But ask yourselves this: when was the last time you saw Picard spend half an episode overseeing the construction of an Orbital Processing Facility? Of course there are loads of small additions that will have fans of the original weeping into their warp drives. The fact that this is supposed to be set in vast and wondrous outer space just makes the whole thing even more ridiculous. The hackneyed formula of collecting resources and building units has been blasted out of the water by more sophisticated titles in recent times.

The ships still look like cardboard when they explode and there is so little strategy to speak of you wonder how they get away with having an 'sвЂ™ in their RTS. Besides thereвЂ™s no excuse for the presentation being worse, the graphics being no better and the story - the real saving grace of Armada I- being crap.

'But itвЂ™s less than useless,' IвЂ™ll retort. 'The all-new singing and dancing tactical view lets you command your ships in 3D!' theyвЂ™ll cry with indignation. It's already soldДЄnother warehouse load of copies in the States and filled entire message boards with praise, but at least I can wave an angry fist here and hope to provoke some insulting letters to Feedback. Of course, IвЂ™m pissing into the wind here. So yet again, you have to defeat the Borg from assimilating everyone. So you collect resources and build ships as you make your way through the nicely boxed-up campaigns. So itвЂ™s a real-time strategy set in the Next Gen universe and played over a flat map pretending to be space. ItвЂ™s the gaming version of Spot The Difference. And that is exactly what you are expected to do. Not that I didnвЂ™t find Armada /vaguely enjoyable, itвЂ™s just that I wouldnвЂ™t want to play it again. The original may have gone deservedly unnoticed over here, but in the US it was a big enough hit to ensure a cheap and quick remake was promptly knocked off the Activision assembly line. For now, though, we live in the age of Rush Hour2, HearвЂ™Say and Armada II. One day the games industry will be ruled by visionaries willing to throw big bucks at original ideas and create the same sort of atmosphere that Hollywood had in the 70s, when it encouraged the likes of Scorsese and Coppola to make their masterpieces. However, those who jumped in with this second game will probably get frustrated very quickly. If you have played the first game, you will be fine. The problem is the game really does throw you in at the deep end without much explanation for what you have to do or how you have to do it. The story mode is broken up into missions and these can take a couple of hours to beat each! Each one has its own objectives, but they all use the same RTS style gameplay. The story could be told a bit better, but for the most part, the premise alone here was more than enough to get me invested saving the galaxy. Captain Picard decides to just ignore his orders and go on the attack to try and stop the Borg menace once and for all.ДЄs a Star Trek fan and as a Star Trek fan who loves the Borg, I thought this was pretty cool.

It takes place shortly after the events of the first game and this time The Borg has a superweapon and they are able to assimilate a whole world in no time at all. The story of Star Trek Armada 2 is one that I thought was pretty damn cool.

Star trek armada fleet operations