Wing Commander Armada

Wing Commander Armada from 1994 is a spin-off from Origin Systems' main series that, instead of a linear story-driven campaign, focuses on a multiplayer, strategy-oriented take on space battles between Humans and the Kilrathi. The game combines a turn-based strategic map, on which players deploy and move fleets, with action-based ship combat in the style of the classic Wing Commander games, triggered whenever units clash on the map.

This hybrid approach was unusual at the time of release - the player has to handle both tactical decision-making at the level of the entire war, deciding where to concentrate forces and how to defend key systems, and the space combat itself in real time, switching from the fleet commander's view down into the cockpit of a specific fighter. The game supported two-player play against each other over modem or serial cable, which in 1994 was the main reason many fans of the series bought the title - the chance to face a live opponent was still rare at the time, and Armada was among the first titles in the brand to deliberately bet on it. Besides human players, it was also possible to play against a computer-controlled opponent, so the game could also serve as a standalone tactical challenge. The graphics and combat controls were based on the previous entries in the series, so players used to Wing Commander II and III quickly found their bearings in combat, even though the map interface itself was rather plain and more functional than elaborate.

Wing Commander Armada was received as an interesting, if smaller and less ambitious, side product of the main series, aimed primarily at fans who wanted to try multiplayer combat without waiting for a full-fledged sequel with a big story. Today it is mainly remembered as a curiosity showing how, in the mid-1990s, studios experimented with combining strategy and action genres within a single established brand, before similar hybrid concepts became more common in the genre.

Why play it: More for series fans craving fast multiplayer combat without a big story than for newcomers — an interesting curiosity that combines strategy with action within an established brand.