Star Trek: Legacy

Star Trek Legacy for the Xbox 360 captures the grandeur and feel of the epic starship battles in the famous television series.

This game excels at staging space battles on an epic scale. [Jan. 2007, p.70]

Although there are shortcomings, Legacy is an opportunity for Star Trek fans to experience ship battles from any of the Trek time periods. If you can look past the fact that you'll spend all of your time looking at the hulls of the ships, the battles can be fun.

Soured by some nagging flaws, Legacy isn't a title that will appeal to everyone. However, its willingness to try something new deserves some healthy praise. [Jan 2007, p.92]

A surprisingly rewarding and tactical combat sim that's not just for Trek fans, with an enjoyable enough story. [Feb 2007, p.68]

Legacy is fun despite these nagging issues if only by virtue of giving you the ability to control a task force of slick-looking futuristic starships all over the galaxy. And with an interesting story that spans the entirety of the Star Trek timeline and a fairly robust multiplayer, there's plenty of incentive to play.

Despite some noticeable flaws, the Xbox 360 version of Legacy manages to capture the epic feel of Star Trek combat like no other game to date.

A few flaws prevent this game from becoming a sure-fire hit, but fans of the series will eat this game up.

The voice acting, graphics, use of IP (Intellectual Property), and special effects are all very nice...its too bad other things in the game distract me from truly enjoying this title.

Pleasant to look at, but has very limited tactical depth. What is worse there is not really much else to do other than fire the phasers. Only a die-hard trekkie could enjoy this – and, sadly, probably will. [Feb 2007]

Non-fans of the series will probably not enjoy this game. This game will most certainly appeal to some hardcore trek fans. It has moments that are great, but a wonderful soundtrack cannot overcome mediocre graphics and maddening game play.

There are plenty of interesting achievements to unlock if you stick with it but the overall appeal of the game starts to wear thin after you're forced to replay a forty-minute mission just because your objectives weren't very clear.

The multiplayer aspect may be a bit lame, to boot, but the single player campaign is amazing, with a story that will keep you biting your nails in anticipation of what's to come next.

The control scheme works surprisingly well, with a fully rotatable camera and a map that allows you to view the entire battlefield and quickly warp to a specific location.

Star Trek: Legacy is a fun game and a very good effort for a Star Trek space title, but controls that you will inevitably be fumbling with make things hard to get into.

All in all this is the best Star Trek game released so far, but that's not saying a lot. Still, Legacy is a decent effort and hovers somewhere between "good" and "average."

Ultimately, Star Trek: Legacy is remindful of the story of the Enterprise herself — a pristine, well-manned, well-intentioned vessel that sets out to break new ground for gaming but ultimately encounters strange nebulae and forces that disable her systems from time to time.

You don't have to have watched every episode of each series in order to get enjoyment out of Star Trek: Legacy. If you're looking for a more action oriented game, this isn't it.

As a huge fan of Star Trek I absolutely loved this game, I recommend it to all the fans of the show. Unfortunately I don’t think anyone else will suffer through the endless space combat, and the storyline with characters that they have never heard of.

Spotty AI results in way too much micromanagement, which is a true shame for any game, but especially for a strategic one bearing the Star Trek license.

With improvements to the A.I. and presentation, Bethesda could be onto something with this simplified "squad-based" style to starship combat.

A simple way to describe complicated combat provides mild enjoyment, but that's contrasted by long engagements and a sense that you're flying detailed toys bought from a comic shop. [Issue 15, p.86]

While it's nice to hear the voices of the various captains (especially Shatner and Stewart), it never feels like a Trek adventure. As an action game, it suffers from poor controls and awful fleet (read: wingman) commands that gum up the works.

And so while it is certainly exciting getting to control a fleet of ships in the Star Trek universe, not seeing any of the characters we know and love and not being able to rip through ships like the way the future Enterprise-D did in episode 277 of Star Trek: The Next Generation makes this game tough to recommend as a purchase, even to Trekkers.

If Mad Doc can fix the multiplayer somehow, there’s every reason to believe trekkers and even fussier trekkies could find something to desire here.

Just like the empty vacuum that is outer space, Star Trek: Legacy pretty much just sucks. Set your phasers to “pass” on this one.

In terms of variety there are deathmatch games, and a cooperative mode in which all players have to tough out waves of never-ending foes for as long as humanly possible… and then, that’s about that. The lack of any split-screen options is also a lamentable oversight.

In Mad Doc’s defense, space flyers are hella-hard to pull of right, and sadly, I can’t say this one was pulled off right enough for me to recommend it to those that aren’t Trekkites.

Once past the impressive introduction, it's a downward spiral into a mediocre experience.

The controls of your spaceships just aren’t good enough. You rotate your ship in 3D. You rotate the camera in 3D. You fight in 3D – it’s all just too much 3D.

There was great potential with Star Trek: Legacy, and the foundation has been laid for a truly stellar game. But the end result feels rushed and that potential still remains untapped.

The game has some fun moments, but as a longtime 'Trek' fan, this isn't the breathtaking legacy I was hoping for.

When a dozen Romulan ships attack, you would expect the medical ships to pause long enough for the warships to clear the way. Instead, they charge ahead to their doom. Multiplayer does not work unless a patch is downloaded and applied. "Star Trek" is a great franchise, but this is a flawed game.

A lacklustre story, the complete focus on dull space combat and a lack of checkpoints makes Legacy a game that simply didn't live up to its potential.

While this game was postponed many times, it still feels like it’s not finished yet and rushed to the market ASAP. The campaign is too short and should have included all 5 eras completely (and not just 2-4 missions from Deep Space Nine and Voyager).

Trekkies praying for a half decent Star Trek game can look away now, as Bethesda releases a seriously dull simulation, filled with uneventful encounters and dire visuals.

Legacy features tedious controls and frustrating missions. The multiplayer and skirmish modes do little to make these space battles better.

The game is let down by a severe lack of atmosphere, repetitive missions and ships that are too weighty to control. [Issue 20, p.60]

Unless you already have an emotional attachment to the Star Trek universe, and feel a cheeky little frisson down there at the prospect of pretending to be Kirk, there's no reason at all to put up with the unresponsive controls, shallow gameplay and absolutely infuriating inability to save during an hour-long mission.