I finally caved and bought in to Apple Arcade, mainly for my kids. There are a handful of games that I am interested in trying but every time I go to the Arcade tab I see Star Trek: Legends.
“Don’t do it!” screams the Angel on my left shoulder. “You hate those kinds of games and have sworn to never play one again in your life.”
“What harm can it do?” says the devil on my right. “There are no iaps so surely it is a bit different.”
Spoiler alert: the Devil lies.
Now, I will admit that without premium currencies bought for real money the game seems ever so very slightly different in that I’m not fearing the iap paywall and feel like I can play as much or as little as I want without feeling the need to cough up money.
Other than that, this is the exact same game as every other gatcha”RPG” in that there is barely a “story,” which is told through static text boxes that is only a vehicle to advance you from one fight to another. The fights are what you’ve seen a thousand times before where 4 characters in one side of the screen use basic abilities against 4 similar characters on the other side of the screen. You obtain more characters through story missions or through loot boxes, characters level up as they fight or can be boosted with an item. Gear levels up with another item, abilities with yet another.
What this game proves more than anything is that without the slot machine mechanics to drive these hatch’s games, there is barely any game there.
Characters look good, if cartoonish, but this is the EXACT same game as the Star Wars one. And the Marvel one.
Darn me if I don’t just want to play to get a Picard, though. I’ve got a Riker and he even has an ability called The Riker Maneuver!