[iPhone] Review - Galaxy on Fire 2 (part 1)

I've only played this for just over 1 hour, so I'll post Part 2 of this review in a week or two. It's too big a game to judge after 1 hour. That certainly won't stop me judging it, however.

I spent a few months playing X3: Reunion by Egosoft, back in the day. I liked Elite and the Wing Commander games. And I messed about with Eve Online, although I didn't have a good enough computer to enjoy it. So I thought I'd check out Galaxy on Fire 2 .... After all, it only costs $10.50 (?!).

Cruising the galaxy like a true pimp.

The basic idea is, you fly around space, docking at various Stations to trade goods, pick up freelance missions, upgrade your ship, buy a new ship, and continue along the Story Missions. You get to fight other ships (a lot), and probably do some other crap which I haven't reached yet.

Graphics - Brilliant, can't fault the look of this game. Here is another screenshot:

"I wonder if this station has a McDonalds?"

Sound - Nice space-type music. Combat sounds are OK, but a bit repetitive. Interestingly, the voice acting is of a very good quality, which really makes the game feel polished. You've heard me whinge about bad voice acting in a previous post. No problem in this game though.

I did a fly-by on this massive Cruiser, while it headed for the jumpgate. I'm just cool like that.

Gameplay - Well you get everything that it promises on the tin. You can fly around just trading if you want, building up your money for a bigger or better ship (or even your own station to store them in, I read somewhere).

Or you can stick to the story missions. The story is pretty standard fare, nothing too exciting.

Or you can do freelance missions for fun and cash.

Or you can be a pirate. Maybe. I've never tried this, but there are other computer-controlled ships flying around the place, so I don't see why you couldn't blast them and steal their cargo.

Sorry I didn't get a screenshot of combat. I forgot.

The loading screens lasts literally 1 second on the iPhone 4, so that's very impressive. Nothing more annoying than a game that makes you wait for loading screens. And I haven't had a single crash, stall, jerk or jitter since I started playing. It also supports that "iOS multitask" thing, so when you jump back into it, you'll be at exactly the same screen you left at. Awesome.

"Hello why you shoot me?? NO BANG BANG!!"

Value - Hard to say a game is good value when it costs this much. Then again, there is plenty of content in here. There is already 1 expansion pack released. I think it costs another $6. Bit steep frankly.

But if this is the kind of game you like -- you honestly won't find a better "space combat/trading" game for your iPhone than Galaxy on Fire 2. I assume. I've only tried 2 other games like this. But they were both absolute shit. So it's a safe bet that GoF2 is the best of the bunch by a long shot.

Galaxy on Fire 2 - 5 out of 5
Not to everybody's tastes, but you can't fault this game if you're a fan of the genre. It includes everything you would expect, plus more, and it's very polished.

Spaceship parking $5,000 per hour. Offenders will be towed.

- Gray