Bytten

Having been a fan of Galaxy G #1, you can well imagine my excitement upon discovering a new and updated Galaxy G had been released! Like many space games available on the market, Galaxy G (to be referred to as GG) is an interpretation of the open-ended "choose your destiny" space game in the tradition of the famous "Elite".

Gameplay is as follows: the player chooses a career path (trader, mercenary, etc.). Once done, you can roam the star-lanes earning money on contracts of all sorts or speculative buying and trading of merchandise. Said money can then be used to either upgrade your ship or purchase a new ship. The catch lies in the fact there are others in the galaxy that may wish to kill you - for bounty, cargo, or religious reasons. The galaxy you play in is divided into 5 sectors which open during the course of the game based on money earned, number of missions performed, or number of kills.

The graphics are standard fare. Everything from the planets to the spaceships are rendered 2-D (there is a 3-D option, however, my Dinosaur's hardware did not meet the minimum requirements!). The colour scheme is wonderful for this kind of game, though there are few animations. Given the large number of planets to visit, there is a surprising lack of variety not only between the planets, but also among the places you do business (shipyard, market, etc.).

The soundscape of GG is an interesting collection of, er, sounds. The background music is a nice jazz-like piece, a trait shared with the game's predecessor. The remainder of the soundscape is a rather simplistic collection of sounds, many recycled from the game's first incarnation. Many of those reading likely will not have played the first Galaxy G in order to make this connection, so suffice it to say the sounds are simplistic.

Galaxy G 2.0 is a playable game - the player interface is one which is rather easy to figure out. Furthermore, Galaxy G is essentially a casual game which adds to its playability as well. What detracted from playability is that at the time of this writing there was no game manual to speak of. Why does this matter? The player will encounter the "brotherhood" as well as other factions during the course of the game and there is no clues provided as to why this is important or how to deal with them. The game is a casual RPG of sorts and there is no story provided to even marginally immerse yourself in.

I did not find myself playing Galaxy G 2.0 for very long. I did not find myself immersed in the game's universe, largely for reasons mentioned previously. The combination of repetitive screens and no way to reference the factions that are in the game really detracted from its playability and thus, longevity.

Galaxy G presents itself as a large playing field for the imagination that unfortunately presents itself unenthusiastically. Ultimately, I likened the game to purchasing a carton of eggs that, once opened, you discover that while there are slots for a dozen eggs, several are missing. The unexciting gameplay, lack of variety and lack of a manual or storyline really impacted my opinion of the game. However, there is room yet to fill the carton with eggs.

Keywords: galaxy g 2.0 review, gcm enterprises reviews, gcm enterprises games, galaxy g 2.0 scores, pc game reviews, indie game reviews, independent gaming.