Customer Reviews

Alien Legacy

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked this game up from Babbages back in 94' and was immediately enthralled by it. In a nutshell you essentially micromanage the continuation of the Beta Caeli system while making incredible new scientific discoveries, searching for the remains of the Tantalus which arrived 21 years before you did, and eliminate the alien threat.

I just recently pulled this out of my "Old DOS Games" box and attempted to run it on XP. Bear in mind I haven't touched the game in the better part of 8 years at least, so I truly wasn't expecting it to run. To my surprise it *will* operate even on XP, although it's a bit more difficult to manage, especially on the star map screen where the slightest click will zoom you to the closest perspective of the celestial body you're looking at.

I'm running through the game again to see if the magic is still there. From the first hour or two of gameplay it would appear that in fact it is. From memory the only two faults I had with the game were the incredible amount of micro-managing one has to do, as well as fighting native lifeforms. Every single detail requires personal attention and this may grow thin on people's patience. After surpassing about 10 colonies you'll be hard pressed to keep up with all of them. In addition between the aliens and the hostile native lifeforms which constantly bombard your base at least a few hours will be needed to clean planets out before your bases are overwhelmed.

That aside I have to admit that I find the game as enjoyable as I did when it first came out. The one issue back then I really had problems with was that the ending was glitched...you couldn't win the game. I remember contacting Sierra about it and the sympathetic, but clueless, tech support guy saying only that he wished he could help but that there wasn't enough info on the game. Sad too, it's a sterling example of a single-player sci-fi game of the 90's, when the genre was in full blossom.

If you can get over the graphics which are terribly aged you're bound to discover this Joe Ybarra - produced gem of a game. :)

A long time ago there was milennium 2.2. which was interesting. Then there came Alien Legacy. The game is 10 years old now and still brilliant. The plot of this game is absolutely fascinating. Every time I tought the game was over some new disaster loomed over my fragile colonies. There are a lot of things which don't hold up to our high standards these days. The graphics are obsolete and the combat against alien lifeforms is tedious. The management screens are unwieldy when you have a large amount of ships and colonies. Nevertheless, you will find that you don't give a damn and just keep playing and playing, watching your colonists take over the system and waiting for the next ingenious plot twist. The game does have an ending by the way, but I won't tell. I pray to all the Gods every day some company will make a game with a story as good as this instead of all the boring shoot-em-ups and so on. Buy it. If you can't buy it steal it. But play it. You will thank me :)
On fast computers you can play it no problems with D-Fend and/or DosBox.

This is a really entreaging game. It can be as complex as you want it to be, you can get into trying to make your collonies as self suffishent as they can be, or focus on other things. There is always something to do. You can always search the planets for reaserch and bonuses. The Plot is the last of man left in two ships, you are the second ship and the first has disaperared. You are uneasily setting up mankind in a brand new solar system, which in of itself is fun, while discovering the secrate of what happened here. Very well written with spots of humor here and there. Very charming graphics. One of my favorite games. Along with Master of Orion.

I ordered a new copy of this game today as I had the floppy version(and they were totalled by demagnitization common in games those days). I do remember it well, as it took most of my free time back in 1995. I didn't get up out of that chair(in my bedroom at my parent's house). You begin with an eight crew roster, you get a randomly selected four crew(well officers) for the starship. the remaining come aboard later and the former turnover(to shoreleave I guess). Since your first officer is also the disiplinarian, his/her job is also to disiplin you and your good or sloppy performance as captain of the ship. If you take too long to make a discision or make a bad one, you'll get lip and finally insuboridantion. That is the dire consequence and is intelligently scripted for these characters. These games were made in such a way that modern mainstreamers could not play them or take the pressure, these were true computer games that took more than the int of a chimp to play. No little green arrows to direct you to a point, no journals, you had to figure it out yourself.(and people call ME an idiot!)
you chose a planet from your starmap and travel there to excavate and colonize it. Your crew is there for various tasks and you must man the excavation ship yourself(a separate game). There are incidences in the game(to my memory of 13 years ago) that have to be addressed by the crew and you need to instruct them even while excavations are being performed and colonizations are overseen. You are a busy captain. Thank of the colony overseeing as in Colonel Wilder's dual task in Martain chronicals overseeing First Town as her leader and captianing expeditions to Mars. and add to that your starship overseeing, think of it as your Captain Kirk experience as Starship Captain and add to that, overseer of all colonies. Incidently, the CD-ROM, as in Star Trek and most games enhanced in 1995 was implimented with voice-overs. I have not heard them yet as the I originally had the floppy version and cannot comment. The origianl floppy version had excellent graphics(IMO) the people were well drawn and the dialogue was excellent(even without voice talant to act it out). This game was made by a company who long since went out of business or was "bought out" by a big fish and probably has little incentive to make quality games in these modern days(post-circa 1997).

This is an oldie but goodie. It was one of the 1st pc games that addicted me for days. I could not stop playing it. It's graphics are out dated, but it is still a great game, one of my favorites