Star Trek Legacy

Star Trek Legacy is Mad Doc and Bethesda’s PC and Xbox 360 project with the newly-acquired Star Trek license. It is a fully real-time tactical strategy game, pitting the player in a 15-hour linear campaign to guide the Federation to security.

From humble origins in the Enterprise commanded by Captain Archer, the player fights his way through missions against Romulans, Klingons, and Borg. Between each mission, time passes and new ship designs are unlocked. Fight in the Constitution, Constellation, Galaxy, or Sovereign-class Enterprise, or take a spin in the Defiant or Voyager. There are currently at least 60 ships in the game and more are planned.

In addition to upgrading to new ship designs, the player’s current ships can be upgraded in a variety of ways, by adding to their shields, weapons, sensors and so on. Upgrades are earned by performing well in missions; complete objectives, destroy as many targets as possible, don’t take losses, and you will be rewarded well.


Combat is real-time and has the player controlling up to four ships. From the demonstration, the AI seemed quite competent and capable of fighting on its own, though directions were given determining the locations to fight at. The player is able to switch between any of his four ships in an instant, giving them a target for the AI to attack on its own after switching away, or controlling the ship directly in combat. Commands can be given from the third-person view or from a tactical command map.


The design focuses on being accessible, so the tactical options aren’t too complex. Weapon effectiveness is determined by range and target type – phasers work better against shields, torpedoes against hulls. All ships have firing arcs for their weapons, so in order to deliver the most damage in the least time, you must have the optimal orientation to your target. Finally, there is the ability to adjust power settings between engines, shields, and weapons. This works much like in the X-Wing series of games, where adding power increases the recharge rate of the weapon or shield, or it increases ship speed. The three are inter-dependent and thus the correct balance for your situation is important. The four races have different styles and special abilities, and are all playable in multiplayer – though only the Federation has a campaign.


Star Trek Legacy is perhaps most noteworthy for the impressive ship models and graphics. All ships are highly detailed and show damage like hull pieces that are torn off, scorch marks along the armor and even destroyed sections like engine nacelles. Legacy is expected in Fall of this year.

Star Trek: Tactical Assault

Star Trek: Tactical Assault is a hand-held game in the style of Legacy, but a completely different title with a different publisher. It focuses exclusively on the world of the original series with Captain Kirk, and offers the player two campaigns – one as Federation, the other as Klingon. The campaigns do branch and the game offers multiple endings. Tactical Assault has about twenty ships from five races – Federation, Klingon, Gorn, Orion, and Romulans.