Star Trek Legacy was a game that I was very much looking forward to playing.
Being one of those Star Trek fans that people like to back away slowly from when
we start talking trekkie, I was anxious to get right into this game and take
command of my starship, or fleet of starships and live the star trek world on
the PC. The promotional graphics and shots looked superb, a game that I could
really get into and really enjoy. To make it even more enticing, they had the
voices of all 5 ships captains and a myriad of ships that we have come to know
so well from the television series.
So I bought the game, pretending not to notice the bad reviews it was
getting. Maybe the guys reviewing the game just weren't star trek people. Well -
the reviewers were being kind! The game just is not up to what I expected from a
game around the $80 Australian mark, and from what I have read many others feel
the same way.
Above all the biggest and most disappointing aspect of the game was the game
play and game controls. There were an excessively large number of controls to
learn, which given time may have been ok, but the real clincher for me was the
number of BUGS in the game that just made the game unplayable.
The bugs ranged from controls that just stop responding, to your starship
stalling on a vertical climb (after the navigation controls stopped responding)
at which point the AI controlling your fleet has decided to take off to some
point god knows where on the opposite side of the map, leaving you to be
obliterated by your enemy.
And this was not a one off occurrence. This happened pretty much every time.
Another disappointing aspect was there was no tutorials, no specific missions to
help you to learn about how to handle and control your ships and fleet. You were
thrown straight in with these annoying dialog boxes that kept popping up in the
middle of a battle, freezing game play, letting you know things you can do.
Having the game stop while you have to read instructions really does throw you
off your game. You had the option of turning this dialog box off, but then ,
there was no way to actually learn how to navigate and control your ships.
From what I have read, whilst trying to find a way to play this game without
the frustration, the main problem with the game play was that this game was
originally for the Xbox 360, and was ported to the PC. Apparently, this game on
the Xbox 360 is great, but not owning an Xbox, and not about to own an Xbox,
this doesn't really help me much.
Graphically, the game was nice to view, however, it had been touted that the
graphics were far superior to previous star trek games. Damage inflicted onto
the ships was supposed to be in much greater detail and not just a 3D model that
break up into a few bits when things explode. That was not the case though, with
the level of complexity not that much higher than existing star trek games from
about 5 years earlier, eg Star Fleet Command III (Great Game!!).
To give it a fair chance, I had a good go at this game over a period of a few
weeks, just in case I found that I was doing something wrong, or that the game
would become more enjoyable as I got used to the controls, and it did, slightly.
Unfortunately those damned bugs kept interfering and ultimately caused me to
lose the game. I searched and found some patches on the Bethesda web site and
applied them which did eliminate some of the bugs, but there were still many
problems that did not go away.
Finally the game was uninstalled and is heading back to Electronics Boutique
where its going to be traded in on a new game. This way, maybe, I can get some
enjoyment knowing that this assembly of bugs has contributed toward the purchase
of another game which is actually playable.
If I was to give this game a score, and being that I am a Star Trek fan this
is rather scathing, 2 out of 10. Leave this one on the shelf.