Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes Doesn’t Play With A Full Deck

What’s currently happening to Star Wars in the mobile gaming space was always inevitable. When an entertainment property becomes as popular as this sci-fi icon it isn’t long before developers take a slice, morphing their prized piece of the franchise into something unavoidably familiar.

It’s the same thing we’ve seen happen with Marvel in recent years. While much of their focus used to lie in action-heavy adaptations, you’re more likely to see Earth’s mightiest heroes star in a connect three puzzle or Infinity Blade styled duelling sim these days.

Thankfully Star Wars: Galaxy Of Heroes isn’t quite as archetypal as it could have been. Developed by Capital Games, it clearly draws inspiration from the JRPG genre, while at the same time conforming to the myriad tropes and trends that star in just about every free-to-play mobile game.

Powering these systems is a clever core idea that plays on fans’ nostalgic tendencies. During the game, players will build and upgrade a team of up to six avatars, each based on familiar Star Wars characters.

From poster boys like Skywalker and Solo to a raft of more obscure entries, Galaxy Of Heroes allows you to recruit squadmates from all major points in the timeline. What’s more, just an hour or so into the game, you’ll gain access to Dark Side characters too, taking them out on their own designated missions.

These missions span anywhere between two and ten minutes, forming the game’s backbone. Each one pits your team against three waves of enemies, usually culminating in a boss battle.

All of the game’s combat is done via Galaxy’s streamlined turn-based system. Whenever a character’s turn meter reaches full, they can perform one of the skills assigned to a panel in the bottom right corner of the screen. Each character typically has a basic attack alongside one or two abilities reflecting their personal skillsets.

For example, aside from firing his Bowcaster every turn, Chewbacca can let out a roar, forcing all enemies to target him, while your bog standard Clone Trooper can spray the entire opposing force with a low damage burst.

With so many characters and skill combinations available, you’ll soon find yourself craving more of them. Some will even have passive abilities helping to complement allies from certain factions. While there’s scope for experimentation, this is significantly hampered by the game’s microstransactions.

Although character cards come thick and fast to begin with, this soon slows to a trickle before drying up entirely. Very soon, you’re left with two options; buying packs to unlock new teammates or earning them through hours of very tedious farming. After a week of continuous play, I still hadn’t scraped together enough crystals to buy the cheapest card pack available.

Although the auto-play and battle simulation features do help to speed up the process somewhat, when you realise that you’re simply spectating battle after battle to fill your coffers at such a slow rate, the magic starts to wear off.

That’s when I had to walk away from Galaxy Of Heroes. As much as I appreciated the fan service and hassle-free combat, I couldn’t bring myself to inject any real money to keep the dream alive.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun in those opening hours of the game. However, to get the most enjoyment out of it, I’d have to part with three or four quid on a fairly regular basis just to keep a steady flow of new characters to assign to my squads.

Playing Galaxy Of Heroes ultimately felt like having my own interactive Star Wars sticker book – a sticker book torn apart by its own costly top-up fees and grind placed on those not willing to pay them.