Space. The final frontier. These are some of the voyages of every starship named Enterprise. It’s seemingly endless mission: to explore the worlds that were forgotten since the last series, and to encounter the same hostile life forms that we’ve encountered before, and to boldly go where only the crews of every Enterprise has gone before.

Seems Logical

Before this game, I was in a drought of sorts. I love spaceshps. I love space flight. I also love space battles. I was in a drought for all of these things in a video game, and then on the horizon was an oasis and as I got nearer, it was shaped like the Enterprise. No, which one wasn’t too important until later. I’m happy to say that throwing back to the 2006 title, which was released on both PC and Xbox 360, by Bethesda Softworks wasn’t a total loss. It has a sci-fi universe I can depend on, even if I am a Star Wars junkie. It has starships that are sleek looking and pack a wallop. What could go wrong? Every time a mission started I could hear Patrick Stewart in head. It was so, Captain. It was so.

Get this player off the bridge

As much as I think a more in depth Star Trek game is awesome, the idea of being in control of just vessels has always appealed to me. It was a great time to be in control of every Enterprise ship, from Enterprise, The Original Series, Deep Space Nine, and The Next Generation. Thankfully, players are not limited to only controlling the starship Enterprise. The fleet you command can be up to a strength of four ships total. The roster can be filled with fast and nimble scout class ships, slightly larger and more robust cruisers, or the powerful destroyers, or one of my favorites: the phaser and photon filled battleship. While it is certainly possible to fill your fleet with nothing but battleships and turn space red with phaser fire, it may be best to have your fleet capable of being quick when it needs to be.

The concept of carrying ships to other eras was intriguing, though proved to be frustrating when trying not to get your fleet destroyed by newer and more powerful enemies. Enterprise era don’t seem to stand a chance against anything in The Original Series era, and are complete pushovers in The Next Generation era.

Nobody goes back for seconds, let alone thirds

Thankfully, none of the missions in Star Trek: Legacy, have to do with the reference the subtitle makes, all though, many of them are quite challenging. The missions range from the “follow the nav point and do this” style gameplay to the “destroy such and such” mission with a few that are based more on the extra abilities of the starships. Using the ability to hail at a set frequency to set of explosions while your fleet tries to save the alpha quadrant was fun, yet hard if you weren’t managing your ships well. With the introduction of traditional Borg vessels, missions became more of a survival question as you can only buy new ships after each mission, and Starfleet demands a pretty penny for its ships.

I’m giving her all she’s got!

The most frustrating mission for myself was the first mission in which you play as Captain Picard. You must use the USS Stargazer along with any ships you have in your fleet to destroy fragments of a planet that has been destroyed by red matter. It’s a simple enough objective, until you need to split up your fleet. Normally, you can command the entire fleet of four and team up to destroy the fragments and be on your way. But, with fragments shooting all over the place, there is more than one planet to save. If you are playing this in the ship view, you will notice some of the problems with control of the ships. Trying to actually point the ship in the right direction is no big deal, but when you are focused on a target you don’t want to move the right stick at all. This means you’re restricted to your view on the target and must navigate around it with only the left stick and pray you can get a firing solution. Couple this with the sometimes finicky targeting of the photons and phasers, you may have some trouble. Fleet selection plays a big role here too, because if you want to actually get things done quickly, simply transferring all power to the engines wont always cut it. Big ship will equal slow speed, while that nimble scout you passed up would have flown circles around you.

Damn it, Jim, I’m a gamer!

My grade:

Overall, I enjoyed the game, despite my gripes about the first mission as Picard. Fleet management is simplified to four ships which is nice and the abilities for the ships aren’t over the top, but the lack of times to use the abilities is a bit disappointing. Couple a story line that bridges every series of Star Trek that has the USS Enterprise and you have yourself a decent space battle game. I feel that the game could have used a bit more fan service in regards to voice acting. While hearing Archer, Kirk, Picard, and even Janeway was nice, you never hear anything beyond the basics of “Enterprise here,” or “Polarize hull plating,” so be ready for the quiet to be filled with the dramatic music and the sounds of phasers going off. If you can handle all of these things, be prepared to boldly go.

If I have to grade it: 7/10