Star Trek: Bridge Commander
Let’s say you don’t have VR equipment or friends you can always check out Star Trek: Bridge Commander. Bridge Commander is the best of the ‘command chair’ games. Taking place as an individual story within the Star Trek universe, you play a newly promoted captain who’s been assigned to investigate an explosion of a star.
In Bridge Commander, you won’t actually control your ship so much as give orders to your individual crew members. Making you feel more like a captain than a glorified pilot. You can jump in if necessary, but you’re mostly intended to sit back and trust your navigator to fly and your weapons officer to handle the combat. On top of that, it’s not just a series of quick battles; there is a full narrative campaign to work through. It is even possible to play with voice control, though not advised. When it works, it offers the full Captain experience. Far more often though, you just get blown up while swearing loudly.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen
The Fallen is a third-person shooter that isn’t exactly horror sci-fi but it’s almost there. You get to choose whether you want to play as Sisko, Worf, and Major Kira Nerys. But if you want the whole story, you’ll need to play through all three characters in separate runs. The game’s story centres around a race to find the three lost red orbs of the Pah-wraiths. When the orbs are collected they will give their owner the power to destroy the universe.
The Fallen is one of the deepest and most intricately crafted Star Trek worlds on the list. Plus you get to beat up all sorts of races from the Cardassians to the Bajoran and even an unknown race of aliens known as the Grigari. You’re going to have a blast with this one.
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
No that’s not a typo, Judgment Rites is one of the oldest games on this list and features the original series cast of Star Trek. If you’re a huge fan of the classic TV series you’re going to want to play this. You’ll be playing as Captain Kirk and most of the interactions with Spock, McCoy and the rest of the crew, feel pretty OG. As usual, you will be embarking on away team missions with some combat. Part adventure, part action, it’s a great way of feeling part of The Original Series and far too few games embrace the original days of Star Trek. The full principal cast is included here and it also features the last time that DeForest Kelley plays McCoy.
Best of all, each episodic story is suitably entertaining and captures the spirit of The Original Series well. It may be tricky to track down nowadays but it’s a worthwhile endeavour.