When 900 turns you reach… Look as calm, you will not

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a turn-based tactical RPG stuffed with content. It has seemingly endless amounts of characters to collect, customize, level-up, and train to build your squads. And you do need to build squads – multiple – because there are both Light and Dark side campaigns to battle through. It is a free-to-play game though, so you can expect almost as many in-app currencies and stamina systems as there are options – but that’s the price you pay for free.

Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them

From the opening, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes feels like an odd package.

The game has so many characters and ways to improve and tweak them, that it feels huge. This is all slowly introduced, teaching you how to build your Light and Dark side teams, equip them with items to improvement them in combat, level them up with training, and rank them up with shards.

Even with the tutorial it can feel a little overwhelming, but Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes does a good job of guiding you through its complexity – always reminding you when you have actions available. The clear, well presented interface – filled with character models, stats, and best of all music from the series – also goes a long way to ensuring that this never gets dull.

With so much to do it’s hard not to acknowledge the depth on offer, but once you are in combat there is an unexpected shallowness. Each turn-based battle plays out over a number of stages, which you must survive if you want to emerge victorious with the rewards.

Grind. Or grind not. There is no pay – only joking of course there is

Your squad members take it in turns with the opposition to execute actions. Most of the time this is simply to attack, with different characters possessing different options – such as the Jedi’s lightsaber attack, the Ewok’s arrows, and the Jawa’s blaster – but other actions such as squad heal and taunt are also available to add tactical variety. Simple taps control both targeting and action selection – so even when you unlock all four of your each of your six squad member’s actions, it remains easy to handle.

If you are playing alone, like Angry Birds Epic, that is mostly all there is. With no story or other mechanics, it starts to feel like a grind for grind’s sake – to the point that, at the press of a button, you can just let battle automatically play out. So, you can either pay to climb the ladder – or you put your nose to that grindstone, complete missions, and get leveling.

Where Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes does get a little more varied is in its multiplayer and daily challenges. By facing off against other people, or more crafted battles, the difficulty and the fun start to noticeably increase.

For those really wanting to invest in the multiplayer there are Guilds. Joining with your friends, it is possible to chat, take part in additional daily activities, go on Guild Raids, and gain access to unique Guild gear. This adds a complexity to the battles that is missing in the single-player campaign, extending the fun considerably.

Now let’s blow this thing and go home!

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a fun diversion for franchise fans. While it may seem a little thin on the ground at first, providing you are prepared to keep playing and join some Guilds, the depth does start to appear as the difficulty and your options increase.

Ships have arrived! Your favorite Star Wars™ characters take flight in the biggest update of the year. Now you can:Experience a new layer of strategy with Fleet Commanders.Call in reinforcements during ship battles to fight with more units than ever before.Build your own Capital Ship, including Grand Moff Tarkin’s Star Destroyer.Assemble and crew fleets of ships, including the Millennium Falcon as seen in Star Wars™: The Force Awakens, and Ahsoka’s Jedi starfighter.Battle opponents in the Fleet Arena to earn Ship Blueprints.

Changes

• Ships have arrived! Your favorite Star Wars™ characters take flight in the biggest update of the year. Now you can:Experience a new layer of strategy with Fleet Commanders.Call in reinforcements during ship battles to fight with more units than ever before.Build your own Capital Ship, including Grand Moff Tarkin’s Star Destroyer.Assemble and crew fleets of ships, including the Millennium Falcon as seen in Star Wars™: The Force Awakens, and Ahsoka’s Jedi starfighter.Battle opponents in the Fleet Arena to earn Ship Blueprints.