Law & Order: Legacies - Episodes 1 - 3 takes you through three cases that, like the show, are divided in half. First, you investigate the crime and work the clues and interviews to figure out who should be arrested. Then, it's off to court as various members of the DA's office make their case, attempt to point out their opponent's improper questions and either win over the jury, or get a suitable plea bargain to get the accused off of the streets.
Besides the occasional crime-scene investigating, which feels a lot like a watered-down hidden object puzzle, Law & Order: Legacies is all about dialogue options and choosing the right conversation pieces to get the job done. While acting as a detective, the questions involve getting alibis, sleuthing out motive or maybe even just finding the next name to talk to. Regardless of your particular goal, your best tool is the ability to listen to what everyone tells you, because the game will constantly ask you if you believe what the interviewed character is saying and you will have to back up your decisions when you make them.
Each interview has three strikes before you've messed up the interview so much that you have to start back over, but like I said, if you pay attention to what people say, you will do good. On the flip side, each of the choices you correctly make will earn you a star and an increase in your rank for that part of the episode.
When in trial, the game will guide you to ask the type of questions that are likely to sway the jury to your side. The more swayed they are, the better your chances of either getting a good judgment from them or the better the plea bargain you will get when the defendants decide to meet outside of the courtroom.
You also gain points by not only objecting to the opposing lawyer's questions, but doing so for the right reasons. If you aren't already familiar with the different types of objections, then Law & Order: Legacies does a fair job of teaching you the difference between types like Argumentative, Leading, Badgering, Speculation, Hearsay and many others. While it becomes a lot to keep straight, the game doesn't try to trick you or make the decision too hard to figure out.
The first episode, "Revenge," brings Detective Curtis back to the NYPD where he partners with SVU Detective Benson. The pair investigate the murder of a hotel housekeeper and quickly learn that she isn't your typical maid. Investigations lead to a rather rich individual being behind the killing, but when it comes time for the trial, there may be some other complications. This case takes an odd twist though, so expect to change gears quickly before it's all over.
Episode 2, "Home to Roost," covers a case that Curtis and Briscoe tackled in 1999 involving a victim who was slashed with a curved blade and left to bleed for 2 hours before being dropped off at his home just barely too late to have help arrive. The detectives learn that the dead writer's latest project put him on the wrong side of the law and he paid for it with his life. The question is, and this is what the DA will have to work out, was it cold-blooded murder, just an accident or "depraved negligence."
The final episode in Law & Order: Legacies initial release, "Killer Smart," comes back to the present with Curtis and Benson working another case. This time Logan joins in to help as well since their investigations cross paths. A dead prostitute looks to be the latest in a serial killing, and when the cops arrest a pair of individuals, the trial portion of this episode gets a little crazy as they decide to act as their own lawyers. While neither suspect has any formal training in law, it is clear that they are using this tactic to blame each other for the crime and sow a lot of reasonable doubt.
