- Original Release: 2006
- Developer: Mad Doc Software
- Publisher: Bethesda
- Platform: PC, Xbox 360
Star Trek Legacy is a space combat game that covers all the main eras of Star Trek (at point of release), with a plot that weaves its way through Archer, Kirk, Picard, Janeway and Sisko – all with their original actors voicing – involving a mysterious Vulcan (although strangely, a lot of the backstory is in “extras” and not revealed though the game).
The combat is simple but fun, you fly around, locking on targets and firing phasers from all angles. The movement and camera works well. You can balance power between systems and there’s a radial menu for more options when you hold on a target. You control a team of up to four ships, switching between them or controlling them together.
There’s a tactical menu with a top-down view of the level, where you can also issue commands form, such as moving to a location or attacking an enemy. It has a lot going for it, but has one major flaw: your team’s AI is flat out broken.
Your ships don’t move as a unit. Tell them to warp to a location and they’ll head off at different times, sometimes one of the ships will just give up and head over on impulse. When controlling individual units – which is quite often as a lot of levels require you to spread out – the ships you aren’t directly controlling will either just stop or start doing their own thing, even if you’ve ordered them to a location.
There’s one mission where you have to disable an enemy ship and tractor it to a base. For this, it makes sense to have the ship towing it to head straight for the base, then control the others to protect it. But whenever you control on of the other ships (or even go to the tactical map), the ship doing the tow turns around to go back towards the enemies. It makes the game incredibly frustrating – your team’s AI is more of a threat than the enemies. There are instances where you need to take over starbases by beaming over an away team – but sometimes your team continues to blow up the station. One time I tried setting one a different target, but they went back to killing their friends.
Legacy had the potential to be a fun – although short -game, but this one issue completely destroys the experience.
Where to get Star Trek: Legacy
How to play Star Trek: Legacy on Windows 11
Install from the above link then install this patch.
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I don’t remember much about it I think I enjoyed it but found it very quick game but honestly it wasn’t memorable at all
Good game but so much better with mods.
The thing I remember most about this game is Shatner’s lifeless performance.
There’s another game (that I’ll be covering soon) where his performance is even worse.
😬
In fairness, he was already a senior citizen when he recorded the lines for the game. Age comes for all of us, I’m afraid.
I so wish Microsoft would make this excellent game backwards compatible on Xbox.
Respectfully, William Shatner won an Emmy the year before Star Trek: Legacy came out, and was nominated the following four years. The guy coulda brought it if he’d wanted to.
And a pretty well knit plot too 🙂
I love how they connected so many dots in plausible ways. 🙂
I own this game. Found it very difficult and stopped playing after a couple missions. Been sitting on my shelf for 17 years. Not backwards compatible with the Series X so not sure if I’ll ever get to finish it
I’m pretty sure you do get control of the Defiant and Voyager in the campaign.
Love it. Played the hell out of it!
I remember a forum did an interview with DC Fontana about her original story for the game. It was like what we got in the final game but so much bigger. If they had used it all, we would have ended up with Metal Gear Solid length cutscenes. I wish she’d made it a novel.
Still have a copy for PC and the 360
One of my favourite games on Xbox was begging for a sequel or a revamp. Arguably one of the most underrated trek games out there.
Can I just say, that NX-01 model holds up surprisingly well for a game from 2006
The best thing about this game was the mods! And I hope they do a similar new game soon
I adore this game and wish it would get a remaster
Another Star Trek game saved by modding aswell! It’s a pattern for ST games by this point.
I think I said this before, but this game started development under Activision while Enterprise was still on TV. After Activision dropped the license (and at the same time criticised CBS) this game went into limbo until pre-Oblivion Bethesda picked up the license and games.
It was a really good game. Kind of wish it was re-released on modern systems or a remaster
Still having my copy on X360, sad the game is not backward compatible, actually. I liked the campaign/story and the survival mode is fun, but yeah it got flows. The fact that you can’t replay and select a mission (without mod), you have one save for all the campaign is dumb.
I think it’s the only game where Avery Brooks came back as Sisko
I think the game was made on Armada 2 engine because you could recognize some assets
The achievements were ref to the franchise and Ronald D. Moore was on the official forum discussing with fans back then.Great time
I still turn this one in from time to time. With the Ultimate Universe mods, of course!
Pretty fun, it’s a little silly that you can’t choose the enemy ships and it can only be controlled via credit cap. But a well balanced match can get pretty intense.
Had potential but had its issues. Best way to play it is with the Ultimate Universe mod
As a fan of Star Trek Encounters, this looks like a lot of fun – especially the ability to take the NX into combat!
Played this a ton on the Xbox 360 as a kid. Loved having a starship battle game on console finally! I only recently got the PC version of this game, as well as its mods. Oh boy, those are fun! I fun start to the Bethesda line of Trek games.
i swear, the first missions in NX era are really hard, not having shields shows how important that tech is in star trek.
I played the heck out of this on the Xbox, gutted it’s not backwards compatible, still have the disc… Also the save the planet mission sucked so hard
Legacy would have been a much better experience utilizing Starfleet Command’s code
That game engine combined with Legacy’s graphics would have been amazing
need a remaster of this😩
This game was the reason I got a Xbox 360. It was at the time the best Star Trek game for me, until 2016 when Star Trek Online came to PS4
It was SO GOOD
I still remember the time I play this, I was down to a Yorktown class and took on a fleet of Klingon warships even when I ran out of torpedoes.
Wrote a story about it as well.
I would kill for a remaster or a remake of that game.
Yessss
And I’d love to see at least the Coto-class make the leap to STO, both in honor of, and because it’s the only one from the game to have crossed-over into the novels.
I remember tearing my hair out trying to get all the achievements for this on my 360.. The AI was so bad. The rest of the game was great and I enjoyed it a lot
Nothing more frustrating than half your fleet dropping out of warp halfway to a waypoint.