Common tier, Rare tier, and the final Fron-tier.
Adapting a licensed property into a mobile game has been the go to for several brands throughout the years. Many borrow direct mechanics from one another, using the same template, design, and structure to the loop that keeps you playing. While Star Trek: Legends launched originally on Apple Arcade in 2021, devoid of the microtransactions that often plague these types of games, this is more or less the same mobile game you've played a dozen times before, but now on the Nintendo Switch.
While certainly less flashy than something like Marvel Strikeforce, it is a good comparison to what you're getting here in regards to upgrading your characters, the moment-to-moment gameplay, and the basic format of how it all connects. What helps sell Star Trek: Legends the most; however, is that we have characters across the varied series interacting, in most cases, for the first time. Seeing Dr. McCoy encountering the Borg, or that he is witnessing the realization that Klingons, Shapeshifters, and robots, have joined the federation, long before his appearance on the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Encounter at Farpoint”. It's these types of moments that make Legends shine, even if everything else is pretty standard and largely repetitive.
Star Trek: Legends uses the Nexus threat from Star Trek VII: Generations, the same film where Captain Kirk and Jean Luc Picard would meet face to face. This concept is used here to pretty good effect, allowing the likes of the Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Discovery, and more, to all mingle in one scenario, occupying the same away team aboard a ship that is essentially just a JPEG to represent the bridge. It has a design, a name, but it is only used as a hub to deploy to your next mission.
Using basic Gatcha mechanics to build your team, you'll have a few set characters that will always unlock at certain points, be rewarded for specific quests, or included as part of your daily and challenge rewards, all of which are predetermined. You'll earn a currency to unlock more, all of which have your standard tiers from commons to ultra rares; commons being the standard generic crewmates while the likes of Geordi La Forge, Captain Janeway, or Data, for example, are part of the higher tiers. Each character will have their own range of special attacks, allowing you to mix and match teams to better handle the encounter at hand. And, as you start to flesh out your cast, their respective classes grant additional perks as you assign them roles on your ship.
Missions are broken up into chapters that have their own environments, villains, and story. While it all ties back into the Nexus, each story does feel somewhat disconnected and only loosely attached to the central story. Each run has you taking in combat encounters, collecting resources, or exploring areas that present you with a choice of how to proceed. Do you investigate the mysterious object or follow the path to track down your captive comrade or do you stop to provide medical assistance to a wounded officer? Each choice splinters off and allows for another run of that level to provide something new. That said, combat encounters are often just the same fights in the same areas, so it is usually just a few dialogue moments that are where the replayability comes into effect. Still, it is something and those wanting to exhaust all interactions will find something there.
Apart from your missions, you'll have an arena to test your skills, a survival mode to put your strongest team through the ringer, additional battles through special operations, to sending squads out on away missions, pulling them away from the story until their timed task is done. These missions are how you'll accumulate the much-needed resources to level up your teams when the mission rewards start to not be enough. You can replay missions, but earning experience, resources, and level up items while I sleep is the way I ended up going.
While Star Trek: Legends continues to not provide microtransactions as it did during its release on Apple Arcade, there are still DLC characters to add into your cast. There is a store in the game, but you’ll only use the currency you earn during missions to buy upgrade materials, particle upgrades to grant buffs to your roster, and gear that can boost your health, tech, defense, and more.
Each character has a set of four skills. From firing off a phaser, healing, to attracting the opposing side to focus on them, each skill generally suits that character or their type. From Command, to Security, Engineering, Science, and Medical, there are a variety of over 70 characters, with many more available through DLC, that fit into one of the several character types. Each character can further be upgraded with a variety of gear and additional perks that in turn can all be leveled up with various materials and currency.
Progression is typical to how these games work. You have a standard level that increases through experience, which increases their basic traits. Skills can be upgraded to deal more damage or become more useful. You'll earn gear through mission rewards, and that gear will boost particular stats that can contribute to certain skills working harder, or even as simple as wanting your medical officer to have more health. Star Trek: Legends isn't doing anything revolutionary or new, it's adapting the standard formula and simply rolling with it.
Adding to your team is through earning the needed currency to summon someone new. You'll spend 50 credits for a standard assortment of mostly commons, with some high profile characters there to tease you with extremely low odds. Otherwise, you'll pull from the other character types and spend 75 credits, hoping to nab the likes of Beverly Crusher, Jean Luc Picard, Geordi La Forge, or even Odo, who you'll encounter about midway through the story. I found it fairly quick to earn that currency and honestly, the only reason it can feel grindy to earn is when you summon a duplicate character and have to rebuild your stock back up again. At least with a new character, I have someone new to equip to away missions and some of the other modes.
Given its Apple Arcade origins, the visual look here is serviceable but your mileage will vary. Its cast is largely fine, even if some actors clearly didn't sign off on their likeness. Environments are the biggest point of contention here as they rarely satisfy. Interiors are far better than exteriors, but ultimately, each lacks any real detail to make the extremely lengthy load times worth it. Fights are thankfully short, and often are shorter than the aforementioned load times. I’ll also point out that each menu within the hub has a small loading time as well.
The concept behind Star Trek: Legends is sound. Its narrative hook of combining several eras of the franchise is a cool idea that plays off well in character moments, but the story itself lacks a true threat to really have it remain interesting. The mobile trappings are certainly felt here, despite no paid storefront to be found. It can be a bit grindy, repetitive, and lacking that ability to pull you in, to lose hours into the night, but I did find a bit of enjoyment here, especially for the low price.
Developer - Emerald City Games, Tilting Point.
Publisher - QubicGames, Tilting Point. Released - December 25th, 2024. Available On - Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS5, PC, Apple Arcade. Rated - (E 10+) - Fantasy Violence. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.