Andromeda

You play an Admiral in the Terran Republic Starfleet sent to negotiate with an alien civilization that might help end a twenty-year war with the Zuk'ats, a species that has been raiding Terran space since first contact. The mission comes with a deadline: Earth stays safe only if you pull this off in time.

Getting there means dealing with your own ship's crew as much as the aliens you're sent to court, some of whom look and act more human than others. Conversations lean toward romance and flirtation rather than combat, with the war serving as backdrop pressure rather than something you fight directly.

The game also keeps an encyclopedia of people and lore you run into along the way, so backtracking through names and species isn't left entirely to memory.