Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 – Review

Name: Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2
Developer: Tindalos Interactive
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Released: 24.01.2019
Platforms: PC
Reviewed on: PC
Acquired: A copy of this game was provided by a publisher for review purpose

I always liked the Warhammer universe ever since I’ve glued together Warhammer figurines and painted all of the F** small details. I even played a few video games within the Warhammer universe such as Total War: Warhammer, Spacemarines, Dawn of War, and Vermintide. But I have to admit, I’ve never understood the lore/story. With that in mind, this review is from a newcomers perspective although familiar with the RTS genre.

Story

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 comes with a prologue and three massive campaigns, telling “what if” scenarios of what might happen when a competent (incompetent) commander (aka me) is in charge of the fleet (Imperium, Necron or Tyranid) in the wake of the Fall of Cadia.

Each campaign mode was challenging, long and entertaining, but that is from the view of gameplay. When it comes to the story itself, I struggled to pay attention to it. I couldn’t find the story interesting nor entertaining, the voice acting is great, but that’s not enough to keep us entertained. I don’t mind still images, or “oil painted animations” in cutscenes, but if you use that type of template, please make sure that the story itself is well written and intriguing from the beginning. Our reviews are always 100 percent personal opinion, many people, especially hardcore Warhammer fans might disagree with me in regards to the story. But I found the story boring in the long run and after approx two hours, I really struggled to pay attention to the story.
4/10

Graphics

Luckily, the story is the “big bad wolf” in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2. The graphics are stunning, each map feels huge, the developers really did a great job creating a scenery to achieve the feeling you’re in space. Colors, lighting, environmental graphics, and ship models are the things I’m most impressed with. However, not everything can be perfect, bummer…I know right… The textures on each ship model become blurry when zoomed in, and that’s a real bummer, as the 3D models itself are impressive and detailed. (I did play the game on Ultra settings) I also did miss a more “epic” soundtrack during big battles to really pump your adrenaline up.
8/10

Gameplay

One thing that really hit my face when I’ve tried the game, was the amount of content. I did recognize some of the names, but there is a lot I didn’t even know because the rooster is huge. There are 12 different factions to choose from, and each faction has their own huge fleet, making each battle colossal. It was the gameplay itself that really impressed me at Gamescom last year, as mentioned before, I love real-time strategy games, therefore I decided to review this game from a newcomers perspective with knowledge from the RTS genre.

When we received an early access code, we decided a total newcomer to the universe and genre should try the game and see how that went. In short summary, not well, Armada 2’s gameplay is extremely complicated and strategic, there is a button for almost everything, “brace for impact”, “warp”, a different type of torpedos just to mention some. So it’s easy to say that this title isn’t well suited for newcomers to the genre. I, as an RTS lover (we make love almost every day, I feel so lucky) finds this game really fun to play and I love to discover new ways to play, plotting new strategic points, new ways to set up my fleet and a lot more. Even though the story itself wasn’t interesting, the gameplay itself was challenging, fun, and my head really needed a smoke after our “session”.

I still feel like a god and a true general of my fleet while playing against the AI, even while I play against the AI online in either 1v1 or 2v2. But when I play against other people, well, let’s just say that I belong to the group below the rank of “Private”.
7/10

Controls

As mentioned, there is a lot to figure out when it comes to the controls and user interface in this game. If you are familiar with the first entry of this title, you will notice that the user interface is new, and there are more intuitive controls. Not sure what else I can say besides that the controls worked perfectly on my end, I did, however, “lose” the ship I clicked on, so I had to click it again to see every command I could give that ship. (It happened a lot) The schematics are complicated, but a necessity in this title to achieve the right strategic feel. Have in mind, that you’ll need some time to learn the controls.
8/10

Replay Value

You have access to every faction and ship from the very beginning in both singleplayer and multiplayer. So I believe the replay value lays within learning each faction and dominating online against other players online. There are a few other things as well, such as customizing your fleet and battles and expanding your fleet by building shipyards etc. If you really love the RTS genre, you’ll spend some time within this game after the campaign mode.
7/10

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