Galaxy Defenders – first impressions

Okay, I know I’m a little late, the game is now on retail for quite a while with a lot of success and great reviews.  Still,  I was always a little sceptical but when the expansions were announced,  I also jumped on the train.

So I received a copy for Christmas, my expectations have gone up like a rocket and last week I finally found the time to play the first two missions.

And, I must say, I’m pretty disappointed.  Components are really good,  great miniature quality, beautiful looking dice, maps and tokens of really solid cardstock.  A little warping issue with one map tile,  but that’s acceptable.  Cards are very thin,  but I sleeved them anyway.

The art though is not my cup of tea. Most map tiles are too busy and pretty confusing.  I also don’t like the specific cartoony style of the aliens.  Their insectoid appearance is not exactly innovative. Still, concerning the art, I basically knew what to expect,  so I guess,  I could have well tolerated this, if gameplay would have been better.

Let’s start with what I like about it. I like how the different alien types are controlled by the A.I. They really act different, in contrast to the monsters of D&D,  wich feel mostly very similar.  But this is in my opinion the only point where Galaxy Defenders outshines D&D or Gears of War or Shadows of Brimstone.

The main problem I had, was that the game felt quite static. The weapons (at least the standard ones) felt too weak. So did the aliens.  I often ended up in situations where the aliens stood next to the hero each one attacking the other but doing only little danage.  This went on for two to four turns and felt ridiculous.  I mean, if I’m standing next to my target, shooting with a shotgun,  and that guy is still alive, maybe took just a scratch…I don’t know. I also couldn’t really see tactical options.  Sooner or later,all I did was standing next to the aliens,  hoping for a good die result.

The character developement was also not convincing to me…Shadows of Brimstone gives you much more options here. There are, if I remember that right, four, maybe five levels.  The first improvements are really weak and boring: things like one additional die to a hit roll once per mission 🙁

I’m not sure….maybe I simply took a wrong approach.  As written,  I didn’t see much tactical options.  Maybe I’m wrong here and there is some highly sophisticated tactic possible and necessary to enjoy this game and avoid this permanent face to face situations…I’ll definitely give it another try, also considering the money I already paid.

A lonesome Gamer posted this in General on .

Comments

  • JC says:
    February 10, 2015 at 1:54 PM

    I do agree that the character development is better in SoB. However, I think combat in GD is much better. In SoB you just need to stand in the same place in order not to get surrounded by monsters and then roll dice, roll again, roll again… Until every enemy is dead. I found this part quite underdeveloped. In GD my characters don’t need to be static. They can (must?) move in order to take advantage of the doors and other things that block line of sight. I’m half-way through a campaign and I’m really liking it.

    Another key difference is that in GD you don’t need to kill all the aliens win. You usually must survive and complete certain objectives. You must be moving all time. And I think that the strategy here lies in placing you characters is the correct place.

    Reply
    • A lonesome Gamer says:
      February 10, 2015 at 2:23 PM

      I absolutely agree that Sob also doesn’t have a great combat system. We probably must still need to wait for some innovative combat system in these kind of games. But I’ll try GD again and maybe my opinion will change. Thanks for your comment 🙂

      Reply
  • Jim Lederer says:
    February 9, 2015 at 5:19 AM

    Yeah, I can see where you are coming from. I have played both Brimstone (friend’s copy once) and GD (mine, 3-4 scenarios). I like GD fairly well, but agree it doesn’t seem quite as exciting as I hoped it would be.

    Reply
  • dotphil says:
    February 7, 2015 at 6:21 PM

    Well that was disappointing to read. I had high hopes for GD since it looked like a lot of fun, now I don’t know if it’s worth getting at all.

    Reply
  • A lonesome Gamer says:
    February 7, 2015 at 4:43 PM

    Absolutely! As I said, maybe I took a wrong approach to GD, but Shadows is better in about everything. Better looking minis and art, better storytelling aspect (exploration and more interesting events) better character developement. …and tons of more stuff coming.

    Reply
  • Rimbouy says:
    February 7, 2015 at 4:29 PM

    I just bought Brimstone (and spent a whole day glueing), would you say its a better deal to pass this one and stick to western Cthulhu, perhaps buying city of the Ancients too?

    Reply

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