Star Trek: Legacy

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on August 21, 2006

First Impressions: Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a video game journalist!

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The famed Star Trek franchise has been in a bit of a rut lately. Nemesis stunk up the theatre, Enterprise struggled for four years before finally being cancelled (which is too bad because the last two seasons were actually pretty good), and the video games have been getting rather tired and repetitive. But despite all of the franchise's troubles, you just can't keep a worldwide cultural phenomenon down for long.

So for all Trekkies Ц ahem, excuse me, Trekkers Ц suffering from phaser withdrawal, you'll be happy to know that Star Trek: Legacy will be beaming to your next gen console later this year to help mark the show's incredible 40th anniversary. This action-heavy real-time strategy space combat game is being developed by Mad Doc Software (creators of Star Trek: Armada II and the Empire Earth series), who are determined to make it as authentic and fan-friendly as possible. As such, they have hired legendary Star Trek writer Dorothy УD.C.Ф Fontana to pen the story and in a unique coup, managed to secure a Уwhole franchiseФ license. This means that instead of sticking solely to, say, The Next Generation, you will be able to pilot ships from all three Star Trek eras spanning all five TV series. Fascinating! And to top it all off, the game will feature all five captains Ц William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew and Scott Bakula Ц recreating their famous roles.

The story will start in Archer's Enterprise prequel era, when Starfleet was making its first steps into deep space exploration and the Federation of Planets was still several years away. You will then move on to Kirk's original series and films, and finally into The Next Generation era, which naturally includes Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Along the way you will be able to participate in memorable battles like the famous duel with Khan Ц make that УKHAAAAAAN!Ф Ц in the Mutara Nebula. The estimated 15 hours of gameplay will be equally split between the three eras.

Best of all, you will be able to control over 60 authentically recreated ships from the Federation, Klingons, Romulans and yes, even the Borg. The ships are highly detailed and look stunning, so much so that even the most nit-picky anal Trekker would be pleased. This is all thanks to renowned Star Trek ship modeler Rick Knox, who was consulted to ensure everything stayed true to canon, right down to the accurate 1:1 scale of each ship. They will even maneuver with realistic physics, just like you would expect a huge starship should handle, a nice departure from the zippy fighter-like physics of some previous iterations.

Since the emphasis will be on action, the hardcore realistic simulation of previous titles will be absent, so you won't have to fiddle with confusing technical details or piddly micromanagement. Instead, you will only have to worry about three aspects of your ship Ц weapons, shields and engines Ц and a simple interface lets you allocate your resources on the fly, allowing you to quickly divert engine power to boost your shields, for example. You can also allocate resources to repair minor damage, but major damage like having an engine nacelle blown off will have to be repaired at a Starbase.

Oh yes, you read that right Ц you (and your enemies) will be able to target specific weak spots on ships, allowing you to disable weapons and engines just like in the show. Even better, the ships will suffer realistic damage modeling starting first with simple scorch marks which then progresses to glowing plasma burns, flames, pieces of the interior spilling out of hull breaches and ultimately, whole sections blown away. When you destroy a ship it will explode in random chunks much like how the Enterprise broke up in Star Trek III.

Despite the focus on action, you will still need to apply strategy and tactics. You can only control one ship at a time but can easily swap ships at will or pull back into a tactical map view and issue orders to your entire fleet. Ships you don't control will take care of themselves, including allocating their own resources as the situation merits.

The era you play in will also have a huge effect in how you approach situations; for example, in the prequel Enterprise days, Archer had embarrassingly weak weapons and no energy shields, and so you will have to rely upon your tactical smarts to defeat more powerful enemies. In Kirk's era, you will be able to dish out (and take) more damage, but since your weapons only fire in fixed directions, you will have to position yourself just right to score a hit. In the TNG era, you are much more powerful with strong shields and weapons that fire in a wide arc, but so to are your enemies.

You will earn Command Points based on your performance, which can be redeemed to buy a brand new ship or upgrade your current ship's engines, hull strength, shields, sensors and of course, weapons. Weapons naturally include phasers and photon torpedoes, but you will also be able to do neat tricks like use your tractor beam to push crippled enemies into the gravitational pull of a sun. Roasted Romulan, anyone? Sooner or later you will have to decide upon continuing to upgrade your old ship or buy a new one with better technology but base-level attributes that may be weaker than your old upgraded ship. But hey, who can resist that new starship smell?

Visually, the game looks fantastic, from the highly detailed ship models to the cool nebula backgrounds, this is one pretty game. Throw in some huge epic space battles and you might feel as if you're actually in a TV episode. Take, for example, the point in the game where the Romulans attack Deep Space Nine, which is being valiantly defended by the Klingons. The timely appearance of Federation reinforcements Ц which include Sovereign, Defiant, Galaxy and Intrepid starships Ц help tip the scales as the Romulans get their pointy ears clipped. But just as victory seems imminent, a humongous Borg cube appears out of nowhere and starts laying waste to everything in sight, forcing the three former adversaries to unite out of desperation and fight this new evil. The chaotic battle looks like it's lifted straight out of the show and with the 1:1 scale, the huge starships look like pitiful insects compared to the massive Borg cube.

If all of this hasn't perked up your rubber Vulcan ears, maybe this will: Legacy will also support multiplayer deathmatches over Xbox Live. Just pick a ship from any of the four races to recreate famous battles or create your own unique match-ups. While there is no definitive word on exactly what other gametypes will be available, we do know that the developers are planning a two-player co-op mode and an objective-based mini-campaign where your team must capture an enemy base.