What is the problem with Star-trek games?

[Andy Anonymous]

Its sOOOOoOoOoo cheesy. Its for nerdz with bad tastes.

Star Trek TNG and DS9 set records as the best-rated syndicated shows in TV history. At its peak, TNG was extremely popular, and not just among "nerdz". So basically, you don't know what you're talking about.

As for games, I liked ST Legacy, and DS9: The Fallen was pretty good for its time.

 

[Wareve]

I never Played Duse ex so I couldent judge. I did play Invisible war, so to be fair I used it as an example.

I think a BOTF2 would be good. Its relitively eazy to make, and allso its fun to play. And now that more and more ships have been seen its realy a time to shine for BOTF. If only the copy right deals that Paramount where cuting at the time wherent bullshit then good game could have been a wonderfull game.

 

[MosDes]

I liked Star Trek Armada...

*prepares to be flamed*

It was a good game.

Star trek armada 2 was a pice of shit. Mainly becuase everything had like 5 shots in it before it died.

I actually enjoyed and made maps for Star Trek: Armada 2. We had a clan going and everything. The original Armada was just as fun. Multiplayer ftw!

My all time favorite Star Trek game was New Worlds. I guess you could relate it to StarCraft, which as far as I can tell is about the same.

Now despite it being buggy as crud and shorter than a meter-stick, Star Trek Deep Space 9: Dominion Wars had some of the best 3rd person individual ship space control missions. It was 100x better than Star Trek Legacy and wasn't as limited. The music in it was great too. Multiplayer in this one sucked though...

 

[DohboyIBM]

Hi. I am hard core trek fan and long time PC gamer and have played many of the Star Trek games you have talked about. I think main problem with Star Trek games is they tend to focus on one type of game play. For example Elite Force was just action heavy away missions (aka FPS) and Klingon Academy was just starship combat (aka Space Sim). What you need for a good Star Trek game is a blend of several different game play types.

The best Star Trek game that did this was Star Trek Generations for the PC. It had away team missions where you controlled a member of the crew in a FPS engine that had adventure game elements. It also had a tactical simulation element where you took control of the enterprise and battled in ship to ship combat (sometimes against several ships). It worked together really well. For example you fought a Klingon ship in space combat part, disabled it, and then proceeded to board the ship in the away team part. It also had an over arcing plot that changed depending on if you failed a space battle or away mission. The attention to detail was excellent too. Things like control panels that worked (for example you could open an outer door of an airlock like in Doom 3) and sound effects that matched the ones from the show. Also the voice acting was great as they used the actual actors from the show. It really made you feel like you were in the in the show.

I think something like the game Mass Effect would make a good modern Star Trek game just drop the leveling elements, add the tactical space combat and adventure game elements and your set.

 

[famousninja]

Hi. I am hard core trek fan and long time PC gamer and have played many of the Star Trek games you have talked about. I think main problem with Star Trek games is they tend to focus on one type of game play. For example Elite Force was just action heavy away missions (aka FPS) and Klingon Academy was just starship combat (aka Space Sim). What you need for a good Star Trek game is a blend of several different game play types.

Good luck.

The major problem with Trek games is that they're just futile money spinners designed to wring out any money left in the pockets of trekkies rather than actually produce something good. There are a couple of notable exceptions that I've played, namely Voyager: Elite Force and Armada, (I never got into Bridge Commander because I never felt like I was the actual captain, but rather pulling the strings of the first officer)

It might just be the beer goggles of nostalgia clouding my judgment on these, but I still have fond memories of those two games, and whilst Elite Force can be accused of shoehorning in a race for the sake of the game, it was warranted as they were in the delta quadrant. (That was my main gripe with EF2, along with weapon reloading) The one section I really enjoyed was the expansion for the first Elite Force. Whilst you had a lot of combat heavy holo-missions, the major selling point was the fact that you could just wander around Voyager just exploring. That was something I really enjoyed, as they had really nailed the ambiance of the actual show, with the random NPC's milling around randomly talking.

So that's what I would consider a decent Star Trek game. Open-ended, exploration based with some mild combat thrown in for excitement, but could be better with a more diplomatic, puzzle/adventure slant.

So what are the contenders for possible genres?

The obvious one is an MMO. Whilst I stood as a one of the bastions against MMO's I recently started playing World of Warcraft and discovered it isn't as bad I claimed it was, so a Star Trek MMO would definitely be interesting, and would suck me in if made correctly. I'm talking a huge game world (which could easily be expanded) with multiple starting races, factions, etc. with the emphasis on quests based on more puzzle based or adventure style quests. No main driving quest, but a lot of side stories that play out in the different areas of the Federation and the alpha quadrant.

The other style will definitely attract some flames, so I shall don my asbestos underwear.

Imagine a Trek universe, built around a cross between System Shock (just the FPS/RPG combination) and Freelancer.
You're free to explore, within the limitations of your federation rank, or social standing, and could have an intricate epic linear storyline with multiple endings, all which spit you out in the universe to make your own destiny. You became a captain? go explore the universe. You became a pirate? go prey on some trade convoys. If you set up choices in the SP campaign, and have them effect the sandbox gameplay afterwards, it could lead to some interesting gameplay.

But that is my two cents.

As a side note as I have the asbestos pantaloons on: Favourite series? Voyager.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Personal opinion

The Star Trek series is a conglomeration of attitudes from the years it was made passed forward into the century they were in.

If we had a 'new' Enterprise, we'd have a PETA activist (heavily disguised), an evil lawyer(who turns out to be a good guy), and those staples of Star Trek : The badass black hairless guy that gets kicked in by everyone, the woman with huge tits in a tight dress and the FEARLESS ENEMIES that discover how being human is quite nice and then becomes a joke.

Whilst Star Trek have managed to push some good points: inter-racial co-operation, commuunicators etc. the science is a joke, the storylines overly moralistic, and the propeganda behind it dodgy at best.

Whilst there are some inspired moments, the series as a whole is meh, and the moments themselves are set pieces. That doesn't transfer well to a game in the same way that you could never make a decent cartoon based game.

The one good Star Trek game I've played was the DS9 one, and that's because it had almost nothing to do with the Star Trek universe. Voyager's one saving grace was the Borg attack, and even that was reduced to a Zombie movie.

Rescue on Fractalus, Elite, Homeworld all did Star Trek far better than Star Trek itself could.

 

[Zer_]

Personal opinion

The Star Trek series is a conglomeration of attitudes from the years it was made passed forward into the century they were in.

If we had a 'new' Enterprise, we'd have a PETA activist (heavily disguised), an evil lawyer(who turns out to be a good guy), and those staples of Star Trek : The badass black hairless guy that gets kicked in by everyone, the woman with huge tits in a tight dress and the FEARLESS ENEMIES that discover how being human is quite nice and then becomes a joke.

Whilst Star Trek have managed to push some good points: inter-racial co-operation, commuunicators etc. the science is a joke, the storylines overly moralistic, and the propeganda behind it dodgy at best.

Whilst there are some inspired moments, the series as a whole is meh, and the moments themselves are set pieces. That doesn't transfer well to a game in the same way that you could never make a decent cartoon based game.

The one good Star Trek game I've played was the DS9 one, and that's because it had almost nothing to do with the Star Trek universe. Voyager's one saving grace was the Borg attack, and even that was reduced to a Zombie movie.

Rescue on Fractalus, Elite, Homeworld all did Star Trek far better than Star Trek itself could.

On that topic both Homeworld and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident have some pretty nifty Star Trek Modifications.

Spoiler

Of Course there was one of my favorite ST based games Bridge Commander, although the experience was greatly improved by mods.

Spoiler

No Homeworld screenshots unfortunately, it was based on the Dominion War timeline, pretty much all I remember of the mod.

 

[santaandy]

Star Trek games are bad for one reason and one reason only: those responsible for making them did not do a good job. You could have a Star Trek combat game of some sort and it would be fine. We have had Star Trek non-combat games but they were coded poorly as well (see the AVGN review of Star Trek games).

Personally, I think a Star Trek 4x game would be badass. A KotOR-style RPG would be great too. And instead of an FPS maybe and action-adventure along Tomb Raider lines would be better. I don't think a sim would be good as Star Trek ships are not individually piloted, and there seem to be few of those and almost no real ground-based vehicles. Pure adventure games could be fun too.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

If anyone knows the name of that game, I'll be eternally grateful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(text_game)
That was the original.

 

[santaandy]

Ah, yes, the Mirror Universe would provide quite the action-entertainment. Perfect for FPS, and anything else action-related.

 

[TheBlackKnight]

The series was driven by characters, not guns.

Games, therefore, fail.

especially under the current development of games, I mean adventures are dead and Space shooters are also dead, somehow.
So, the only thing you can do at the moment is to look at the fan projects and hope that Paramount is not stomping them.

 

[entropy3ko]

It would be awsome to have again a game like "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Starship Bridge Simulator", combining perhaps with away team missions too

 

[entropy3ko]

well, the fundamental problem with most Star Trek games is that they are based upon a series that promotes peace... which is polar opposites of why most people play video games.

Also, the USS 50dollarsworhtofshitinacase, is that a new class of cruiser, or battleship? last I've heard, there's no such designation in the US navy...

/sarcasm

More then peace Star Trek promotes indifference. The Prime Directive is a good excuse for sittinh there watching and do nothing.

 

[Jak The Great]

well, the fundamental problem with most Star Trek games is that they are based upon a series that promotes peace... which is polar opposites of why most people play video games.

Also, the USS 50dollarsworhtofshitinacase, is that a new class of cruiser, or battleship? last I've heard, there's no such designation in the US navy...

/sarcasm

More then peace Star Trek promotes indifference. The Prime Directive is a good excuse for sittinh there watching and do nothing.

All they need is some popcorn... good popcorn

 

[DesertHawk]

The problem with Star Trek games lately, is the same problem with many other games based on popular franchises. In many cases they rely on the weight of the franchise to carry the game; hoping that just be cause this game is based on "so and so", players will somehow overlook it's problems. I'll admit that I give into this every now and then, but some games are just too bad to forgive. In Star Trek's case, the last bunch of Bethesda produced ST games have been just a god-awful nightmare that I'm still trying to wake up from.

The biggest example of this issue I would like to point out is ST: Legacy (PC ver.). That game was broken at launch. I still remember being apart of a group of people on the games official bethesda forums sifting through and editing the various config files for the game, trying to correct broken issues within the game and play around with the graphics (to at least have the game resemble some of what was promised). Looking through those files made it seem as if someone slapped an older WIP version of the game on discs and shipped them out. I'll skip the details and leave it at the game just wasn't something that should have been release at that time and the core files included proved it.

 

[dekkarax]

I quite liked Armada actually... too bad the servers were shut down.

 

[MosDes]

What do you all think of the upcoming MMO, Star Trek Online? Do you think that it will fix the problems of previous Star Trek games? Will it provide that medium ground that gamers will love or clash horribly?