E3 2001 Hands-OnStar Trek: Armada II

Activision has two Star Trek games at this year's E3, one of which is Star Trek: Armada II, the sequel to last year's real-time strategy game. Currently, the game is about three weeks away from reaching alpha status, but even at this early state, it's clear that the development team is working to fix all the problems that plagued the original. The storyline in Star Trek: Armada II is actually quite complex and worthy of the attention of even the most hard-core Star Trek fans. Essentially, the Borg have constructed new types of ships that are capable of assimilating entire planets in just a few short moments. Along with Jean Luc Picard, you must engage the Borg and prevent them from using this new technology on important planets, like the Federation home planet, Earth. At the same time, the Cardassian Empire has its own problems--a militaristic faction loyal to the dominion starts to attack Federation shipyards and outposts, but as a sign of loyalty, the Klingon Empire joins the fray to fight and defeat the rogue faction. And last but not least, the Romulans and Species 8472 start their own little scuffle--the Romulans draw the new alien race into the alpha quadrant for the first time in the Star Trek universe.

A number of improvements have been made in Star Trek: Armada II, but first, the basics. There are now 27 missions in the game, spanning across the several different races included within Armada II's deep storyline. There are also 50 different types of vessels, which have been designed specifically for Armada II. Most of these ships have much more specialized functions, as the design team wants to balance the importance of individual ships. For example, the Borg have several different variations on the basic cube design, like the harmonic, which almost looks like an accordion, but it works well in disrupting shields on other ships. There's also the assimilator, a small pyramid ship capable of assimilating alien technology. But the most impressive of all the Borg ships is the new fusion cube, which is basically eight cubes put together, and as you can imagine, it's quite massive. The development team also plans to include at least 30 multiplayer maps to make Armada II's multiplayer a little more enjoyable.

The addition of new multiplayer maps isn't the only new feature in multiplayer--there are plans to include a wide variety of multiplayer modes that appeal to a much wider audience. For example, there are going to be variants on capture the flag, in which participants must infiltrate enemy areas to capture a flag and bring it back to their own bases. There's also going to be a king-of-the-hill type mode in which you fight with other players until one player successfully takes a designated area, and if you successfully manage to fend off other players from the territory, you win. Lastly, Armada II features a somewhat unique cooperative mode in which you and another player can control the same base, but it's up to you to decide what your tasks are. For example, the other player can be responsible for monitoring resources while the other manages unit construction.

As far as new gameplay additions, the most obvious is the ability to warp. In the previous game, ships could not warp, making it tedious to send a group of ships from one side of the map to the other. But now that they can, it becomes incredibly easy to send a large group of ships to an area located far from your base, but you must be careful because enemy ships can still fire at you while in warp. Other new features include a trade element--here, you can establish trade if you don't have enough of a particular resource. There are new formations in which you can order ships to fly, such as the X-formation, which is when all your ships line up in an X and stay that way until ordered to do otherwise. One of the last big changes is the addition of a more extensive mission summary display. In this screen, you can get all kinds of information on the battle, such as the effectiveness of a particular unit, the number of resources you've used, and much more.

It's obvious that the developers want to make Armada II much better than the previous game. They've improved upon many of the game's features and added new ones that make the game much more entertaining. Even the graphics have received some subtle improvements--many of the new ships have a very high level of detail when the camera is zoomed in close on the action. The beta for Star Trek: Armada will be ready by midsummer, with a full retail release following in the winter.