Armada 2: Exodus Feature Preview

When the original Armada was released shortly after the Dreamcast's launch, it got lost in the avalanche of games that came out with it. While some wrote the game off as an Asteroids clone, those who took the time to play the game found it to be a compelling shooter with some slight RPG elements. The game's developer, Metro3D, is hard at work on the sequel. Mark Jordan, the game's Lead Designer, took the time to answer some of our questions regarding Armada 2 and give the world the final word on Armada 2's improvements on the original.

In the original Armada, you played as one of six races of humans that banded together to thwart an alien invasion. In Armada 2, the humans have become comfortable once again, and they're striking out to find new inhabitable areas. "After A1, the alliance [between the six human races] has grown strong," Jordan revealed. "The six Earth-born races are now spreading out to colonize deep space. The first war against the armada has toughened you--now it is up to you to venture forth and carve out your own civilization." You play as the governor of a frontier outpost, and it's your responsibility to see that supplies are delivered safely, the trade routes are clear, and the alien armada is kept in check.

In the original Armada, you could play the game through with six different races, and each race had a particular ability. The same six human races have returned in Armada 2, though their abilities have changed somewhat. The terran race uses advanced technology. "Terrans also have good technology for small agile fighters and bombers to escort your ship," Jordan explained. "Armada ships in areas dominated by terran players will start to show more independent thinking, aberrant behavior, and adaptation due to the surgical nature of the terran technology." The nomads cause the armada to mutate and can take out several enemies at once with the spreading properties of their weaponry. "Nomad phoenix bombs, torch beams, and resonance mines will set the enemy aflame in gouts of plasma, which spread to nearby armada ships," Jordan continued. The remaining races exhibit even more specialized abilities. The eldred race uses stealth to sneak behind enemy lines and harvest minerals, scarabs turn the armada enemies into allies, the draken race is able to extract weapons from the armada and hinder its reproduction, and the vorgans are passive scientists that study the armada to produce new technology. During the course of the game, other races make their presence known as well, and they will become either allies or enemies.

The RPG elements in Armada are fairly meager. Your ship gains new abilities every four levels, and its appearance changes to reflect the acquisition of new technology. Jordan claims that the RPG elements will be much more extensive in Armada 2. "A2 has statistics, which you improve, and more importantly you are playing a very strong role in the area of space where you spend your time," Jordan explained. "Growth is not isolated to your character, ship, and items. You can also upgrade space stations, allies, and planetary colonies. We have a very robust random mission generator to keep a narrative drive going. The soul of any good RPG is long-term growth, open exploration, and choice. Many RPGs have a storyline, and A2 does also. A2 has a central mystery and a goal that makes people work together and focus on a common goal. Because it is an online game, this story is renewable and changeable, and it is epic in scale. Each race has one approach they are trying to take to resolve the central conflict."

There was really no end to the original Armada, and Metro3D is hoping to implement this sort of open-ended game design in Armada 2. "Since you can own and control an area of the server, and since the long-term effects of what you do there affect the global variables, your play style produces some interesting results," Jordan stated. "The 'story' is something that you live. If you do something really tremendous, it will be announced on the server, and more people might want to come visit your GuildSpace and trade with you." Metro3D has included other improvements on the Armada series as well. The graphics have received a nice upgrade. Armada 2 features real-time lighting, smoother enemy animations, new weapon effects, and spline-based planetary terrain. Real-time cutscenes featuring your upgraded ship move the plot forward. The missions take place in space, on the planet surface, and even inside some of the larger armadas. The mission types have remained similar to those of the first game in that you'll be asked to escort shipments, make deliveries, defend allies, and head out on seek-and-destroy missions. There are eight mission types in all that are used to randomly generate five quests per area. Once the five quests are completed, you have defeated the area.

One of the best features of the original Armada was the cooperative multiplayer mode. It's always nice to invite friends over for some extra firepower when you're getting your tail whipped over and over by a boss. While the traditional multiplayer mode has returned in Armada 2, this time your friends can stay at home and serve the same purpose thanks to the online mode. The online mode is structured so that each Dreamcast with a copy of Armada becomes a virtual online world. Players may join your world and go on quests with you, or you may join someone else's world and bring your race's unique attributes and your powered-up ship along with you. The games are held on Metro3D's servers, so when the PlayStation 2 version is completed, owners of both consoles will be able to play together.

In addition, you may trade items you've acquired so that you may reap the benefits of being another race without having to begin a new game. "If you possess an item and wish to trade with me, you can either trade in the game state while we are flying around and blasting aliens or in a trade depot server," Jordan explained. "The reason we want to trade items might be because you have developed a good regenerative shield in your world, and I have developed a good shot accelerator. Not only do we get the benefit of access to items that are not available in our separate worlds, but when we get tired of them, we can also sell them to our own scientists to help them develop that part of the tech tree." There are a total of 1.2 million items that can be obtained by combining certain items and their varying abilities. "That number is the product of multiplication of all possible permutations," Jordan continued. "For example, you might only see 256 different item images, but each item archetype can have some variables that are a little different. One item might serve the two functions of increasing your rate of experience-point gain and also giving you a credit bonus for each kill."

Some people complained about the Asteroids-like control of the first Armada, and while Jordan pointed out that the controls are customizable in Armada 2, he also stands behind the original control scheme. "You can play A2 like A1, or you can configure your ship to move differently," he explained. "You can even equip an AI to pilot your ship if you want to sit idle. The A1 control method took some work for some players because it involved inertia. However, that inertia enabled advanced players to build up speed in one direction, and then turn and shoot in another direction as they drifted by their target. Some people will want to stick with the inertial control."

Armada 2 is shaping up to be a compelling shooter with unlimited replay value thanks to its living, breathing online world. If Mark Jordan's explanation is any indication, each game of Armada 2 will be completely unique. All the enjoyable facets of the original Armada are making a return with a multitude of improvements in tow. But Jordan described Armada 2 best when he stated, "Armada 2 emphasizes long-term growth and exploration in the context of a fun action game. One big engineering goal was to make Armada 2 an online game that gives players a lot of choice about how they want to live their game life and is built upon enough interchangeable systems to give players infinite worlds to explore." Armada 2 is currently scheduled for release in early May. We'll have more on Armada 2 when we receive an updated build.