Year: 2006
Type: Gamerip
Composer(s): Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves
Number of tracks: 38

★★★★★

A difficult legacy

It's hard to find a game that disappointed me as much as Legacy. While I had been able to experience dogfights in space almost to perfection in Bridge Commander and command entire fleets in Starfleet Command, I expected Legacy to be a mixture of both in contemporary graphics - at least in my head. I cannot recall whether this was the official aim of the developers at Mad Doc Software. Although they had produced the very good Star Trek Armada II), they later distinguished themselves more through add-on cobbling (Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest) and support work for avarage games (Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, Turok) - with the exception of Bully.

Nevertheless, the pain was deep when, as an undemanding gamer, I had to admit to myself after a few missions that Legacy was no good. Don't ask me why, too much water has flowed down the Rhine and alcohol through my memory center for that. However, I know for a fact that I agreed with the voice of the gaming press that it just wasn't a really good game and was only somewhat tolerable because of the fan bonus. I think that bugs in particular were a major point of criticism.

Star Trek: Birth of the Federation (1999)

Star Trek: New Worlds (2000)

Star Trek: Armada (2000)

Star Trek: Armada II (2001)

Star Trek: Bridge Commander (2002)

Star Trek: Legacy (2006)

Never mind, there's still the score. As is usual with games from this period, it's not really easy to create a proper album here. I can't find any official releases and even the unofficial ones are inconsistent and labeled differently. Based on the various sources, I have therefore settled on the following album, which I will refer to below as Gamerip. If anyone has any other information, please let me know.

The composers for the 38-track piece are Rod Abernethy and Jason Graves. While the latter is a fairly well-known face in the video game world and therefore on this website, Abernethy is a rather unknown quantity. In fact, the two seem to be a well-rehearsed duo, as many game scores appear in Abernethy's Wikipedia article that were only attributed to Graves... curious, curious. The acoustic performance is (as is so often the case) fortunately not in proportion to the game's weaknesses, but sounds absolutely solid and is sometimes really worth listening to. As Legacy tells a cross-generational story that connects the captains from Archer to Janeway, this is also reflected in the composition.

The main theme alone, "Star Terk: Legacy", is like in Elite Force keeping the spirit of the Star Trek brand and whets the appetite for adventures in the distant future: trumpets and fanfares paired with dominant percussion and a choir bring back memories of the various fantastic intro sequences of the series' role models. Fans will feel transported straight back to weekends on the couch with Enterprise, TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager and co. However, the final chord of the theme actually seems to be borrowed from John Williams' "The Throne Room / End Title" from A New Hope , but maybe that's just me.

At the same time, Legacy makes it clear at every point that it is a video game at heart. Fight tracks such as "Romulan Attack Wave 1-3" exude a touch of Company of Heroes, while "Assimilation Waltz" and "Generals" are Aquanox-ish. This fusion of different styles, not only within the Star Trek-cosmos, makes the gamerip a collection of the most diverse associations for me: If the score in pieces such as "One Man's Foundation" seems like a mixture of Bridge Commander and Star Trek: The Motion Picture or is reminiscent of Birth of the Federation, in "Into the Nexus", elsewhere it goes into the cinematic: "At the Gates" has something of Back to the Future / Aliens, the strings in "Behind Enemy Lines" are reminiscent of Stargate and there's another Star Wars-parallel in "Mysteries and a Missing Ship".

It is therefore not easy to make a comprehensive judgment of Graves and Abernethy's work. On the one hand, it is rather mediocre fare in relation to their other works, which is of course still perfectly okay in the overall classification of contemporary video game music. On the other hand, Star Trek-fans like me will probably notice in some places when they encounter motifs or instrumentalizations that they know from the big screen. The composition is definitely not groundbreaking, but it is certainly better than the actual game.

Nr.	Title	Interpret(en)	Ratings
01	Star Trek: Legacy	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	5
02	One Man's Foundation	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
03	A Delicate Mission	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
04	The First Battle	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
05	Ode to the Promised End	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	5
06	Unknown Intentions	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	2
07	Romulan Attack Wave 1	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
08	Romulan Attack Wave 2	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
09	Romulan Attack Wave 3	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
10	Evil Unveiled	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
11	To Beat the No-Win Scenario	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
12	Behind Enemy Lines	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
13	Into the Nexus	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
14	Calm Before...	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
15	...The Firestorm	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
16	At the Gates	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
17	Discovery of Omega	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
18	SuvwI' mIw (Way of the Warrior)	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
19	Nebula of Defiance	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	2
20	Praetor Power	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
21	To Make It so	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
22	Bird of Prey	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
23	Locutus I Am Not	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
24	Assimilation Waltz	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	5
25	Anger and Mercy	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
26	Generals	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	5
27	A Date with Destiny and the Admiral	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
28	Logical Conclusions	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
29	All Good Things...	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
30	Launch Trailer Theme	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4
31	Mysteries and a Missing Ship	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	2
32	The First Battle [Alternate Cut]	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
33	Bird of Prey [Alternate Cut]	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	3
34	Khan Battle Victory	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	2
35	Ship Lost Stinger	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	2
36	Objective Achieved Stinger	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	2
37	Objective Achieved Stinger 2	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	2
38	Star Trek: Legacy [Alternate Cut]	Rod Abernethy; Jason Graves	4