Reviews// Space Run Galaxy

Tower defence games are something I love in concept but rarely actually enjoy and I've never really understood why I feel this way. Then along comes Space Run Galaxy (I missed the original release, something I now regret) which is essentially tower defence in space, whilst moving and protecting cargo.

In Passtech games' real-time strategy/ tower defence hybrid you take control of a spaceship made up of hexagons. Each hexagon can house different units from a selection of weapons, defence structures, propulsion and the cargo you elect to carry.

Starting off at a space station you can choose from various missions, all of which involve moving goods from one place to another. Once you have selected your missions you then set a course for the cargo's destination and your run is ready to begin. Before you launch you must select where on your ship the cargo will be kept because this also takes up the valuable hex-based real estate on your vessel and whichever hexagons are left are the ones you can use for the defence of your ship.

Once launched, you are presented with your ship hurtling through the void. You can make extra money by building new engines in-flight to beat the tiered times represented as a bar at the bottom of the screen. However, you must also balance this extra speed with fending off various threats. Periodically during a run you'll be alerted to various incoming threats from asteroids and pirates. You build cannons, blasters and missile launches to tackle these threats, and each threat destroyed drops currency that you can use to build further defences and this continues until you reach your destination.

Early missions are simple and a little brainless, but soon you'll find missions getting far more dangerous and with this increase in difficulty the need for thinking strategically also increases. This game is at its most fun when you're frantically trying to hold your ship together and barely managing it. There are various configurations of ships to purchase, so you can try to find your ideal ship to match your play-style and it encourages you to experiment.

The game is presented in a clear, vibrant art style that is both consistent and attractive without being overly flashy. The music is excellent and captures that feeling of a frontier adventure with a lavishly varied playlist of tracks.

I feel terrible for admitting this, but I stopped paying attention to the overarching story around ten missions in. The writing was solid, but it felt like a justification for travelling between certain outposts to progress the difficulty curve of the game rather than trying to serve up a fascinating narrative in its own right. This could be the intent of the developers because as I lost interest in the story I got more hooked on the core gameplay loop of finding challenging space runs.

Ultimately Space Run Galaxy, like most games in its genre, becomes repetitive. Especially with sessions of extended play, your personal mileage will depend on how much you enjoy this type of game and if you are new to the tower defence genre then this is an excellent place to start. You don't need to have played the original and it does an excellent job of introducing all of its core concepts within a short amount of time.

Pros:
+ Clean and vibrant art
+ Rock solid mechanics and fun gameplay loop
+ Subtle but well implemented user-made content
+ Rocking sound track

Cons:
- The story feels skippable

SPOnG Score: 8/10