Galaxy On Fire 2

[KingIsaacLinksr]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/212010/

Anyone heard of or played this game?  Any good?

Love it, love it, love it. Favourite game on the iPad by a wide margin. I played it for an hour an a half on my commute this morning, in fact.

Although it's got a fair number of varied mission types, plenty of ships and upgrades and a pretty big galaxy to explore, it does lean slightly towards a pick-up-and-play affair - if you did nothing but the bare minimum, the main story might only last four hours. As it was for me, for the initial asking price I got a good 12 hours of gameplay out of it before the story was done and dusted and the grind-to-progression ratio tilted slightly too far in the wrong direction. Then I picked up the first expansion and it not only added more story but also a lot of shiny new kit, a broader and better range of ships and even a space station to call my very own, if I can ever afford the 30 million credits (and a bucketload of legal highs) to buy the damn thing.

Thing is, this game isn't freemium. The original game might only entertain for 8-15 hours - depending on your playstyle - but it's a great experience on its own. Sure, the story and voice acting (oh God ,the voice acting) are a bit hammy. And there aren't hundreds of ships (I think there are 30+). But you definitely don't have to buy the expansions to have a good time and get your money's worth.

And in fact, I was stoked to buy the expansion after my 12 hours of time with the base game. I'm yet to be disappointed by it. I'm excited there's another one due out soon!

It's not a perfect game by any means but if you're looking for a solid Freelancer-lite in this day and age, you'd do far worse than Galaxy of Fire II.

If it isn't freemium, why are they selling packs of coins then?

[zebramatt]

Edit:  Well, I'll be! So you can. I was completely oblivious!

I suppose it's no different from Infinity Blade, though. If you want to reduce your enjoyment and your disposable real life income in one fell swoop, there's an option for that.

I've played a lot of freemium games on the iPad and I'd honestly still not consider Galaxy On Fire II (or Infinity Blade, for that matter) to fall under that banner because paying for ingame currency in both cases actively undermines the point of the game; as opposed to the hundreds of "free" games which don't really get fun until you unlock their content.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Edit:  Well, I'll be! So you can. I was completely oblivious!

I suppose it's no different from Infinity Blade, though. If you want to reduce your enjoyment and your disposable real life income in one fell swoop, there's an option for that.

I've played a lot of freemium games on the iPad and I'd honestly still not consider Galaxy On Fire II (or Infinity Blade, for that matter) to fall under that banner because paying for ingame currency in both cases actively undermines the point of the game; as opposed to the hundreds of "free" games which don't really get fun until you unlock their content.

Idk, in the case of IB2, the game really made weapons cost so friggin much it felt like they were pushing the coin packs really hard. It makes me really wary of buying games with a similar model. Maybe its not that bad with GOF2, but....I'm not very trusting of iOS games as it is right now.

[Mánagarmr]

iOS is currently the cesspit of F2P abuse atm.

[zebramatt]

To put this in some context, I'm just about the biggest detractor of the free to play model you'll ever find, and GOFII hasn't struck that alarm bell even once with me yet. The only time I've even remotely felt like something was unobtainable was the purchasable space station added in the expansion, and that's actually available to purchase for £1.49 as standalone DLC - so you can make an informed buying decision up front. I just know I'll have more fun working my ass off for it in the game.

Even Infinity Blade I think is so much more fun without buying in-game currency. You constantly have to really think about your build to maximise experience while still being able to tackle the enemies. And there's always some new weapon which you want but you just can't afford. It's what makes the game compelling. If I spent real money on loads of good stuff, what would be the point?

I think Galaxy Of Fire and Infinity Blade might actually be examples of Pay 2 Lose (all sense of enjoyment or purpose)!

[Volatar]

Sure, the story and voice acting (oh God ,the voice acting) are a bit hammy.

Oh, it can't be that bad. 

[zespri]

The steam version doesn't have any dlc... yet. If they start selling a lot of post-release dlc for a single player space shooty game, that would be kind of depressing.

I'm not quite sure how this could be depressing if you liked the original game and it did not feel lite on content.

[zebramatt]

Exactly so!