Star Trek Armada (PC Game)
Reviewed by Brian Schell
This is the second real-time strategy game based on Star Trek. The first was Starfleet Command, which was based on the non-computer game Star Fleet Battles. This one is more similar to Homeworld and most other real-time strategy games in play style.
The major races from Star Trek: The Next Generation are represented here. You can play as the Federation represented by Picard, the Klingons by Worf, Romulans by Commander Sela, and Locutus of Borg (although how Locutus and Picard suddenly became two separate people is beyond me). Also making a appearances are the Dominion, Sona, Cardassians, Ferengi and various other races and characters from the series. The ability to play any of the four main races is very reminiscent of Starcraft, including completely different technologies and "special" attacks depending on your race.
Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, and Denise Crosby are on hand as their respective characters, acting and reacting to an invasion by the Borg. The missions start out pretty simple and get progressively more difficult as Picard learns of an impending attack by the Borg and must prepare the federation for attack by gathering his fleet. Unfortunately, the campaign missions never really get all that unique or impressive. The missions are a mix of the basic "move to the other side of the map" or "defend against the invading enemy." Although the game LOOKS amazing, there really isn't all that much new here.
The game play concepts of Armada are pretty standard in the real-time strategy genre, as you mine Dilithium to build star bases, ship yards, defensive outposts and other "buildings" which in turn research other technologies and build ships and other units. There are some pretty unusual "terrain" features, and each has an effect on your ships systems. Mutara Class nebulae slow you down and disrupt sensors and Cerulean Nebulae disrupt shields and weapons. Other forms of Nebula as well as planets, asteroid fields, black holes and wormholes all add obstacles and dangers to the tactical maps. In some scenarios, taking proper advantage of various nebula effects is vital to winning.
Another critical skill required to beat the game is the critical usage of transporters. Usually it takes only 5 crewmen (from a crew of hundreds) to capture a disabled enemy ship. If the ship is disabled, you can capture, repair, and use the ship yourself. This is far simpler (and less realistic) than the same procedure in Star Fleet Command, where even if your boarding party outnumbers the enemy, you still have a chance of losing the takeover attempt. In Armada, it's a small matter to pick up individual enemy ships and add them to your fleet.
The game requires some level of 3D hardware support, but does look terrific. It ran fairly sluggishly on my Celeron 400 system, I would advise caution before relying on the system requirements listed below.
Star Trek Armada by Activision
For more info: http://www.activision.com
Requires:200 MHz Pentium, DirectX 7 compliant 3D Accelerator card. 32 Meg Ram, 600MB HD Space. MUCH higher system actually recommended.
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