Law and Order:Legacies (PC/Mac)

In Law and Order: Legacies, players take the role of detectives and attorneys from the Law and Order television show and solve crimes and put the bad guys behind bars. Legacies is an episodic game, like many of Telltale’s games with three episodes currently available with four more later this year. Each episodes takes little over an hour to complete. The majority of the game has the player watching a segment of dialogue, then having to answer a question about what they just saw. Then the game has them choose why they picked the answer they did. To be honest, it feels more like a standardized test schoolchildren take than a video game to be played for enjoyment.

Regardless of the context, whether its interrogation, questioning witnesses or courtroom drama, the core mechanics remain the same. The player picks a topic, a scene of dialogue is given, and then the player is asked a question, i.e. “Is he lying”. After choosing a response, the player is then asked to back up their choice with information given previously via a four choice question. If the player is correct they get stars to increase their rank. What effect the rank has on the game is unknown. It appears to be an ends to itself. If the player is wrong three times during a scene, they have to start it over. Scenes can be replayed as many times as the player wishes, reducing it to little more than trial and error.

The only time this mechanic changes is during a search scene. In it, the player has to search for evidence (so the detective can manhandle and contaminate it). A list of several items is given to look for around the room, with a picture of the item shown, usually. Once the item is found, the player draws a circle and then they are told if it was correct or not. The detection could use some fine-tuning, as the circle has to be right on the object with the current view at the exact correct angle. Again, these can be repeated as many times as one wishes making trial and error the best tactic for maximum stars.

Legacies includes the following characters from the show: Rey Curtis,Lennie Briscoe, Anita Van Buren, Abby Carmichael, Jack McCoy, Mike Logan, Michael Cutter, Adam Schiff and Olivia Benson. As I have not watched the show, I was unable to tell if the characters acted like their television counterparts, but comparing visually to stills from the show, it was hard to recognize the actors, as their in-game versions looked little like them. The whole game looked decent, but character models were particularly bad, especially those made after real people.

The writing is your standard Law and Order fare. That is, over the top, pulpy, and willing to disregard actual procedure and methodology for cheap thrills. Combined with boring gameplay and sub-par graphics, and I have a hard time recommending it to anyone except the most die hard Law and Order fans. The full seven-episode season of Law & Order: Legacies for PC and Mac is at http://www.telltalegames.com/store/law-and-order-legacies for $19.99. An iOS version is also available.

System Requirements:

Windows
Operating system: Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7
Processor: 1.8 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Video Card: ATI or NVidia card w/ 256 MB RAM
Direct X 9.0c
2 GB Hard Drive Space
Direct X 8.1 sound device

Mac
Operating system: Snow Leopard (10.6.X)
Processor: 2.0 Ghz Intel or equivalent
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Video Card: 256 MB NVidia or ATI graphics card
2 GB Hard Drive Space
Not recommended for Mac Minis or early-generation MacBooks.