Publisher: Activision, www.activision.com
Ages: eight and up
Parental Advisory: This is an in-depth strategy game.
If you've always wanted to lead Federation starships into combat, as well as seek out new life and new civilizations, Star Trek Armada II is worth considering. As the name implies, Armada II is the follow-up to Activision's first rate Star Trek Armada. And as a sequel, Armada II goes beyond the original game with more complex battles and deeper strategic elements to offer an engaging experience that's set in The Next Generation universe.
After repelling the Borg from the Alpha Quadrant, Starfleet plans a major offensive that has the potential to eliminate the Borg forever. You'll not only lead starships into battle, but have to maintain a delicate balance between six races through three linear campaigns and 30 missions where you play from the perspective of the Federation, the Klingons, and the Borg (10 missions for each).
As in the prior Star Trek Armada, you command large numbers of ships from a top down view, but this time, you can experience the action in an attractive 3D mode that depicts the battles as you would see them in the movies. While this is an improvement over the flat overhead 2D space of the prior title, I found that the top-down view still offers the best means for controlling your forces.
The game comes with over 45 new ship classes and 22 new special weapons. I like the way that I could set ships into formations and travel at warp speed, which lets you quickly bring in reinforcements when you need them. In the game, you'll harvest new and different resources, which adds depth to the game's strategic options, and there's trading in the game's economic system. In all, it's a solid strategy system.
There are impressive multiplayer games that let you compete against up to seven players, and here, there are additional civilizations to control that include the Romulans, Cardassian, and Species 8472-each with their own ships and weapons. Graphically, Armada II looks much like the first game, which is good, but perhaps a bit dated. I enjoyed the well done sound effects that added to the game's experience.
Overall, Star Trek Armada II is more complex than the original Star Trek Armada, and I appreciated the enhancements, as I think most players will. It's a stronger game that should satisfy the real-time strategy junkies, as well as the Star Trek fans who want to simply act as Captain Picard.
