Star Trek: Armada
Year: 2000
Type: Gamerip
Composer(s): Danny Pelfrey
Number of tracks: 12
Haphazard launch
It's just a shame that I never played the first installment. As with Battle for Middle-earth , I got straight into the sequel. That never really bothered me, even though I consequently don't have a personal connection to the game and can't judge its reviews. In both cases, the Metacritic faction swears that the original was better than the sequel. So what? Nobody cares anyway. The main thing is that you had fun with it - or not. Because unlike the excellent, nostalgia-tinged soundtrack to Star Trek Armarda II, I find the music for part 1 less engaging. There are two reasons for this.
Reason one is the obvious one: Composer Danny Pelfrey is still searching for an identity for the score on the first Armada . Knowing where the journey is going, the start of his journey sounds a little awkward. The Federation leans quite clearly in part on the style of Birth of the Federation , released a year earlier, and gives the impression of a mixture of The Settlers 3 meets Commandos. At the same time, there is also something fantasy-esque about the Federation tracks, which doesn't really fit.
Meanwhile, it is commendable that the four factions have been given their individual music. For example, the aforementioned Federation of Races with its fanfare-like horns and upbeat percussion differs quite clearly from the modem noises of the Borg, which are reminiscent of SystemShock. And Klingon (Battle) also has a tribal hunting feel thanks to the drums. Only the techno approach with the Romulans seems off - thankfully this does get adressed in the successor.
The second point, and this may be due to the fact that it is a gamerip, is the lack of concept. What do I mean by that? Although a few of the tracks build up towards the end, the music seems somewhat haphazard and thrown together. There is no story being told, no message being conveyed. It's mostly background splashing, which is fine, but a shame, because it could be better as shown in the sequel.
A vivid example: Borg (Battle) as well as Borg (Battle) 2 - if it wasn't written on them, you wouldn't know that these pieces are supposed to accompany battles. Now, of course, you could argue that the cold predictability of space zombies is manifested here and that any excitement or form of artistic expression goes against the nature of a faction that is geared towards efficiency and uniformity. But can't it still be made to sound ... more exciting? In the end, we have to accept the disconnect between us, the player and what is being played - yet we are not cold machines sitting in front of a PC, but people who want to be entertained.
Well, now I've gone deeper than I actually intended. With a length of just under 20 minutes, the gamerip is hardly worth mentioning. And yet it does show very nicely how you can build on the first attempts at the predecessor and transform an almost irrelevant collection of set pieces into a great OST for the sequel. If you look at Klingon (Ambient) , for example, you quickly realize that this appears in a modified form as Federation (Battle) ... but more on that in due course.
| No. | Title | Artist(s) | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Federation (Ambient) | Danny Pelfrey |  |
| 02 | Federation (Battle) | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 03 | Federation (Battle) 2 | Danny Pelfrey |  |
| 04 | Klingon (Ambient) | Danny Pelfrey |  |
| 05 | Klingon (Battle) | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 06 | Klingon (Battle) 2 | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 07 | Romulan (Ambient) | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 08 | Romulan (Battle) | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 09 | Romulan (Battle) 2 | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 10 | Borg (Ambient) | Danny Pelfrey |  |
| 11 | Borg (Battle) | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 12 | Borg (Battle) 2 | Danny Pelfrey | |
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