Everything up to Interplay/Microprose = perfect games & after Activision = aweful games?

[SpaceLama]

Honestly, all the older Star Trek games, such as EGA Trek, Judgement Rites, Birth of the Federation and Klingon Academy, were so damn immersive, and appropriate to the setting. EGA Trek is perhaps the finest roguelike I have ever played to this day - the Dark Souls of Star Trek :-)

And then everything Activision did, was just another game with the veneer of Star Trek - in Armada, you suddently had Sovereign class starships going toe to toe with a Borg Cube (in Birth of the Federation, a single cube was enough to destroy your enitre fleet).

The flavour text of the older games was so so so appropriate to the setting! Then the modern stuff like Star Trek Online is barely anything to do with Trek - really bad continuity porn, coupled with bland combat-heavy gameplay. Everything since about the year 2000 has been utterly aweful, with the possible exception of Bridge Commander (and Elite Force was fun at least).

Birth of the Federation simulated Star Trek so so well. Klingon Academy brought Christopher Plumber back as General Chang ffs! At least WizKids are doing decent board games.

 

[bbjeg]

Star Trek Bridge Commander and Star Trek Armada rocked BTW.

 

[STEPhon IT]

None of the Star Trek games has lived up to the quality of A final Unity.

 

[Owain Taggart]

My first and favourite Trek game experience were with the old Simon & Shuster text-adventures. They gave you such freedom. You could travel almost anywhere, and it let you explore the ship at your leisure, including every deck.

 

[SpaceLama]

Star Trek Bridge Commander and Star Trek Armada rocked BTW.

Bridge Commander was alright, but cmon, was Armada really that good?

I remember even at the time, surrounded by hype, it didn't "feel" like Star Trek in some very important ways.

Just more like someone re-skinning an RTS with starships replacing tanks. Starships are not, and have never been, that desposable in Star Trek; they are characters unto themselves, so it was a case of gameplay being an aweful reflection of the setting it was trying to convey.

Things like EGA Trek (the un-censored version 1.0/2.0 that still has the Star Trek trappings intact), or one of the new tabletop games like Star Trek: Fleet Captains, model the value of starships much more realistically; simulating one ship, and the way it interacts with planets/phenomena/away teams/missions/etc, is always much closer to Trek.

None of the Star Trek games has lived up to the quality of A final Unity.

Except Judgement Rites, which I would argue is the closest simulation of a fictional seting (and it's spirit) I have ever seen in video game form. A Final Unity was kinda the Next Generation equivalent, and is almost as good - its a tough call between the two, but the writing in Judgement Rites is just slightly better and more Trek-like. Both are amazing for having the full voices of the original casts. I don't think even LucasArts at the height of their success even, produced something as faithful and genuine-feeling as this for Star Wars (as much as I adore Dark Forces and stuff).

 

[bbjeg]

So have you never heard of modding? There was a real ships mod that raised ship stats with additional ships as well for both Armada and Armada II and, IIRC, there was a BOBW cube that took forever to build but it could take a fleet of ships, not to mention the Star Wars invasion mod.

 

[Kor]

I used to love modding Armada. I turned it into a pure TOS game.

Kor

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

Yeah, I somehow think he has 'heard of' mods bbjeg, but if a game needs mods to be appropriate, the developers have clearly failed in their job.

Anyway, on topic - I'm also a massive fan of Nels Anderson's EGA Trek - amazing for a game that fit on a 3.5" floppy - or rather made amazing by the level of understanding and immersion provided - makes all these shite android games with their SHMUP gameplay, and shite like Star Trek 2009's game, look unforgivable. Interplay and Microprose wanted to immerse you in Star Trek, and make you feel like you were living in that universe, and succeeded brilliantly.

My top five would be:

1. EGA Trek:

2. Judgement Rites (and 25th Anniversary to a lesser extent):

3. Birth of the Federation:

4. A Final Unity:

5. Klingon Academy:

Honourable mentions:

- Starfleet Academy
- Klingon Honor Guard
- Elite Force
- Bridge Commander
- The Fallen
- Starfleet Command
- Generations

But Armada, Armada II, Elite Force II, Away Team and most things from after 2000 = yuk.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Always wanted to see Borg: Assimilator come to fruition. IIRC, it was the only game other than Klingon Academy that told a story from a purely non-Starfleet "bad guy" POV. Yes, it was just another 4X RTS at the end of the day, but it really seemed a departure from the usual stuff at the time. Such a shame it never happened. I guess since the goal of the game was to assimilate entire species, including the "hero" Alpha- and Beta-quadrant species (Feds, Klingons, Romulans, etc.) was too "dark" for some people. That, and the loss of Activision's license happened around that time, also taking Secret of Vulcan Fury along with it.

 

[Kor]

Heh.. "Borg Assimilator" probably wouldn't have been as grim as "Klingon Honor Guard." As far as I'm aware, that's the only M-rated Trek game.

Kor

 

[137th Gebirg]

Oh yeah - I forgot about that one! IIRC, it was a first-person shooter with quite a bit of gore with up-close stabbings from a D'k tahg blade, among other things. One of the few old MicroProse titles out there. Ah, good times...

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Star Trek new worlds and Star Trek pinball want to say hello to you. lol

But yeah there was a golden time for Star Trek gaming starting in the 90's, hell the reason i bought a pc in the first place and dicthed the Amiga was because of STT25 Anniversary, although from Activision we did get the Armada series, Bridge Commander and SFC III.

Amazing to think that we are now sitting here with the tech for some really glorious Trek games, and out of that entire universe of possibilities we got nothing, does not seem fair.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Amazing to think that we are now sitting here with the tech for some really glorious Trek games, and out of that entire universe of possibilities we got nothing, does not seem fair.

It is a damn shame, and I doubt we'll get a great Trek game in this generation of hardware or the next, as there have been quite a few fun games lately that were sort of spiritually inspired by Star Trek (Artemis, FTL, Mass Effect). But I expect to mostly see facebook and mobile games with the IP. The 2013 game was a bit of a flop, and the games industry is pretty risk-averse.

 

[Tomalak]

I'll stick up for Armada, they were just RTS games, but they were so easy to mod. I turned mine into a Dominion War game, which was an awful lot of fun. Elite Force was very good for what it was too.

But I'd agree with the consensus that Judgment Rites, 25th Anniversary and A Final Unity best captured the spirit of Star Trek. I never played Birth of the Federation sadly. The Fallen could have been great, but I remember it being rather buggy.

 

[SpaceLama]

^
BOTF is available on Armada Fleet Command; modded for Win 7/8/10.

I own the original, but I'm sure nobody would mind you playing a game that the company seems to have literally no commercial interest in any more. Maybe I'm wrong though; if so, I bet you could pick it up cheap on ebay or Amazon.

 

[SPCTRE]

The first Elite Force was great, Armada was great, so the Activision part of the equation doesn't check out.

 

[SpaceLama]

First Elite Force was good - but Armada, I'm not so sure.

It was aright to actually play. But it didn't really represent the setting very well.

 

[DBR]

I remember the ending boss in Elite Force being so. damn. hard. I gave up.

ASide from that, put me down for another one who loved Armada and Elite Force.

And I totally want to play BOTF now.

 

[daedalus5]

^^ I had to use the cheatcodes!

 

[USS Triumphant]

I guess it depends a lot on what you're looking for from "a Star Trek game". I mean, I definitely like games that recreate the feelings of the series. But sometimes I just want to have some fun (mostly, blow crap up) while looking at neat-o Trek stuff without any particular need for it to be accurate to canon or "the spirit of Trek" or whatever else.

I enjoyed Armada a lot, and Elite Force was neat but not for me (I get nauseous if I play FPS for more than a few minutes). I think the only time I really feel like something is a bad Trek game is if it is broken and unable to be enjoyed because of it. Or if it gives me the distinct impression that it exists to exploit Trek fans - so all of the licensed phone/tablet Trek I've come across, and STO sometimes.