Star Trek: Armada II
Year: 2001
Type: Gamerip
Composer(s): Danny Pelfrey
Number of tracks: 10
Goosebumps in space
At least I can't think of anything, except perhaps a successor or a revival of the concept. Because a strategy game is so fitting and with today's technical means, it would be easy to realize ... but the market is simply too small for that. Luckily, as is so often the case with franchises, there are diligent fans who have been playing and working on the game from 2001 to the present day. So if you want to play an improved (and more modern) version of Armada II, you can take a look at the free stand-alone mod Fleet Operations.
Back to the past. Armada II was a feast for me back then. Over the countless hours I spent with this gem, the music has of course also burned itself into my brain. Even as I write this review and listen to all the tracks again, some of the sounds give me goosebumps. Nostalgia!
The hair-raising starts right from the first track, the main theme, which greets us in the main menu with its melodic, almost meditative sounds and promises a quietly undulating, peaceful future. In contrast to the first Armada, composer Danny Pelfrey has made less use of the familiar motifs from the series for the sequel, instead trying to capture the feeling of the factions. In my opinion, he succeeded perfectly:
The Federation sounds almost innocently curious with its spherical tones, while Species 8472 with its rustic harp plucking seems to be completely contrary and from another universe - which is absolutely fitting! That's why it's not a bad thing that the gamerip, with ten tracks, is less extensive than that of its predecessor - especially as some of the tracks there only differed minimally anyway.
Anyone expecting the titles (Ambient) and (Battle), to divide the game into calm and action-heavy tracks will be surprised. In fact, the Ambient-tracks are only played in the single player, while their counterparts are played in the (multiplayer) skirmishes. However, the fact that one and the same track runs in a continuous loop doesn't bother me - because they're great!
Federation (Ambient) is a feel-good oasis, a haven of bliss. It sounds super cheesy, but for me, like the OST to The Settlers IV, it represents an emotional journey back to my childhood. When I listen to the track, I can just sit back and enjoy, while I imagine exploring the undiscovered vastness of the universe with my spaceships. Pelfrey creates an image of Starfleet as Gene Roddenberry probably conceived it in its original form: positive, optimistic, curious, diplomatic and also a little naive.
The music is absolutely contrary to the Pew-Pew and current zeitgeist in the Star Trek-universe that has established itself in recent years. And no, I have nothing against Pew Pew, I really like Pew Pew. It's not for nothing that I love the ship fight in Nemesis. I just have something against this mindset, this "The world is so shit right now, it has to be reflected in all stories. If something is purely positive, then it's badly written." What a load of bullshit.
Of course, every interesting story has an inherent conflict. But that doesn't mean it always has to revolve exclusively around it. Give me my utopia, which also has its downsides, as fans know. If you turn down the brightness in a picture and make everything darker, the result doesn't get any better. Everything sinks into a gloomy gray that loses all aesthetic appeal. A picture lives from credible contrasts, from the interplay of colors. And you can also take a picture of a green meadow without the forest burning in the background. Well, enough ranting. Back to the beauty!
Federation (Battle) is the perfect counterpart to the carefree discovery of the universe in Federation (Ambient). The powerful drums, the fanfares, the use of strings - they all herald a willingness to fight back. The music moves forward with stoic determination, while we stand like a captain on the bridge of our (space) ship and look forward to what is to come. And that also sounds like the Starfleet we know from the series. All hands to battle stations!
The fact that this track is an adaptation of Klingon (Ambient) from the first Armada shows in direct comparison how wonderfully diverse motifs can be charged. What sounded like disorderly chaos in the predecessor has been given order here, a goal, gravitas. Conversely, Klingon (Battle) is the exact opposite, coming across as wilder, more imperious, more feisty - a beautiful musical interpretation of the warrior race.
Unfortunately, the score diminishes somewhat for my taste beyond these pieces. Perhaps it's because we experience Star Trek from the perspective of the Federation and, to some extent, the Klingons, which is why these tonal worlds are the most pronounced. Or perhaps the style of the other factions is less appealing to me. Whatever it is in the end, unfortunately I can no longer spread unbridled euphoria from here on. Nevertheless, the following tracks are by no means bad.
Klingon (Ambient) inherits its predecessor's fantasy references, while Borg (Ambient) always scared me as a child. In general, the Borg episodes and not least the 8th movie First Contact gave me nightmares and made me afraid to go into the dark basement - which is especially stupid when the gaming room is down there. For a long time, I just kept waiting for a red laser pointer to light up from the darkness and a robotic voice to announce the arrival of the Borg.
I found Borg (Battle) to be more bearable because it was less creepy. The rhythmic rumble of the strings, which are like a constant engine announcing the unstoppability of the collective, paired with the creaking metal and spacey synths, fit like a glove on an eye implant. The Romulans sound like an acoustic seek-and-find picture, in which sounds appear from different places, disappear and sound again somewhere else. Fits perfectly with the cunning strategists and their cloaking technology and has charm.
Cardassian is more special again. Musically, we hardly know anything about the fascist imperialist alien race with the varied brown tones. Pelfrey gives them an interesting timbre through the use of bongo-like percussion and the dominant strings, which later slips into the Oriental. I think it's cool, even if it's not an all-time favorite.
The final track is Species 8472, which sounds like it was borrowed from a horror house or a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Due to nostalgia, I like the melody, even if it doesn't really seem to fit into the rest of the soundtrack at all. As described above, however, this may be exactly the intention; after all, the Borg conquerors originate from a completely different dimension.
Let's come to the unsurprising conclusion: Yes, this is a gamerip. Yes, it is a Star Trek-game. And yes, this review is absolutely subjective. But for die-hard fans of the franchise, there's a lot here, albeit in homeopathic doses. It's not the best score, but it's coherent. And above all, it shows how much difference it makes when you approach a score with a clear understanding and concept. But maybe, just maybe, nostalgia is simply at work here.
Nostalgia warning
| No. | Title | Artist(s) | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Star Trek: Armada II | Danny Pelfrey |  |
| 02 | Federation (Ambient) | Danny Pelfrey |  |
| 03 | Federation (Battle) | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 04 | Klingon (Ambient) | Danny Pelfrey |  |
| 05 | Klingon (Battle) | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 06 | Borg (Ambient) | Danny Pelfrey |  |
| 07 | Borg (Battle) | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 08 | Romulan | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 09 | Cardassian | Danny Pelfrey | |
| 10 | Species 8472 | Danny Pelfrey | |
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