Star Trek: Legacy Updated Q&A - Details on the Campaign, Command Points, and Gameplay
Associate producer Gary Conti fills us in on some of the gameplay to be found in this upcoming starship combat game.
Watch the trailer for Star Trek: Legacy and see starships in combat.
This year not only marks the Star Trek franchise's 40th anniversary, but it will also see the return of Trek gaming after an absence of several years. Star Trek: Legacy is the upcoming starship combat game from Bethesda and Mad Doc Software, and it will appropriately tie together all the various Star Trek television series. In Legacy, you'll not only command a Federation starship in battle, but you'll also lead a small task force in action. Legacy's story begins in the Archer era with the NX-01 seen in Enterprise. It then moves on to Kirk's era with the classic Enterprise, before ending in the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager eras. The game is being developed for both the PC and the Xbox 360, and we caught up with Mad Doc associate producer Gary Conti, who gave us some more details.
GameSpot: Aside from the quick glimpse we saw at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, it's been a few months since we've gotten an update on Legacy. The game's in full development, but can you give us an update as to where it is in the process?
Gary Conti: I'm glad you ask that, because we've been making a ton of progress on the game lately. Right now, we're closing in on alpha--meaning the game is almost feature-complete. Things are really coming together nicely, even more so than what everyone saw as recently as E3.
GS: How will the single-player campaign play out? Will you just play through a linear series of missions, or will you have some control over your destiny? Or is there an open-ended campaign that allows you to go around the galaxy on your own?
GC: The single-player campaign in Legacy follows a linear progression. We love the idea of building a very strong story for Legacy, and linear mission progression has allowed us to do what we've wanted in that regard.
GS: Tell us more about the command point system. We learned at E3 that you earn command points that you can then spend on upgrades and new ships. Can you go a bit further into detail on this?
GC: Command points are your "resource" in this game. You earn them by completing objectives, winning engagements, and progressing through the storyline. So, say that during one mission, you capture an enemy star base, embarrass a few Klingon scouts by unceremoniously loosing a volley of quantum torpedoes on their backsides, then rip through a minefield and destroy a fleet of battleships, leaving a wake of destruction and charred corpses in your wake. Through these actions you've most likely earned enough points to upgrade the hull rating and weapons systems on two of your big battleships. You've also earned enough to scrap your old Ambassador-class starship and commission one of those shiny new Nebula-class ships.
GS: What sort of upgrades are there in the game? Can you make your ships faster, more powerful, more maneuverable? Can you boost their shield output? How do you keep things in balance? And how hard will it be to say goodbye to your upgraded vessels when the game transitions to another era?
GC: Between missions you'll be deciding on upgrading your hull strength, shields, sensors, engines, and weapons. Each ship will have a starting stat in each of these areas, and a maximum you can upgrade. For example, let us say you've purchased a fresh-off-the-line Constitution-class heavy cruiser. You choose to upgrade the weapons and shield systems. By upgrading the weapons, your phasers increase in range, recharge faster, and do more damage. By upgrading your shields, they can absorb more damage before dropping and will recharge faster after battle. Also, you can purchase specific weapons upgrades and install special weapons on your ships.
It may be painful to upgrade when the better ships become available, especially considering that a maxed-out Constitution class may be more powerful than a stock Galaxy-class ship (maybe not, but lets say it is for the sake of argument). The real draw for moving on to newer ships is their stats will max much higher than older ships.
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- GameSpot Score5.8mediocre
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Star Trek: Legacy Review
This starship combat game simply can't overcome bad controls, frustrating mission designs, and a mess of bugs.
- Dec 13, 2006
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- Bethesda Softworks
- Mad Doc Software
- Space Combat Sim
- Release: Dec 5, 2006 »
- ESRB: Everyone 10+
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