Star Trek: D-A-C

Ever heard of Star Trek: D-A-C? We can't blame you if you haven't: it came out on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 back in 2009 to cash in on the new Abrams Trek reboot. And even by the standards of bad Trek games, this one’s a stinker.

The D-A-C of the title is short for “deathmatch-assault-conquest,” which doesn’t exactly exude a Star Trek vibe. It’s basically a topdown shooter that will make you wish you were playing a classic bullet hell game. The multiplayer mode is crap and there is no story mode.

Yup...a Star Trek game with no story. Good job, devs!

Star Trek: Klingon

Like Star Trek: Borg, Star Trek: Klingon can hardly be called a game. Rather, it is an interactive movie meant to give you more insight into the Klingons.

The game includes great direction from Jonathan Frakes and a fun performance from Robert O'Reilly. But this is little more than an outdated list of video info about the Klingon empire. If you’re really that interested, you’d be better off spending about five minutes reading a Wikipedia entry for the Klingons and then calling it a day.

Star Trek: Generations

As a film, Star Trek: Generations received fairly middling reviews. Should we really be so surprised that the video game adaptation had similarly mixed feedback?

The game offers a lackluster combination of combat and puzzles. And some of the decisions, including the inability to save games during a mission, are enough to make you smash your keyboard. Long story short? When the sound effects stolen from the movies and episodes are the best part of your game, you know the title is going to be a bad one!

Star Trek: Encounters

Star Trek: Encounters was one of the last titles released for the PS2. Unfortunately, the whole thing ended up being pretty disappointing!

The game is meant to be an engaging, arcade-style title with a fun Star Trek skin. In reality, the action is boring and the controls are crappy. Like some of the worst entries on this list, Encounters features both forgettable gameplay and a surprisingly awful Star Trek story!

Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator

Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is a game that hasn’t aged well. This arcade game’s action and voice sampling were cool when it came out, but it all looks and plays terribly in the here and now.

Back when Star Trek games were rare, this thing had a lot of innovation and charm. Now, though, we need to admit that it hasn’t aged nearly as well as contemporary titles like the original Star Wars arcade game.

Star Trek: Borg

Honestly, it’s pretty generous calling Star Trek: Borg a game. Like many early FMV titles, this is best described as an interactive movie.

Needless to say, it’s pretty boring as a video game goes. And considering that this game came out in 1996, Trek fans ended up getting many more Borg facts from subsequent movies and Voyager episodes. So even as a source of rare lore, this game was a complete mess.

Star Trek: Conquest

Star Trek: Conquest looks like a game out of time. Despite this title coming out for the PS2 and Wii in 2007 and 2008, the crappy 2D graphics look like they come from a bad online game from the late ’90s.

The graphics as a whole are hideous, and the two gameplay modes are both instantly forgettable. In fact, the most honest thing we can say about this game is that for a title based on a major IP, this was virtually indistinguishable from all the other shelf warming shovelware made for the Nintendo Wii.

Star Trek: New Worlds

The history of Star Trek games is mostly developers trying to figure out how to do a Trek version of a popular game. And that’s how we got New Worlds, which was Star Trek’s attempt to copy the Command & Conquer formula.

The graphics were decent enough for a game that came out in the year 2000. But the game had plenty of bugs with the audio, which meant your ears would start bleeding before the end of a mission. On top of the bugs, the counterintuitive use of concepts like fog of war in this title guaranteed that veteran RTS players would tear out their hair in frustration while playing.

Star Trek Voyager Elite Force (PS2 port)

If you’ve been playing games long enough, then you know that a port can either improve a game or make it much, much worse. Sadly, the PS2 port of Elite Force made this game nearly unplayable.

Which is a shame because the PC version of Elite Force was iconic. It was a Star Trek FPS that was both fun and atmospheric. But the PS2 version had awful graphics, nerfed multiplayer, and unintuitive controls. It was bad enough to make you want to wrap the controller cord around your neck until you can finally stop screaming.

Star Trek: The Video Game

There were two games meant to tie into the 2009 Star Trek reboot. The first, D-A-C, was like a crappy little appetizer. But Star Trek: The Video Game was our turd sandwich of an entree.

The graphics were bad recreations of the 2009 movie’s crew. And the level design made all those “strange new worlds” look and feel the same. Finally, the game had no real variety, so even if you liked playing it, the game stopped offering any surprises after about 30 minutes.

Star Trek: Hidden Evil

You know what a sure sign of a failed video game looks like? When people barely remember it existed. And that is certainly the case with Star Trek: Hidden Evil.

The game was meant to be a sequel to Insurrection. And perhaps as an homage to that slower-paced movie, this game is nothing but dull puzzles broken up by occasional bouts of boring combat. While that is also a perfect description of the Insurrection movie, it doesn’t add up to a fun game.

Star Trek: Shattered Universe

Star Trek: Shattered Universe is another Trek title that wasted much of its potential. After all, this game offered a major adventure in Trek’s famous Mirror Universe, which is where we get the iconic image of Spock with a goatee.

However, beyond the cool premise, this is just a bargain-basement space simulator. And the story is pretty bad, too. Because of this, this game ended up being hated by Trekkies and hardcore gamers alike.

Star Trek Timelines

For modern gamers, Star Trek Timelines is a game that's very easy to access. It is free to play on mobile platforms and PC alike.

A far as mobile games so, Timelines is decent enough as an experience. But the gameplay is repetitive and boring, and the only thing keeping you coming back is the opportunity to unlock new characters. While this can be rewarding, virtual “pack fever” isn’t enough to keep you coming back to this game!

Star Trek Voyager: The Arcade Game

Star Trek has had very few arcade games. And for modern gamers, the one they are likeliest to remember is Star Trek Voyager: The Arcade Game.

Unfortunately, even by the low standard of arcade shooter games, this title is disappointing. The enemies are repetitive, and the general mission to shoot everything that movies isn’t exactly Star Trek. After playing this for a while, you’ll be tempted to put the lightgun up to your head!

Star Trek: Legacy

In theory, Star Trek: Legacy could have been awesome. It combined space combat with different captains from different eras. With actually voicework from heavies like William Shatner and Patrick Stewart, this title had a ton of potential.

And it squandered its potential with crappy controls, stupid AI allies, and glitching gameplay. Certain design features like single file saves were the final kick in the nuts to players who tried to give this game a go. You should treat this game like an average holodeck episode and skip it altogether!