Quote Originally Posted by Crandaeolon (from other thread) View Post
So, how is it? More information, pretty please? How would you compare it to, say, SotS or GalCiv2?
Um, give me a few more days at which point I should be able to give a more thorough opinion. (Ugh, so tired....) My thoughts at the moment:


The game is fairly easy to learn how to play. The UI & controls are reasonably intuitive, and the tutorial is pretty good at showing you the basics. The pop-up feature is a godsend; just place your cursor over something -- anything -- and it will give you a description of what you're looking at. Very useful for both new players and people who have poor short-term memory.

Colony management seems pretty decent; it's more complex than SotS but less so than GalCiv 2. (I've yet to decide whether the developer has successfully split the difference between being too simple/complex or if it just fails at being not enough of either). Every colony is different in terms of what kind of contribution it can make to your empire, as not only is the number of structures you can build limited by a colony's population; but also many systems grant bonuses and/or penalties to things like tax income, mining income, industrial production (which includes ship production) population growth, etc. (Example: You could have a minor colony that doesn't have the population or industrial base to build large ships, but is good at building small ships quickly.)

The game offers a good range of strategic choices: Do you build an empire of many less-developed colonies, a medium empire of fairly well-developed colonies, or a small empire composed of just a handful of heavily-developed worlds? Do go the military conquest route, make friends with your neighbors, just keep to yourself while you research your way through the tech tree, or something else entirely?

Diplomacy and AI are excellent, and is perhaps the single biggest area in which this game shines. If another race goes to war with you, it will have strategic reasons for doing so, not just because you left your colony of Proxima Centauri under-defended for a couple turns. The AI is not only *not* suicidal, it in fact behaves quite reasonably; i.e., if a race is losing a war to you, it will ask for peace. If you sign an alliance, it will help you out (and will expect you to do the same for them). It follows the old "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" philosophy; if you're getting your butt kicked by Race B who has a huge empire, Race C (who is concerned about Race B's growing power) may send you ships, money, etc. to help even the odds for you. Also, the diplomatic screen is laid out very nicely, and will automatically adjust the "weight" for different items; i.e., allowing a race to establish a trade mission on your minor colony of Sparta is worth less to them than allowing that same race to establish a trade mission on Earth.

In terms of ambiance, the game feels very "spacey" to me (which is a good thing). I particularly like the music and the art style. Visuals-wise, Armada won't blow you away, but it still looks nice enough IMHO.


At the moment, my main complaint is about the combat. It doesn't feel very "tactical" IMO, and this is furthered/hindered by a scant 3:30 battle time limit (which apparently cannot be edited/modded; grrr!). It's not too bad to look at visually and the battle soundtrack is decent, but Armada definitely doesn't have the deepest combat model I've ever seen.

I will also mention that the game is less customizable than GalCiv2. While there are 14 different races to choose from, you cannot create your own (at least not yet). Also, there is no ship design; vessels are like in BOTF in that they have set attack/defense/move stats and (sometimes) special abilities. While personally these things don't bother me very much, I felt it worth mentioning for those who like to customize everything in sight and tweak stuff to their hearts' content.



Despite any critiques I have about Armada 2526, the fact is I'm quite enjoying it. In fact, thus far, I'd have to admit I think I'm liking it more than even GalCiv2! It's not quite enough to overtake Birth of the Federation as my favorite space strategy game, but it might very well shoot up to #2 on my list. I still have to log a lot more playing time, though, before I can say that for certain. I'll try and keep you posted!