Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores, but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, all whilst including some lengthy gameplay, to give you, the reader, the chance to form your own impressions and views while reading and watching.
In this explanatory review, we’re covering Star Trek: Legends by developers, Emerald City Games and Tilting Point:
Star Trek: Legends (Nintendo Switch)
Created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek, first marketed as a “Western in Outer Space,” debuted as a science fiction program made for television in 1966, and in 58 years that have passed since it has gone in to evolve into one of the biggest media ever to exist. From the original show to multiple spin-offs, comic books, novels, feature films, and video games, Star Trek is everywhere, and now, after already releasing back in 2021 for mobile devices, Star Trek: Legends has finally made the voyage to the Nintendo Switch.
Designed as a strategic role-playing game, made with Unity, Star Trek: Legends is something of a Trekkie fan’s dream come true. Featuring a new story and a new starship, the U.S.S Artemis, there’s no need to fall in love with a whole new Starfleet crew as Legends lives up to its legendary title and provides players the means to build their own legendary crew. From Spock to Captain Janeway, Tomalak to Worf, or Sela to Geordi La Forge, iconic heroes and villains unite thanks to a roster of 95 unique characters, each one hailing from a different part of Star Trek’s expansive history.
The only downside to Star Trek: Legends’ selection of characters, is that while some become available to the player via story progression and meeting the requirements for daily goals and specific achievements, for the most part, new teammates are recruited using summoning. As long as you have enough Orbs, players can try their luck at the game’s RNG system. You might strike it lucky and get a Legendary class character, but more often or not you’ll get a Common or Rare class character.
But, as you can expect from a game that relies on gacha, you’ll be given enough decent characters to think you’re in with a chance and put together a decent Starfleet crew, but there’s no guarantee you will get your favourite characters from the outset. Should you wish to spend some real-world money, however, you could always opt to head over to the eShop and purchase some of the special DLC characters, such as Picard, Guinan, Seska, and many more.
Now what of the actual gameplay and main campaign? When playing through Star Trek: Legends’ Missions, there are eight episodes to play through, with each episode made up of six smaller episodes. As you play through the mini-episodes, you can be presented with a small episode, consisting of a handful of stages comprised of Intel, Resource, and Combat, but then there are larger episodes where more stages can be encountered. Furthermore, because the game has 95 characters, each with their own special skills and abilities, the 95 characters belong to five main character types, Commander, Medical, Science, Engineering, and Security.
As you progress through certain episodes, there are multiple instances where you will be faced with multiple choices, with differing options and unless you have a specific kind of Starfleet crew, certain options can be denied to you. Then there are other times where you will need to replay a given episode so you can select another option and complete the episode in its full entirety. What’s more, Star Trek: Legends remembers which options you picked previously, so even if you forget, the game doesn’t, thus making it easier for you to pick a new option.
Then there is the combat itself, while it is turn-based, and plays out exactly as you would expect from a turn-based RPG, skills, and abilities can make all the difference and if you’re too concerned you’ll make too severe a mistake, auto battles are available and all combat can be sped up, making it easier to replay episodes you need to play more than once.
By clearing the main campaign, players can then repeat the main eight episodes on a higher difficulty and should things prove a little too hard, it’s time to make the of of the game’s Shuttle feature. By progressing through the game, more routes can be discovered and while you are limited by how many shuttles you can send out at a given time, by making the most out of the routes available to you, especially the 8-hour long ones, they’re a great way of leveling up your characters.
Granted, there are in-game items that can do that, but the XP these routes can give you, is no joke and they can be a great way of building up your weaker crewmates, or your best ones as you send them off on an epic quest before going to bed. Another way of strengthening your Starfleet crew, is by selecting the game’s Bridge option, and depending on who you have and how many Bridge Crew stations you have available, as more become unlocked the higher your player level is, the more you can assign and reap the benefits for doing so.
Of course, you can always opt for the traditional way of strengthening your team, which in Star Trek: Legends’ case, requires you to select the Crew tab and from there, you can scroll through every crewmate you have in your position, locate your favourites and then modify them, as long as you have the required resources. Wish to unlock new skills or upgrade them? The right item, coupled with enough credits can make that happen. With enough tokens, your favourite characters can have their rank increased, or you can opt to assign them useful gear and upgrade their attached particles.
With so many upgrade options, even your weakest crewmate can become your greatest asset, if handled correctly and since there is still more to Star Trek: Legends than just the main missions, there is also an Arena mode, where players can face a series of opponents every day, with rewards given out based on your how well you placed. There’s also a Survival mode, where players can play through a series of battles in the hopes of reaching checkpoints and making the most out of the upgrades available to you.
There’s also an Ops mode, and, while this one limits players in terms of stamina, with Ops, players can undertake certain Operation battles, play through event/event operation battles to earn enough points to obtain new characters. Were it not for Ops utilizing a stamina-based system, these could have easily been one of the best aspects of Star Trek: Legends, but it is what it is and players beware, should you send your best characters off on a shuttle ride, you will not be able to use them elsewhere until they have returned. So, if you hoped to take on the harder Ops missions, you should keep your main team of four, readily available.
As for what you can do with any leftover credits that aren’t spent on upgrading your characters, you can always check out Merch, which acts as the game’s in-store shop. Through Merch, players are free to purchase daily tokens for three highlighted characters, take advantage of the daily special item, or purchase any additional gear, particles, and resources used for upgrading your characters. And, should you get bored of pressing buttons to input your commands at any point, Star Trek: Legends for Nintendo Switch, takes full advantage of touch controls, which is a nice bonus, this late in the console’s life.
While vastly superior Star Trek games do exist, as long as you can look past Star Trek: Legends’ gacha elements, an enjoyable gaming experience awaits. From its affordable price tag to its incredible roster of memorable characters, surreal settings and multitude of episodes, plenty is going on and even on the days you don’t feel like playing, but can boot it up long enough to do some shuttle missions, progress will forever be yours.
Game Specifications:
Developer: Emerald City Games, Tilting Point
Publisher: QubicGames
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Action, Adventure, Role-playing, Strategy
No. of Players: 1 (Single System)
Release Date: December 25, 2024
Price: $11.99
File Size: 2.5 GB
Nintendo.com Listing
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