Gamer reviews for Star Wars ™: Galactic Defense
Star Wars
Star Wars: Galactic Defense is a tower defense mobile game developed by DeNA Santiago for Android and iOS. It was released on October 30, 2014. The game covers the franchise's eras from the prequel to the timeline of the original film trilogy. The game can only be played with an active internet connection on (but it doesn't necessarily need you to interact/contend with other players), with an optional and alternate method of logging in with your Facebook account.
The game has two storylines that players can select. They can either take the Rebels' (Light) side or the Imperial (Dark) side. Each side has their own heroes whose presence in the battlefield are both invaluable and important. Both sides are pretty much balanced; they even have the same type of towers (though there are minor aesthetic differences to distinguish each side). However, due to the roster of heroes, each side has a distinct playstyle which allows players to further immerse in the Star Wars universe.
The game has a standard tower defense format; build towers along the enemies' path and prevent them from getting past your checkpoint. There are pre-determined spots where you can place your towers. The resource used in building towers is called "Scraps". These are dropped by defeated enemies during the battle which will allow you to build additional towers. Enemies can't attack towers and they'll follow the designed path for the map.
Aside from the normal waves of enemies, bosses or champions from the opposing side will sometimes join the fray. It's important to have your own champion face them to prevent them from breaking through your defenses.
The game has four standard towers: Ranged, Artillery, Melee, and Status. Ranged Towers are standard, long-ranged installments that can pick off weaker units, Artillery towers fire explosives that deal splash damage, Melee Towers spawn three soldiers of your selected faction and engage enemies in melee combat, and Status Towers which deals damage over time and amplify further damage to affected enemies.
As you complete missions, your towers also level up. After leveling them up, they'll branch into two different tower sub-types. For example, a Melee Tower can turn into a Defender Training Tower which generates soldiers with lower attack but higher HP and defense while Warrior Training Tower spawns soldiers with high attack but with lower HP and armor.
Heroes/Champions are key units in the game. You can move them anywhere along the enemies path to decimate their numbers. They can even cross terrains that enemies can't take. Each champion has a unique skill that can be triggered by tapping their portrait on the lower right corner of the screen. The skill is activated instantly so make sure you're near your targets before activating it. After using a skill, you must wait for the skill to cool down before you can use it again. Your champion can accelerate the cooldown by making him kill more enemies.
Missions take place in different planets, which have individual smaller "objectives". Some of these objectives are just the same exact maps with increased difficulties. Harder objectives give more scores (exp) and credits which makes them worthwhile. You'll always start with the easiest difficulty and unlock the harder ones as you complete the preceding missions. In addition to the exp and credit reward at the end of every mission, there's a roulette where players can earn additional rewards.
These are consumable boosters that can be purchased before a mission using galactic credits. There are two types of support cards: Passive Support Cards are activated as soon as you start the mission. This includes bonus scrap when starting a mission, and boosting your credits or experience reward after a mission. Active Support Cards must be activated manually when the situation calls for it in battle. You'll start the game with limited number of support cards so use them sparingly.
Champions are staple of the battlefield. They can take on armies and can change the tide of battle with their skills. Since champions are very important in bolstering your defenses, you should recruit more champions by spending galactic credits. To do this, access the Champions tab in the main menu and select Recruitment Pods. You can choose from a Carbonite Pod and Durasteel Pod. Carbonite Pod is cheaper (10,000 credits) b but you'll only get a chance to recruit basic Champions. Durasteel Pod is more expensive (30,000 credits) but you have the chance to get powerful Champions. If you ever get a duplicate Champion, it will boost your original Champion's skill level and max level cap.
Champions also have passive bonus effects called Synergies. There are Champion Synergies which activates if two champions familiar with each other is put in a mission together and Planet Synergies which is activated if a specific champion deployed on a mission is familiar on the planet where the mission is taking place. You can check these synergies from the Champions Profiles menu.
The game's overall "cartoonish" map backgrounds is pleasant and non-distracting. Character designs and unit models stay true to the source material. In fact, they'll remind you of the Star Wars animated series. However, the effects and animations are somewhat dull and generic. It's not that we're expecting impressive explosions, skill animations, or something but battles can be very anticlimactic and boring, even when there's a lot of units fighting. The game's cinematic background music and sound effects helps bring the right "feel" to the game.
As expected from an online-only game, you can't play the game as often as you please. Every play requires Energy (represented by the cube-like things on the upper right corner of the screen) which is replenished automatically after every 20 minutes or so. Now, the game's progress will depend on how often you'll be able to play missions since you'll be able to level up your heroes and towers faster. Champions and towers earn experience and can level up, improving their stats and abilities. But how can you do that when the game's limiting you from playing longer, if you have the time to do it?)
The game doesn't have any ads but it will take every opportunity it can get to convince you to spend money through microtransactions. There's a daily bonus reward that you can take advantage of but you'll also get "Limited Time Offers" about packages and such. Corusca Gems are the prime currency of the game. You can use it to purchase Galactic Credits (game's default currency) which in turn, can be used to hire better champions, replenish your support cards, buy relics, and many more. Additionally, having the option to log in to your Facebook account so that you can annoy your friends for energy and reinforcements or "compete" with them to get free gems clearly displays how the game revolves around a pay-to-play structure.
One of the problems I regularly encounter is when the game is having a hard time connecting to the network, even if you have a working, internet connection. You can check your Facebook, browse the internet, even download stuff with your mobile device and the game will still remain at 33% or 67% loading or will stubbornly tell you to check your internet connection. SWGD is a prime example of why online-only games can be very unreliable. That means the places where you can play will be very limited, thus defeating the purpose of a mobile game.
And after being out for a few months, having this problem clearly shows how poor is the developer's support with the game. The game's download page is flooded with similar concerns as evidently documented by a large number of players but it seems that there's very little progress in resolving this.
Another thing is that the developer's support page (Dena) lacks reliable content and information about the game itself. And honestly, it looks quite amateurish for a game from a high-caliber franchise. The game is out for a few months now and other gaming sites have more information than what the official support page gives. While they have a dedicated page for the game's prominent "67% loading issue", it was only mentioned that the developers are currently investigating the issue with no clear course of action or resolution available soon. With better games or high competitive titles available in Google Play/ App Store, there's no reason for someone to wait to get this fixed, unless he/she is an avid Star Wars fan.
Now, should you get Star Wars Galactic Defense? It looks like a great game, if you're able to make it work everytime . Now the question is whether the game can be sustained through normal gameplay. I never got the chance to progress far into the game, (thanks to the pesky loading issue) but limiting your playthrough via consumable "Energy", possible diffulty spikes where you're almost forced to buy something to get past it, or offering expensive and overpowered Champions to tempt players is definitely going to be a horrible pay-to-play experience. Basically, your progress as a "free" player will be terribly slow without paying for the game's premium features. I would rather pay for a premium game upfront with very optional microtransactions, optional / stable network connectivity, and a real tower defense experience.
Want something similar without troubling money-grab features or unstable gameplay? Try OTTTD (Over the Top Tower Defense). Check out our review here and see for yourself. Until the reviews of SWGD becomes positive over time and the loading issue is completely resolved, stay away from this (as one reviewer described) ticking frustration bomb.