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发表于 2009-11-30 16:09:00
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November 19, 2009 - It was pitched to me as "Total War meets Master of Orion." Typically, when you hear that kind of statement, it's easy to dismiss it as an obvious, market-minded exaggeration. But when you hear that the project is being headed up by none other than R.T. Smith, designer for most of Creative Assembly's Total War games and the old DOS 4x classic, Armada 2525, it's enough to make even the most jaded strategy gamer sit up and take notice. While the field of the sci-fi 4X game has lately been dominated by Stardock's Galactic Civilizations and Sins of a Solar Empire, Bob Smith and his team at Ntronium Games are hoping to make their own mark on the genre with their new sequel, Armada 2526.
We've had the opportunity to play through this turn-based/real-time hybrid space opera game over the past week and, while there's still obviously much to be done, the game captures the essential elements of the 4x experience and shifts smoothly between turn-based empire management and real time battles. The pattern should be familiar to any 4x aficionado. You begin with one single planet and a handful of ships under your control. From these humble beginnings, you're meant to explore the galaxy, expand your territory, exploit the resources under your control, and exterminate any rivals whose concerns conflict with your own. With no scripted conflict and multiple paths to victory, each game develops according to the players' interactions with each other. It makes for a complex game design but one that is also endlessly compelling when done correctly.
From such humble beginnings...
Our build of Armada 2526 includes a short tutorial that has the players sharing the galaxy with a single enemy and a single potential ally. It's a great way to learn the ins and outs of the some of the game's foundational concepts before diving into the large and open-ended twelve-player galaxy campaign that's also included in the version we're playing.
The starmap is built on rows of offset squares, so you get a bit of the hex-map feel. Turns are resolved simultaneously, so you'll need to consider not only what the enemy is likely to do next turn, but also how it will impact your own orders. We haven't yet been involved in any encounters where our moves are in direct conflict with those of another race, but the one practical advantage we've seen is that you can keep ferrying reinforcements to break a siege of one of your planets, which keeps constant pressure on your enemies.
But before you can even consider that, you'll need to take those first tentative steps out to the stars around you and turn your attention to your infrastructure. Starting with a few ships makes it easy to get things rolling right away, but you'll be limited to moving only within a certain range of your existing colonies. In some cases that may mean colonizing a less desirable world just to extend your influence towards a planet you'd really like to claim. Movement and fleet creation is fairly straightforward and you can even set up automatic routes for your transports to carry population from your more habitable worlds to those on the fringes of your empire.
The range of options is very broad.
Your early options for planetary improvement are somewhat limited, but as you learn more and more technologies, you'll have the chance to build more specialized structures. In the beginning, it's enough to lay down either a moneymaking mine or a shipbuilding factory depending on what your priorities are. As you grow in size, you'll have more options and can create even more ships to colonize other parts of the galaxy.
Sooner or later, however, you'll run into one of your many neighbors. The races you share the galaxy with follow some of the general trends of 4x games -- you have races that embrace technology, those that lean more towards military might, and a number of others inbetween including races that have specific bonuses and penalties with certain types of technologies. Best of all, each of the races have their own unique ways of scoring victory points and can claim victory through conquest, research, population size or a number of other avenues.
Your first impulse is likely to make friends with the newcomers, and for this you'll want to use the diplomacy screen. It's set up much like the screens in other 4x games, with the ability to put items on the table and make counter offers. One of the cooler and more original aspects of the diplomacy system is your ability to set a specific attitude during negotiations. Whether you approach a rival with humility or arrogance will certainly color the negotiations. An animated view of your partner and a small slider at the bottom of the window give you a good idea of how your offer is being received.
The space battles take place in 3D and in real time.
Eventually you'll find yourself in a situation you can't negotiate your way through, and that's when you'll have to turn to your fleets to enforce your will on the universe. The space battles take place in full 3D and in real time, so you'll have the chance to see things play out right before your eyes. Ships are led in groups, which makes the larger battles a bit more manageable, and smart formation and facing controls give you a real sense of tactical control. The ships themselves show good initiative so you won't need to micromanage them the whole time, but it's still been a bit of a challenge for us to keep track of everything when you've got 75 ships on a side fighting for control of a system.
Naturally, you won't win every fight, so you'll want to tip the scales in your favor through the application of advanced technology. Armada 2526's tech system includes large groups of technologies that you can specialize in, so you can tailor your research path to meet the challenges ahead of your or the personality you want to portray. You may find yourself heading down a path to create powerful navies only to discover that your opponent has trumped you with superior psychic or informational technologies. You can pursue multiple avenues simultaneously during research and even bolster the efforts in a particular area by building specific planetary improvements. Late in the game you will even be able to build a skunkworks project to significantly speed up research at the cost of losing some control over what's being worked on.
We haven't yet been able to judge the overall AI in the game, but the campaign we're currently playing is certainly challenging. With more time to tweak and balance the design, and give an extra push to the visuals and audio Armada 2526 could very be a compelling alternative to the reigning kings of the 4X sci-fi game. |
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发表于 2009-11-30 16:06:23
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发表于 2009-11-30 17:25:07
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