Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Review

By, Herman Y.

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a free-to-play, online turn-based RPG developed by Capital Games, the studio behind Heroes of Dragon Age, and published by Electronic Arts, a huge game publisher behind multiple AAA titles. With a lot of hype and anticipation for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes was thoughtfully released 3 weeks before the premier, which helped the game surpass 1 million downloads in less than one week. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is essentially a Star Wars-themed version of Heroes of Dragon Age and Summoners War, that can appeal to both Star Wars and casual RPG fans. The game features stage-based progression, lots of Star Wars characters to collect, and strategic, turn-based combat that is easy to pick up and play for casual gamers yet still engaging for more hardcore players. Although the game will feel quite generic for people familiar with hero-collecting RPGs such as Summoners War, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes still offers lots of content and appeal to Star Wars fans around the world.

A Galactic Holo-Card Battle
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes features beautiful 3D graphics and fluid animations although the game technically takes place on a holographic board. Rather than recreating scenes from the popular movies, players go through stages of fictional battles (which makes sense due to the random collectable Heroes in the party) that all supposedly happens as a holographic card battle. Therefore, the game has no story, which is unfortunate since the Star Wars series is most known for their in-depth story-telling and fascinating lore. Instead, players will journey through hundreds of stages, one at a time, similar to most hero-collecting RPGs which include 3 waves of enemies in each stage with a boss battle at the end. Each stage is quite short and completing stages gives Player experience, Hero experience, and various loot ranging from Hero shards used to assemble new Heroes, to equipment used to upgrade Heroes. Players can choose up to 5 Heroes to bring along into battle and the game features two campaigns: Light Side and Dark Side. This is actually an interesting feature that allows players to experience both sides (“Good” and “Evil”), and players can only use respective Light and Dark side Heroes in the two different campaigns. Completing maps will unlock a Difficult Mode for each map that provides better rewards such as Hero shards.

Turn-Based Firefights and Lightsaber Battles
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes offers a turn-based combat system that is easy to learn, yet still somewhat in-depth. Players can have up to 5 Heroes in their party and can control all of them during battle. Each Hero and enemy in battle has a blue bar below their health bar that indicates when they can attack, and players can choose which enemy to target and attack during their Heroes’ turns. Each Hero has a basic attack and up to 2 active skills, and have to decide the best time to use their skills since they have somewhat lengthy cooldowns. Skills range from healing and buffing, to stunning, to dealing large AOE damage, and some skills have additional bonuses like dealing more damage to certain types of enemies. The combat is fairly simple, and most of the strategy comes down to choosing the right enemy to focus on, assembling the perfect combination Heroes for given situations, and knowing when to use skills. For easier and farming-related battles, there is an Auto option that allows Heroes to automatically attack and use skills, but this results in poor enemy targeting and skill usage, and often results in death during more difficult battles.

Galactic Heroes in Your Arsenal
There are over 100 unique Heroes on the Light and Dark side to collect including Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, and much more. As expected, Light side Heroes can only be used in the Light Side Campaign, and Dark side Heroes can only be used in the Dark Side Campaign. Each Hero has unique skills and range from 1-6 stars. Heroes can be obtained from Gacha summons or from obtaining enough Hero shards to assemble specific Heroes which can be found in certain stages and from achievements and daily tasks. Once players obtain a Hero, they can level up Heroes with Training Droids from completing stages, equip Heroes with various collectable equipment, and evolve their Heroes once their Heroes are fully equipped. Most of the game revolves around farming stages to obtain Hero shards to create Heroes, or for equipment to upgrade Heroes, which is expected in most hero-collecting RPGs. Certain Heroes are better than others in certain scenarios, and assembling the perfect party combination adds a strategic element to the game.

Galactic PVP Battles
In the Squad Arena mode (unlocked at level 8), players can battle against other players from around the world in asynchronous battles. Players begin by choosing from a list of three similarly ranked opponents, and then battle it out against AI versions of those parties. Players still have full control during the battles and can control their Heroes like in the campaign modes. The battles tend to take a while since the Heroes on both sides have a lot of heath, and players will have to use various strategies such as choosing an advantageous combination of Heroes, focusing on specific enemies, and using skills at the right time. Players rise in the rankings with each win, and can earn points to purchase exclusive Hero shards and more. Despite being asynchronous, the PVP is quite competitive, although slightly pay-to-win, and adds a strategic, online component to the game. Unlike the campaign, players are also not restricted to Light or Dark side characters in the PVP and can mix-and-match their Heroes.

Additional Modes
In addition to the PVP, there are three additional PVE modes: Squad Cantina Battles, Galactic War, and Challenges. Squad Cantina Battles are unlocked at level 28 and feature stages similar to the Light & Dark campaigns that give out Hero shards, and have a separate set of energy. This mode is a good way of farming certain Hero shards, and tends to be more difficult than the regular campaign modes. Galactic War, which is unlocked at level 40, is also a good way of obtaining specific Hero shards and other rewards. Galactic War features a map full of treasure chests to go through, and requires the usage and rotation of several Heroes because Heroes that get hurt or die will retain their status for the next battle until the Galactic War resets. It is a very difficult and strategic mode that requires careful planning and is meant for higher level players. Last, there is a Challenges mode which is unlocked at level 15 that pits players against random enemies for various rewards. Challenges can give out Training Droids, equipment, Ability Upgrades, and more, and players will have to assemble their parties to take on various scenarios. All three modes add more content and variety to the game, and offers great potential rewards.

Cash Shop/In-App Purchases (IAP)
In-app purchases are not required in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes but offer many useful advantages. With Crystals (premium currency), players can purchase Training Droids to level up Heroes (limited time offer), Chromium Data Cards which can summon random Heroes or Hero shards, and Credit Data Cards which give Credits (in-game currency). Crystals can also be used to refill Energy and purchase random Hero shards and other items in the Shipment Store that refreshes every couple of hours. Being able to summon random Heroes and Hero shards will save players time spent farming, and refilling Energy will allow players to play longer each day than non-paying players. Overall, the in-app purchases help speed up the leveling and game progression for players, which will give an early edge in the game’s PVP, but everything can eventually be achieved without spending money; It will just require a lot of time and effort spent grinding and farming.

Final Verdict – Good
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a fairly generic but polished hero-collecting RPG with lots of content that will appeal to both Star Wars and casual RPG fans. Although the game has no story and requires a lot of grinding and farming through repetitive gameplay, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes has high quality visuals and animations, a simple yet strategic, turn-based combat system, and lots of additional modes and PVP to keep players busy for a very long time.

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Screenshots

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Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Videos

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Links

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Official Site
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Google Play
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes iOS
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Reddit

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:

Android 4.1 and up / iOS 8.0 or later

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Music & Soundtrack

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes Additional Information

Developer: Capital Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Android, iOS
Release Date: November 24, 2015

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes was developed by Capital Games, the studio behind Heroes of Dragon Age, and published by Electronic Arts, a huge game publisher behind multiple AAA titles. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes began soft launch testing in a limited number of countries in October 2015 before launching globally on November 24, 2015. The game acquired over 1 million downloads within a week after its release and reached over 6 million downloads on Google Play by February 2016. Electronic Arts is also the publisher of the popular mobile games, Plants vs Zombies 1 & 2, The Sims Freeplay, and Madden NFL Mobile.