Thursday, 24 January 2019 16:42

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 Preview

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AND THEY SHALL KNOW NO FEAR

Fleet combat has never looked so good. The beta gives players two options: Skirmish or the prologue to the campaigns. Skirmish is a simple mode where players can choose their faction and face off against other players or AI enemies. This truly provides the game with a sense of scale, as all twelve playable factions and their sub-factions were present in these skirmishes. Space Marines, Orks, Tyranids, Tau, and more, each provide a completely different play style and ship design.

The prologue, however, was the most impressive part of the beta. The prologue covers the Fall of Cadia as a lore booster and begins with you taking control of the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter as you try and provide some time to the ground forces by halting the Chaos advance on the fortress world. Here is where you have a nice tutorial on how to utilize ship abilities, movement, and manage angles of fire while you clash with Chaosforces above the planet.

The voice acting throughout this prologue fascinated me. It was very well done in most cases and really conveyed the emotions and immersion of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. There were some hiccups and poor voice lines, occasionally, but for the most part they hit the nail on the head in this department. I am more than excited to see the full campaigns in play.

Graphically-speaking, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 is absolutely beautiful. You can see every detail of the vessels and even the boarding torpedoes zipping through empty space. The effects details are where this game makes all its money — the explosions, magical abilities, and Warp summoning look incredible — but I think veterans of the series might be disappointed to not find any customization options for their ships (although possibly that will be available in the full release).

ALL HANDS ON DECK

The gameplay is intense. Ships can ram, board, vaporize, and even eat each other, depending on your chosen faction. During skirmish battles, you have the option to create your own custom flotilla within the boundaries of a point system. Here, players can choose a bombarding style fleet, if they like to keep their enemies far away, or players can create an all-engines-on-full-speed ramming fleet, basing all power on boarding and ship-splitting collision tactics. There are, of course, different stealth mechanics as well.

Stealth in this title is managed in two simple ways: Hide your vessels within asteroid clusters, a gas cloud, or other debris floating throughout the battlefield, or choose a faction that specializes in stealth capabilities. This allows sneaky players to maneuver silently and spring the ultimate ambushes.

The Verdict:

Overall, I am very excited to see what the full release will have to offer, especially in the campaigns. On the beta screen, we could see just a handful of campaigns, and not necessarily for every faction. I am still crossing my fingers that each faction will have a version of a campaign and allow Warhammer 40,000 enthusiasts to really sink their teeth into this title.

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Bric Hudson

Bric is a US Army veteran and a passionate gamer. While in military service, he found gaming to be a way to connect with his friends all over the world. This blossomed into a fascination with the gaming culture and the experiences had while launching up a whole new title. He is fond of a variety of genres, which is reflected on his Twitch streams and on his Youtube channel. Find Bric on YouTube. Find Bric on Twitch.

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