The Week I loved Legacy! [Skirmish]

[billcosby]

So yeah, we all know that Legacy is pretty weak for a Trek ship/ship combat offering for many reasons discussed years ago but I wanted to share with you all this story:

Last year in the summer I came home from a house party, pretty wasted and I put in the disc out of sheer boredom or perhaps even a mistake... and after playing 15 minutes of the first level only to die and get restarted and realizing I didn't want to "enjoy" that monotonous experience ever again, I selected skirmish mode and tried that a few times.

And boy, I was glad that I did. This easily forgettable mode allowed me to recreate all the battles that I wanted to play. I made a Kobayoshi Maru scenario (complete with freighter I couldn't rescue) re-enacted some badass DS9 fights and nearly all the TNG scenarios.

Then I went terribly hard at TOS scenarios. A lot of D7's vs a lot of Constitution class with some old school Rommies thrown in there.

Although it can be said the payout of the buttons is poor (Xbox) there's something to the battles being only 3-5 minutes long. The story mode is ridiculous for not having checkpoints and IMHO it makes the game unplayable.

I don't have a lot of time to sink into games and so any narrative-heavy games (which seem rampant on consoles) are only worth my time with a checkpoint system.

But for nearly a week I was loving this game and I got pretty good at it, too.

Give it another try on a rainy day and you'll see that the skirmish mode is easily the difference between the disc being a coaster or not.

My only complaint is that a "replay" button at the end of the skirmish mode would have worked wonders. It takes about a minute to set up a dream battle but once set up you can only play it once and then you have to input everything all over again. Starfleet Command had it. The idea is that you'd set up a challenging scenario and play it until you can win.

Anyone else have a short, shallow fling with Legacy?

[Infern0]

I didn't think it was the worst game in the world tbh.

Rented it for a week, got nearly all the achievements off it, it was like 6.5/10

I just don't think Star Trek is suited to ship combat games, they would be better off with a Mass Effect style game imo.

[T J]

Yeah... gotta agree wholeheartedly. Absolute worst semi-modern Trek game ever. So frustrating it could not be enjoyed. Poor execution in every possible way. The very quintessential definition of a bad all around game sold to a market of people who demand perfection, discerning Trek gamers. The fact that they asked for money for it made it all the worse. It was an insult to Trekdom.

That being said, glad you were able to squeeze some enjoyment out of it.

[LeadHead]

Legacy had so much potential given that they had Shatner, Stewart, Brooks, Mulgrew and Bakula doing voice work on it. Sadly, the story was just awful and the missions were poorly constructed. I don't think I ever thought "this is fun" while playing the single player story.

Skirmish mode I enjoyed quite a lot. For a long time I would play skirmish mode on occasion. If I'm remembering the game correctly, I think I just loved the Tiburon system. Beautiful nebulas, plenty of space to love around, cool looking planets. It had it all.

I'd take the Defiant out for a spin quite often, it was great fun.

[Infern0]

What did everyone find so bad about it?

I mean it was average but not terrible?

The only mission I found difficult was the ent era one where you had to protect Daedalus class ships

[CaptainStoner]

I don't think I ever saw how you can place ships and stations, so quick battle was pointlessly dumb, just ships flying at each other, circling and shooting.

There is something to be said for that style gaming though. We got into Tiger Woods lately with the Masters going on. A nice contrast from the intensity of deeper games. I too just don't have time or sustained interest in most games. I did finish far cry 3, first one I've played through in years - largely due to a decent autosave.
I've never finished a GTA game due to the same problem.

[trekkier]

Infern0 wrote:

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What did everyone find so bad about it?

I mean it was average but not terrible?

The only mission I found difficult was the ent era one where you had to protect Daedalus class ships

Dear god that mission. I restarted so many times it was insane. That being said, i had fun, especially that last level where you were rescuing all the fleets and they were helping you wipe out the remaining borg, very fun.

I have played the skirmish levels from time to time and it's been fun. Ive even found probably the only other person who was playing on xbox live for about 30 min.

How do you select the enemys ships from the skirmish menu? Ive been able to select mine, but im unsure how to select the computers...if that makes sense?

[billcosby]

Infern0 wrote:

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What did everyone find so bad about it?

I mean it was average but not terrible?

I think the replay value was low, especially given how long the missions were.

Hence my surprise at loving the Skirmish mode.... in fact The Time Has Come Again. I've been hitting it every night so far this week!

It's a good game, not worthy of the hate filled reviews it got when released. But I have a wishlist a mile long for the Skirmish mode... shoot, even a single "replay" button after a skirmish would be enough. Anyone know of such a mod for the PC version?

[CaptJimboJones]

I thought the Xbox version wasn't bad - not the best game ever but I did enjoy it. And I agree the skirmish mode added a bit of replayability. Reading this thread may even inspire me to dig the disc out and pop it in.

That said, I also made the mistake of initially buying the PC version, which for me was utterly unplayable. Wonky controls, graphics issues, just a real mess.

[billcosby]

trekkier wrote:

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How do you select the enemys ships from the skirmish menu? Ive been able to select mine, but im unsure how to select the computers...if that makes sense?

You can't. Unlike most Trek space shooters you can only select your fleet and the AI selects its fleets depending on the difficulty level - I think.

You can opt to get a couple of big battleships or a bunch of smaller, less powerful ships. The result is a shorter or longer battle.

Infern0 wrote:

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What did everyone find so bad about it?

I mean it was average but not terrible?

Here's our problem - I think most of us played the game with some sort of preset expectations and they were of existing, successful and fun space shooters. When this game came out, the expectations were off the charts. Many of us were still playing Bridge Commander. I'll bet many of us still are. So when the gameplay wasn't an overall improvement of what we enjoyed from Bridge Commander a lot of us found ourselves using the disc as a coaster.

Two comparisons that always come to my mind are Starfleet Command and Bridge Commander, the former being a solid take on the TOS-TMP era and a true tribute to the board game. Bridge Command was the first to nail the 3D aspect of ship/ship combat and they nailed it in the TNG era.

CaptainStoner wrote:

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I don't think I ever saw how you can place ships and stations, so quick battle was pointlessly dumb, just ships flying at each other, circling and shooting.

The truth is, Legacy is unique and successful in giving us something unique: an experience to fight up to 4 ships at a time and assign a "respawn" count. Sure, you can't place ship and stations but you can do other things that you couldn't in games previous.

The respawning of your fleet can give real fun to playing a skirmish because you can squeeze a lot more life out of it, make a fleet of 4 ships and fight the computer with a respawn count of 5 or 6 - you've got a decent 15 minute game with some overall strategy that makes it much more fun... instead of just pinging off each ship you have to consider taking out large battleships by sacrificing others, etc. This layer of depth is new to me. And that's part of what I've been enjoying for the replay.

For anyone replaying it, experiment with upping the time limit and the number of respawns. If you assemble a decent fleet it can be very rewarding.
The controls on consoles are terrible, yes, but if you play it for a few hours you'll find the controls less obnoxious.
Finally... try not to think of previous Trek games! Legacy is kind of a gem that has actually aged pretty well. I can't believe I bought it used for $6. I've certainly squeezed more enjoyment out of it than the price paid.

CaptJimboJones wrote:

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I thought the Xbox version wasn't bad - not the best game ever but I did enjoy it. And I agree the skirmish mode added a bit of replayability. Reading this thread may even inspire me to dig the disc out and pop it in.

That said, I also made the mistake of initially buying the PC version, which for me was utterly unplayable. Wonky controls, graphics issues, just a real mess.

That was a couple of years ago... I wonder if newer computers/graphics cards/processors etc have improved the game at all? Or perhaps a late patch release?
I wonder if any of the people who worked on the game post here... if so, I'd like them to both congratulate them on making such a unique game in the Trek universe and apologize that most of us didn't realize it or appreciate it when it launched.