![]() ![]() ![]() The bigger and more powerful the ship the more points it costs, and that point limit is determined by your current level. Likewise, your fleets are limited by a point system that dictates what you can bring to the fight. Do you spend them on a new ship, keeping in mind each new vessel has a constant upkeep cost? Or should they be spent to upgrade a sector in order to increase the bonuses it provides? The resources you earn, for example, are always pretty tight. Reckon that system over there is under threat? Maybe spend some resources to add defences then move a fleet over there.Ĭleverly, it’s the limitations that make the campaign interesting. It’s light 4x system, really, whereby you build up your fleets using resources earned by holding solar systems, then use said resources to buy new ships or upgrade your holdings. During your turn you can dispatch fleets to various systems in a bid to either capture them or shore up their defences. The real-time stuff is ditched in favour of turn-based action. The campaign map is where you get to make the grand strategic decisions. I especially loved the creaks of the ships as they took damage. The sound design deserves special mention for making gunfire sound awesome. You can zoom right into the action in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, and there’s plenty of detail when you do. ![]() There’s something really satisfying about watching huge spaceships pummel each other. You can simply click on an enemy ship to order an attack, but to get the most out of your ships you’ll constantly be looking for the best firing solutions, timing the launch of torpedoes for maximum damage, dropping mines in space or even just zooming into the action so you can watch the mayhem play out.Īnd what wonderful mayhem it is. Yet somehow despite this the action feels tense, hectic and always engaging. The ships you control are massive, slow behemoths that take forever to turn and several ice ages to get anywhere. Like the original Battlefleet Gothic: Armada there’s a unique pace to the battles. This potentially makes the smaller ships more valuable than they used to be. However, my initial impressions is that boarding actions feel more capable of crippling large ships. That’s because most of the changes are small and frankly difficult to even chat about without going back and playing the original game for a few dozen hours. redesign everything looks and feels the same. Each ship from big to small has its own stats regarding armour and weapons, as well as a selection of special abilities such as slow-moving but deadly torpedoes.Īt first glance the changes here are seemingly non-existent. In real time you’ll micro-manage your relatively small group of vessels while dealing with a couple of objective types blow the crap out of the enemy fleet, take and hold some positions around the map or defend some A.I. Sure, you might not get as attached as you do to your soldiers in XCOM, but when a massive cruiser is destroyed you’ll feel it.įielding your ships feels instantly familiar if you’ve played the first game at all. Ships can almost develop personalities over time, their loss being both a big resource drain and a potentially emotional punch. However, like the first game Armada 2 is good at telling stories in its battles. ![]() The story in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 can be tricky to grasp at times due to the terminology being thrown around and is largely forgettable stuff. This time round the forces of Chaos are launching yet another crusade, so in the Imperium campaign you’ll be taking control of Admiral Spire who was lost in the warp for hundreds of years and has now returned to fight again. But the setting and stories it creates are fairly schlocky, which is why its so fun. The story is fairly typical Warhammer schlock, and before anyone tries to dismember me I’m a fan of Warhammer. Review code supplied free of charge by the publisher. Out of the whopping twelve factions in the game the Imperium is the easiest to grasp, their massive ships capable of taking a pounding while dishing out plenty of damage. You can’t access these until you’ve gone through the prologue, though, which focuses on the Imperium and their massive warships. This time around we get three separate single-player campaigns that focus on the Imperium, the Necrons and the scary-ass Tyranids who field massive floating space creatures rather than ships. Now, though, we have Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, the sequel that offers more ships, more factions and more awesomeness. Considering that the Warhammer licence gets handed out like free candy these days it was even nicer to be gifted a game about massive spaceships clashing. The first Battlefleet Gothic: Armada proved to be a surprise, offering up some brilliant spaceship battling. Once again it’s time to go back to the eternally dark Warhammer universe where friendly hand shakes are a myth and even the baby sitters wear spiky armour and wield lethal weapons. ![]()
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