From: Zach Keene Subject: Zach's Shooter Reviews: Armada [DC] Date: 1999/12/29 Message-ID: <386AAC64.4B16175C@bellsouth.net> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: en,de Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: news1.atl 946515150 209.214.53.35 (Wed, 29 Dec 1999 19:52:30 EST) Organization: Feisar is Fair? MIME-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 19:52:30 EST Newsgroups: alt.games.video.shooters Raymond McKeithen II wrote: > > Frank Chaustowich wrote in message > news:38688352.DC37EBB5@home.com... > > > BTW, just to keep this remotely tied to shooters, I picked up Armada as > > my first game (along with Worms Armageddon)... I like it, although I > > agree that it's hard to classify as a true shooter's game. IMO, of > > course. > > > > I'm interested to hear more about it. I've seen various opinions and > reviews, and it's still a game I may consider if it gets a Japanese release. Well, you asked for it. :) ---[begin review]--- First things first: "You got your DC RPG (Armada) so quit complaining" trolls notwithstanding, Armada is not an RPG. The back label of the CD case claims Armada to be an Action-RPG. Compared to how the "Action-RPG" label is usually applied (Zelda, Seiken Densetsu, Crystalis, etc.), that's a bit of a stretch as well. Now, the fact I'm posting this to AGVS with a "Zach's Shooter Reviews" title should make all this obvious, but I wanted to clear it up. STORY: 10,000 years ago, the human race left Earth and scattered throughout the galaxy. After such a time of living in diverse climates, several variations of the human race emerged. Unfortuantely, these differences served only to separate the various human races. An alien race known only as the "Armada" began to notice these human races and began attacking them. With no way to communicate with the Armada, the people had no choice but to fight. Six of the human races survived the Armada attacks and forged an alliance to fight against the Armada. As a fighter pilot, your mission is, well, to fight the Armada. PLAYERS: Up to four players can simulataneously fight the Armada. I'm guessing everyone plays on the same screen, as opposed to a split screen mode, but I've never actually played a multiplayer Armada game. (Heck, I don't even own a second DC controller.) GAMEPLAY: On the surface, this game plays a bit like Bosconian; you fly around a large open space (or more limited planet surfaces) and fight off various enemy fighters. However, it controls a bit more like Asteroids; the analogue stick controls your direction, and the left and right triggers are your Warp Engines and thrusters, respectively. The Warp Engine is simply a faster version of the thruster, except it drains your energy (more on that later) and creates a neat star-streaking effect. Your ship can also carry up to three Power Pods, which can be used either to create a massive Smart Bomb type explosion or refill your shields. Your ship has an energy bar that is depleted with use of the Warp Engine or from firing. You can still use warp or fire when the energy bar is depleted; the only ill effect is that your rapid fire rate is reduced with no energy. Your ship's capabilites will also vary depending on which race you select. The Terran ship, for example, has extra armour than the other ships and comes standard with homing rockets. The Drakken ship has a spread shot and gets extra money for killing Armada ships. This is all in the manual so I won't repeat it here, but you get the idea. What's that about extra money, you ask? Armada has incorporated a few RPG elements, so you do get experience and money for destroying the enemy or completing missions. Every time you gain a level, your ship gets more powerful (better shields, more damaging shots, etc.) Every four levels (until after level 44) you can get an upgraded ship, as well, which is usually larger than your old one if nothing else. Which is nice since your level 1 ship looks like something that escaped from Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh. :) You can also use the money to buy Ultratech items, to give your ship extra capabilites like more powerful shots, homing missiles, beam weapons, protection against beam weapons, etc. You can sometimes acquire these items from the wreckage of destroyed enemies, but this happens with a regularity that makes the Pink Tail in FF4 seem like a common item. Anyway, the point of this game is to complete various missions that the people on the homeworld give you. Most of these are of the "fly to coordinates (x,y) and kill big baddie", but there are a few courier missions as well. If you forget to note where your current mission takes place, fear not; a green arrow will point in the direction of where you need to go, as well as tell you the distance. You can also take part in optional escort missions, where you defend a large ship from enemy attacks for a while for some extra cash. DEATH PENALTY: Not much. You get three lives; after dying you simply reappear where you died with the usual few seconds of invincibility. After you use your three lives, you are returned to the Homeworld and get another three. And so on. CHALLENGE: Well, as with many games with an RPG level up system, it's as easy or as hard as you want it to be. If something is kicking your butt, you can simply gain a few levels and ship upgrades, then come back and return the favour. Or take it on at a low level anyway if you want a challenge. I understand that playing multiplayer can unbalance the game towards the easy side though, even at low levels. GRAPHICS: Simple but effective, I guess. The standard Armada ships are pretty dull-coloured, mostly shades of grey. The other Armada ships (the Brain-types, Shells, etc.) are fortuantely a bit more interesting looking. There's this odd fog that is omnipresent throughout (most) of the Armada space, but I guess it's there to give you a sense of motion that you might not otherwise get, except with the Warp Engine's starstreak effect. MUSIC: The music is fairly quiet in this game, actually. It's not bad, but chances are you'll probably not notice it very much, especially since you'll probably be too busy blasting stuff. CONTROL: I have no complaints here, but then again I seem to be one of the few that really doesn't mind the design of the standard DC controller. I've heard people complain about the triggers though, so I'll point out that you _will_ be using them extensively if you intend to actually go anywhere in this game. OVERALL: 8/10. Armada is quite a good game IMHO, but there are a number of flaws. One, the game is rather short, since you have only 31 missions. After that, you can still fly around and power up your ship (there is no true ending to this game), or explore the near-infinite space (although there's really not much to see beyond a radius of 30000 units from the Homeworld). It can get a bit repetitive at times, since an overwhelming majority of your missions are of the "fly to (x,y) kill enemy" type. You can start a new game with an old ship, which might appeal to the folks who actually use the save function of Radiant Silvergun. :) Also, there are many hints about it being possible to end the game peacefully by finding a way to communicate with the Armada; any such plans unfortuantely seem to have been dropped. So, in closing, Armada is definately worth at least a rent, if not purchase. But if you missed out on the EBWorld pricing screw-up, you might want to wait for it to come down in price some before you pick it up. Zach Keene ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Author of many FAQs: MK2, FF1, Einhander, CSOTN, AGVS, G3, and G.Darius ftp://members.aol.com/fnlfanatic/arcanelore/ alt.games.video.shooters - Visit it again for the first time! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "The freedom we lost cannot be re-conquered cheaply, but however high, it's a price worth paying." - Robert Miles -----------------------------------------------------------------------