- Original Release: 2000
- Developer: Activision
- Publisher: Activision
- Platform: PC
A real time strategy game set after the Dominion war. The story starts with the Enterprise E dealing with Dominion stragglers that refuse to accept that the war is over when a ship from the future comes and warns Picard that the Borg are about to launch a large scale invasion led by Locutus. At the same time, infighting starts out with the Klingons and Romulans – if this doesn’t stop, the alpha quadrant is doomed.
Armada is a fairly basic RTS game. Each playable faction -the Federation, Klingons, Romulans and Borg – plays almost identically as they all have the same stations and types of ships, they just look different and have slightly different abilities. Building your forces is the same for all of them, although it does make them more balanced against each other, even if it means a Borg Cube is on par with a Sovereign class ship.
The main unique element of Armada is crew. Each ship has its own crew, and the number drops down in battles and become less effective. You can also transport your crew to other ships. Derelict ships can be scattered around to take over, and you can even gain control of enemy ships. It’s a really nice mechanic, even if everyone breeds at an alarming rate.
The missions in the story mode have thought out some interesting scenarios to play, which keeps things varied. Some are about defending, some are building up forces to attack, while some have more unique objectives. There’s one where you start off with just a Defiant class ship and need to navigate a maze of asteroid while being chased by far more powerful ships, using derelict ships as cannon fodder to reach the end of the maze.
The game looks very nice, and there are some interesting cutscenes throughout the campaign. It makes things less realistic to make the game much more fun to play – like the layouts of the maps, which manage to remain interesting even though they’re in space. While basic, it’s a lot of fun.
Where to get:
How to play Star Trek: Armada on Windows 11
The GoG version works on Windows 11. I do recommend the Unofficial 1.3 Patch to run the game in Widescreen.
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Fun game, this was my favourite Star Trek game back in the day. Played through it again recently when it got released on GOG, it holds up pretty well.
I thought this was da shit back in the day!
Great game. Played it then, play it now. Fun gameplay, interesting story, good music and voice acting.
This and Elite Force are the best Star Trek games of all time. Freakin loved Armada. Freakin loved modding it so I could build other ships too
Spent a lot of time multiplaying this with friends when it came out. Hard to believe it’s from 2000, I feel like I played it for years!
One of the most regular lan party games I ever played with friends
I STILL play Armada 1 from time to time! I’ve managed to keep the main files for about 4 PCs now. I think mine has a slight mod to balance and textures.
Love it forever!
Loved it and recently replayed it via GOG. Wish I could play online again.
The devkit and custom map editor with custom asset placement was a wonderful addition to this game. Instill have an archive of dozens of old mods for this game.
I still have my original disc for this but now own it on GOG and still play to this day. Great game!
Loved this game and Armada 2, nothing beats stomping the enemy with 4 fused tactical cubes 😀
I have soooo many hours put into that game and Armada II. I still have the original CDs in their jewel cases in a box, somewhere. lol Years ago I created iso files I use when I want to play to keep the CDs safe. Now I want to fire it up again.
Was a great game. I had it in a four pack along with Away Team, Hidden Evil and Elite Force.
Modding this game is how I started my interest in 3d modeling and related areas.
I also played this game so much that I recognize this scree as coming from the start of the second Federation mission.
Armada was a great game and Armada 2 was even better (4-cube “super cube”!!) I really wished they modernised this type of game as they are a lot of fun, and don’t need hours of attention – maybe mobile version?…
From what I recall, Activision didn’t expect anything out of this game and essentially laid off the dev team as soon as it shipped. Some of the devs made a post-release patch on their own time, and released model import tools which significantly opened up the modding scene.
You also got a cool free promo Star Trek CCG USS Jupiter card in the box!
One of my fav trek game of all time.
I played it so much back then! They are so many great mods for it and the story, while classic, was excellent!
I definitely recommend it to any trek fan, the game is available on GOG.
And that Intro still kick ass
One of the all-time greatest. Countless hours invested in this from my childhood and frequently after. I randomly took the player manual on holiday to Greece with me aged ten and memorised the different ship’s special weapons.
A classic, still surprisingly holds up
Ran a fan site for this game leading up to, and following its release! Also had the amazing opportunity to visit the developers (Mad Doc Software)during the development of the sequel for an exclusive preview — good times! 😁