Star Trek Online is sort of "rise though the ranks", although really you're just a captain the entire time from Ensign to Vice Admiral (or whatever the highest rank is called).

Some great Star Trek games include Bridge Commander, Elite Force, DS9: The Fallen, Resurgence, Armada, 25th Anniversary (DOS), Judgment Rites and A Final Unity.

I'll second STO.

While you technically get to "captain" a ship from early on, you do start as an ensign and go from there.

Also, the missions early on tend to have you in situations where you end up being "assisted" or have the cavalry show up to help out, where later on you end up doing a lot on your own or end up being the cavalry for someone else.

You also get access to different ships as you rank up. Pretty well done, imo and is FTP not only on PC but console as well, so you don't lose anything by trying it out!

Also the Star Trek Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire is fucking fantastic.

star trek elite force

star trek armada

star trek starfleet command

star trek bridge commander

star trek star fleet academy

star trek klingon academy

star trek away team

I wish I could include Infinite in that list, but it's a buggy mess and the game got killed before it could start moving towards DLC.

So instead I'll say Stellaris: New Horizons

Star Trek 25th Anniversary is still the pinnacle of Trek games. Adventure based, a little ship combat, some minor action, and a good story. It still holds up.

I enjoyed Armada, Starfleet Command, and Elite Force too.

For me “Birth of the Federation” is the best game of all time. I absolutely love it and still play it to this day.