[Originally posted November 23, 2023]
TLDR:
Spaceship dog fights, mech combat, console hacking, and more. Plenty of gameplay, but expect patience with bugs and server issues. I enjoyed it.
How to play
The game is free to play on Steam and Epic. I like this ease of access and using a trusted launcher to avoid downloading a random .rar file. It has been a little brutal in the Steam reviews though. Most seem to have a short time played and are critical of the game having NFTs or server stability rather than the gameplay itself.
It has had over 50k downloads, so must be doing something right.
Game Loop
Upon starting the game, the first step is creating your human avatar. This character represents you as you navigate through the various space stations in the game. After that, you select your ship, which is central to your gameplay experience.
The ship features two modes: a traditional spaceship and a Mech, offering a dynamic gaming experience. You can choose between the versatile assault ship or the more heavily armored buster, each with its own strengths.
You are assigned missions and quests by NPCs on the space stations. Some of these are storyline quests and others are daily quests.
As a pilot, your HUD is crucial. It displays essential information like health, shield status, and a heat meter, which is a key element to monitor. The heat meter increases with boosting or using certain abilities in mech mode. Overheating causes damage, adding a strategic layer to combat. Additionally, keep an eye on your ammo and weapon cooldowns to stay combat-ready.
The game offers a diverse arsenal, with the machine gun as your primary weapon, supplemented by missiles and special abilities unique to each ship type. For instance, the assault ship features an attack drone as its special. Transforming into mech mode, you gain access to a melee attack with plasma swords, enhancing your combat options.
Exploration is a significant aspect of "Phantom Galaxies." As you venture farther from your base, you'll use jump gates to travel between different systems and planets. Some missions even take you to planetary surfaces, where you pilot your mech in ground combat.
Progress in the game is marked by upgrades to your ship and gear, funded by completing daily side quests for in-game currency.
Game feel
The dog fights were challenging and did feel like a test of skill. I found playing with the controller easier than with the keyboard, which is unusual for me. The variety of weapons kept it interesting. The limited ammo makes sense but did leave me floating with nothing to do when battling a large ship. Skill issue?
The space station interactions were okay if a little janky at times. It was interesting working around and interacting with different NPC. They didn’t have that much substance currently, but I can see that fleshing out into a more immersive experience.
Mech combat planet-side was a nice change of pace, but some of the AI enemies weren't very smart. I spent a lot of time trying to find the enemies I was meant to kill, as they’d got stuck in a corner.
I enjoyed the hacking mini-games. Having missions that weren't just “kill this” was immersive. However, most ended up being a variation on fetch quests. Aside from some visual bugs, the game looked decent.
Nothing particularly genre-defining but a solid entry.
Rating
If we separate the connection issues and bugs from the gameplay, I actually really enjoyed it. I played a few hours and I barely scratched the surface, it feels like it will have plenty of single-player content.
The variety of styles of gameplay was fun and engaging. I'd like to see more variety in quests, as most are just different variations of fetch quests.
Overall I would recommend the game, but with a massive caveat of expect to have issues so only play if you are willing to have patience. Otherwise, just wait for future updates before jumping in.
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