Star Trek: Legacy

About Star Trek: Legacy

Players control a squadron of one to four 3D modeled starships, and engage in battles against other starships. Starship movement is controlled with pitch, yaw, and forward propulsion (as well as a straight-line "warp" capability for rapid movement across a map). Movement occurs in a fully 3D "pizza box" shaped environment. The player operates a single starship at a time, controlling weapons fire, movement and repairs, and can switch between each of the starships in their squadron. Players also have the ability to change from a 3D display to a top-down 2D tactical display where they can issue specific commands to ships within a task force; for example, the player is able to order a ship to warp to a specific point on the map.

Viewpoint is controlled in several ways, with players able to "lock" onto an opponent to ensure that the opponent is always centered in the screen, to look straight forward, or to rotate camera around the selected ship. Starships are classified according to weapons strength and maneuverability, and assigned a set number of points that roughly corresponds to the strength of the ship. The player earns "command points" during each mission, and can select new ships to add to their squadron by spending these points between missions.

In addition to the linear campaign, there is a customizable skirmish mode. Players select the map on which to play, the number of ships per squadron, the number of command points allowed, the race and allegiance of each AI player, and the make-up of their own squadron. In skirmish mode, players are not limited to controlling Starfleet vessels as they are in the campaign; they can control the ships of the different races faced in the campaign, namely the Borg, the Klingons, the Romulans, the Dominion, as well as other assorted factions and ship types. A mode of play included in later versions of the game is the "coop wave" mode, in which a player (with up to 6 other "squadrons/fleets") guards a station from assault by increasingly harder-to-defeat enemy fleets, increasing in gradual waves. Bethesda has also released a mission editor tool allowing users to freely customize missions.