J.J. Abrams' sequel to his Star Trek reboot has gotten pretty positive reviews and buzz as it heads to release this Friday. The inevitable licensed game, Star Trek The Video Game (PS3,Xbox360 and PC), released at the end of April on the other hand, is currently suffering a horribly low Metascore of 43 percent. For those who made the poor decision to purchasing the Digital Extremes developed mess, here are five Star Trek games that are actually worth playing.
Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force
Based on theVoyager series, Elite Force was Raven Software's id Tech 3 powered first-person shooter widely known as the best game based on the Star Trek franchise ever. Elite Force's shooting felt right, featured an extremely solid story and the Star Trek influenced multi-player perfectly matched the tone of the universe when it was released in September of 2000 for PC (PS2 version was ported a year later). There was even an "assimilation" match were one team played as the Borg with the mission of assimilating the other team.
Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force 2
Released a few years after the first game in the series, Ritual Entertainment took over development duties from Raven for the sequel. Not only serving as Star Trek: Nemesis' semi sequel and the ending to the Voyager series, Elite Force 2 felt more cerebral than the previous game. The puzzle elements, a branching story and the ability to collect 81 miniature cleverly hidden models of the USS Excelsior all contributed to this feeling.
Star Trek: Starfleet Command
Star Trek: Starfleet Command is an interesting mix of flight simulator and real-time tactics by the good folks of Interplay. The PC only release's success would lead to three sequels: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War, Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates and Starfleet Command III.
Star Trek Legacy
Neglecting the PC version, Microsoft's Xbox 360 may hold the title of not only having the best Star Trek titles of this console generation but also one of the best real-time strategy available for the system. Star Trek Legacy has players experiencing the series chronologically from Enterprise to Voyager. Was it perfect? No, but above average and enjoyable a majority of the time.
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator
During the early 80s, Sega created a really impressive game that had players control the Starship Enterprise with a sit-down cabinet that was modeled after the show's bridge chairs. That included buttons integrated into the chair's arms. Primitive by today's standards? Of course but who could resist the pretending to be James T. Kirk.
