Developer: Tindalos Interactive
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada – Review
The Warhammer universe has been around since the eighties and after some time the universe even split up into two different time periods, and it’s the futuristic Warhammer 40,000 that caused the creation of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. While the miniatures make way for a digital spaceship armada, the entire Warhammer vibe and feeling was clearly the first thing on the minds of the developers. As it has been quite some time since we last discussed a game such as this one, we were quite stoked to put on our spacesuits and dive right into battles of intergalactic proportions. One small step for us, one giant leap for a semi-robotic mankind, one big-ass fleet at our disposal.
Story
An entire Chaos army is massing and they are headed toward the Gothic sector, which is under the control of the Imperial Navy. While it’s clear that the Imperial Navy is not without its flaws, an inexperienced man is dubbed as the admiral who will have to prove his worth in the many battles to come. Admiral Spire is thus the one who will need to clean up the mess and if he doesn’t pull his weight, he will take the fall for all that goes wrong.
While the description above is actually extremely vague, it’s the bottom-line of the story that drives Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. Every one of your actions has certain consequences that will either cause the Gothic sector to get overrun, or that will earn you praise. Every few missions some small clues are given and it’s clear that there’s a lot more going on than you’d expect.
Graphics
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada has some very impressive graphical features, as well as some basic ones. The cinematics or zoomed in views of ships and stations are simply stunning and truly have that ‘gothic’ feel about them. There’s enough diversity between the ships to keep things interesting and the ‘drawn’ cinematics do add a certain fantasy touch to the entire picture. Everything is one great looking coherent galaxy and it’s fun to explore new ships and vessels as you go.
The battles themselves still look reasonably good, but become a bit more simplified when it comes to the map, as there is often not that much to see in these far reaches of space. Hither and thither there are a few minefields, asteroid belts and other obstacles, but other than that there’s often not that much to see. In a way it’s great there isn’t that much clutter, as you’ll have a hard enough time avoiding the present obstacles as it is.
Sound
Atmosphere is a very important part of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada and this is further motivated by the music choice as well as the superb voice acting. The music is mainly ambient, while it takes an adventurous turn when the situation calls for it. Most of the campaign’s dialogues are voiced and are done so in a gritty fashion, which clearly depicts the rather ‘filthy’ appearance our human race has received in the future. Often, thanks to the voices alone, you’ll know that certain characters are not to be trusted.
Gameplay
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is a RTS game that revolves around ‘naval’ warfare, albeit with spaceships. The game is a bit reminiscent of the indie title Leviathan: Warships we covered in a ‘distant past’, but in reality you’ll occupy yourself with preparing your vessels for combat, by managing the crew, the weapons, skills, flight paths, and much more. Seeing the game has a lot of options to plow through, it’s clear that this battle will not be won easily.
While the game may immediately sound awfully complicated, the basic concept is actually quite simple. You’ll have a fleet of ships at your disposal, all with their respective captains which can level up throughout your playthrough in the campaign, the solo skirmishes, the multiplayer mode and so on. When these captains gain experience, they can also start ‘pimping’ their ships with upgrades, skills and even crew upgrades, which all grant bonuses.
Battles themselves are once again rather basic to understand, but the finer touches prove to be what makes the game very difficult. Before the battle you’ll have to choose which ships will be fighting for your name, all within a certain deployment limit that’s based on points. For example, the big ships will drain your points ‘storage’ a lot quicker than smaller escort ships, thus it’s important to find a certain balance. If you wish to have a bigger fleet with smaller ships, it also means you’ll have to keep tabs on all of them during battle. Deploying too few ships might cause the enemy to overwhelm you and then you’re fucked either way.
When you’ve finally decided which ships will set sails in the void of space, you’ll notice that once again you’re both in control and you’re also not. Setting commands, orders and using skills all prove straightforward, but when your ships are entangled in combat with one or more enemy ships, things take a turn towards a more luck based formula. Of course a big cruiser will eat a small escort ship, but when ships start circling one another it becomes harder to aim your combat skills and sometimes you simply keep missing shot after shot, while the enemy gnaws away your shields and HP. Getting back into the proper position proves to be rather difficult, but if you follow up things properly, you’ll get back in control in a matter of time. Those who skip the campaign mode and simply want to level up or duke it out online, will be glad to know that you can pick four different factions, namely the Imperial Navy, Chaos, Ork Pirates and the Eldar Corsairs. Each of these factions have their own quirks and traits, which all feel different, especially when it comes to how their ships respond in the heat of battle. The Orks prove to be great at ramming their opponents, while the Eldar’s vessels are a lot speedier.
Even though the game might be repetitive, as you’ll be doing the same thing over and over again, albeit in a different ‘jacket’, messing around with different ships proves to be quite fun. It’s also fun to know that a victory isn’t always about destroying all of your opponents, but you can also safeguard your nearly destroyed vessels by letting them warp away from battle safely, and even if you haven’t destroyed all of the enemies, you’ll still earn renown points. These points can be used to purchase upgrades, new slots in your fleet, etc, which will allow you to try out even more combinations.
Conclusion
Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is truly a fun Warhammer 40,000 ‘inspired’ game, which highlights the best portions of the well-known franchise’s atmosphere as well as many spot-on tactical elements. While the game will not always leave you with the impression that you are truly pulling the strings, planning and a decent overview will get you a long way. If you’re into ‘naval’ warfare and love the Warhammer universe, this one will surely float your intergalactic boat.
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[…] Focus Home Interactive and Tindalos Interactive just dropped an hour long video of the full campaign experience of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II. But this is not just an hour of gameplay footage, it’s accompanied by comments from Tindalos’ Game Director Romain Clavier and Focus Home Interactive’s Ben Barrett. The game is in essence an RTS but it has a humongous background story, every ship, system and planet has its own backstory. If you’re interested in this game, currently Steam has a 10% discount for new players and a 25% discount for players who already own the first game. This promotion runs till launch day. You can find our review of the first installment right here. […]
[…] Tindalos Interactive and Focus Home Interactive are proud to announce the release of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2. What better way to persuade the doubters than an epic launch trailer? Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 is a massive space RPG based on the original tabletop game from Games Workshop. If you’re not familiar with the game, in a nutshell, it comes down to this: In a galaxy far far away somewhere in the forty first millennium, twelve factions fight it out for galaxy domination. The game puts you in command of your very own space fleet and you’ll be spending a lot of time designing and upgrading the individual ships in your fleet before taking it into ginormous space battles. The game can be purchased on Steam. If you want to know more, you can find our review of the first installment right here. […]