Customer Reviews

Star Trek: Armada

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

As a long suffering Star Trek fan who wishes that not almost every ST PC game turns out to be a stinker, I am glad to report that this game turned out to be playable. Like Blizzard's Starcraft, you control each of the 4 major ST: Next Generation races in turn (Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Borg), solving a series of liked scenarios for each, all linked through a common storyline. I'd wait until a patch was available before buying it though. If the bugs were fixed, I'd rate it a 4-star.

The good parts: The graphics are really terrific, with smooth animation and effects that really add to the game. Several different unique ships for each race, each with its own special abilities. The ability to capture enemy ships and facilities. The campaign scenarios are varied and interesting. The game interface is simple and user-friendly.

The bad parts: The campaign is really short, the AI is none too bright and the game has some serious stability problems (crashed on starting, crashed on saving, crashed on loading).

For many years Stars Wars games from Lucas Arts such as Jedi Knight have been superb and high quality. This is unfortunately not true from Star Trek games such as "Birth of the Federation" which are downright dull and boring. Almost all Star Trek games with the exception of StarFleet Command have not captured the essence of the Star Trek Universe, and have not been known as good games. StarFleet Armada changes this, and in a drastic way. Using the popular RTS format it succeeds in making the Star Trek Universe enjoyable, and allows you to control ships you always wanted to see in action such as the Defiant. It answers many questions concerning how many Defiant class worships would be required to blow up a Borg Cube. The minimal requirements are ectremely low considering the beautiful eye candy that abounds in the game from a wormhole opening to the destruction of a Federation Starbase. The game is fun to play, and was well worth the wait. To say that it is a complete innovation is a lie since it borrowed alot from Starcraft in the way of story driven missions, and the special weapons idea. However for Strategy lovers or Trekkies this game is a blessing. I doubt it will sell millions like Starcraft or Halflife. However it will have fanatic following. Buy and be on the fun side of the Borg.

I am about %30 through this game. It is a Real Time Strategy game which borrows several design and layout themes from Starcraft. This is not a bad thing. Armada delivers a hugely satisfying real time strategy experience, while also pushing every Star Trek fan's button you could hope for. After seeing the intro movie I was PRIMED to play this game. And the missions deliver; varied, challenging(not too bad on medium difficulty) and featuring great ship, environment and battle animations. Add to this nebulae, fog of war, cool ship capture options and special weapons and you get an experience that is fun to play and as a real bonus - a real time strategy where there are no true "throw away" units. Great job by Activision bringing this game to the masses!

I have been playing Armada for the past two weeks. It is a great strategy game but does have a few bugs. In a previous review a user stated he/she has had problems with AMD Athlon processors. I have not had such major problems running the game on mine. It has crashed and kicked me out to windows a few times but not on a regular basis. To solve this, I make sure I am saving my game periodically (so you don't have to start over from the beginning in your current mission). When trying to complete the Romulan missions is when it seems to kick me out. When this happens the game actually "forgets" that I have completed the last Klingon mission and states that I must complete my Klingon mission before moving further in the mission series. This game is by far better than Interplays Federation as a strategy game. Overall the game is great and I highly suggest any Star Trek fan to purchase.

The basic real time strategy algorithm is alive and kicking. This is inevitably true with releases like AOE2 which succeed despite trite RTS implementations.

ST: Armada is basic RTS set in the Star Trek Universe. There is little here for the non-avid Star Trek fan. I personally love Star Trek, and have watched the series since the first episode of The Next Generation aired. This release lends itself very well toward Star Trek fans aching to take hold of the Enterprise-E, the Defiant, a Romulan Warbird, and so on.

Although this game does have a 3D engine, and a cinematic mode, chances are that the most of the time will be spent in a top-down strategic view. The cinematic view is nice to pop to during controlled battles, but otherwise, it's pretty useless (although it does sometimes remind you of some of the Star Trek TV scenes).

The graphics are decent, but no marvel. The engine is solid, but nothing fancy or extravagent. The thing that gets this release such support from ST fans is the sound. Your favorites can be easily recognized in the sound bytes. Phasors, photon torpedos, the stunning female voice of standard Federation ships. That, included with speech recorded by Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, and some of the other well-known Next Generation and DS9 actors, makes for a wonderful feeling of Star-Trek-ness. Although the ship commands do get very repetitive. Something about Worf continually screaming "Get us out of here, maximum warp!" continually when you click a space an inch away... However, the sound quality (at a decently high volume) isn't perfect. Lots of noise can be heard in the background of the voices. (You'd wish at least they'd have the decency to record these in a digital studio)

As I stated, this title is by no means extravagant. Like many of the other ST titles, Paramount is milking its fans for all they're worth. Their motto is a little development, and rely on the name. I can envision a Star Trek armada with a true 3D interface, a stunning graphics engine that does justice to the universe. I can envision an Armada with brilliant, digital voices and sound effects that trumpet along with a beautiful crystal-clear soundtrack... Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Due to lack of spending by Hasbro and Paramount on development, this game does not live up to all it could be. Don't get me wrong. There is still a lot of fun to be had with standard RTS in the Star Trek universe... I just wish I didn't have to manuever the Enterprise around concocted asteroid+nebula mazes.

In any case, if you're a Star Trek fan, you'll enjoy it. If you're not, you might want to look at something with a little more development time.

Star Trek Armada is : A very good game!

What do you get when you have millions of trekkies or trekkers wanting to play Star Trek on a broad level but don't want to be restricted to one race? You get the latest game to hit the compters, Star Trek Armada. Now you can control multiple starships ranging from Federation, Klingon, Romulan and our favorite, the Borg.

Following some of the same guidlines found in Blizzard's Starcraft, you must play 4 chapters in the struggle with a fight to fend off the Borg. You mine dilitium moons and build starbases in space to amass huge armadas of ships to do battle with. Each chapter focuses on a specific race that you must control and successfully complete each mission. It does make for some fun game play and insight into a story created for this game.

The graphics are very nice and you do get a sense of what it is to control ships and manage space stations in space. Although alot of the screen is taken up by menu boxes that can be removed, the ability to zoom out my have you scrolling like crazy to manage your space battles. As for the cutscences, they are not anything to write home about, but they are nice.

The gameplay is a little awakward to get used to. You are limited on what you can build depending on your mission and even then it is time consuming to build up a sizeable force. This would have been taken care of if you were able to manipulate your ships more instead of moving near another ship and firing. I really wish they would have allowed you to allow your ships to make evasive manuevers rather than just sit next to enemy and exchange fire until one is dead. The ability to have more control over a few ships would not make it necessary to amass huge armies of ships to attack the enemy terriortory. Being able to target specific systems on ships with firepower would be nice too. Are you listening Activision? I hope so. At least enemy ships do the the brains to retreat when they become heavily damaged. But even so the AI is not too smart.

Overall this game is very nice and enjoyable to play. I especially loved playing the Borg (who wouldn't?). As for bugs others encounted in the game, I found none and you can download patches to add additional ships to build if you desire. The replay value is very minimal unless you focus on the multiplayer side. Activision has taken a good step in making this game. They have many of the basic conceptions right on the money. All they need to do now is add more functions and polish the game up a bit. I will definetly purchase any sequels to this game that might come out in the future. So Activision, plot us a course and "Engage!"

I am not a big gamer, but I really enjoy Star Trek, so I figured that this might be fun. I was wrong. The game is a total blast.

Forgive me for not commenting on technical aspects because I don't know enough about it to do so. What I do know is that this is a fun and challenging game to play and to watch! The graphics are cool, the opening movie sequence is very impressive, and the "plot" for the single player game is respectable.

Patrick Stewart, Denise Crosby, Michael Dorn, and H.G. Hertzler lend their voices to the game, reprising their respective characters from "Next Generation" and "DS9", and it gives the game an excellent feel of authenticity and continuity.

I've always been a big fan of starships from the "Star Trek" shows, so that makes the game even more enjoyable. Build your fleet and send your ships into battle! The strategy aspects of the game are decent, and a good deal of micromanaging is necessary, so your skills as a gamer and a tactician all come into play.

The only suggestion that I would make is that Activision produce a follow-up package with more ships. There are a lot of great ships missing from the game. For instance, the Galaxy-class, Excelsior-class, and Miranda-class were all major parts of the TV shows, as was the original Klingon Battlecruiser. They may also benifit by adding original series ships like the Enterprise-A or the Romulan Bird-of-Prey.

I found the game fun, challenging, and worthy of the "Star Trek" name.

Being a Star Trek fan, I had high hopes for the game. The preview trailer was exciting and the demo was fun to play. Once I got the game, I played it for four hours straight! I just couldn't stop...I was hooked! Until...the game suddenly just...stopped. "What the-?!"

Overall, this could have been the best Star Trek game I've ever played. You get to be the good guys and the bad guys. Building ships, starbases, taking over ships, and unique weapons made it exciting. The bugs were the only problem. The game needs a patch to make it stop crashing or else people would have to play the game saving it every 5 minutes.

Graphics were great, but could have been better in my opinion. I wished they had used the same graphics as they did in the trailer in between the campaigns. One small detail I was disappointed in was the ending, though. It kind of left me with the thought, "That's it?" (After all that hard work). I was hoping for an ending movie like the beginning.

I hope I didn't spoil anything for people who haven't bought the game. Would I recommend it? Definitely! I'm not going to sit here and say that this is the best game in existence or compare it to games like StarCraft and Command & Conquer, but I will state that this game is a whole lot of fun. Star Trek fans will love it just as I did. My advice is to save your games every 5-10 minutes...just in case.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to get this at first. I mean, after-all, if you really look at the previous Star Trek software that came out, it's pretty boring and useless.

But not Star Trek: Armada. Not only do you get the decide how to attack the enemy, you have to have at least a general knowledge of the Star Trek TNG episodes to do any good.

I also like the 'episode' way it plays. This way, you can complete one and don't have to worry about making sure you saved it to continue.

Anyone who loves Star Trek, and who has ever fantasized that they could do better in a battle than Picard, this is your game.

When I got my first Commodore proto-computer back in the early eighties this is exactly the sort of game that I hoped would one day be developed for home computers. If you are like me, you daydreamed alot about the various starship designs and the possibility of all-out fleet action between the Federation and the Klingon and Romulan Empires. Well, you don't have to do it in your mind anymore. Not only that, you also get the most overwhelming of all opponents, the Borg - and the chance to team up against them. Plus you get ships from minor races showing up, like the Ferengi, Jem Hadar, Cardassians, etc.

I couldn't imagine a better interface for controlling a fleet battle. It is very intuitive and smooth. And you aren't forced to run around constantly micro-managing individual ships. Plus you get that little cinematic "screen in screen" that lets you see individual ship-to-ship action like it was on a movie screen. A tiny little movie screen, but a movie screen.

Some reviewers have complained of technical problems and crashes- I've played this game through to the end at least three times now on an out-of-the-box standard Gateway, and I haven't had any problems.