Fox's Review: Star Trek: Legacy (360)

[Fusion]

Another game that spans all of the eras, employs ship combat, and requires you to use some thinking to win some battles.  The only difference?  Completely different execution this time around.  Star Trek: Legacy is another in a series of 4 Star Trek games developed by or published by Bethesda Softworks.  Star Trek: Encounters, Star Trek: Tactical Assault, and Star Trek: Conquest are the other 3 games.  This one has the liberty of being a noted favorite by William Shatner, who also said that he did horribly, then went on to note that he was trying to be Captain Janeway, instead of Captain Kirk.


Graphics (9/10):

I have to say, the graphics are 10 steps above Star Trek: Encounters in almost every way.  The representative classes of ships are represented very well, and unlike in Encounters, the Galaxy class known as the Enterprise is represented accurately.  The only problem is that the Soverign-class seems to have taken a bit of a hit, but I would assume that the ships were modelled based off of the concept artworks and the like, hence why the Galaxy-class on the cover has a completely blue deflector dish and not blue\red.   But in-game this is fixed.

As for the phasers, aside from still being the fat beams, they don't look bad at all, instead appearing rather well done.  It's not perfectly-series accurate, because the phasers still fire on a whim, but if you want accuracy then try complaining enough until you get absolute accuracy in a game.

Ship-wise, there's a lot more to choose from.  Instead of Starfleet flagships or big guns you're also able to pick out from a variety of other ships, including the refit version of the old Miranda class, as well as that one's original form.  Several other famous starship classes appear as well, ranging even all the way to that ship from the early moments of Star Trek III: The Search for Plot (explanation coming soon) that got destroyed really really quick.  Another nice touch graphic-wise is that ships from the era of the TOS movies have Star Trek II-style phasers.  It makes me happy to see those kinds of phasers after so long.

Going to warp results in your ship's glow factor going to insane levels just before warp.  They also got the warp flashes right, but the unfortunate part is that the Intrepid-class vessels don't tilt their warp nacelles up before they warp.  But I guess that's a forgivable detail... This isn't Voyager we're dealing with directly.  Let's just say these Intrepid-class vessels don't have that feature installed.

People also say the planets' sizes are too small, I simply call them exaggerated to emphasize the space exploration, which is well done.  Nebulas, outposts, it's all there.  The varities of the environments and the varities of the vessels you will encounter are a warm, fuzzy feeling to any Star Trek fan.  The action does lose it's frame rate, but it never drops below a certain frame rate, and even then, the action keeps pace.


Sound (8/10):

The sound may not seem to differ much at first, that is until you listen to it carefully.  Every phaser has a unique sound it emits as does most of the torpedos.  It's your general Star Trek fare for the sound effects.  The rumble of your impulse engines is very audible, going to warp is a startling effect because it begins so suddenly.

But I learned something while doing research about this game: That some of the music featured in Encounters actually originates from this game!  It also sounds beautifully done and unhindered.  As a matter of fact, I don't know why, but it sounds better in Legacy than it ever did in Encounters.

Also included are chatter from your bridge officers and captains.  Most notably, are 5 specific Captains whose voices you hear: (In chronological order of shows) Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, Captain Sisko, Captain Janeway, and Captain Archer.  William Shatner's performance as Kirk made me smile, because unlike in Encounters, I recognized his voice on a whim.  I haven't heard Picard's voice, Sisko's performance is as shining as ever *sarcasm*, haven't heard Janeway's, but I guess Archer... Sounds like Archer.  I never watched that much Enterprise.


(Gameplay 7/10):

When comparing this to the PC version, you might think that "Well, the PC version has to control easier, doesn't it?" You're wrong.  The 360 version actually has far superior (and less buggy) gameplay.  The interface would seem to be complicated at first, but isn't.  With the 360's controller, combat has never felt so fluent, especially space combat.  Instead of doing barrel rolls and all that, you actually fight realistically, as in realistic to the Star Trek universe.  That means your ship may handle like a rock, but they did keep accuracy in check, because the Defiant is easy to maneuver.

The skirmish mode is built like Encounters', with a total of 7 eras to cover this time around.  The Enterprise era, the TOS-movie era, the TNG-Generations era, the First Contact-Nemesis era, the Deep Space 9 era, and the Voyager era.  It's nice to know that they covered all the bases they could, even though the stories are all made up but they're based off of the previous series.  The game's campaign mode even gives you a chance to familiarize yourself with the controls.  But right after that, it's on to the full game.  You've got a fleet of ships, it's your job to play commander and soldier in one go.

Last but not least, there's a skirmish mode!  That isn't a 1-vs-1 or team-match deal.  You can choose a variety of ships from specific eras, set up teams and begin a random fight.  You can have all 4 species doing an all-out melee against each other, or have the Federation and Borg team up to remove some Romulan interference, or you can revisit the old days and send legions of Klingons to destroy a fleet of Federation ships.  You could have them break the truce and attack the federation in a later era.  What if the Borg decided that the Federation did not need to exist before?  You could send Archer and a few federation allies to their deaths and keep Enterprise from having a 5th season.

The online multiplayer flows seamlessly, though a spectator mode is something that is left o be desired.

(Overall 8/10):

It's unusual for me to give a series-based game a high mark, but this game deserves every bit of high rating it can get.  Unlike most Star Trek games, which try to emulate the formula with an off-beat writer, it so happens that the story here is believable, due to the developers actually having a writer that worked on Star Trek itself.  The wide-array of ships that appear and races more than make up for any shortcomings.

Though, I will note that if you get the PC version of this game, you may not agree with me on this entire review, but I will have you know that the PC version is a rather poorly done port of the 360 version.