Legends is a fun RPG caught between two worlds • Eurogamer.net

Star Trek: Legends is one of those games that I didn’t know I needed in my life until I saw it; Captains and crew from all generations of the series come together in a turn-based role-playing game. Dr Phlox is doing Final Fantasy, Dukat’s Dragon Quest – you see the picture – essentially, an idea that I’m amazed I didn’t come up with sooner.

It’s not exactly that, obviously, but to my surprise, placing Star Trek characters in an RPG like this works. The character quirks translate quite well into abilities, as combat allows you to trade blows with the Romulans, Klingons, and other notable factions over a series of missions outside.

Gameplay of a mission in Star Trek: Legends.

Battles are simple yet quick – each encounter takes 30 seconds to a minute to complete – and while you can make your way through quite a few of them, things get interesting as you explore its range of buffs and status effects. My favorite is Morale, where not only can enemies run away from battle if they’re demoralized enough, but can see you chase after with a bonus attack if yours is particularly high.

For example, I designed my party to have McCoy give Riker a boost at the start of the battle, so after pulverizing the field with bullets to take out most of the opponents in one go, Worf or Torres will probably then flounder. to remove everything. stragglers – a setup that carries me through most battles so far.

That doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels; you can’t revive a fallen crew between missions, so keeping an eye on health bars and having your medic on hold is essential. If things go wrong, the five to 10 minute duration of each race means there’s no point in trying again – and simple branch paths, which can open up new routes depending on the makeup of the race. your team, let you do things a little differently next time. .

Yes, there is an ability called Riker’s Maneuver.

Meanwhile, the overall story is pretty light – there’s a woolly premise of the Nexus coming back and deadlines coming together – but when the end result is that Worf has to explain who the Cardassians and Borg are to a confused Burnham , you are more than happy. to accompany the ride.

The missions outside are a lot of fun, but where I come up against in Star Trek: Legends are the systems around them. It’s a game that was apparently designed to be free at one point – whether things have changed when it comes to Apple Arcade, which bans microtransactions, or if there’s still a release planned with them in I don’t. dunno – but that still means jumping through hoops and waiting for timers to unlock certain characters and abilities.

Some of these things don’t bother me. I like lining up crew members to go on shuttle missions while I’m not playing for bonus rewards and resources but others like cooldowns on store purchases which can help level up your group, may seem like artificial ways to slow progress.

There’s also a gacha system for unlocking new crew members, which I’m torn on. While the game distributes enough decent characters through story missions, achievements, and seasonal events without needing to rely on them, a few – at least at the start of the game – seem to be locked behind, which is frustrating when looking to hoard your fantasy outdoors.

While the odds are on display, one deceptive aspect of this gacha system is that the characters advertised on the front of these boxes – like Picard and Saru here – aren’t necessarily inside.

At the very least, the resource it needs (which is, again, fully earned in-game) is circulated regularly so that you can take your chances on a regular basis, and the system takes place in the transporter room, with each character taking over. moments to materialize each time – sure, a nice touch.

As it stands, in a few hours I’m getting along pretty well with the freemium-but-not systems of Star Trek: Legends – so much so that they only occasionally interfere with a game that would otherwise be targeted at my interests. With more events and missions going on, I’m interested to see just how extensive the roster can be – but at least I won’t stop until Janeway (who is, for the record, the best Captain) beats the chances and finally shines in my ship.