Galaxy Factions Review

Jan 23, 2014

Galaxy Factions takes the CoC clone genre to space. With lotsa lasers and guns does it have an edge over its sword sporting brethren?

Galaxy Factions sets the player up with a command center, a transport ship and little else. As is common with this genre, Galaxy Factions is all about constructing a base, mining resources and taking the fight to pirates and rival mining bases in single player or to other players in multiplayer.

Galaxy Factions plays almost exactly like Clash of Clans, the most well-known example of the genre. Units are built in the Training Facility and occupy a building in your base until they are used. When in combat the player simply selects where the soldiers will appear from. Once they are on the field they cannot be controlled and attack different foes depending on the soldier type. Some soldiers prefer attacking base defences while others fire on economy buildings. Destroying a majority of the enemy base wins the battle and awards a large amount of resources. Soldiers that are left at the end of the battle are lost so a new army must be built for each attack.

Galaxy Factions sticks to this formula except that unlike other games it is set in the future. Thus the player gets to play with lasers, assault rifle wielding infantry, mobile artillery suits and armoured vehicles.

Unfortunately, as is common in this genre of games Galaxy Faction’s freemium elements really ruin the gameplay. While buildings begin with modest 5-15min timers this quickly balloons to an hour to upgrade a single base defence and up to six hours or more to upgrade structures like your transport ship. Because of the constant need to upgrade buddings to new, more advanced versions “gameplay” in Galaxy Factions often consists of logging in once every few hours, tapping on two buildings to upgrade them and them closing the app. Repeat ad infinitum.

The transport ship upgrade time is extremely annoying since several upgrades of it are all but necessary to have the forces required to fight properly and 4 or 5 upgrades of 6+ hours each time is extremely off putting.

Battle also has little real strategy besides picking a good spot for your units to deploy at. The game’s hero units are little more than extra powerful normal soldiers since; unlike a game like Sensei Wars they are not customizable with different skills or directly controllable.

Lastly, Galaxy Factions is very derivative. There have been a lot of Clash of Clans clones released lately and Galaxy Faction’s space theme is its only real innovation. Sensei Wars with its fun gameplay and controllable heroes is much more fun than this game and more innovative. Galaxy Faction’s extremely long timers and copycat gameplay just isn’t a worthy addition to the genre.

Galaxy Factions is a novel, but ultimately shallow CoC clone with annoying freemium features. Its wait times are far too long and its gameplay is not worth the pain. Check out Sensei Wars instead for a deeper, more interesting game.


Galaxy Factions Review Rundown

8.0
Graphics/Sound - Looks great, with nice bloom effects and well animated buildings. Sound is average but gets the job done.
7.0
Controls - A basic interface. Tiny fonts in places.
5.0
Gameplay - Far too much waiting and little strategy in battles besides spamming units. Very focused on pay to win. Way too much structure upgrading.
3.0
Replay Value - The extreme amount of waiting required will likely scare off most players quickly. Those that remain will find a shallow battle system with little fun on offer.
6.0
Overall - Galaxy Factions is a pretty but dull game that plays like many others The oppressive timers and lackluster battles make it a game best avoided.

Download: App available at the Google Play Store »

Allan Curtis
Allan is a writer of many years experience. Passionate about Android, gaming and coffee he weds technical knowhow and writing skill into a maelstrom of awesome. Follow me at #AllanCurtisARF
Connect with Allan Curtis // email
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