Galaxy on Fire II

One of the best spaceship games ever released on iPhone. Gameplay reminds of such titles like:

  • Elite
  • Freelancer
  • Escape Velocity
  • EVE Online

The game is a sequel to Galaxy on Fire. Main protagonist is Keith T. Maxwell, a spaceship pilot known from the first GoF. Due to an engine malfunction he is catapulted into the future. The world he sees after the accident is quite different from the one he knows –  Humankind, the Vossk and the Nivelians have united against a new common enemy – the Voids. These “Voids” are raiding all other races by opening violent wormholes (hint, hint, just like Sansha Nation in Incursion) near their space stations and killing everything in sight.

Everything about this game: graphics, sound and content is much better than one could expect from iPhone game. Player is steering his vessel either with on-screen joypad, or with the use of accelerometer. The world is divided into solar systems, and the player is free to roam around them. To move to a different system the player must use either a Stargate, or his own Khador Jump Drive, which becomes available later in game. There is a multitude of starships to choose from, each has different amount of weapon and fitting slots (which makes it very similar to Freelancer and EVE Online), diferrent speed and steering capabilities or cargohold size.

The player is presented with multitude of weapons and modules to choose from: some guns have very high RoF and high DPS, but lack range. On the other end there are sniper laser with very high volley damage (4 such guns can obliterate any ship in the game with just one volley), but they require careful aiming. Secondary weapons are divided into light missiles, nukes and EMPs. Nukes are Area-of-Effect weapons, damaging everything (friend and foe alike) within their blast radius. Modules allow more functionality: there are cargo expanders, cloaking devices, passenger cabins and even a jump drive.

What makes this game special is crafting known from Massive Multiplayer games like EVE Online or WoW. Some items in the game can only be manufactured by player. First step is getting hold of a Blueprint, which can then be installed in a factory. In order to complete building of an item, player needs to accumulate correct amount of commodities.

Hardware requirements is any iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone (there is also a version for JAVA enabled handsets), but older iPhones will suffer performance issues on default grpahics and sound settings. We can improve player experience by disabling in-game music and reducing graphics details to minimum. This game runs best on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. I don’t need to say, that both iPad and Retina display on iPhone 4 are fully supported.

In closing I can recommend this game to anyone who played EVE Online or Freelancer on PC: You won’t be disappointed, this game is worth every penny. Rich world and multitude of options allow many ways to complete the game, while different weapon types suit various play-styles.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/galaxy-on-fire-2/id397127539?mt=8

Some notes useful for players:

Where to buy coordinates to hidden systems:

Y’mirr – Lopat station in Vulpes system. Price: 500,000 credits
Ni’mrrod – Aoeh station in Nesla system. Price: 30,000 credits
Suteo – P’errka station in Vikka system.
Pan – F’err station in S’kloptorr system.

New coordinates in Supernova expansion:

Skor Terpa – Okana station in Pareah system. Price: 5,000,000 credits
Alda – Kan’Tarr station in Me’enkk system. Price: 8,000,000 credits

All Blueprint locations:

1. M6 A3 “Wolverine” – Suteo, Gehlon.
2. H’nookk – Pan, Taygete.
3. 128MJ Railgun – Eanya, Kallsta Omba.
4. Mass Driver MD 10 – Wolf-Reiser, Thynome.
5. 10x Amour Rocket – Buntta, Arpalys.
6. 10x Intelli Jet – Ymirr, K’mirkk.
7. 10x ARM Extinctor – Dom’bak, L’ikirr.
8. Fluxed Matter Shield – Magnetar, Zepar.
9. T’yol – Prospero, Urda Arcturius.
10. Rhoda Blackhole – Pescal Inartu, Festus.
11. Khador Drive – Just follow the storyline.
12. Gunant’s Drill – Mido, Var Hastra.
13. Yin Co. Shadow Ninja – K’ontrr, E’kkide.

Best End Game Weapons (applies to base game without expansions)

DPS = Damage Per Second = The higher the more damage
Loading Speed = Fire Rate = The lower the faster fire rate
Range = The higher the farther bullets travel

Tyrfing Blaster(Blaster) – DPS: 59.90 | Loading Speed: 220ms | Range: 1.3 km | Highest damage, shorest range. Effective in close combat. Shorest range not efficient against long range enemy | Obtainable in the shop

Blueprint Only – Mass Driver MD 10(Auto-cannon) – DPS: 44.44 | Loading Speed: 90ms | Range: 2.9 km | Fastest fire rate. 2nd highest damage after tyrfing blaster. Very good ranage. Consider the best overall weapon in the game

Blueprint Only – M6 A3 “Wolverine”(Laser) – DPS: 34.00 | Loading Speed: 1500ms | Range: 3.6 km | Longest ranage. Best for long range battle and sniping enemy ship before it reaches it’s weapon range. When getting a lock on, laser(s) have limit tracking ability on enemy ship even if the cursor isn’t directly pointing at them. Damage is 2nd lowest of the four and fire rate is the slowest

Maxheat 020(Thermo) – DPS: 33.33 | Loading Speed: 150ms | Range: 2.2 km | Lowest damage out of four. Range is rather short but loading speed is 2nd fastest. This weapon has terrible aiming and might get you in trouble when the bullets often accidently hit an ally ship. However, the beauty of this weapon lies on it’s tracking ability. Once achieving a lock on, the bullets will have a wide range to track the enemy even if your cursor isn’t directly pointing at them | Obtainable in shop

More info is available on wiki: http://galaxyonfire.wikia.com/wiki/

Best weapons in Supernova Expansion

Where to get the best weapons in Supernova? Kaamo Lounge, of course. One of the Bobolians is trading in ships (Teneta R.E.D for example), the other Bobolian is a weapons dealer. That Kaamo VIP card might be wirth the 0,79 EUR after all!

Primary weapons

Secondary weapons

  • T ‘Suum (sentry)
  • Patala (cluster missile)

Other modules

  • Nirai SPP-M50 (remote repair)
  • PE Fusion H2 (plasma collector)
  • Specteral Filter Omega (plasma filter)

Add-ons and expansions

Valkyrie – you can read more about it in this post. At the moment it is only available for the non-HD version of the game. According to the developers Valkyrie for the “HD” version should become available in Q1/Q2 2012

Supernova – has been released on 21st of September 2012 (the launch coincided with the release of iPhone 5). More details can be found in this post.

Galaxy On Fire II HD and Full HD – what’s the difference?

Fishlabs has subsequently released a version with improved visuals and textures, specifically for the A5 chip in iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, which was dubbed “Galaxy on Fire 2 HD“. This version is partially compatible with the original Galaxy on Fire 2 (can download the online save if you have one) but only if the Valkyrie add-on has not been installed in the latter.

Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD is a version which made it to Mac on AppStore and to PC on Steam. It sports improved visuals, as well as it can be played in real Full HD resolution. For more details please visit the Galaxy on fire 2 Full HD website.

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