System Requirements

Pentium 200 or equivalent 32 MB of memory (64 MB recommended) 16-bit sound card 4X CD-ROM drive 3D accelerator supported, but not required Pentium 266 required for software mode.

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	Activision
	Star Trek

The idea of Star Trek: Armada is simple - gather enough dilithium and train enough crew to build a huge fleet to crush the opponent. The action in each mission is centered on your starbase, which trains crew and builds construction and mining ships. There are also shipyards for building fleets and other facilities in which you can research special abilities.

Over 30 ships are available, and each side -- Federation, Romulans, Klingons, Borg -- has its own unique fleet.

Fans will recognize most of the ships, such as the Federation Sovereign, Galaxy, and Defiant classes, the Borg cubes and the Klingon Bird of Prey. There are also are a variety of new ships, including a Borg "diamond," the Federation Akira class and the Romulan Shrike class, which carries the nefarious Romulan spy.

Each ship has at least one special ability, such as disabling an enemy ship's engines to draining its shield power into your own. More unusual abilities include the Gemini Effect - which creates a duplicate ship in a different location - or the Psychonic Blast, which causes a target crew to kill each other.

Each race also has one very powerful ability that can turn the tide of a war. The Federation's "temporal stasis device" can stop time, for instance, while the Romulans have a ship that creates a spacetime rift that destroys everything in its wake.

Unfortunately, even with all these abilities, 30 ship types still isn't quite enough - dedicated players will find themselves wanting still more designs to experiment with.

Pretty pictures and lots of detail

Most of Armada's graphics are exceptional. Each ship and space station is portrayed in full 3-D, the shields change colors when hit, and ships spin out of control when their engines are damaged.

Supporting detail is at a similarly high level. Each ship has its own name, crew and onboard systems like life support and weapons can be damaged and repaired.

The game interface also features a clean, easy-to-use design. The all-important special abilities are easy to call up - if you have more than one ship selected, the game even lists their special abilities in their own menu for quick access.

Unfortunately, not all the graphics work. There are too many pointless multi-player maps, and the pictures of starship bridges in the cutscenes look like a five-year-old did them with the Windows Paint program.

These are the voyages . . .

Despite occasional lapses, Armada does a good job of emulating the Star Trek style.

Each of the four sides has its own true-to-the-series approach to strategy. The Romulans emphasize stealth and cunning, while the Borg ships require so many crew that assimilating opponents is an imperative.

Each race also behaves differently in battle, which is most noticeable when repairing damaged systems. Federation crews will try to repair shields and engines first, while the Klingons fix those all-important weapons instead.

There are plenty of little touches. Ships can be set on red, yellow, or green alert status, and self-destruct systems stand ready as a last resort.

More importantly, a ship is only good as its crew. When the crew takes too many casualties, the ship has a hard time following orders and hitting its target.

We are the Borg. Resistance is amusing.

The Borg are nicely balanced with the other races -- they are no more powerful than any other side, but still as scary as they should be. There is nothing more alarming than seeing your own ship turned against you.

Not everything fits the Star Trek universe. Harvesting dilithium from glowing purple moons seems a little silly, the Defiant is a surprisingly weak ship and wormholes are disturbingly common.

There are only a few outright flaws, though, and most of them can be fixed in a patch. Star Trek: Armada is fun to play and makes you feel like you're taking a fleet where no one has gone before.