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Posted By	Discussion Topic: Star Trek Armada: Review
FoundryMusicJeff	posted on 04-01-2001 @ 12:08 PM
O&A Board Regular Registered: Jan. 01	Fans of Total Annihilation and Command & Conquer will enjoy Activision's newest foray into the Star Trek franchise, "Armada". Set in the current trek Universe, Armada is a two-dimensional strategy game in the same vein of the aforementioned C&C and TA, in which players must manage resources and leverage them against the building of defenses and offensive craft. Multiple levels of advanced weaponry and spacecraft are available, including the ability to "assimilate" other craft into your own fleet. Users have the option of being any of the four races: Federation, Romulan, Borg, & Klington. Indispersed throughout the game are appearances from the Dominion, Ferenghi, and the Breen. You have the option of assimilating these ships as well. Single players will find themselves in a fairly complex storyline utilizing time travel as you race against the impending Borg threat. I defeated the game on medium in about two weeks. If you any background with this genre of strategy games, you shouldn't have any problem acclimating to the interface. Multi-player is an additional feature provided free of charge through WON net. You also have the option of direct peer to peer gaming over TCP/IP or your local IPX network. (I believe there is a serial connection option as well.) WON net is extremely volatile, dropping connections and lagging constantly. I would recommend pairing up with people with fast CPU's and connections to prevent any sort of latency. 56K users should not waste thier time with WON Net. The multi-gaming interface is fairly simplistic to pick up, with additional custom weaponry available. (I recommend not using them, they are written by users and occasionally freeze your computer.) This game lacks the design intelligence found in Total Annihilation. TA allows multiple construction ships to work together in the construction of a larger base. Armada does not. Armada also lacks a multiple build function, meaning you can't select more than five ships to be built at a time. This tends to get rather cumbersome after a while, especially if you are involved in a battle with your attention diverted from a space-dock that is not producing ships because you forgot to activate them. Construction ships also lack the ability to repair damaged ships. This is also sorely missed in Armada. All ships are required to return to spacedock for repair, which means it must make it back to your base. Often times, it meets enemy action on the way back, and is too damaged to defend itself, resulting in the eventual loss of your ship. If you enjoy strategy games, this probably isn't the best one out there, but it sure as hell is addicting. The graphic are extremely well done. Ships are realistic to the Trek shows themselves, and fans will recognize thier favorite vessels from the series. (There's even an appearance from the old Galaxy class ships...) Most of the weapons are incredibly unrealistic, but fun to use. Over-all, I give this game: Overall: 7 Graphics: 8 Sound: 10 Gameplay: 7 Ease of Use: 8 Storyline: 8 I develop hard to navigate websites.

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