Star Trek: Legacy

"Give this game a chance. With such a great game, you will not be disappointed!"

Wow! I am shocked at all the negative reviews that this game has got. I hope to provide a different opinion to this game. To understand this review and the nature of which it was written in, you should realize my background. First of all, I am a HUGE Star Trek fan. I have every series on DVD, I have the trading card game, many books, etc. I also used to be a heavy gamer. I would spend hours upon hours playing video games each day, both console and PC. But now I am a college student that is double majoring, double minoring, in honors, and holding a perfect GPA. Needless to say, I don't have a lot of time to play anymore. However, once I saw this game and I saw it was developed by Bethesda Softworks, I had to pick it up. After beating TES:IV, I was very optimistic about this game. After I got it installed on my computer, I visited the message boards on different sites before I played it, to see if there were any updates or patches for the game. These boards made me have reservations about the game, it seemed like there were very few people with anything positive to say. After playing this game, though, I would like to offer my positive review of this game.

Story- 7/10
The story line for this was typical trek. The difference is, you are the one that control the mission. This means you follow the set story line, but it takes a long time (in relation to a regular 43 min episode) to complete. The story line fits in with the eras that it represents. However, it wasn't spectacular. The main reason this loses many points for me, is not the mission mode, but the extras. After watching the mini-videos, especially the Birth of the Borg, makes me hope that they don't canonize those videos.

Sound- 9/10
The scores from all the series have been put into this game along with a couple of new pieces that trek fans will be able to recognize. The voices of the five captains (Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway) add an additional bonus to the game, but in all honesty, the game could have been made without them and still have the same effect. The sounds that come from the ships (phasers, torpedoes, tractor beams etc. ) are all standard sounds. It would have been nice to hear different sounds from different ships, but it didn't make to much of a difference in the actual gameplay.

Graphics- 10/10
Here is where I will get criticized the most. Yes, the graphics are not top-of-the-line, but ask yourself, do they have to be. For the purpose that they are intended for, these are great graphics. Graphics are intended to be something to draw you into a game, not keep you there, and that is just what they do. Once you get into this game, and actually start playing it, you'll learn the graphics were made so they do not hog your system, yet allow you to have an enjoyable experience.

Gameplay-10/10
This is where the game really shines. It moves away from standard space shooters and applies the realism of the Trekverse. You move using the standard a,s,w,d keys. This does require a learning curve on what the best way to apply tactics, but it can be learned, and it can be used to a great advantage. Each ship has a set amount of phaser and torpedo banks, and they are placed in set spot on the ships. What this means for the player is that there are ‘dead spots' in space; places in space that you weapons cannot be fired at until you change your angle in relation to the enemy. Thanks to this, you need to use strategy. You cannot go in randomly firing at everything that is everywhere. You need to analyze the situation, know what your ‘dead spots' are and where the enemy's ‘dead spots' to plan the best possible method of attacking. The game allows you to allocate your ships energy (i.e transferring additional energy from shields to engine to weapons). The speed and rate at which your ship turns is realistic to ships within the Trekverse, though depending on the ship and class of ship that you pick, may seem a bit slow. The battles between this game and others in this genre differ greatly. In other games, you are (generally) able to take out another ship in a couple shots, or at least in a minute or two. In this game, it takes awhile. In the skirmish mode, a one-on-one battle against a skilled opponent can sometimes take 20 mins to defeat. Now that is a challenge.

Overall- 9/10
This is a very different game that what people are used to and it will take a while to get used to. But that is no reason to give up on it and to slander its name. People are talking about the bugs and glitches for this game, but having logged 30+ hours of game play, I have discovered no such things. I am running the game on maximum setting and have not experienced a system lock up, or repeating music, or glitchy controls. If you give this game a chance and compare it to nothing besides itself and your enjoyment of the game, then you will have a great experience.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/06