Bethesda Softworks Star Trek Legacy

Trekkies are a rigid bunch. They know so much about the fictional universe of Star Trek — from how many photon torpedoes are fired during each episode of every series, to the exact location of every restroom on Deep Space Nine — that making the slightest deviation from lore is hard to get away with.

This makes it difficult for Star Trek games to please devoted fans, but is also what keeps the uninitiated far, far away. Unless you understand the minutiae of the series, Star Trek games can be unapproachably complex. The latest Star Trek game — Star Trek: Legacy — is certainly no different.

The premise sounds like a Trekkie's wet dream: command and control over 60 different starships from four different races, all spanning the Star Trek universe from Enterprise to The Next Generation and beyond. The ships look like they're straight out of their respective shows and movies, and all of the captains lend their voices to the game. Though the story about a Vulcan scientist who discovers the Borg during the beginning of the Federation runs the risk of becoming contrived, it still retains a distinct Star Trek feel to it.

In its attempt at multi-ship space combat, Legacy definitely succeeds in channelling the spirit of Star Trek fleet battles. We're talking slower, more deliberate combat rather than the quick, twitchy dogfights of a flight-simulator. And unlike the horribly buggy and incomplete PC version, the controls on the Xbox 360 feel more natural and approachable.

But back the tribble-truck up. Even with the streamlined controls, there's a steep learning curve to figuring out and remembering the placement and button combinations for all the moves required for playing. And despite all of the shiny graphics, some of the destructible effects in the game look amateurish. There are other nagging issues like comatose voice-acting by most of the cast — Scott Bakula especially sounds like he was reading his lines at gunpoint. Also, the save system does not fit the lengthy missions you'll face later in the game.

Does this make the game horrible? No, not by a long shot. Legacy is fun despite these nagging issues if only by virtue of giving you the ability to control a task force of slick-looking futuristic starships all over the galaxy. And with an interesting story that spans the entirety of the Star Trek timeline and a fairly robust multiplayer, there's plenty of incentive to play.