Indie Game – Armada Online
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EvStream is a company that consists of two developers, and has created an Armada game for the Dreamcast in 1999. Initially it was supposed to be a multiplayer game for the Dreamcast, but the online functionality fell through, an EvStream (formally Metro3d) adapted it to single player.
Armada Online is the successor to that game, with full online functionality.
The basic premise is that in the future, the human race is spread across the galaxy, but separated into different tribes, where evolution over a large amount of time created diversity. Eventually humanity was discovered by the “Armada”, a race of biomechanical creatures. Earth is overrun, and the remnants of humanity flee to the stars. An alliance is born between the separated humanoid tribes, to hold back the Armada. You play as a starship captain during this time of the Alliance against the Armada.
There are two sides, with each having 4 races. Each race has strengths and weaknesses, and can vaguely be pigeonholed into D&D classes such as fighter, mage, cleric, thief etc.
Gameplay is akin to asteroids with a RPG flavour. You ship is piloted with the mouse, with weapons either set to fire automatically or when a number key is pressed. Weapons include beam weapons, projectiles, and missiles, with some ships coming with systems such as summon fighter, cloak, and repair.
There are several zones to play in, with instances for each having a maximum of around 16 players. Zones are broken into objective based games, with PvP, PvE and a free roaming zone. You can create a colony, where you are able to build factories and universities.
There is a basic crafting system, which enables you to make items for your ship by combining materials gathered from Armada or mining asteroids and crystals.
Ships to pilot are numerous, and can be upgraded to more powerful versions as you progress through the levels.
The graphics are quite good, with a clean and colourful art direction. Currently there is only one supported screen resolution (1024×768) which means those with larger monitors have to be happy with low res or playing in a window. Visual effects in particular are quite stunning when there are a lot of ships at one firing at each other. Backgrounds also look quite good, being sourced and modified from NASA pictures. It
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