When I hear the word 'armada', the first thing that comes to mind is ships - naval ships to be exact, although in the case of Final Armada, it's all about spaceships. As we head towards the end of the PS2 era, a console that has showcased various visual treats that are backed up by involving gameplay, this particular game could be described as a 21st Century Battlezone clone. One interesting side note is that Battlezone was one of the first 3D games ever developed, so a game structure that first appeared in arcades many years ago has appeared again, this time published by Virgin PLAY and developed by I-Imagine.

Personally I like the idea of being in control of a large, armoured juggernaut, packed to the hilt with weaponry that is capable of destroying other large armoured juggernauts, also packed to the hilt with weaponry! This is the premise of Final Armada and it is you, a man called Zake (who looks like a dark-haired Ben Affleck), who controls your Aggressor. You are part of the remaining fleet that has been decimated by its war with the Qorax, a race who want control of Taro-459 and its crystal fuel. Working for the Ecco Corporation (maybe a race of armour-plated dolphins might have been a better idea!) you must destroy the Qorax force. The story is very similar to the plot of Alien, starting with a mining operation on a random planet that at first glance does not possess any intelligent life, but then suddenly an alien race appears. However, while the extraterrestrials in Alien could only rely on their physical advantages, the Qorax have spaceships and various projectile-shooting vehicles.

The funny thing about this space story is that you're not taking part in the main campaign, because in the introduction you discover that Ecco have already won - instead you are on a sort of clean-up mission and you have to destroy the remaining Qorax that are still based on Taro-459, so straight away you will feel a tad under-whelmed by what awaits you, because you are being told to go fight some aliens who have already lost. I mean, why couldn't Ecco form a treaty with the remaining Qorax, or at least leave them alone? Even dafter, instead of sending the majority of their fleet to finish them off, they only send a few ships - which doesn't really make much sense - and these space-sized plot holes aren't the only area where Final Armada fails to achieve what's expected.

There's a 3D world to be traversed in your Aggressor whilst you complete a series of missions as you take in the futuristic sights. However, just for a change, I wanted to start off by talking about the sound -or should I say the complete lack of sound. I understand the concept that sound doesn't travel in the vacuum that is space, but most of the action takes place either on the planet or via mission briefings on the Battlestar Galactica-like mothership - and yet there always seems to be an eerie silence throughout the game, especially during mission briefings and conversations between Zake and his colleagues. The mission briefings are reminiscent of Wing Commander in the way they are portrayed, but none of the characters are digitised actors. The characters' lips move but everything is subtitled, and this omission is compounded by the inability to skip to the end of speech box, so you must wait until every word has been subtitled before the text moves onto the next character's lines. If the characters actually spoke then I'd imagine they would sound like they are reading off a cue card, but at least the effort would have been appreciated - to have non-voiced cut scenes in this day and age on the PS2 is ludicrous. The in-game sound offers nothing new either, besides a very low key drum and bass soundtrack that you will want to turn off before the first level is finished. The special effect and explosion sounds start off well enough - you can hear the whizzing of the missiles as they approach their target and the rattling of your machine gun - but they soon become tiresome. One inclusion that should be applauded are the "thud" effects that can be heard when you hit your enemy, as there seem to be subtle differences to the pitch of the sound depending on where you hit them. The sound for a game of this ilk is one of the most important aspects, because it will either fully immerse you into the atmosphere or, in the case of Final Armada, simply detract from the enjoyment of the game.

Accompanying the non-entity sound are average graphics. The Aggressor (your vehicle and method of destruction) doesn't look out of place when compared to the very bland world environment. It could be described as a muddy brown, dull tank whose weapons are indistinguishable from the tank itself, even when firing. The different camera angles allow you to view it from first person or a couple third person angles, but it seems a little small compared to the enemy, because at times I felt like I was driving a Ford Escort, rather than a futuristic super-tank. It seems that the entire world is made up of a collage of dull looking greens and browns; sure, it looks like a desert wasteland, but considering the major war that has just taken place, I thought that wreckage of destroyed tanks and spaceships would be scattered around. The sky seems to be experiencing an ever-present sunset, which at first sets the futuristic space scene but after a while begins to scream out a lack of imagination. There are trees too, although they're very samey, while the mountainous regions are the same sandy colour that's present throughout the whole game. I tried to improve the experience by squinting to make believe that there were hundreds of ships overhead and that by completing the mission I was making a difference to the war effort - but sadly the dour, uninspiring colours entered my mind again and I was back to normality.

The world itself gives the impression that it is fully explorable, but if you veer too far away from your objective, your Commander tells you to turn around and your Aggressor does so automatically. As a side note, I don't know why in space-orientated games developers like to drop in spiky, sky blue structures across the environment - it seems to be the 'in' thing. Any of the military structures that appear in view follow a consistent grey stone theme, which again detracts from the visuals; Final Armada has brought a soul-sucking environmental experience to the table and no mistake. Compared to your tank, your wingman flies a delicate little Spitfire-esque aircraft to support you. Like your tank though, it seems a little small to be taking on the larger enemies and it also has the same colour scheme as the tank, although at least it looks like it can handle itself in a fight. Strange as it might sound, you begin to get a little claustrophobic whilst driving around the 3D world, because you just want to get out of your vehicle and actually get involved in some adrenaline-fuelled action, but sadly you can't leave your vehicle.

The Qorax are usually red in colour and like the rest of game's graphics they're presented in a thoroughly mediocre fashion. There seem to be two types of enemy vehicle to deal with - a ground jeep/tank hybrid that's pretty quick and a flying/hovering X-Wing style aircraft. The flying enemies are the most difficult to take down, because they can hover in front of you and unleash a ball of blue energy that disables your shields. The Qorax themselves look a little like the alien from the film Predator, but with a lot more armour. I do like the character animation during the mission briefings though and the cut scenes have a certain ambience to them that sets the mood come the actual mission. During the subtitles, the character's face appears next to the words, which adds clarity considering that there are no voices.

The Aggressor is supposedly a dual purpose vehicle; not only does it travel the world landscape like a tank but it can also be turned into slow moving hovercraft. Your primary weapon is a machine gun on the ground and a laser when in hover mode, which allows you to strafe around to avoid the enemy, but there are disadvantages because you can't recharge your shield and you move slower than in ground mode. Ideally you would have had to switch from one mode to the other to improve your chances of in a fight, but by far the best mode is the ground mode, because hover mode just leaves you open to attack. Your vehicle is aggressive in all senses of the word; when under attack, it feels like you're in control of an uncooperative concrete block and trying to move your vehicle sideways to face the enemy is very tricky. The Aggressor has no troubles going forward, but the lack of a brake function means that fine turning is impossible - so any aspiring Lewis Hamilton's need not apply. Whatever surface you drive across, it always feels the same, whether it is the more common sandy coloured surface or the duller grey muddy areas, so you never quite feel like you are driving a vehicle of behemoth design across the wastelands.

On a positive note, your vehicle is customisable; nanotechnology found after defeating the enemy or through the simulated battle mode can be used to purchase upgrades, not only for yourself but also your wingman. This brings me to your wingman, a person who offers air support throughout your missions. You can issue instructions to your wingman using the D-pad, although the options are limited and the one you will probably use the most is getting your wingman to distract the enemy while you move in for the kill, so Sun Tzu's The Art of War doesn't need to be referenced here! This perhaps offers an interesting tactical element during an intense battle, but essentially falls far short of what could have been a strong element of the gameplay.

There are only sixteen missions in total, which are all replayable, but they all tend to follow the same structure -go to a designated area, destroy enemy in said area, move to a new area, destroy the enemies there and so on. There are some escort missions interspersed with the rest, but they follow the same routine, so once you finish one mission it's unlikely that you will want to go back and better your performance, simply because first time around after all the gunfire has subsided you feel like you haven't achieved anything substantial besides completing the mission. There is an early turret mission, but it handles poorly, the enemies are often too quick to hit and sometimes there are just too many onscreen. The enemy tactics fall into two categories; they either let you fire at them without retaliation or they spot you and just completely overwhelm you with a barrage of fire whilst your wingman just flies around, offering no assistance. Every now and again you have to face a larger alien boss enemy, which are pretty hard to beat because of the amount of attacks they launch at you, but this feels more like a chore than a triumphant victory, as the bosses' attacks follow a rigid routine. Oh and one last thing - I thought respawning enemies was something we no longer had to deal in this day and age, yet in Final Armada you can see them respawning from the same place you just destroyed them, which simply cannot be forgiven.

Final Armada is a poorly developed game that fails to score enough positives to warrant it being recommended to even old-school Battlezone lovers . There are some interesting features, such as the wingman, and the story is mildly entertaining if not at all original, but the myriad negatives combine with the short lifespan to generate a below average attempt at a Battlezone clone, and one that is simply not worth a look, regardless of your gaming tastes.

Reviewed by Christopher McNally for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).