Broken, tedious, and incoherent, Legacy: Dark Shadows is a flat out terrible game.
This was the case with Legacy: Dark Shadows, as it seems the game doesn't get along well with Windows XP SP2, the rock solid OS that's home to every other PC game out there. Upon introducing the first disc and starting the installation, the progress bar got stuck and I was never asked to insert the second disc. A quick online search brought up 2 patches, one of them an "installation patch" that allowed the game to finish the installation process.
To be fair the patch worked, but a quick glance to the readme file made it clear what kind of game I was dealing with here: budgetware. Not only is the readme file reminiscent of a user made mod readme, it actually asks for you to run a diagnostic tool whenever the game crashes (that is, they know the game will eventually crash) and email the results to the developers so they can work on the problem. However when that statement is written like this...
"Then I will know where your problem is and I will fix it for you. :))"
... it's hard to take it seriously.
Now, if technical issues were the only problem, you could forgive an indie developer with limited funds for stumbling while trying to make a good game, but it's impossible to find any redeeming qualities in Legacy.
For starters, it's hard to figure out what the hell the game is about, aside from the fact it's a point and click adventure game. You start out in some sort of WWII tent just beside some trenches without any sort of introduction, so it's up to you to figure out what to do or how to do it. After a few minutes of pointless interaction with the few objects around, you'll trigger a cutscene where a plane drops off a crate and for some reason opening it brings up an intro cutscene (where nothing is described or introduced either). Next thing you know you're a woman called Ren (the game doesn't tell you her name, you have to find that online) in a futuristic subway. Apparently Ren is in some private investigation but you wouldn't know it by playing the game (every bit of story I've got came from the game's box or the internet). After this you're let loose on the city and the exciting adventure begins.
That is if your idea of a thrilling adventure is aimlessly wandering around cheap looking environments, without a clue about what you have to do and engaging in some painfully bad conversations with uninteresting NPCs.
You see, every aspect of Legacy oozes cheapness. The voice acting and dialogue are terrible. Every word coming out of Ren's mouth sounds uninspired and the bizarre and senseless dialogue doesn't help. Couple this with some heavily accented performances and just sitting through a conversation can make you wish for the sweet release of death. The graphics are bland and dated, while character animation is just plain odd (Ren doesn't walk, she sort of glides through the world). Even when talking, Ren's lips never move.
Worse, the interface (which is a heavily touted feature on the box) is a complete mess. Clicking on an NPC will show three options but you'll have to click all three of them to figure out what they do and to click on them you have to actually place the pointer a little bit away from the icon(!?). Navigating through the inventory and diary (which is the only place where Legacy does any sort of storytelling) is just painful, since just like with everything else in this atrocity, the game doesn't explain how to interact with them. Even the main menu is broken, as multiple boxes appear for the same options (though not all of them functional), completley misalgined.
The final nail in the coffin is a hideous rap song that plays while the credits roll (which are shown every time you exit the game). Oh wait, there's more, because the credits loop on forever unless you press the ESC key, which will cause the game to crash and bring up an error message...
Sadly, the only error here was buying this game in the first place. I'm a very forgiving gamer, but Legacy: Dark Shadows is an unredeemable effort. I should've known better when I saw that the box touted "Hi-Res textures of up to 1024*768" or the fact that there was an in-game diary as novel features. Even at $15, this was a complete waste of money (and the game originally retailed for $30). I realize indie developers don't have big budgets to work with, but whenever a product hits retail stores a certain degree of quality is expected. Legacy: Dark Shadows fails to even get close to it.