The visual presentation in Star Trek: Armada is so polished that it's almost inconceivable that Activision could have allowed the game to ship with so many rough edges in other areas. These other areas, however, combined to make the game almost unplayable for many people, especially those with GeForce video cards from NVIDIA. One of our test systems was equipped with a GeForce, and had the tendency to crash to the desktop at the conclusion of each mission. Switching to a Voodoo2 solved the crash issue, but prevented the game from running in 32-bit color, which detracted quite a bit from the visual presentation (and which limited the game's screen resolution and performance). Some GeForce users reported a host of hard lockups at various points, particularly in multiplayer, although our system was spared such travails. Activision has released a beta patch (v1.1) which addresses many of these compatibility issues, and later sessions with the patch installed ran with only one incident (a complete system lock-up). Anyone contemplating purchasing Armada should download the patch before removing the shrink-wrap.
Armada doesn't have a tutorial. Instead, the game uses the first several missions of the Federation campaign (which are incredibly easy) to ease you into the game. The problem with this is that the Federation campaign is only four missions long. Activision has chosen to present the campaign as a story which unfolds from the perspective of the four races (Federation, Klingons, Romulans, and Borg) in turn. Thus, each race only has four missions to itself. This is a great device for carrying the story forward, but lousy for gameplay as it feels very restrictive. The game can be played in skirmish mode as any of the four races (either solo or via multiplayer) but the mediocre AI limits the attractiveness of this feature as well. Another thing that diminishes the solo skirmish mode is the inability to save the game.
As a multiplayer game, though, Armada is quite fun. The varying capabilities of the races make for interesting encounters when each player takes a different race. The ability to transport aboard enemy ships and take them over leads to some interesting strategies, and when you get enough clever players together on one battlefield, Armada is very challenging. Multiplay is Armada's strongest point, and those with a preference for Internet or network gaming will find this title has far more longevity than players who are only interested in the solo play experience.
