Wing Commander: Armada

The Good
The actual Idea of Flying around an uncharted quadrant, in charge of a whole carrier group.

The Graphics, good for their time (Scratch that, FANTASTIC FOR THEIR TIME)

The Ships, great ideas there

The Bad
The campaign mode is linear, meaning each campaign will be in the same setting

The AI in Fleet-movement mode is predictable

Its a pain to get running, even more so than usual.

The Manual is full of mistakes (for instance, No Banchee that I ever built had a Leech missle, only Wraiths.

The Bottom Line
How would you like to fly around a wing commander universe, in the role of Admiral Tolywn?

Yep? well, this is the game for you, in theory, anyway.

Starting with 30 resources, a carrier, and 2 Light fighers, your job is to, well, eliminate the Enemy Carrier. You can take on the role of either the confed, or the Cats themselves. You scout out new planets, build mines, shipyards, protect them with fortresses, or ships, and build up a huge force.

Thats Armada Mode, and its very good, if not a little predictable, because, at around turn 5-or-so, a large swarm of enemy ships will appear just outside you sphere of control, the Difficulty rating will vary this as to whether its comprised mostly of Light (Easy) Medium (Moderate) or Heavy (Hard) fighters.

You will find it almost impossible to loose in easy, as the AI will only very rarely build a ship that can destroy your carrier. Other than destroying the Carrier, the only way to win is to eliminate all of your enemy's holdings.

Dual mode is where you, in a ship, take on another. Wanna fight Dralthi-To-Dralthi, this is where you do it.

A Gauntlet mode, like in WCA is present, and presents itself much nicer than in WCA, using 3d Polygons.

Campaign Mode Sucks. Each campaign you play will use the same set of maps, one after the other. your performance in the last doesnt affect your starting in the new map, ie- you always start with a Carrier, and 2 fighters.

WC fans only.

Multiplayer is good. Either Network, or modem it, or SPLIT-SCREEN, something you see rarely on PCs, and it works okay.

In Short, Good, but needed a bit of work.