Galaxy Warfighter (Steam) - PC Game Review

With a title like Galaxy Warfighter, anything can be expected. As long as it involves space ship fighting. Click "read more" for my full review.

Writing

n/a

Game Play

First glance can really say everything to expect from this game.

Yup, an auto scrolling horizontal space shooter also known as a shmup, retro style. An easy way to some-up the game play is, kept as simple as possible. Moving the ship is mapped to the mouse and the shooting is done automatically. In the beginning, the game can be played entirely by moving the mouse around, no button imput needed except for exiting. That is, until upgrades are purchased.

Every enemy defeated drops a green coin that can be collected and spent on upgrades. Shock wave and Stop Time are special moves that can be triggered once a meter fills up, everything else is passive.

There are 100 missions and each one is short and straight forward. Survive waves of enemies and each mission ends with a boss battle.

Interestingly enough, every stage appears to be randomly generated. Retrying a failed mission can have a different background, enemy pattern, and even boss. Difficulty grows gradually at a good pace, it is only the layout that is random. Unfortunately, this may be to hide the biggest problem with the game, the limited variety. There are only 3 bosses and a handful of backgrounds. New enemies appear as stages progress, but they are often just color or size changers. 

Despite being limited, this is still a solid, fast paced, and fun experience. But, it is nothing new nor does it have any major standout factors. Just another typical shmup for the fans.

Audio

The sound effects in this game are all what one would expect from a shmup. Explosions, shooting, lasers, and power ups are all there. Nothing to complain about. Music on the other hand is a different story. While the track they play during gameplay is a great rock tune and the menu music works okay, those are the only 2 tracks. It would not have taken a lot of variety to satisfy a title like this, hopefully an updates adds a couple more down the line. Although, there are a couple small voice clips snuck in at the base which I found charming

Presentation

Visually, the game is pixel art but very nice to look at.

Very detailed and colorful. Fans of 2D gameplay and pixel art will be satisfied. 

Final Verdict

Galaxy Warfighter is exactly what it advertises to be, a simple shmup at an affordable price. Can't say there is anything special about the title, but I enjoyed the experience. Fans of shmups should check this title out, everyone else, I cannot claim this will be the title to get you interested in the genre. 

Writing - n/a

Game Play - 6.5/10

Audio - 3/5

Presentation - 4/5

Overall - 6.7/10