Star Trek: Legacy Review (gamezone)

- gamezone -

I love Star Trek! I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a Trekkie, but I’m not as avid as some, as I don’t care for many of the newer spin-offs of the original series. However, I dearly loved the original series and The Next Generation. Anyway, I was intrigued by Star Trek Legacy and thought I’d give it a whirl. Well, a whirl was actually all I accomplished, as a lethal combination of horrible controls and bad tutorials sucked me into a vortex I couldn’t escape.

The beginning of the game was way cool, with exciting presentations of the Star Trek ships. By the time the actual game started, I was ready to play! Alas, the very first mission soon had me so confused I had to begin the mission again. And again ... and again. I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of what I was supposed to be doing. Between hitting this key to travel, another key to see the map, another key to fire at a ship, and umpteen other things to do to zoom in closer, lock in on a target, etc., well, I wasn’t getting anywhere.

The main problem is the truly awful control system. There are too many things to remember to have to do during battle and the whole control system is confusing. Also, the tutorials throw the information at the player too fast to absorb before moving on to the next control. Often it appeared that the tutorials were giving inaccurate information, too, as sometimes I was directed to hit the spacebar for certain actions, and nothing would happen. It also takes forever to blow up an enemy ship, so players are stuck in these missions where they’re repeatedly hitting the phasers over and over again, which becomes extremely boring. Couple this with the fact that games can’t be saved while inside a mission, and you have a sure recipe for frustration.

Targeting a ship is difficult. Trying to lock on target is haphazard and the entire mechanics of finding the ship that is firing at you, then getting close enough to hit, then attempt to lock and aim on the target is awkward. The camera controls use the mouse or the arrow keys, but either way will require both hands, as the WASD keys, plus many others, are used for various actions. Players will have to move the viewpoint of the ship while repeatedly being fired on, then use a multiple key combination to actually begin firing successfully at the enemy ship, which has been beating away at you the whole time you’ve spent getting ready to fire back. If there’s some strategy involved besides just blasting away, it was lost in the translation of the tutorials.

It’s a shame that the interface of the game is so difficult to learn, as the game itself looks like it could have been a great deal of fun, although I personally would prefer less warfare and more ship management and planet development. The variety of ships from all the different Star Trek series is phenomenal, and they look fantastic. The voice acting is superb and features Patrick Stewart, William Shatner and several other captains of the various Star Trek shows. The music is wonderful and sets the mood perfectly. Flying the ships to the different planets is fun, too, until the actual fighting begins, that is.

It’s strange that such great care was taken in the design of the look and sound of the game, without matching the same quality in the control system. The user requirements are the interface. If the user can’t play, there’s no point. Fans of Star Trek may want to take a look at the Xbox version, instead.

Review Scoring Details for Star Trek: Legacy

Gameplay: 5.0
What could have been! Unfortunately, the interface is the game, and this interface is almost unplayable.

Graphics: 8.0
This game looks incredible and evokes the world of Star Trek perfectly.

Sound: 8.0
Ditto for the music and voice acting.

Difficulty: Hard
Due to the control system and learning curve, this game is almost impossible. Casual players need to steer clear.

Concept: 7.0
What began well ended badly.

Multiplayer: N/A
There is a multiplayer option for online play. However, as I was having such a difficult time playing by myself, I didn't even attempt to take my pitiful understanding of the fighting system to the online community.

Overall: 6.0
A badly designed and frustrating interface hampers this game. Star Trek fans will enjoy the look of the game, the variety of ships and the familiar voices, but actually playing the game won’t be much fun.

GameZone Reviews

6.0

GZ Rating

Gameplay	5
Graphics	8
Sound	8
Difficulty	Hard
Concept	7
Overall	6.0

Fire, fire, fire, get hit, hit, hit, but nobody dies for a long, long, long time