One would think that Star Trek and real-time strategy games would be a match made in heaven. So when Armada was released back in spring 2000, the two entities combined should have created a phenomenal product. Yet Armada ended up playing more like the C&C and Starcraft clones on the market and did not fully recreate the Star Trek experience on the PC. This time, Activision, along with Mac Doc Software, have released Armada II. Like most sequels, Armada II takes the best qualities from the first, and integrates it with new features in the second. The result is that Armada II is a remarkable improvement from the first game, but still ends up falling short.

The story of Armada takes place during the Next-Generation series, where the Federation and its allies have successfully defended the Alpha Quadrant from a Borg invasion. The Federation wants to finish what they have started, and proceeds to take the fight to the Delta Quadrant to eliminate the Borg. Meanwhile the Klingons stay behind to make sure the Romulans or Cardassians don't get any funny ideas. The Borg has been backed into a corner, because not only do they have to deal with the Federation, but they must deal with an alien race only known as Species 8472.

As you may have guessed, Armada II introduces the Cardassians and Species 8472 (sorry, no Dominion here) to the real-time strategy game. However, they along with the Romulans do not receive the full single-player campaign treatment as the Federation, Borg, and Klingons. However, for the three factions that are available in the single player campaign, they have been given more missions than in the first Armada. The number of objectives has increased as well. One of the many complaints about the first Armada was that the missions were too easy. Well, I'm here to report that while the campaigns are more challenging this time around, the missions are not that hard to complete once you fully understand your enemy and your objectives. With only a total of 30 missions (10 for each race), the single player experience doesn't last as long as I had hoped.

Gameplay:

Probably the single biggest change to Star Trek: Armada II is that we now play the game in a full 3D environment. That means that you can build and deploy space stations and ships at different levels of the playing field. While pressing the shift button, moving your mouse will determine the height at which the selected unit(s) will travel. Once they have moved to a different level, they will remain at that level until either your order them to another level, or they engage in a battle. To help you keep track of what's going on in the map, Armada II to switch from several different camera views, allowing to see possible weak points that would not be possible from a 2D perspective. Unfortunately, you may find yourself playing from the 2D perspective when going up against the AI, because they always travel at the same level. You can find the AI space stations at different levels of the playing field, but the assault and battleships remain on the same plane.

Another feature that they have implemented into Armada 2 is the ability to warp. While the idea of using the warp feature in a real-time strategy game sounds great, Armada II fails to fully utilize the feature. I will never claim to be the biggest Star Trek fan, but of the episodes that I have seen, but I have rarely seen a ship being hit while in warp. Not only do they get hit in Armada, some ships seem to take more damage while in warp. Another reason the warp feature is not as effective as it should be is because the maps themselves are not really that big. Had Armada II went the way of Conquest: Frontier Wars and implemented a multi-map system, then perhaps warping may have been a more exciting and useful feature. But as it stands, it nothing more than a faster method of moving around the maps.

They have beefed up the economy and resources system with new resources metal and latinum. Metal is a primary resources when building the more powerful ships, and latinum is the currency needed to by the resources that you need. Don't have any latinum, then get your resources the old- fashioned way: mining. Mining is not just restricted to just dilithium moons, as planets and nebulae also contain valuable resources as well. It is even possible to colonize some planets, increasing the number of crew available to join your fight. By constructing a trading station, you can send valuable resources to other stations and to your allies across the map. Even the Ferengi will dock in to provide you with some latinum. The is unique and can come in handy in certain situations. Yet the trading station becomes obsolete in multiplayer when you discover that you can send resources to any one of your allies by hitting the "comms" button.

People who have played the previous Armada will definitely notice a big change in the game's building and combat system. Stations like the shipyards are built at an even faster rate, while the tech stations such as the research facilities take an even greater amount of time to construct. The combat ships are no exception. The rate at which you could assemble an entire fleet is remarkable. It's not that building a ton of units at an enormous rate to blitz an opponent is a bad thing. It's the fact that they tried to do it using the Star Trek name that is bad. Ships in the Star Trek universe just aren't built that fast. Just as fast you build them, they are destroyed just as easily. It's amazing to see just how fast these ships can be obliterated. While the more advanced ships and further research help alleviate this problem, the ships and stations still fall apart rather quickly. The ships also are lighter, as all of the larger vessels have the turning speed of the lower class vessels. Seeing this, I almost bought into the idea that Armada II was focused more on action than anything else. Yet after looking at the admiral's log at the end of a match, I was convinced that more was planned for the game. The admiral's log, which displays statistics of a game that you have just played, is similiar to the "achievements" found in Age of Empires. In fact, at first glance, some may say that is an exact copy of the one found in AoE. But take a second look, and you will find that the statistics screen in Armada II is much more explicit and detailed. Every battle is logged, detailing which factions were involved, the fleets that were in the battle, and the ships that did or did not survive. It even has a detailed history of every ship and station, from the point to where they were commissioned, to the point of their destruction or decommission. It even details the ships that they have defeated and when they destroyed them. Now these kinds of stats belong in a game where units gain experience for their battles, not for a game that disposes ships faster than the US and its allies dispose the Taliban soldiers. Maybe we will see these role-playing elements in the future. Who knows.

The AI in Armada II is somewhat of a mixed bag. For one, the AI doesn't provide cover for some of its critical ships. Finding a group of mining ships traveling to an unchartered part of the map with no firepower to support them is quite common. Another problem is that the AI seems to have an unlimited line of sight, detecting you no matter how high or low you are. Luckily, Mac Doc has given us various AI sliders to adjust the difficulty to your liking.

Other than the Cardassians and Species 8472, there were not that many upgrades to each of the races. Many stations and ships found in Armada I are available in Armada II. Though some additions you cannot help but notice. One in particular is the Fusion Cube, which is essentially eight borg cubes fused. Another is the famous Next-Generation technique of saucer-separation, allowing one galaxy-class ship to be twice as deadly. The sometimes over-the-top special weapons from the first Armada have made a return to the sequel, and for the most part has remained unchanged. Some new special weapons include a shield enhancers, microorganisms (they eat away at the ship's hull), and nebulae generation. AI opponents in the first Armada were able to use the special weapon immediately, while human players would have to wait and manually activate the weapons. Armada II now allows you to set the frequency at which they use the special weapons. While some special weapons like Point-Defense Phaser, and Shield Enhancers fit in well with the overall theme of Star Trek, weapons like the Gemini Effect (creates a duplicate of the affected ship) seems out of place.

Graphics/Sound:

The graphics in Armada are not leaps and bounds over its predecessor, but is a significant improvement nonetheless. The all-new interface is the first indication of some of the improvements. The level of detail has been bumped up to an incredible level, coming even closer to the detail that you have grown to love from the tv series. The detail is not as good as Dominion Wars, but it is very close. They have scaled the ships more accurately now, but you really don't get to appreciate the model scaling fully until you have looked at the borg Fusion Cube and Colony Ship. The size of these units is astounding, and definitely intimidating. With the move to 3D, the planets and nebulae seem to benefit greatly, because now the nebulae are now more cloudlike than in Armada I. The planets also look more lifelike, though I prefer the more colorful planets found in Armada I. Many of the effects found in Armada I have made their way back into Armada II. However, one thing that did not make the transition is the explosions. When the ships and stations explode, they break apart very flat, as if they were constructed out of paper. The explosions that the stations give off are very enjoyable, but they are so big and massive that I am surprised that they do not cause damage to any nearby ships. When taking the ships to warp, the ships stretch, and stay stretched. This gives the ships in warp a very nasty look. The HUD also takes up 1/3 of the screen, which can become annoying as you put more ships on the screen. The minimap and the cinematic windows do not need as big as they are, because they take up much of the HUD room.

Many of the sounds that were in Armada I have also been carried over to the sequel. However, one thing that is missing is the cameo voices that were very present in the original Armada. I guess they were too busy with making the next Star Trek movie to be concerned with the game. Though Patrick Stewart does make another appearance and as usual, becomes the strongest and most defining voice that you can find in Armada. Armada II also increases the number of channels that are available from 8 to 32 that allows for a richer gaming experience. The support of hardware acceleration also takes some load off the CPU, which is need when you have tons of ships on the map at once. All of the races have their own distinct voices, and have been successfully translated from the series to the game.

Multiplayer/Devices:

The multiplayer is probably the true gem of Armada II, as it is the only way that you could fully use everything that the game offers. Armada II also shifts its multiplayer setup from Won.net over to Gamespy Arcade. For those that don't like GSA, don't worry because you can still join games via manually entering the IP address. The interface is more polished, but still looks familiar. The multiplayer games are even more configurable than the first, with options like cease fire (for the newbies) and AI sliders to make the opponent more challenging. Those who go online may want to watch what type of match that they get into. While matches support up to eight players, the game warns that any more than four players may produce some unplayable results. And for the most part they are right. Dial-up users should shy away from the 4+ player matches, because they will slow not only themselves, but everyone else. The larger matches are definitely for broadband and LAN users only. But as long as it is around 4 players, the game plays with very little lag. If you get tired of playing online, then an Instant Action mode is at your disposal, allowing you to practice and master some of the new races and their units.

With the increased ships and 3D environment, using hotkeys becomes an even greater importance. These ships blow up so fast that you need to be able to use hotkeys to keep a steady supply of ships coming to make even the most fortified defense's crumble. The devices like gamevoice and gamecommander will definitely come in handy and will be put to great use. Because has a separate hot key file detailing what buttons perform what functions, setting up profiles is a breeze. Once in a game, my overall efficiency went up as well as the time it took to complete skirmishes or missions when using the devices. It is something that every Armada player should have before going online, because the competition is fierce and unrelenting. Even if you don't have those devices, the MS Sidewinder Strategic Commander or Nostromo n50 SpeedPad are excellent substitutes, though they don't give you the overall commander feeling when using a microphone..

The Wrap-up:

In the end, Armada II is definitely a better strategy game than its predecessor. In fact, overall it is one of the quality titles the genre has to offer. However, It still does not manage to surpass the quality of games like Homeworld or Conquest: Frontier Wars, games that do a better job of recreating the Star Trek experience than Armada. Trekkers will find a lot to like with Armada II, but everyone else may want to turn to the more solid, polished products that are currently on the market.