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Star Trek: Armada Review by Alidar Jarok Where to start, where to end? Let's start with the good news, and end with the bad news... But first, for those of you that aren't into computer games much, you should know what a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game is. Basically, everyone starts off (in Armada, other RTS games have similar structures) with a starbase. A Construction Ship builds structures like shipyards, research labs, and turrets (stationary unmanned defense platforms). Freighters mine dilithium from moons, which you use to build ships. You then send your ships at your opponents' forces and try to destroy them. You can play single-player games in a series of missions, each with a varying objective, that make up an overall storyline (often called campaigns); quick isolated games against 1-7 computer opponents, either everyone for themselves or as teams (called skirmishes or, in this game, Instant Action); or multiplayer play online, which is the same as Instant Action except that the computer opponents are instead other players from around the world. THE GOOD The Four Races: They picked the four most popular races (at least from the TNG universe, which this game is supposed to represent, yet ironically enough just about every ship was first seen after TNG ended its TV run...). You actually get to play Borg! Sure, the Klingons, Romulans, and Federation were shoo-ins, but the Borg made an interesting appearance... You get all the old standards - Borg Cubes, Sovereigns (OK, not exactly an "old standard", but definitely popular and expected), Birds-of-Prey, Warbirds, Defiants (more on this later), Vor'Chas. But like I said, for a TNG-based game, there's few TNG ships in here - Nebulas, Warbirds, B'rels, Vor'chas, and Cubes. That's from about 30 buildable ships. There are quite a few from First Contact (Borg Sphere, Sovereign, Akira, etc.), DS9 (Defiant, Negh'Var), Insurrection (Venture), and even Voyager (Borg Diamond). There's a lot of ships that Activision had to design to "fill in the gaps" - basically, the only Romulan ship we've ever seen is the Warbird. But the others are very true to Romulan design, and almost seem like they "belong" in the Romulan fleet. And I still love the design of the Klingon Fek'lhr (see picture - in foreground). Game Balance: OK, so pound-for-pound, an Akira is equal in strength to a Vor'Cha, Griffin, and Sphere, having almost the same standard firepower and defenses. While it may seem a little boring, it's really not. First of all, making ships' stats almost equal is perhaps the best way to balance the sides. And second, they're all unique because each ship has a special weapon. Akiras have the Chain Reaction Pulsar, which can do some real damage to enemies grouped together. Vor'Chas have Polaron Torpedoes, which pierce right through enemy shields and doing direct damage to the ship - knocking out weapon systems or shields isn't too uncommon, which definitely gives you the upper hand. Griffins have the Sensor Jammer, which restricts the Line of Sight distance of every enemy unit in its range - which spells big trouble for the rather-powerful turrets, turning them into sitting ducks. Spheres can Regenerate, increasing repair rate, allowing them to destroy two of the ships listed above for every Sphere you lose (assuming opposing ships don't use their special weapons). All this from just the lighter cruisers. I greatly prefer this method of game balance / race differentiation than, say, Age of Empires. In that game, just about every unit for every tribe is exactly the same, save some of the upper-level units. So two medium-sized war barges will always destroy each other in a one-on-one battle, no matter what tribe you are. Here, with the special weapons, battles can go very differently from one battle to the next. Also, they managed to balance the game while keeping affiliations true to themselves. The Klingons actually have a way to send boarding parties on ships, enabling you to kill their crew. The Romulans are sneaky - almost every ship can cloak - and have the ability to send spies on opposing units, sending you their Line of Sight. The Borg, well, assimilate stuff. And the Feds are just a rather all-around balanced affiliation - no glaring strengths or weaknesses, though many of their special abilities are more defensive-related than offensive (though you can use these abilities for offensive methods, depending on what your enemy does). Is game balance good? Yes, as if we didn't have it the game wouldn't last a week. But this does mean that some things had to be scaled down a bit. For example, a Borg Cube is only about twice as powerful as a Warbird/Negh'Var/Sovereign, assuming no special abilities (probably moreso if they use them, as the Holding Beam lets you assimilate their ships and turn them against them). But it's something I can easily deal with, given that it makes the game enjoyable - otherwise, everyone would always play Borg. Of course, that does mean that I have to listen to everyone complain on the message boards... While on game balance, people who worship the Defiant class as if it were God itself (with impulse engines attached to his back) are in for a bit of a disappointment. But then again, I'll still hold true to my belief that it isn't the end-all ship to begin with. First, it had $20 million of acting talent manning the helm, so things are going to be a bit skewed in its favor. (So why don't I ever hear people defending the fact that the Galaxy is far superior to Borg Cubes - we never saw one lose to a Cube!) Second, it rips through B'rels and Dominion Attack Ships. Big deal. We never saw it plow right through a Warbird with three phaser shots, or a Dominion Warship, or whatever. Even when it was against the alternate Worf's Negh'Var, it still took a lot of firing to just scratch the ship, and the only thing that saved it was its maneuverability. So I think it is as it should be. But I know I'm in the minority here. Graphics: While not the greatest in the world, they're rather good. Then again, I'm using a two-year-old 3D accelerator, so I haven't seen "truly stupendous" yet. They're not the most detailed, but they're not chunky boxes either. They've actually probably found the best balance between graphic detail and game performance - making them too good would just result in system slowdowns. Campaign and its Storyline: Everyone I know said that the storyline was better than Insurrection, though I'm not quite sure if that's exactly saying much. However, time travel is always a hit, as is a massive Borg invasion. You get to play four missions with each race, then four final missions with a three-way treaty against the Borg. While the Federation missions feel like a tutorial more than anything else, you actually get to flex their might in the final missions (though they'll be competing for attention with the other two races). Each mission has a cutscene before and after the mission using the game's graphics engine. Again, not the greatest, but still rather good. Each mission has an episode feel to it, with the title appearing in the ol' TNG blue in the upper left corner, and often a captain speaking about the upcoming mission. Yes, there's some missions that are your standard destroy-everything missions, like in every Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game. But there are others. Like escorting a Romulan Containment Vessel with eight various Romulan ships (and only those ships) through Klingon territory with the Borg hot on your heels. Or surviving an all-out attack from a superior Klingon force until Worf's ship arrives, which you then must get to safety. Or starting out with just Locutus' Cube and almost no way to get dilithium resources - forcing you to assimilate your fleet with the one Cube. (And yes, the game rather logically explains how Locutus is there in the first place, and no, it has nothing to do with the time travel I mentioned earlier.) Voice Talent and Hero Ships: Just about every RTS has "hero ships" (more-powerful-than-average ships you start with but can't lose by any means), and this one has its fair share (you actually control five at one point!) - the Enterprise-E, Sela's Warbird, Martok's Negh'Var, Locutus' Borg Cube, Worf's Defiant-class Avenger, and the timeship Premonition. They actually got Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Denise Crosby, and gang in to do the custom voice-overs, which sound really good. Boarding Parties: If you can kill a ship's crew and get your own crew onto the ship or station, it's now fully yours. Nothing quite like running around the map in a Klingon Cube! Borg Holding Beams and Klingon Commando Teams, plus their above-average strength, make commandeering/assimilating easy. However, Romulans are weak in hand-to-hand battles, making them prime targets... if you can find their cloaked ships. Of course, all affiliations can knock out a ships' shields and stop firing at it, instead beaming crew over to battle the opposing crew. How much you have to send over depends on how much the opposing ship has, and the strength of your crew. It will take a couple Warbirds worth of Romulans to take over a Borg Diamond, but it will take far less Klingons. But there's nothing more fun than assimilating half of your opponent's fleet, then turning those said ships against him. ;-) I also like how an assimilated ship has a few patches of Borg "grid-stuff" or whatever you call it, like Voyager had at one point (see picture). Of course, I like to skip most ships entirely. The thing I love to go for are either Starbases or Construction Ships. Construction Ships can build any structure for their race (and starbases build their construction ships). So if you take over such a ship/base, you have the potential to build every ship of that race and use all their special weapons, given time and resources. Nothing's more beautiful than taking over a Romulan Construction Ship as the Borg, and sending in Phoenix "superweapons" (more on that later) to enemy bases using the Borg's Transwarp Gate. Mwa ha ha! >;-) Nebulae: There are five kinds in the game - one damages ships systems, another kills your crew, another is an effective "safe haven" (disables weapons and deflects most weapon fire from the outside), another increases a ship's repair rates, and the last is the Mutara nebula straight from Star Trek II - no shields, slow movement, and limited visibility. A few say that nebulae aren't used enough in the game, and I agree, except for a few multiplayer maps. Others say they're virtually pointless, which I must disagree. I just love "dragging" a battle into a Mutara nebula, where the tactics change a great deal - suddenly your Borg Cube's powerful shields are no more! Or you can play a cat and mouse game with your construction ship (which has no weapons and is rather slow) and your opponent's Defiants through a Radioactive Nebula. If they aren't careful, their crews (80 people) will die, and their ships will become derelect. You can then tractor beam the ship out of there with your construction ship (500 crew), take the ship back to your base, and add it to your fleet. You can park a scout ship in a blue "safe haven" nebula for a long period of time (eventually some shots from outside will connect and will destroy the fragile ship) and enjoy the "spying" opportunities. I for one can't wait until the day when the map editor comes out, and I can make a map that's 90% Mutara nebula, with a few dilithium moons in the middle and no place to build a mining station except near your base. This would open up a whole new set of strategies... Retreat: Retreating... a viable option in an RTS? Believe it, kiddies. In StarCraft (at least when it first came out), many units did not heal themselves (ships' systems will restore themselves over time in Armada), and to repair them actually cost resources. If your Siege Tank was 75% damaged, it would cost 75% the cost of a new Tank to repair it. Why bother? Just let it keep firing until it's destroyed, and build a new one. In Armada, it's better to repair. First, repairing a fleet of ships is a lot faster than building one new battlecuiser, even if you have to cross the whole map. Second, it's free in terms of dilithium - you still need the crew to restaff the ships, but I almost never have a problem with my crew totals; dilithium reserves is pretty much always the limiting resource. Third, if you decommission a ship, you get back the amount of dilithium you spend to build it, plus its crew and officers. And it's easy, too - just click the Repair button, and the ships will form a beeline to the nearest shipyard. Besides, dilithium is often finite, so you're far better off to repair as much as you can. Finally, for the first time there's more strategy than throwing units at your enemy's base, and waiting to see how much they destroy before they die. Now, you'll send a few in to attack, and when their shields start to wear down, retreat, and bring in another wave. 2.5D: Is the game played on a 3D map? No. However, it isn't exactly totally 2D either. Pretty much all the gameplay action takes place on a 2D map - you can't really make your ships go up and down. A tad disappointing, but they keep the game simple and easier to manage. However, there are a few 3D-ish aspects to the game, which the next two points get to. Cinematic View: This mode lets the graphics engine shine, and provides some nice eye-candy. While it can slow down low-end systems a tad (but it can be turned off), it's nice to have. You can always witness what's happening where the action is at on a small window on the toolbar, as can be seen in this image. With a double-click or a press of a key, this window takes over. You can zoom around, observe different ships from different angles, follow a ship as it moves, or even follow a torpedo as it closes in on an enemy. Quite nice. Unfortunately, it's a tad awkward to navigate in, and almost impossible to issue orders. Unfortunately, there's really no time to look at this feature closely in a big battle, which is where it would shine. Director's Cut: First of all, I have no idea how they came up with this name. What it essentially does is make ships take evasive maneuvers. When it's off, it's just like you're playing any RTS - a unit would get within firing range, then just stand there and start firing. No effort to dodge any incoming fire: it just stands there motionless and fires away until you order it to do something else (or it dies). With the mode on, however, ships actually move around and try to dodge fire. While this doesn't always work, it doesn't really matter. Even if it does nothing, it makes the game look and feel more like Star Trek. It has the unfortunate effect of making ships with pulse weapons (like the Defiant) weaker because of some flaws in the Artificial Intelligence (AI), but it's a price most players are willing to take. (Ships like the Defiant get off a few initial shots, then just hover as they try to "push" themselves back into firing range, but usually to no avail...) The picture here shows how ships take (limited) advantage of 3D to dodge attacks. Now you won't see that in StarCraft or Age of Empires... Multiplayer Levels: The maps you can use for multiplayer and "Instant Action" (basically a multiplayer game, but only against computer opponents) are OK. Some are rather interesting and unique, but others are rather predictable variants of the same map - how many levels exactly have an unlimited moon in the middle of a ring-shaped nebula in the middle of the map? Unfortunately, there's no way to "randomly" generate a map for a quick game. This, however, should be fixed when Activision releases its promised Map Editor, which should be released sometime in the coming weeks. While the available maps are good and there are a few of them (about 15-20), they do become a bit tiring after many games. However, there's a range of maps to choose from, designed for anywhere between two and eight players. A nice feature of the multiplayer maps is the infinite moons. Most moons only have a limited supply of dilithium - once you mined its limit, you'll have to get your dilithium from another moon. Infinite moons are, well, just that - infinite. There's usually one or two on most multiplayer maps. Needless to say, these moons are key, especially in a long and drawn-out game. It forces a lot of interaction between players, and these moons are primarily fought for all game, even moreso than opponents' bases. If you control such a moon, you definitely have an upper-hand. Another nice feature of multiplayer games are their many features. There are tons of user-defined options available for you to set. Want all moons to be infinite? You can do it. Want to start off with a lot of dilithium? Doable. Want everyone to start off with a Construction Ship from each race? You can do it. Prevent Science Ships from being buildable? Done. And so on and so forth. Players can form teams and alliances, too. No Rushing: Anyone who has ever played a multiplayer game of StarCraft (at least before the expansion packs; I haven't played since then) knows of the infamous Zergling Rush. Zerglings are weak alone, but can be generated quickly, cheaply, and in large numbers. Bases have no defenses at the beginning, so a Zergling Rush was just about impossible to defeat, and the game ended before it really even started. It definitely had a negative effect on multiplayer games. However, if you try to rush a starbase with a few B'rels, you're in for a nasty surprise - not only do they have a lot of shielding (well, so do the StarCraft bases), but they have a number of pulse phasers armed. A small swarm of small destroyers are no match for a starbase - they'll barely put a dent in it, and that dent will be repaired before any other ships can get there. This ensures that you'll actually get to "play" the game before the outcome is decided. Ferengi: OK, so this isn't much, but it's funny. In multiplayer, it's possible to set the Ferengi option on. In this case, Ferengi ships will tractor and tow away derelict ships, unless you restaff them very quickly. It can be really funny when in the middle of a major firefight, you hear "A Ferengi Vessel has taken one of your ships!" ;-) Obsolete Units: As with other RTS's, the further you advance in a game, the more powerful units will become available to you. If you start off playing the Federation, the only offensive ship you can build is the Defiant (I don't count scout ships because their weapons are a joke - their main function is to explore the map). Build a Science Lab, and you can build Akiras and Steamrunners. Add an Advanced Shipyard, and you can build Nebulas and Sovereigns. In games like Age of Empires, once you are able to build the more powerful units, the old ones you have suddenly lose a lot of their value, and you basically never build them again that game, as there's really no reason to. Not so in Armada. OK, to some extent, once you get some of the bigger ships, the Defiant definitely loses some of its value. But let's say you're hunting Romulans. You have to detect cloaked ships. The only units that can do this are sensor arrays and scout ships, both of which you practically start off with. Your big ships can't shoot at what they can't see, and they can't see without some of the most basic units in the game. Another favorite of mine are Borg Interceptors. While the weakest Borg ship with weaponry (again excluding the scouts), they can be built with Transwarp abilities. So this makes them instant reinforcements, no matter where they are on the map, even if you don't have the Transwarp Gate built yet. And in the middle of a battle, your shipyards can quickly built these things, which you can instantly send right to the battle. They're little, but often every little bit counts. Superweapons: This is somthing that makes each of the races unique. At the top of their "tech tree" are unique superweapons. The Federation can build a Temporal Research Facility that can "freeze" all enemy units in a given radius for a certain period of time. Needless to say, a decent fleet could them wipe out those units with ease. The Klingons can build a small, fragile ship that can sacrifice itself, sending a subspace ripple out, destroying everything in its path (see picture). The Romulans have a similar ship, but it forms a subspace rift, basically destroying everything within a given radius. The Borg have the Transwarp Gate, which they can use to send fleets anywhere on the map - including behind enemy defenses. They're balanced, and can be countered with some effort, but a smart player can use these creatively to win the game. Federation base getting attacked, and your fleet is far away? Halt the attack with the Temporal Facility long enough to get your fleet back. Opponent block the only way into his base with a lot of torpedo turrets? Transwarp behind his base and catch him by surprise. And so on and so forth. Distractions: Finally, they work well in an RTS! Send in a small ship, and draw the fire from the big ships behind it. Or send in a ship, have it run away, and see how many other ships decide to follow it. It's nice to see this tactic actually work, which seemingly usually doesn't in other RTS's. Crew: All RTS's have a money system required to build units, and usually a command system (which is upgradable) limiting the number of units you can have out at once. Armada adds crew, which are needed to run starships. Each ship needs a certain amount of crew to build. You gain crew at a steady rate, and this rate can be increased depending on how many starbases you have, and their location. The more crew you have on a ship, the more efficiently the ship can attack and repair damaged systems. If some die, you'll need to either beam over ample reinforcements from another ship, or recrew at a starbase. It's just another thing you have to worry about in fights. Though it usually doesn't matter much - your ship is often destroyed before the levels get dangerously low - it can be annoying, and very much a concern near a radioactive nebula or when Borg Assimilators are in the area. No Limits: If there's a limit to the number of ships you can build, I have yet to reach it, and I've spent a few hours trying. I believe that there is a limit, but it's ridiculously high. In some other RTS's, once you reach a certain size, you can't build any more until some of your units die. This makes multiplayer more interesting for Armada - you can have long, drawn-out battles if you wish. Screenshots: Hit CTRL-ATL-Z, and what you currently see on the screen will be saved as an image file. What does this do for playability? Nothing. But it's a really nifty feature to have. You can use it as evidence when you do something spectacular. It lets players take full advantage of the graphics engine. Some of the shots are so nice, they can be used as wallpapers for your desktop (the one on the top of this article was used quite a bit by me). You can build a site featuring some images. And if that's not enough, you can throw a few images into an article on a small, homemade e-zine based on some card game. ;-) (Please note that all screenshots appearing on this page, plus most on the web site I just linked to, were made by me. I'm using a two-year-old graphics accelerator (a Voodoo2 bought back when they first came out) on a Pentium II 233, which just passes the minimum requirements. Keep this in mind when judging the graphics of this game.) Potential Add-Ons: This game has a lot of potential to be expanded upon. Naturally, there are a number of Federation ships missing, and a Klingon or two. We even see a few Ferengi, Dominion, Cardassian, Breen, and Son'a ships in the campaign missions here and there. Hey, if they can make a fun Romulan race with only one ship (some can argue that the Shadow Class is close enough to STCCG's Science Ships and the Talon Class is like the Scout Class), what can they do with affiliations like the Dominion, Cardassian, and Son'a, which already have two in the game? I'm sure Activision could make some good new ships to balance them out, just like they did with the non-Federation races. This would lead to more variety, perhaps bigger tech trees, and more ship types. And not only that, more campaign missions too. There's already been a lot of requests about this, and the game isn't even a month old. Mods: Don't like the power of the Defiant or the Cube? Can't wait to build Dominion ships? There are already a number of unofficial modifications made to the game by players, certain to keep you busy for hours. Intro Movie: The introduction movie has a number of good CGI battles, and scenes from various points in the storyline. It's rather good. But then again, it's hard to impress a Final Fantasy fanatic - no one can match the quality of their FMV's... The Armada intro is available to download (requires the Bink Player, 1.2 MB, PC-compatable only). Warning - this file is about 45 MB large! THE BAD WON.net: Unfortunately, due to a deal that Activision has with WON.net, all of the multiplayer games have to run through WON's servers. WON has a reputation among net gamers of being unreliable and full of lag. Usually I don't have many problems when playing multiplayer games, but sometimes everybody's just kicked out at once... AI: There's two problems with the AI. First, the pathfinding. If you tell a ship to go from point A to point B, you'd expect it to find the most efficient route. Sometimes it just runs into asteroids, and just stays there until you manually move it again. What's worse is that it won't even defend itself if an enemy attacks it. Another problem on the same lines is when you build ships. All constructed ships meet at a set point when they're done. The problem is that they really try to meet at that exact point - they continuously fly around, looking for a way to exist in a space that already has a ship. While it doesn't have too many effects on the game, it's just extremely frustrating that they couldn't fix such a simple problem. The second half of it is that the AI for a computer opponent is too easy at points. Computer opponents are easier in Armada than they are on corresponding settings in StarCraft. Sometimes the computer gives up too early too. For example, if all the moons around their base have been completely mined, sometimes the computer opponent essentially just sits there and waits for you to kill him. Thoughout the game, sometimes they only make two monderate-sized advances against you if the AI is set to Medium. The Manual: A copy of the manual is downloadable here, in PDF format (about 1.6 MB). However, you're not missing much. It's perhaps one of the most worthless collection of pages bound together. And that's a bold statement from someone who had to read Jane Austin novels in high school. The manual is basically 100 pages of nothing. They give a brief background of each ship class and each structure, but they don't tell you any real statistics about them. I've also yet to see a cross-reference (i.e. "see page 88 for more details") that actually points you to the correct page. When you look up to see what Director's Cut does on page 94 (after all, it's not like you can tell what it does from the name), you'll have to search around for a few minutes before you realize that it's really on page 90. Oops. And do you want to know what those icons in the multiplayer area when you're looking to join a game mean? If it weren't for common sense, you'll never know (and even with common sense, some of their meanings aren't very apparent). Ship Stats: In StarCraft and Age of Empires (the two other RTS's I have played before and know best), if you select a unit, you can see how much damage it does, how much armor it has, etc. For example, in StarCraft, a Marine might do 5 points of damage per shot, and a Tank might do 30. For Armada, you can see how much shielding and how much energy the ship has (used for the special weapons that each ship has). But how much more firepower does a Sovereign have than an Akira? How much stronger is its hull? How quickly does it use up its energy when using its special weapon? Well, you're just going to have to find out for yourself, and even then you'll only get a rough idea. I know that it takes 80% of your energy to shoot a Chain Reaction Pulsar, but a new player won't know this. This would be perfect for the manual... but they didn't seem to deem it necessary to put it in. Instead, they show a picture of the Akira, and give some worthless historical background behind it. Yipee. My enemies will be trembling in fear when they find out that my Akira was put in production in 2370 to provide offensive strength and support to Starfleet’s Armada. (I just realized as I'm writing this that I probably accidentally threw out my Armada Manual with my last pile of trash. As you can probably tell, I'm not exactly losing sleep over this...) Random Slowdowns: Every so often, the game can move slower than normal. Of course, this can be expected if you move two large fleets together and have them fight it out. But oddly enough, the game moves surprisingly fine during the large battles. Instead, the game seems to lag behind a bit at random intervals. Very odd. Also slightly related is that the cutscenes before and after a mission can lose frames here and there. No, it doesn't slow down, nor does it try to quickly render the missing frames; it loses frames. It's kind of weird when you hear Picard talking, but still see Worf's mouth moving... Shallow Tech Tree: All you need to build your most powerful starships are three structures (in addition to your Starbase and Mining Station) - a Shipyard, a Research Lab, and an Advanced Shipyard. In most games, you can build these three with your starting dilithium. Not exactly a long wait to start building Warbirds, now is it? At least the Superweapons take a bit longer - their costs are relatively high. Upgrades: Each ship can have a special weapon added to it. However, the strength of a Vor'cha's phasers at the beginning of the game will be the same as they are at the end of the game. In other games, it's usually possible to upgrade the attack power of a unit, like 10%, followed by 20% and 30%. This way, the upgraded unit will have an advantage over one without upgrades, and will find more use later in the game. Armada has no such upgrades - apparently the scientists in the Star Trek universe like to call in sick a lot. So an undamaged Defiant will always be evenly matched against another undamaged Defiant. Asteroids and Black Holes: Asteroids were hailed by Activision as creating new strategic possibilities. That's true to some extent for moving asteroid fields - if your ship makes it into an opening, it can avoid an attack, as asteroids basically move the same speed that ships do. However, 95%, if not more, of the asteroids in the game are stationary. Basically, they just sit there and form walls. They make space seem needlessly 2D. As for black holes, their only effect in the game is they suck in and destroy ships if their engines are disabled. Whoopie. They're useful if you're using a Steamrunner's Engine Overload or Fek'lhr's Repulsion Wave, or if you get a really lucky shot in with the Poleron Torpedo. Other than that, it's totally pointless. If your engines are offline, it means that your shields are down, and that a few of your other systems are down, and the next shot will very likely destroy your ship. In other words, the ship will likely be destroyed before it even makes it to the event horizon. To make matters worse, black holes are usually tucked away on the edges of maps, where the action never happens. Basically, they're just sit there and do nothing 98% of the time. Short Campaign: There are only 20 missions in the single player campaign, with the first two or three Federation missions being nothing more than training exercises where it would take an awful lot of effort just to lose. So in essense, there's only really 16-18 missions, and they're not as long (on average) as missions in other RTS games I've played. Most other RTS's have 30 or more missions, it seems, and a map editor to make even more. At least the potential for add-on missions is very high in this game... No Instant Action Saves: Feel like playing a quick game against a few computer opponents instead of a pre-defined mission? Go right on ahead. You'd better be able to finish the game in one sitting, however, as you can't save the game at all. This could be very annoying in an eight-player game... Mouse Control: Sometimes when you try to click on a new unit, the game doesn't recognize it. So I move a fleet to one location, then click on a new ship, and have it move somewhere else. Unfortunately, the game didn't register you clicking on the one ship, so it moves your fleet to the secondary location. I often, out of habit, click on my new ship 3-5 times to make sure that the game registers the click before I give it orders. Such problems are just plain annoying and unnecessary. THE UGLY (AND OTHER EVILNESS) Activision: So, Activision announces a list of 100 people who won the chance to be a beta tester for Armada's single player missions. A friend of mine was among the 100. However, less than a week after this list was announced, the game went gold (aka Activision declared that the game was finished). He received his beta CD in the mail the next day. Boy, he got to send in a lot of input, didn't he? Within a couple of days, the game was on the shelves. Was the game ready to be released? Heck no. It still had tons of bugs in it, a few of them listed below. So why release it? Simple. First of all, Force Commander, a Star Wars based RTS that Armada was competing with, was being released on the same week. Second, could the fact that it was the last week of Activision's fiscal year have any effect on the rushed release? Hmmm... maybe... Activision has never had any moral qualms about releasing games before they were done, or even playable in some cases. Just about all their releases have more bugs than Windows when they're released. Their corporate policy is "If it compiles, ship it. We'll patch it in a month or two. Until then, let the money roll in." Activision: So, the game is now out. You go and buy the game, rip open the box, install it, and try to play it. But it won't load. You try to alter a few settings, and it still won't load. Then you read the README file, and you find out that Activision didn't have time to support the i810 chipset (one of the most popular chipsets on the market today) before it was released. Oops. Sorry. Wait a month for us to patch it. Until then, thank you for your business. (Note: Activision released a beta patch a couple of days before this article was published, so it theoretically works with the i810 now.) Activision: So, you get it to load up. And you're playing the game, and having fun, and close to winning. Then the game just cuts out and you see your desktop. Oops. Sorry. Hope you weren't playing an Instant Action or multiplayer game, since you can't save those. (The patch solves most, but not all, desktop drop problems.) Activision: So, you're in the store, deciding whether or not to get the game, and you're reading the system requirements on the box. You need 32 MB RAM to play the game. "Hey, I have that!" you say, and buy the game. You go home, install it, and try to play it. But it won't work. Why not? Because the game needs 32 MB RAM, not your system. Have Windows 98? Win98 uses 24 MB RAM at all times, leaving you with 8 MB of free RAM if you only have 32 MB RAM on your system. Since you don't have 32 MB free, you can't play it. Oops. Sorry. Activision: They say that graphics acceleration is highly recommended. They might as well say that it's required - their software rendering is just absolutely horrible. I had to play games in software mode before I got a 3D card two years ago. Final Fantasy 7 is over two years old, but looks very good in software mode, considering it's running on a P2 233. But Armada, well, sometimes your units are the same color as your background. Not a good thing. You also have to strain to tell whether the ship on your screen is a Sovereign or an Akira. Also not a good thing. So if you don't have any hardware acceleration, don't even bother with this game. Activision: In my area, the computer stores are rather competitive. If a game you buy doesn't work on your system, they'll let you return it. Sure, they lose a bit of money this way, but it's all in the name of customer service. However, because of Armada's problems, they had to revamp their strategy - they won't accept Armada returns. I called local stores. One estimated a 40% return rate over the first two weeks, another said about 50%, a third said as high as 60-70%. Now that's bad. But then I have to wonder, how much of this is because of the game itself? Sure, the game didn't work at all on i810's, and had major problems on most GeForce cards. But then there's the Jupiter. Not every STCCG player has a good enough system to run it. Others don't even have a PC. So what's to stop them from buying the game, taking the card, and returning the game? The problem is compounded with the fact that the card is going for insane prices on the singles market - over $30 on eBay. Considering the game costs about $40-45, that's just horrible. A lot of desperate collectors might be taking the easy and dishonest way out. But either way, you'd better be sure that your system can run the game, because you might not be able to get your money back. On another note, I saw a display of Armada games at a local store last week. All of them were without shrinkwrap. Were they returned games being resold? Did someone remove the wrap to get the card? Who knows? But with the prices that the Jupiter is fetching online, if you want the card when you buy the game, you'd better be certain to get one still in the shrinkwrap. Activision: You start up the game. "Please insert the Armada CD into your CD-ROM." Ah, copy protection. OK, so you put the CD in. "Please insert the Armada CD into your CD-ROM." Oops. Sorry. Can't play it, I guess. Activision blamed this problem on Windows, but I actually haven't heard of this problem with any other game before. But then again, that's just me. Supposedly there's a patch on Microsoft's site, but it's almost impossible to find because their knowledge base is just programmed horribly. And if I were a player with this problem, it won't be the first place I'd check. And Activision's site doesn't point this out, except in the occasional BBS posts that quickly float off the board. Activision: Do they even know their game? It says it's for 1-4 players. However, only one player can play the game at a time on the same system, unlike some 1-2 player games (like sports games on a Nintendo or whatnot). Second, you can have eight player games online. Does Activision even know what their own game does? Activision: So, you play the game for hours, and after mastering every race, you beat the game. And right as the ending starts... the game freezes. Oops. Sorry. This was a problem that affected the majority of users, no matter what their system specifications were. It didn't freeze on the software mode... but software mode is horrible, as I said before. Luckily, the recent patch fixed this problem for me, but it was a very frustrating problem for the first couple of weeks. If you have a system that can run the game, it's actually really fun. I'm not sure how much "staying power" this game will have, but the potential for expansion packs should make it enjoyable for quite a while. I've been enjoying the game for a few weeks now, as my system didn't have many problems with the game (except for the freezeup at the ending). But the latest patch should fix most of the problems, and a final version of the patch is due out soon. Overall, I'd have to rate the game a B+. It's good, but there are a few lingering bugs and the game might not be popular for too long. However, it's easy to learn, and the special weapons of each ship make things interesting. But if you do play and get the game running, don't even think of challenging a certain "Alidar Jarok" to play a multiplayer game... if you want to win. :-) Alidar Jarok alidarjarok@wnohgb.com http://force.stwing.upenn.edu/~bwa/armada/ Comments about this article? Post them on the WNOHGB BBS!