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Law & Order: Legacies

To those who’ve always been disappointed about the lack of the late great Jerry Orbach in video games: your prayers have been answered. Law & Order: Legacies is an episodic tribute to the various incarnations of the beloved TV franchise over the past two decades, with a wide range of characters from each series intertwining together to investigate murders, prosecute criminals and serve justice.
   
Legacies clearly takes its cues from fellow detective simulator L.A. Noire, borrowing that game’s clever interrogation system but leaving most of its nuance behind. While Noire genuinely wanted you to read a person’s facial tics and behaviour in order to make your deductions, Legacies makes you take a multiple-choice test, an incredibly artificial interrogation method. You do get to indulge in the occasional moment of actual detective work — and there’s something unabashedly fun in pulling off a cool gumshoe move such as referring to your notes to corroborate an alibi — but most of the time, you just feel like you’re commenting on the actions of your character instead of actually performing them.
   
These interrogations wouldn’t be so bad if they were only a small part of the game, but they make up a huge chunk of what you’ll be spending your time on. What’s worse is that they’re inflexible to the point that they have no real bearing on the story whatsoever; if you make a certain amount of mistakes during quizzes that pop up during conversations, you have to redo the scene, correcting what you did wrong. There’s no way to change the flow of the story or miss a piece of evidence or do anything of any impact; you’re simply going through, trying to mimic exactly what the game has already decided you need to do.
   
Once the investigation portion ends and you actually set foot in the courtroom, the game finally opens up and gives you a feeling of genuine interaction with the case at hand. While it’s still presented in a overly simplistic way — a bar shows you exactly how the jury is currently leaning as you argue your case, ruining any sense of surprise — you get to unleash your inner Matlock and grill witnesses on the stand or successfully object to some of the defense’s sneakier tactics.
   
Legacies lays the groundwork for an intriguing simulation of crime procedurals but a disappointing lack of ambition prevents it from ever reaching its true potential, while its simplicity robs the game of the depth it needs to make a lasting impression. In trying to be accessible to everyone, it’s satisfying to no one.

Bits & Bytes
   
True Crime: Hong Kong, a Grand Theft Auto-esque open-world action game set in China which was cancelled by Activision last year, has risen from the grave. Now titled Sleeping Dogs, it’s ready to be published by new owners Square Enix in the second half of 2012.

Upcoming Releases
   
Feb. 21 — Syndicate (360, PS3, PC), Asura’s Wrath (360, PS3)

   
Mel Stefaniuk is a writer who can tell the difference between Mario and Sonic.