Rating: 
Summary: Age of Empires in the 24th century
Review: I play Age of Empires frequently, so when I started reviewing data on Armada 2, the similarities became obvious. Don't worry, I won't rant about a lot of the games problems( it's actually kind of comforting), just a little nitpicking thing: scaling among the ships. The Federation's Sovereign-class is roughly 700 meters long, while the Borg Cube is over 3 kilometers in height, length, and width. You do the math. Other than that, the game is SWEET. The ship classes all tend to have special weapons, which once researched, make for an interesting show when they enter battle. The map is filled with eye candy, the various objects and areas can be used to your advantage ( let's see your opponents warp directly into your base when it's built in the gravity well of a black hole!), and the super weapons, OOOOHHHH BOY!!!!!! Let's just say that they all have potential to take big chunks out of your opponent. A tactic that is REALLY fun is transporter attack; you beat on the shields of an enemy ship until they fail, then beam over crew members to try and take over the ship. NOTE: DOESN'T WORK ON SPECIES 8472. Also, I'm not too optomistic about this working on the Borg or the Klingon and Romulan super weapon ships. All and all, the game is gold.
Rating: 
Summary: Bridge Commander Sheds Light on Starship Life
Review: Bridge Commander allows you to truly feel what it's like to command a starship. Even if you haven't seen any Star Trek movies or episodes, the realism of Bridge Commander will make it seem like you are actually participating in an episode. With 3,000+ polygons per ship, you will be amazed by the awesome graphics of the new game. Also, with a fully interactive storyline and up to four different endings, you will not be forced into a storyline like other games. Additionally, Bridge Commander boasts over thirty missions ranging from battles to full-fledged exploration missions. It would be unwise to pass up another great Star Trek game like this one. Overall, I'd rate this game a 5/5.
Rating:
Summary: Resistance is futile... but frustration may vary!
Review: I was surprised to receive a copy of Activision's Star Trek: Armada II for Christmas. The mid-morning of the 26th, I turned on the computer and loaded up this bad boy. After a complete installation of 1.3 gigabytes (that's including the need for an extra 100 megabytes of hard drive space for a Windows swap file), I sat back and let Patrick Stewart's voiceover carry me through the opening movie. Armada II picks up six months after the events of the first game ends. Although the Borg were beaten back by the combined Federation, Klingon, and Romulan fleets, they have returned with a deadly new planetary assault vessel capable of assimilating an entire world. To prevent the Borg from gaining a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant, the Federation is launching the first-ever assault against the Borg in the Delta Quadrant. (In one of the battles you capture a new kind of transwarp portal that allows Starfleet to travel to the Delta Quadrant.) With Starfleet off in the Delta Quadrant, the Klingons are left playing peacekeeper in the Alpha. But the Klingons are having problems of their own - the Cardassians. In the mix for good measure are the Romulans and Species 8472. Got all this so far? Ok. That's just the story. Armada II as a game is a whole other story. Visually, Armada II carries over the best elements of its predecessor. The graphics are great for an RTS - the colors rich and vibrant; the ship and station textures distinct. With the new 3-D perspective (which you can toggle between that and 2-D) and the new tactical feature of fleet formations, Armada II has gained much ground over the original. Game play has changed significantly also. The new structures, ships, and enemies make Armada II more challenging. Combine this with the new economic component, players gain a more tangible, realistic perspective to the managerial tasks of interstellar combat. The need to colonize worlds for crew reinforcements; building orbital mining facilities to extract metal to build your fleet, and the need to harvest both dilithium and latinum to purchase or trade with other players or non-player characters is a unique consideration missing from other Star Trek games, while not taking away from your combat objective. Now for the bad news: Armada II can be very frustrating to play. Even without the economic considerations, new ships, technologies, and races, Armada II is still a difficult game to play... and at times even boring. I've just gotten through the first nine mission of the Federation campaign after many grueling hours of game play and a lot of saves. Yes, the objectives change from mission to mission, but to keep fighting the Borg successively is a bit draining. In the original Armada, your mission varied between fighting your enemy to locating a lost ship or outrunning an enemy fleet while still remaining within the original context of the story. So far it's just hunt and kill, which stays with the story but gets redundant after awhile. Couple this with some game restrictions like the 600-officer cap (which limits the number of ships and stations you can build) and the frustration mounts. I began the game employing the same tactics I used in the first Armada but I had to quickly discard that strategy. This might seem like a plus because the game wouldn't be like too much like the original because that would be predictable, right? Wrong. The AI in this game is less responsive when you need it to be and more aggressive when you don't want it to be. In addition, the older ship classes are not as resilient as in the first Armada, which means they can't hold up as long in a firefight as they used to. I used to send in my construction ships as a decoy to lure enemy forces away because they had stronger shields and a high crew compliment. Not anymore! Also, the construction time for ships and facilities is drastically shorter making combat that much longer. The faster a fleet can be built the more you have manage and the more the game becomes cumbersome. Don't think this is a problem? Try sending a fleet of Defiant-class ships against a Borg cube while trying to build your support stations and then we'll talk. Or did you think you'd have enough metal or dilithium or crew personnel to amass your defenses? Still unphased? Now try to go on the offensive. You'll score little damage against an enemy shipyard when it can build a dozen ships in under five minutes to defend itself. Although this creates a higher degree of difficulty and lends credence to the war-aspect that Armada II is centered around, it can turn a two-hour mission (real-time) into a three day event! I like a game that won't end in two hours but I don't like taking two weeks to complete one board - and I'm not even up to the Klingon campaign! Gameplay aside, Armada II hangs from time to time during the cinematic cutscenes. The audio and visual sputter probably because of a RAM drop (a technology issue) and I'm running a full install with over a gig free of storage, 128MB of RAM, and a 40x CD-ROM drive on a PIII 733 processor (you computer geeks understand what I was saying). Other than load time and minor performance problems, Armada II, so far, is a worthy successor to the original. The story is enticing (the voiceover work by Patrick Stewart, Alice Krige, and J.G. Hertzler a plus), the combat challenging, and the game play generally fun. Although my review is mixed, I do like the game, but I still have a lot to go. I don't think anything will change my opinion, but if it does, you'll be the first to know. Right now, I recommend Armada II to any Star Trek gaming nut who enjoyed the first one and has been disappointed by almost every other Star Trek title published in the last two years.
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Summary: What you need to know about Star Trek Armada 2
Review: Revised Star Fleet Recon Report,
post-patch (01-28-02)update: Technical Stuff:
The game is nearly bug free, but if you are running XP and/or an ATI graphics card get the patch that will fix issuses with those two things, then buy two copies from Amazon! Have your drivers updated and have 2 Gigs of open space for the game/swap file and any Admiral's Logs and screen shots you save. There have been reports of the game freezing up during missions but not with everyone so it may be specific situations. Some have reported trouble playing on the internet but the reasons why vary. The game design is sound and it runs out of the box and better for some after the patch is applied. Graphics, sound, and all that jazz:
Looks good, sounds effects great, music repetitive, interface a little large but it can be minimized in part or whole. TONS of options in MP and Instant Action, game can be edited beyond that in root directory (ODF's, AI, etc.) Reinstall function is nice for when you mess something up as it does not overwrite your mission progress or preferred settings. Plot and missions: Takes place after Armada 1 and before Janeway's return from the Delta Quadrant. 30 missions, final battle is an apocalyptic confrontation between a combined Federation and Borg fleet vs. Species 8472 in Fluidic Space. Trek Canon:
If you are looking for 'trek canon' this isn't it, Galors are stronger than Galaxies and Defiant-class vessels are not very strong. Cubes are not unstoppable, but Fusion Cubes are mighty tough. Gameplay:
All six races are supposedly equal, although the Klingons seem a bit to strong. Each race's tech tree may seem daunting at first but you will gradually get use to it. Ship upgrades do wonders.
This game is about fleets, so don't fret if you lose one ship, just build more. The Officer cap limits the number of ships you build (settings are 300, 600, 800 and 999 officers). Species 8472 only needs piolets, no crew, but they only have so many of them (1/4 as many as the officers for any other race).
ALL races depend on resource gathering, you MUST gather what they need or you will lose. The ships build fast, you just need to get the stuff to build them, the game is won or lost on the economic front sometimes before the battle ever takes place. If you are using one of the four Alpha Quadrant races take advantage of the trading stations. The Borg, use the Recycler. Species has its own unique ways to economically dominate. Don't get soft playing on infinite resources all the time, that is for beginners and 'fooling-around'. Notes:
The Sovereign-class ship for the Federation is just about worthless without the Corbomite Reflector, so keep building Galaxies. The Galor-class for the Cardassians is strong and has great firepower. The Keldon's special is frighteningly powerful. The Negh'Var is good. Borg Fusion Cubes are expensive but once you destroy 20+ ships in one battle with one you will not mind the resource burden. Standard Cubes are good. The frigates, science ships, marine ships, and artillery ships are worth building as they can save you warships if you use them right.
Specials are hard to utilize by hand so use the autonomy settings to compensate, the computer may waste them sometimes but it is either that or get destroyed before you get it fired off. Unless you want your ships wandering all over the place set the movement autonomy to medium or low. 'Artificial Intelligence',the Computer as an opponent:
The patch fixes this so the game's value is not all MP on the internet. The computer still falls for just about any trick you can pull on it. But it can manage resources and defend its base better than before the patch. The AI still needs a handicap to give you a run though and this is why it doesn't get five stars. Conclusion:
The game is good, the patch is welcomed, but the AI is not as good as it could be. But then again this game can be modded so the AI may start trashing people after some tweaking. Jason out.
Rating: 
Summary: Reasonable game
Review: After getting this game, I realeased this game was not like the original. It seem that Armada 2 is more for resource gathering than starategy. They game's graphics are quite goodbut, they seemed to concentrate on the gathering of resoruces. Also, many of the ships are higly expendable. In Armada 1 losing a soverign class ship, was a big loss, now you can shrug it off and build more. Also, I didn't like the fact that they limit the amount of officers you can have. I loved to bring in a enoumous armada and wipe out the enemy, but here, it just seems that once you have a certian amount of vessels, you need to stop, I didn't like that. The basic strategy seems to be, get control of all the moons and planets on the map, and then just wait until u can make a fleet of vessels and move into the main base. I have also found that i seem to be losing interest once i begin playing, unlike the original. Also, what the heck happened to the opening movie, it's horrible. I gave this 3stars because after playing it, u slowly start to get into it, but it takes a lot of time., at least it doesn't take forever to install, and it doen't have too many bugs
Rating:
Summary: This game is fun.
Review: This game is fun. That's why I got the game. If you are into this sort of thing, buy this game. Most likely, you will think this game is fun. It gets old after a while, but don't all games get old after a while. DOES THAT STOP YOU FROM BUYING THEM!
Rating:
Summary: Another view
Review: Yes to some degree I was disapointed, however I have always had my doubts about a 3D RTS game. Think about it, its pretty tough to pull off. Activision probably did the best that can be done (Unless someone can inform me of a game that does it better) Second, I would like to resond to the comments on ships being to fragile. That the smaller ships are rendered useless against larger ships. What I want is for anyone who says that to play me in a game and see how effective your handfull of cubes would be against over 100 sabres (which can be produced in under ten minutes from the start of the game). In my opinion smaller ships have the advantage over larger ships. In this game they have capped the officer level at 800, which severly limits the amount of battleships one can build. Not only that but the largest ship you can build now requires more technology before you can build them. And in regards to the fact that the ships in general are "made of paper," there is a new station that allows upgrade in shields, weapons, engines, etc... (trying reading the manual...it helps) On to the diffuculty level, in Armada 1 before the 2nd upgrade I was able to take on 3 allied hard computers easily. When they came out with the upgrade i couldn't do it anymore. The reason for this is that they made the computers more powerful by giving them faster build rates and less production costs. Armada 2 provides the player with the option of both an easier game and a harder game. For the beginners who find it difficult to keep up with fast computers, a slower build rate and high costs for the computer can be set. And vice versa, if you are a "trained vetran" you can set them to the opposite. This effectivly allows the player to customize the difficulty level to his or her own playing skill. (One suggestion for those of you who want a challenge, try playing a borg hard opponent with these setting set to the hardest level. All I can say is wow! Have fun with that one) The single player portion of the game was rather dissapointing. The plot (so far) is not as involved as Armada 1, I liked the Omega Particle idea, and from what I have seen so far the plot has not intrigued me. Also I wish they had made single player missions for the other 3 races: romulan, cardassian, and species 8472. Maybe and expansion would be in order (hint, hint Activision lol) All in all I enjoyed this game, the graphics are very well done, the new races, ships, and technology provide more stratagy options. Thanks Activision and keep up the good work.
Rating:
Summary: This Game Rocks!!!!!!!!!!
Review: When I first heard that activision was making a sequel to Armada 1 I was overjoyed. Because though Armada 1 is a great game there are so many things that could be better. The main thing was the graphics. They were good for the time but they could have been better. In Armada 2 the graphics are indeed superior. Also the game field is in full 3D unlike Armada 1 in which it was 3D on a 2D plane. In this version there are 6 playable races instead of the original 4 and each of the 3 campaigns has 10 mission instead of the original 4. I could go on like this all day but I want to play the game! It is well worth the money and I recommend it fully to any Star Trek or RTS gaming fan.
Rating:
Summary: Great Follow Up to a Great Game
Review: This is a wonderfully fun and very intricate game. My only complaint is to agree with the other reviewers who think the smaller class ships are now so weak as to be hardly worth building. I usually just gamble on not building ships till the research station is done so I can begin with Akiras. I'm also a bit surprised that the second edition of Armada featured only 4 storylines to play in, just like the first game, but don't particularly mind as I ususally play against the AI in Instant Action mode anyway. One reviewer writes that the AI is too easy to beat, but I find plenty of challenge given that the game allows you to raise the stakes by playing against multiple players -who you can set to cooperate with each other if you wish (otherwise every player attacks everyone else). Sometimes the AI screws up and only has one or two opponents go active, while other ones just sit around --but usually you can get really challengin and interesting games. I also enjoy that in Instant Action mode, you can now set maps to be generated randomly, which also adds to the possibilities. I've never tried to play someone else over the net, given a pathetically slow 56K connection, so can't comment on inadequacies there. I really enjoy this game, especially the addition of ship formations, more detailed AI settings, and adding the Cardassians and Species 8472. At worst, one could say it is similar enough to Armada I that if you tired of the first version within a few months, you won't gain enough to be drawn back in by the second. But if you still enjoy Armada I, months after having finished the setpiece battles it provides you, then I don't see how you can be dissapointed with this game.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't ask for help from Activision
Review: Don't buy this game if you want to play multiplayer games on a LAN. I enjoyed the original Armada and couldn't wait for this one. I had multiplayer issues in the original and hoped that the new version would fix those. Boy was I mistaken! I went to Activision for assistance and was told that my network configuration was too complex! I meet or exceed all the system requirements for this game and the network protocols I have installed are the basic ones you have if you have a broadband interenet connection (especially if you use AOL). I tried the fix that Activision suggested (removing all but the barest protocols, thus temporarily disabling AOL) and still couldn't connect a multiplayer game! As with other reviews I found the ships to be too weak in this rendition. I did enjoy having more races to play with and I enjoyed the multiple views feature during battles. I also enjoyed the resource management changes. I am a Star Trek fan and purchase most Star Trek based games. However, I would probably not buy another Activision produced Star Trek product. Given the poor level of customer and tech support provided by Activision I'm not sure they deserve a chance at a third strike.
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