Shock and Awe, no diplomacy! (Star Trek - Armada II (PS))

Member Name: Orgasmatron

Product:	Star Trek - Armada II (PS)
Date:	22/03/03 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Overwhelming force wins out, must be mindful of resources

Disadvantages: diplomacy doesnt keep the enemies away, limited officers

This review is a long time coming. The first time I bought this game my girlfriend "accidently" stepped on the disk and broke it. She hates when I play my games and tune her out. She would prefer that I sit there quietly staring at the tube watching MTV with her, which I hate. So here we are me playing my star trek game on my laptop sitting next to her as she watches replays of the "real" world all night. Well only one night a week.

So after waiting a significant amount of time I managed to purchase the game again at a lower price then originally purchased. This game is your typical battle strategy game where you have to build up resources, supply lines, bases and last but not least an armada to complete your objective. Your objective is different in each scenario but all pretty much end with the total destruction of your enemy. You have the opportunity as you work your way through the game to command the starfleet ( earth's forces ) then later the Klingons, the Borg, so on and so forth. Within each scenario you have the opportunity to gain advances beyond that of the previous scenario.

Game play was relatively smooth and bug free. The graphics are great. The real time motion of the battle sequences makes it a bit difficult to control all of your ships at the same time. You do not have the ability to direct each ship independently with enough time to prevent their destruction so you pretty much have to group them together and issue broad commands. The little movies between game play makes the story line interesting...although I really dont get to hear it because I have to keep my volume on mute to make sure that I do not disrupt the MTV viewing pleasure of my girlfriend.

Basic idea...You start with a given set of objectives, you quickly figure out the best way to approach these objectives. I mean quickly because in many scenarios you will be overrun by enemy forces relatively quickly. In fact in one scenario...I
will not say which you have to retreat relatively quickly in order to survive. After you pick a spot in space to begin your armada building....preferibly somewhere relatively safe with abundant resources nearby. Resources you will need include planets to be populated for crew, dilituim moons for the obvious, latinum nebulas, and planets with loads of metals. You will need to mine all of these resources equally. You will also need to build scientific research centers, shipyards, trading stations and defense positions. It all takes a good balance of use of available resources. unfortunately you are ultimately limited in the size of your armada by officers. You are given a set number of officers you can use at the beginning of each scenario so you have to balance their use. You cannot build an overwhelming force like in Iraq.

Interesting enough I tried to play the game going the diplomatic route and each time I was eventually overrun and destroyed. My enemies would stay at bay until they had the total upperhand and then they would wipe me out. The best defense is a good offense. The UN would not be good at this game. If you are a fan of the UN or a peace demonstrator then this game is not for you either. You cannot talk the borg into living peacefully with you. The only want to see you totally converted, uh I mean assimilated or destroyed. If you can find where they are producing their weapons you should take them out asap, and keep a close eye out because they try to rebuild quickly whereever they think you are not looking.

Overall great game if you are into military strategy games with a science fiction twist to it.
Bad choice if you think you can debate your way out of harm's way...

Summary: