Help me decide!

[Quarto]

Heh, it's been ages since I played Armada multiplayer - the last time must have been around 1997, on the network at school. That was an amazing experience - especially in Proving Grounds, when the other players have been killed, and everyone else in the room were crowding around the last two remaining players, cheering them on or trying to distract them into death... great times.

Gameplay-wise, though, I think the main difference between it and WCP is that it was balanced towards multiplayer. WCP has some ships that are simply, objectively, better than everything else - sure, an experienced Wasp player can outdo a Vampire, but most of the time, the Vampire will be the most popular ship. In Armada, there wasn't one particular ship that was better than everything else. You could take up an Arrow and fly circles around someone's Goran... but if the guy was good, all he needed was to line you up just once.

 

[Kaunisto]

One day I'll beat Academy. I've made it three times to last level (15-3) and several more to two before. One day...

 

[ChrisReid]

Armada, though - I think that one deserves a lot more attention than it usually gets. Unless you're really hardcore, there's definitely no point playing through the gauntlets (I never finished them... alas, I never even got past level 5!).

You don't get much from the first few "briefings," but there's an occasional gem dropped into the text before each mission in the gauntlet. And without the password resume feature from the patch, playing through 15 gauntlet missions was a bear. One of the greatest often-forgotten parts of the series though is also the two-player cooperative mission ability of the Armada Gauntlet. Just great great fun, and again, way ahead of its time.

 

[Quarto]

Yeah, cooperative gauntlet was a fantastic experience. I wish there was more of that - even these days, it seems most games only give you deathmatch, with proper cooperative remaining a rare beast.

 

[Wedge009]

Of the few multi-player experiences I've had, I've always preferred playing co-operatively rather than free-for-alls.

I never tried it, since I didn't want to bother with on-line connections, but I understand Red Alert 3 features co-operation in the story campaign? Or is that overshadowed by the undoubtedly far more popular skimirshes?

 

[Dundradal]

I have RA3 for Xbox but have never tried the co-op feature. I've always wanted to (and you can see how the game is set up for it each map has 2 allied bases) but there is no way to find someone to play with unless you are already friends with them. The game does not provide a way to host a public co-op game which makes absolutely no sense since how much the toted it before release.

 

[Wedge009]

That's a shame. My brother and I would be keen to give it a go, except for the fact that that would require two licences. x.x