Star Trek episode.

One of Star Trek's most divisive characters is undoubtedly Q, an extra-dimensional troublemaker who delights in hassling the crew of the Enterprise, and has appeared in numerous spin-offs including Voyager and Deep Space Nine. Some people hate Q episodes, but I love them—largely because of John de Lancie, who plays the character with absolute relish. So when I heard about Star Trek: Borg, an FMV game released by Simon & Schuster in 1996 that is essentially an interactive Q episode, I had to play it.

You couldn't move for terrible FMV games in the 1990s. These 'interactive movies' were notorious for having cheap production values, bad acting, and lacking any identifiable interactivity. What sets Star Trek: Borg apart, however, is that John de Lancie is brilliant in it (he's brilliant in everything), it was filmed on the same sets as the TV show (specifically Voyager), and although it's just as linear as the worst low budget CD-ROM games, it uses Q's dimension-hopping powers to do something a bit more interesting with the genre.

It's no Tapestry (my favourite Q episode, from season 6 of The Next Generation), but it's one of a handful of '90s FMV games that is actually still worth playing today—and for more than just laughing at how bad it is. Of course, your mileage may vary if you don't like Star Trek—but would you have read this far otherwise? The game was written by Hilary J. Bader, a writer on TNG, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine, and was directed by Star Trek veteran James L. Conway, which makes it feel like an authentic part of the universe.

You are Qaylan Furlong, a Starfleet cadet whose father was killed by the Borg in the infamous Battle of Wolf 359. The Borg have invaded Federation space again, but Starfleet command has denied you the chance to fight them and avenge your father. Enter Q, who offers you an opportunity to go back in time to Wolf 359, alter history, and prevent your old man's death. It's a little absurd that Q would concern himself with some random cadet, but hey, let's not think about that too much. The Q Continuum works in mysterious ways.

Brilliantly, if you refuse Q's offer he clicks his fingers, the game unceremoniously quits, and you get kicked back to your desktop. But if you agree, you're whisked back to your father's ship, the USS Righteous, and begin recklessly meddling with the space-time continuum as John de Lancie prances around being extremely Q. All the game's FMV is filmed in first-person, which gives you the strange sensation of being in an episode of Star Trek, rather than just watching it, which is kinda nice. It's a shame about the heavy interlacing, but you can blame the limited space on your average CD-ROM for that.

The reason I like this more than other FMV games is how it makes failure fun. When you play games like this you're usually forced to tediously replay sections over and over again until you do exactly what the developers want. This game is no different, but when you make a mistake you're rewarded with a pithy line from Q or a dramatic scene that shows you just how badly you screwed up—whether it's a Borg drone killing a crewmate or the entire ship being destroyed. Some puzzles (if you can call them that) even require you to fail on purpose to find the solution, which taps nicely into the time travel concept.

Would Star Trek: Borg be half as good if Q, and by extension John de Lancie, wasn't in it? Eh, probably not. But if you love Star Trek, and you have a fondness for that omnipotent trickster, it's basically a must-play. Finding a copy and getting it running on a modern PC is hard work, but not beyond the means of anyone with a search engine and a powerful desire to experience a CD-ROM from the 1990s that doesn't totally suck. And with the Borg being part of the story in Picard, the latest Star Trek TV series, this is the perfect time to learn more about the history of the Federation's war against them.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

If it’s set in space, Andy will probably write about it. He loves sci-fi, adventure games, taking screenshots, Twin Peaks, weird sims, Alien: Isolation, and anything with a good story.

The remake of Riven, the sequel to the remake of Myst, is coming out later this month

The Sony State of Play 'open-world dress-up adventure' game and the RPG where you carry a child on your back are both headed for PC

The interconnected world of unofficial Dark Souls sequel Nightfall was just about finalized a whole year ago, but advances in modding tools led its creators to rebuild the whole thing

Most Popular

• 2 Best ultrawide monitor for gaming in 2024: the expansive panels I recommend for PC gamers
• 3 Best wireless gaming keyboard in 2024
• 4 Best gaming laptops in 2024: I've had my pick of portable powerhouses and these are the best
• 5 Best gaming chairs in 2024: the seats I'd suggest for any gamer
• 2 MSI MPG321URX QD-OLED gaming monitor review
• 3 Capes review: This excellent turn-based strategy game turns superhero combat into a brain-twisting tactical puzzle
• 4 OneXPlayer X1 handheld gaming PC review
• 5 Netgear Nighthawk RS700S router review

A Brief History Of Star Trek PC Games

• Page 1: Page 1
• Page 2: Page 2
• Page 3: Page 3
• Page 4: Page 4

1971: Star Trek: A Text Adventure

The first Star Trek game was created in the early 1970s as a text-based space simulator. Although the game was fairly simple, it marked the entry of Star Trek into the video game world. Over the years, Star Trek has grown into one of the most successful franchises in the world, spawning dozens of games, several movies and hundreds of TV shows. We're taking a look at the games created inside the Star Trek universe as they evolved over time.

Because of the extremely high volume of Star Trek games in existence, we focused on games created for computers. These include games created for Windows, Apple, DOS, Amiga and similar systems. We've dug up as many of these games as possible, although because some Star Trek games created prior to the year 2000 have fallen into obscurity due to their age, there may be some about which we were unable to learn sufficient details to mention here.

MORE: Best Deals

MORE: Hot Bargains @PurchDeals

MORE: All Gaming Content

1984: Begin

The next entry into the Star Trek gaming world was called Begin . This game marked the transition from the text-based game to one that actually required you to use buttons to control your vessel.

1985: Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative

Star Trek: The Kobayashi Alternative is the first in a series of text adventures from game publisher Simon & Schuster Interactiv e . These games focused on the cast of the original Star Trek series as they dealt with a series of challenges.

Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter

Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.

In this game, you take control of Captain Kirk as you attempt to repair your ship and complete other objectives.

1986: Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy

The second Star Trek game by publisher Simon & Schuster Interactiv e was Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy .

The Promethean Prophecy is centered around the Promethean solar system, which the Enterprise arrives at as part of its ongoing mission of exploration. The ship is then attacked by the Romulans and sustains considerable damage. During the game, players attempt to complete a series of tasks to help the crew survive, deal with the Romulan threat, and explore the Promethean system.

1987: Star Trek: The Rebel Universe

The third Star Trek game by publisher Simon & Schuster Interactiv e was Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy .

In this game, you take control of various members of the original cast as the Enterprise makes its way to a mysterious part of space. All Federation ships previously sent to this area have rebelled against the Federation, and it's your mission to discover why.

1988: Star Trek: First Contact

The last Star Trek text-based adventure from publisher Simon & Schuster Interactive that we are able to find information about is titled Star Trek: First Contact . It focuses on first contact with a new alien race.

1992: Star Trek 25th Anniversary

On the 25th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise, Interplay produced a game titled Star Trek: 25th Anniversary . This game, like all prior Star Trek games, followed the original cast through a variety of missions. The game has two primary modes of play: Most of the game is played from the bridge of the enterprise, but at times, members of the crew will leave on away missions.

During the away missions, the game behaves more like a click adventure to gather items and investigate the world. The game was originally released on floppy disk, but later it was ported to CD-ROM. The CD-ROM port featured a few improvements over the original, including voice acting from the original Star Trek cast.

1993: Star Trek: Judgment Rites

The 25th anniversary game was followed up by a direct sequel titled Star Trek: Judgment Rites that was released in 1993. The overall game play is similar to Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary , and the missions are set up to take place directly following the previous game. Like its predecessor, Star Trek: Judgment Rites used voice acting performed by the original Star Trek cast.

1995: Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity

In 1995, the Star Trek game franchise transitioned to the cast of the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series, which had recently finished its final season. The game uses a click-adventure style interface reminiscent of the previous two Star Trek games. The overall game play has been extended, however, with the addition of new parts of the ship to explore (outside of the bridge) and new ship systems to use. At times, the player would also transport off of the Enterprise D to go on away missions.

1996: Star Trek: Klingon

In 1996, publisher Simon & Schuster made a return to the Star Trek game franchise with Star Trek: Klingon . This game could almost be construed as an educational tool for learning Klingon culture much as a game. The entire game is technically played inside of a holodeck simulation created by Gowron, the Klingon High Chancellor. The purpose of the simulation is to teach the player about Klingon culture and language by navigating a series of social situations.

The player must act correctly in each situation to progress the story. This sometimes requires the player to understand the Klingon language and recognize Klingon cuisine such as Gagh.

1996: Star Trek: Borg

Star Trek: Borg represented an attempt by publisher Simon & Schuster to build on the success of Star Trek: Klingon . The game uses a relatively similar style of gameplay, but with a completely different story. Players take control of a man named Qaylan Furlong. Qaylan is greeted by an unexpected visit by Q, who gives Qaylan a chance to travel back in time and save his father from dying in battle with the Borg at the Battle of Wolf 359.

Throughout the game, the players must explore the ship to learn about the events unfolding, answer questions from Q, and solve puzzles. This game proved to be overall less successful than its predecessor.

Current page: Page 1

Watch three-person tank crew battle in World of Tanks — driver, spotter, and gunner all use custom physical controls

Steam gamers hurry to upgrade to 32GB RAM, and Linux breaks above 2% user share milestone, in latest survey

Cooler Master showcases a massive 57-inch super ultrawide dual-4K Mini LED gaming monitor

• ern88 I wish they would do another Bridge Commander style game. Reply
• Reynar Uhhh...Birth of the Federation was turn-based. And glorious despite the game breaking memory leak and other bugs. Reply
• adgjlsfhk No star trek armada III? technically its a mod, but it still is amazing. Reply
• Mopar63 Birth of the Federation was an amazing game that needs to be remade. Sadly it was never properly supported. The Star Fleet Command series will always hold a special place in my heart. I worked with Taldren as a part of the "Inner Circle" a select group of play testers that worked directly with the devs. I was also the creator and Editor and Chief of Hailing Frequencies, an SFC Fanzine. Of all the Star Fleet Commands my least favorite was SFC III, I just never felt it captured the essence of SFC. I works on the New Worlds beta, all I can say is I am sorry. :-( I played a lot of Star Trek Online but Perfect World has pretty much ruined what started as a great Star Trek game. Reply
• dimar I would love Star Trek game series, Mass Effect style. Rich story line and lots of action. But no prequels. I hate prequels! Reply
• enewmen Some where exceptionally good, but only similar to Star Trek - having warp, shield, photons, etc. The Cosmic Balance by SSI (1982) for example added strategy by limiting the space available by hull size. So you can have a ton of weapons, but no shields. Or Super fast but no weapons. Or good weapons & shields but no living space. Balanced, Or any combination. The paper game "Star Fleet Battles" (1979) was also excellent, but there was never a good computer game version of that. Edit: Most licenced "Star Trek" games where made for suckers and totally SUCKED! "Starship Creator" (1998) for example was exceptionally bad (wait 2 hours to cross the map and nothing happens). Edit again: I have no love for Star Trek online - no good reason and I can't die. Just don't like it. Reply
• jaguarskx Playing Star Trek Online while doing a bit of moderation...LOL. Reply
• jaguarskx Star Trek Bridge Crew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=romB8e5nMp8 Reply
• cletus_slackjawd Armada and bridge commander where my favorite Reply
• wifiburger did not play a single startrek game, even tough the movies / tv series are decent, FPS MMO would be nice I'll play that :-) 20% no man sky and 80% destiny yeah that would be awesome Reply
• View All 24 Comments

Most Popular

Sign in to add this item to your wishlist, follow it, or mark it as ignored

Buy Star Trek: Infinite

Packages that include this game, buy star trek: infinite - deluxe edition.

Includes 4 items: Star Trek: Infinite, Star Trek: Infinite - Designing the Galaxy, Star Trek: Infinite - Galactic Tracks, Star Trek: Infinite - Neutral Zone Tunes

Content For This Game Browse all (3)

“Star Trek: Infinite is a 4X grand strategy game that shares a lot of qualities with a good Star Trek episode: It’s cerebral, accessible, occasionally a little clumsy, and overall a good time.” Polygon “...If you’re a huge Trekkie and just happen to also like video games, Star Trek: Infinite will beam boatloads of fun right into your living room.” Video Games (Sports Illustrated) “This game is made for Star Trek fans through and through. From the well-crafted story elements to the small random easter egg events, there is something for those with various entry points into the fandom.” But Why Tho?

DELUXE EDITION

U.S.S. Cerritos & California -class Uniforms

Klingon voice pack, downloadable soundtrack, more star trek music, about this game.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

This Game may contain content not appropriate for all ages, or may not be appropriate for viewing at work: General Mature Content

System Requirements

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS *: Windows® 7 SP1 64 Bit
• Processor: Intel® iCore™ i3-530 or AMD® FX-6350
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 460 or AMD® ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 (1GB VRAM), or AMD® Radeon™ RX Vega 11 or Intel® HD Graphics 4600
• DirectX: Version 9.0c
• Storage: 15 GB available space
• OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit
• Processor: Intel® iCore™ i5-3570K or AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2400G
• Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 560 Ti (1GB VRAM) or AMD® Radeon™ R7 370 (2 GB VRAM)
• DirectX: Version 12
• OS: 10.11 (El Capitan)
• Processor: Intel® iCore™ i5-4570S
• Memory: 15 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GT 750M or equivalent AMD® card with 1GB Vram
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 10 GB available space
• OS: 10.13 (High Sierra)
• Processor: Intel® iCore™ i5-4670
• Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 780M with 4GB Vram or AMD® Radeon™ R7 370 (2 GB VRAM)

© 2023 Paradox Interactive AB. All rights reserved.

More from Nimble Giant Entertainment

More like this, what curators say, customer reviews.

You can use this widget-maker to generate a bit of HTML that can be embedded in your website to easily allow customers to purchase this game on Steam.

There is more than one way to buy this game. Please select a specific package to create a widget for:

Enter up to 375 characters to add a description to your widget:

Copy and paste the HTML below into your website to make the above widget appear

Popular user-defined tags for this product: (?)

Sign in to add your own tags to this product.

Verify Your Credentials

Arc Defender

Looks like you are logging in with a new computer or browser. For your security, please verify your account prior to logging in. We have emailed you a pin to verify you are the owner of this account.

Please enter the pin we emailed you above

What is this and why am I seeing it?

Star Trek Online

You are leaving arcgames.com.

Heads up, you are now leaving Arc Games! Remember to not share ac- count information as the site you are attempting to reach is not affiliated with Arc Games.

Continue to link and leave Arc Games.

Take me back to Arc Games.

PC Patch Notes for 6/6/24

By Fero | Thu 06 Jun 2024 01:00:00 AM PDT

• Resolved an issue that prevented the daily event timer from being visible for the “Delete Alt Control” event.  This was just a visual issue and the daily event timer was functioning normally.  

Known Issues:

• We are still working on issues with the Captain Alteration Token and as such, we have temporarily disabled the ability to purchase or use a Captain Alteration Token. We will return the feature when we have a satisfactory fix for the issues.  

star-trek-online , sto-news , sto-launcher , sto-patch-notes , patch-notes ,

Follow / Subscribe

Most Recent More

hover media query supported

White Gaming Logo

Gaming Channel

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami review – murder most fowl

Share this with

He may be only a duck but Eugene McQuacklin is the star of the best noir detective thriller since L.A. Noire.

While plenty of games require detective work, from Ace Attorney to the rather more abstruse delights of Return Of The Obra Dinn , the overwhelming majority of those doing the detecting are human. But despite what the name and age rating may suggest, this is not some twee children’s game but a thoroughly entertaining puzzle adventure for all ages.

Its hero, Eugene McQuacklin, is a down at heel private eye. Recently divorced and with final demands piling up on his doormat, he may have his bread habit temporarily in check, but he’s got plenty of other problems. ‘Ana, I’m a different duck now. I haven’t touched a slice of bread in weeks,’ he shouts at his estranged wife’s voicemail, his desperation amusingly evident.

Presented in cute isometric 3D, you navigate Eugene around each scene in search of clues and useful interactions. Waddling about its charmingly-drawn rooms, the Duck Detective is a 2D paper cutout exploring the 3D scenery around him, knocking over waste bins and scattering props and knick-knacks as he goes about his business. Which after Paper Trail and Paper Mario somehow makes this the third such game this month, to involve paper-themed visual gimmicks.

A dot over certain items means there’s a point of interest, which can be a person to interrogate, a useful object, or something to look at more closely with your magnifying glass. Hovering its magnifying power over items lets you see a little more detail in the illustration, and you can also uncover specific clues, which are automatically added to Eugene’s notebook in the form of keywords.

When chatting to suspects, and the fellow animals you meet, their comments generate more keywords for your notebook, which need to be collated into coherent theories to further your investigation. You do that by completing statements, with each blank space pre-populated with a list of all the keywords you’ve discovered so far.

Get all the words in the correct gaps and Eugene gives the statement his stamp of approval, letting you continue with the case safe in the knowledge that this set of assumptions is accurate – so you can use it as a foundation for further enquiries.

After completing what amounts to a training level in McQuacklin’s office, you’re ready to take on the game’s single case, that of The Secret Salami. It turns out that the BearBus company has a lunch thief in its midst, and you’ve been hired to crack the case.

It’s important to note that despite the adorable illustration style and the fundamentally insane nature of your avian crime busting, Duck Detective is played completely straight. From its noir-ish script and smoky jazz soundtrack to the urgent and emotional voice acting for both Eugene and his various suspects, every aspect of the case is infused with humour but played as though it’s deadly serious.

Your first task is to gain admission to the BearBus HQ, because even though you’ve been hired to help, you’re not at all sure who called you. Discovering the identity of your sponsor then becomes your first job, after talking your way into the back office.

There you’ll find the company’s staff, some of whom are conscientious, others who are anything but, and as you make enquiries you also need to start identifying who’s who, and trying to discern what their motivations might be – adding detail to your notebook as you progress.

As well as the cast, there’s also a map that gives you a convenient hint about where you might have missed something, preventing too much unedifying extra wandering. It’s just as well, because despite its gently humorous subject matter, and not at all serious criminal activity, it turns out that Duck Detective is actually fairly challenging.

While you can simply keep guessing random keywords until you finally get a set of matches, if you want to play properly, successfully completing Eugene’s detective work without brute forcing solutions, you’ll need to pay careful attention during conversations, noting people’s names, jobs, and possible motives as they talk to you, ready to combine them with the additional keywords unlocked as you examine the office and the kitchen.

You’ll be able to see everything, unpicking the mystery of The Secret Salami and Sophie the giraffe receptionist’s forgotten birthday, in under three hours. It’s a perfect little bite-sized piece of silliness that would translate perfectly to a mobile game.

It’s more taxing than it looks, but given the amount of gentle direction you get, there’s really no chance you’ll miss anything; its warmth, cosiness, and noir duck detection making for a lovely little tea break from real life.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami review summary

In Short: A charming, polished, and warmly humorous detective game whose cute 3D dioramas and delightful graphical touches are a pleasure to interact with.

Pros: Superb voice acting and adorable sense of humour. Pleasantly challenging detective work.

Cons: Very short and not much scope to inject your own creativity into the police work.

Score: 8/10

Formats: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC Price: £8.99 Publisher: Happy Broccoli Games Developer: Happy Broccoli Games Release Date: 23rd May 2024 Age Rating: 3

Email  [email protected] , leave a comment below,  follow us on Twitter , and  sign-up to our newsletter .

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our  Submit Stuff page here .

For more stories like this,  check our Gaming page .

MORE : F1 24 review – playing your heroes

MORE : Hauntii review – monochrome possession

MORE : Wizardry: Proving Grounds Of The Mad Overlord PS5 review – ground zero for RPGs

Sign up to all the exclusive gaming content, latest releases before they're seen on the site.

Get us in your feed