Star Trek:Legacy

[lars573]

This is looking to be the single best Star Trek game yet. It's out today on PC and Xbox 360. The story is set in 3 eras and features the Federation fighting Romulans (Enterprise era), Klingons (TOS), and the Borg (TNG, which includes Voyager and DS9) in tactical ship battles. The story was written by D.C. Fontanna and Derek Chester. Still not convinced? Well it also features the voice talents of all 5 captains. Need more, well screen shots might help.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Lexbox_13B.jpg
http://stgu.com/startrekscreenshots/albums/legacy/legacy-cube.jpg
http://stgu.com/startrekscreenshots/albums/legacy/legacy-warbird.jpg
http://stgu.com/startrekscreenshots/albums/legacy/lxb9.jpg

Also it was produced by Mad doc software and Bethesda softworks. It lets you pick starships (if it's been on screen in a TV episode or movie it's in the game) captains and equipment. The ships also feature real time damage models.

If that's not enough here are 2 youtube movies of game play. The second features a story mission featuring the Defiant with Sisko at the helm and the Enterprise D with Picard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI6M1Ho0-80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlUg5LQBstk

[Mikeus Caesar]

Looks very fun (i'm a massive Star Trek fan) so this should be good.

A Trek game i'm definitely looking forward to though is Star Trek Online. It's an MMORPG, set in the Trek universe. It's still in development, but is coming along slowly. Should be pretty cool.

[econ21]

Lars - you and your sexy screenshots. You are always persuading me to buy games I won't like. Must resist... must resist... What's that?? Resistance is futile... :laugh4:

[lars573]

Well as it's for the 360 I can rent it. So I'll do that and see if it's worth the money. Also if it hnadles like a dog with a controller I'll get the PC version.

[Zenicetus]

I hope this is good, but I want to read a bunch of reviews before buying it. I'm a big fan of tactical space combat games, especially the rare category of capital ship combat. But I've been disappointed by most of them... probably because I'm too much of a science geek. About the only game I was really happy with was Independence War 1 and 2, with its great physics model.

I watched the first video, and what I saw was a (visually very nice) recreation of the way combat is represented in the TV show and movies... big ships lumbering around slowly at very close range, blasting away. It had to be like that on TV, to keep both ships in the frame and maintain the audience's interest. But that kind of close-range wallowing around isn't very tactically interesting. And I'm not enough of a Trekkie to buy it just for the name value, or to hear the original actors' voiceovers. I hope it's good, I'm just naturally skeptical. Someone here buy this, and write a review!

P.S. is it actually out yet on the PC? I didn't see any buzz about that on Gamespot or Gamespy's PC section. Gamespy lists it as "due" on Dec. 5, but that could just be an estimated release date that they didn't meet.

[Bob the Insane]

argh... PC or 360... got them both hooked up to my HDTV!!

Will the extra power of the PC help it, or are the controls really designed for the 360???

[Nikpalj]

As far as I'm concerned - nothing beats the old Birth of the Federation game coupled with the Ultimate Dominion Mod 2! There are some great mods around for SFC3 and ST:BC also...

I absolutely don't care about the graphics of the game (specially in these new games) - just about the contens and depth...

Umm, this might be a little OT, but - has anyone here played Starshatter? It's a tactical starship combat game with a dynamic campaign engine, I'd like to know what are the opinions if any of you guys have played it?

[Grey_Fox]

I checked out their forums, a lot of people are complaining, while a good few are giving it a lot of praise. No real balanced people there it seems.

[Bob the Insane]

Right well got it on the PC (more money than sense)...

Interestingly my PC is pluged into the same HDTV as my 360 so it allows some comparison.

Anyway this plays like a somewhat simpler version of Bridge Commander. You basically fly the ship from an external view. Energy management, targeting, scanning and such are simplistic. WHile the SP has a (good so far) story, the game is really all abbout fighting and space battles starring the Star Trek ships. One nice thing is the sheer quantity of ships you see sometimes.

The ships look great and the space background is all very colourful and nice. The Graphics are good but the Textures are not all they could be. This very notice able when space stations are destroyed and they break up into pretty large old school style chunks with a dodgy looking texture on the interior bits.

Control mechanisim is WASD for manual steering and the mouse for rotating and viewing. The cursor is context sensitive and allow for different options for different items. LMB fires phasers, RMB torpedos. F is to select things, E for energy distribution and R for repair (though it beats me why the crew will not automatically start repairing stuff)... Targeting enemy ships is a little awkard with tapping the space bar or hold it and selecting a target and the view automatically looks to the target (though moving the mouse in anyway breaks this camera lock - the target remains locked for you weapons).

Voices are great and it you are a bit of a Trekie then you will love the voices of the 5 Captains narrating the story (which seems well writen so far and appear to be all about the Borg)...

While playable on the PC (plus my 8800GTX is forcable enhancing the AA and AF) the control mechanisim and lack of extreme detail and textures means I do not think I am getting much more than I would expect to see on the 360.

It really is 360 inspired, I mean the control tips on the PC version still refer to clicking the LS to target sub-components (I have not yet managed to work out how to do this the PC yet!!)...

My opinion is that it looks fun and very Trekie, but it you are a big fan of Space Combat sims being all complicated then you might not like this. I will play this on the PC but if you have a 360 at the moment I would have to recommend getting it for that...

[Zenicetus]

Thanks for the review, Bob_the_Insane. I'll probably pass on it, unless I get really desperate for a space game in the near future. It sounds like it's on the wrong side of the arcade vs. simulation scale for me.

[Navaros]

Does this game have a Dominion presence in it at all or no?

This would affect my purchasing decision so I'd appreciate if someone who owns the game could tell me.

Thanks! :2thumbsup:

[CBR]

No Dominions in the game. All 3 eras have 4 factions: Feds, Romulans, Klingons and Borg (what Borg are doing in the first two eras I dont know)

I find the game to be absolutely horribly and I hate myself for not checking forums for more detailed user opinions before I bought this ******* **** game. :wall:


CBR

[Navaros]

CBR, could you be more specific about what all the things you don't like about the game are? I'm sure we'd all like to hear them. :yes:

That's pretty lame & dumb in my view that there is no Dominion in the game. DS9 was not about the Borg at all. The Borg only appear in the very first episode of DS9 and even then, it's only for a few minutes and those few minutes are merely a flashback to the TNG era when Picard was taken over. Never to appear again in DS9.

Can you control the DS9 station specifically as a unit in the game or did they leave that out too?

[CBR]

DS9 is part of the next generation era so its ok that Borg are in there. The other two eras are Enterprise and the original series. You can only control ships AFAIK.

I dont like the game as its really an Xbox game ported over to PC. It is a simplistic space sim and I guess the focus is more controlling a small group of ships than just one ship.

Now I might be some hardcore Star Trek fan so other people might find some fun in the game. But I find Im enjoying games like Bridge Commander or Klingon Academy a lot more as they feel more like Star Trek and have more details on handling a ship.

For people who just wants a bit of Star Trek themed arcade fun then I guess they will be happy with the game. For the hardcore gamer, who wants more tactics and detail, I dont think this is a game they will find interesting at all.

Thats my short and harsh review of the game :beam:


CBR

[Kekvit Irae]

I finally got around to playing Star Trek Legacy.

This thing is slow, even on 800x600. There's absolutely no way (that I know of) to turn off AA, which brings the game to a crawl on my computer. Graphically, the ships arent bad at all. The real problem is when I want to reassign my power from balanced to All Shields, Half Shields-Half Phasers, Half Shields-Half Engine, and others. It sometimes just wont let you do that because the mouse frequently "sticks" on this option.

Which brings me to my next problem... they turn like a rock. Now, I wasnt expecting them to TURN ON A DIME MACROSS ZERO STYLE, but jeez, it seems as if everyone else can corner and turn better than me. It doesnt help things that I'm fighting Romulan Birds of Prey with no shields, and they are running circles around me. It annoys me when they get underneath the Enterprise where my phasers and photons dont work.

Playing it on the XBOX 360 is pretty much a requirement for fun, because the controls were meant for a controller, not WASD/Mouse... which sucks because I have no intention of buying an XBOX. To repair, you have to hold down the R button and select what you want to repair, all while still trying to avoid obstacles. Same thing for most commands such as Transport an away team, hailing, scanning... all of which are on the F key. As far as I know, there's no auto-follow target button. Sure, there's a camera lock button... which unlocks at even the SLIGHTEST movement of the mouse.

Skirmishes arent so bad, so long as you set which Era you want to be in. If you set "All Eras", and want to play with the Constellation class Enterprise (TOS), you could be going up against a Borg cube or a Galaxy class Enterprise (TNG) or worse, an Excelsior class battleshield (Voyager). It's also unbalancing in your favor if you take the Excelsior class battleshield in All Eras because the AI will be playing random era ships. The hardest hitting Federation ships from the Voyager era against ships with no shields in the Enterprise era... yeah, that's real fair. So long as you set which era you want and the amount of command points to spend on ships, you can have an enjoyable experience in a mass-melee with three other computer-controlled players (which arent all that stupid, surprisingly enough).

[Martok]

The PC version of Legacy is getting hammered (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/startreklegacy/review.html?q=Star%20Trek%20Legacy) in reviews (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/startreklegacy/review.html?mode=web) thus far--even IGN only rated it a 5.9.

I've also browsed through a couple different Trek gaming forums, and the vast majority who've played the PC version have largely unkind things to say about the game. They pretty much all echo Kek's comments about the clunky controls, and many also complain that some of the missions are unbalanced and/or poorly designed.

Unfortunate, seeings as I have no inention of getting a 360 either. :no:

[Mailman653]

Granted it has its flaws, but modders are comming up with some success with the PC version, I think if the devs release some tools with the game, the PC version will explode into a full modding adventure. So people have already been able to add the Vulcans as a playable race in Skirmish mode so far.

[BDC]

There's absolutely no way (that I know of) to turn off AA, which brings the game to a crawl on my computer

Go to the Windows graphics control panel. You can usually force AA off there. Right click on desktop, go to settings tab, advanced. Somewhere in there...

[Kekvit Irae]

I uninstalled it from my computer. While the plot and voice acting (Shatner is showing his age, but Stewart is pure luv) left me on the edge of my seat, but I couldnt stomach having to redo mission after mission due to bugs or unbeatable enemies. Three missions into the game and I modded it so I couldnt get killed just so I could listen to the plot. By the second Picard mission, I had enough.

It's an ok game if you get it on the 360, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

[lars573]

It is good on the 360. I just got it. The controls are really made for a controller. Tried a few skirmishes. Got owned by 1 borg cube as the TNG federation. Got owned again as the TOS Klingons vs. TOS Federation. Tried being a borg cube and won. Was TOS Federation vs. Klingons and won too.

[Kekvit Irae]

The secret is to use sub-targeting. Take out their shields and they will be unable to recharge/fix their shields. Take out their weapons and they are as harmless as a newborn kitten.

[Major Robert Dump]

I unlocked Yoda and beat the game.