10 Star Trek Games Paramount Should Develop

Few franchises capture the imagination quite like Star Trek. Watching hours upon hours of adventures aboard the Enterprise and beyond has only sharpened our appetite for more. And we got it. Films, comics, novels, audiobooks, fan fiction, fan films...and, of course, video games. And there's something about the immersive nature of gaming that allows fans to feel like they're truly part of the universe they love so much.

There are already some great Star Trek gaming options out there. Star Trek Online is still going strong for all your MMORPG needs. Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown tests whether you have what it takes to make it home from the Delta Quadrant. And it's fair to say the announcement of Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, from the studio behind the acclaimed Silent Hill 2 remake, caused more than a few ripples in the fan community.

But after six decades of rich storytelling, epic world-building and endless possibilities, Star Trek's gaming potential feels somewhat underpowered of late.

We've had smaller releases, like the charming Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova and Star Trek: Resurgence, but they're already disappearing from platforms. Then there are the mobile games that come and go, which are fun to spend some time on, but aren't enough to sink your teeth into.

We're still waiting for a powerhouse developer to get its hands on the licence and go for broke. Where's the breathtaking role-playing game, the cosy co-op adventure or the blockbuster that has gamers booking a week off work before it's even launched?

Star Trek can carry almost any genre. It has interstellar wars, political intrigue, horror, comedy, and adventure. It's everything a gamer could ever dream of. The blueprints are waiting. Someone just needs to build the games.

And with that in mind, we have a few Star Trek video game suggestions of our own...

Star Trek has always had a penchant for telling stories about shuttle crashes, stranded away teams and sole survivors. So why not turn that into a stress-inducing first-person survival game?

Imagine waking up beside a crashed shuttle on a strange new world, surrounded by constant danger. Your only crewmate is injured, and the shuttle is a total write-off. There's no working replicator, no computer, no comms. All you have is a single phaser and a battered tricorder, both with limited power.

With a full day and night cycle to navigate, the only way to stay alive is to forage for food and water, fend off hostile wildlife, search for useful resources, craft essential items, repair the shuttle and check on your injured crewmate to treat their wounds. And if each new playthrough spawned different environments, resources, obstacles, challenges and threats, it could make for one compelling Star Trek survival game.

If you can survive for 30 days and repair the shuttle enough to send a distress signal, you win the game and get beamed back to a life of comfy beds, instant food and sonic showers. But let's face it, more often than not, we're going to end up as plant food, get lost in a cave or run out of tricorder power, so we don't know that the bright red mushroom is definitely poisoned. And if you do win, there's sure to be an awesome reward...like unlocking nightmare mode.