Let us come right out of the star gate on this one: Legends of Pegasus (LoP) is an incomplete mess. Boasting a fresh take on the megalomaniac take of galaxy conquest, this strategy game offers a campaign where many other sandbox peers of its genre do not. Naturally, it still has regular matchups against opponents, both artificial (AI) and human alike, but none of it matters, since its broken state reduces it to the most frustrating experience this year. As it has some good concepts, it’s a shame to keelhaul this title, but as these designs are mostly cosmetic and not at all functional, it’s also not an undeserved death.

The story portion of this space epos takes us through the vision of three races; one of those species being human and the other being alien. In the stardust that is our universe, players travel the galaxies from solar system to system with advanced spaceships. There’s a decent amount of zoom available to get right into the detailed textures of ships and planets, but unfortunately the background is a still painting of starry blips. Arguably, this would depict the dead vibe of space, but this static and indiscernible backdrop also makes it a ton harder to navigate the density of solar systems.

Making matters worse, navigation in general is abysmal in Legends of Pegasus. Menus and the interface are all over the place, forcing players to scroll endlessly, searching for ships and planet, having to switch between galaxy tabs and so forth. The obtuse controls make it awkward enough to play, but it gets shut down completely by the lack of explanation. As an expansive strategy title, LoP should rely heavily on statistics for management. Planets need to balance economy, research needs to be planned, fleets need to be created and so on. Often, any explanation at all will be missing, leaving the cornerstone of economy to be an enigma that echoes its issues within the rest of the game. Icons have no mention of what they represent, the diplomacy screen is as good as dead, sliders reset at random and so forth. It’s a ripe mess.

Let’s step back and see what the game does right for a moment though. A fleet customization element can create a rather eclectic and versatile armada. In theory, this would create a unique experience each turn, as players create new ships on the fly to suit their needs. Big or small, these ships can be adjusted with multiple components and then be outfitted for conquest, war, social needs and anything in between. In reality however, space battles control is too limited to tap out the potential of this mechanic; responsiveness is low and ships maneuver sluggishly, leaving the tactical real-time combat to be desired. Further hammering on the lack of information, it’s unclear how far ships can move, how the galaxy travel works and jumps can be performed. Star system jumps are a nice change if performed more swiftly, but as it stands it’s a chore.

Planetary construction is another strongpoint. Rather than a more traditional setup, LoP divides construction zones in sections and rings for space stations such as shipyards and repair docks. It’s also possible to build through visiting ships. If the economy system would work, the whole would be a management between cultural happiness, production and money, along with secondary stats. There are more layers in this strategy title untapped, like planetary defense that spans beyond ships, the advantages of alien technology and more.

What a huge disappointment that any good aspect, as perhaps a campaign, has an “if” interlude at every turn. It could be a better title than it is today and ample patches are working to relieve this pain already. The game is now faster and more accurate, but the nails in its coffin are still firmly anchored within its base. The main and most prominent issue is its stability. Legends of Pegasus is indeed so broken that beyond lacking finish, it’s nearly impossible to play. Crashes occur constantly, mostly due to battles, but also at any other given time. Save games are a mess, leaving reloads to be an infinite loop of playing the same thing over and over. This is present in any game mode, which also makes multiplayer impossible as any player may disconnect any turn.

Campaigns are further plagued by lacking info, spiking difficulty and leading to complete episodic retries that boil down to trial and error. More so, objectives may appear out of the window screen; they’re plagued by typos or just disappear completely. Just imagine rallying towards the sector the game mentioned, only to realize it was a typing error. Crashes will also make sure frequent changes are made to the saved game, if it stays functional at all. Anything done differently than LoP wants will more likely end up breaking the game.

The AI is another issue, as it was dead upon release. A later patch has at least put some activity into the brain dead machine, but it’s still nowhere near playable. Why there also is only one AI available in Skirmish mode is a total mystery, but it wouldn’t help much to have more of these idiots building randomly anyway. Not being able to play and not having an opponent when it does work really don’t leave anything to look forward to.

If Legends of Pegasus wasn’t rushed to release, it at least wasn’t ever tested by anyone beyond the core who knew exactly how the game worked. As a basic galaxy conquest game, it only saves itself with a few innovating takes, but then crashes and burns with an unstable, unable and unplayable build. It should never be mentioned blatantly, but people that don’t skip on this game will undoubtedly have some buyer’s remorse.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)