Galcon is real time strategy game which challenges players to wage interplanetary warfare against their iPhone. Galcon was developed by Phil Hassey and originally appeared on Windows, MacOSX and Linux desktops before finally making its way to the iTunes App Store. The iPhone version of the game comes with five different game modes each of which can be played on ten different difficultly levels. Galcon also features sound effects, resume support, several map layouts and a text driven help screen.
Although Galcon is a real time strategy game, it lacks base building and resource farming. Personally, I couldn’t be happier to find a RTS game that lets players get right too the good stuff, troop management and combat. The troops in Galcon are tiny triangle looking spaceships which can be directed to attack enemy planets or defend planets already under your control.
To attack an enemy or neutral planet players simply tap one or more of their own planets and drag (or tap) their finger to the planet they wish to attack. The numbers on each planet represent the numbers of ships currently defending the planet. To take over a planet you must attack it with more ships than are currently defending it. Before attacking you can set what percentage of ships from each of your tapped planets you want to send on the invasion. Picking 100% has a better chance of overwhelming the enemy planet but only leaves a single defender on the attacking planet.
To defend one of your planets you can simply leave it alone and let it produce more ships, something whose rate is determined by planet size, or you can move ships from planet to planet.
I love Galcon. It’s one mad tapper of an iPhone game. Galcon doesn’t get bogged down with tons of strategy and management, instead it puts you into combat right away. In Galcon, you must think to win, but if you think to long you will most definitely lose. On most levels of play it’s pretty easy to win by zerging the enemy’s starting planet and whatever planet they attacked second. One more difficult settings a modified zerging strategy can usually be employed to win quickly. No matter which strategy you use, in Galcon, you must work to quickly control the larger planets.
Galcon features five different modes of game play include, Classic, Stealth Vacuum, Beast and 3-Way. Classic mode pits you against one other iPhone controlled enemy each of you starting with a single planet in control. Stealth mode is similar to Classic except you cannot see the enemy’s ships. In Vacuum mode there are no iPhone controlled enemies, instead you must take over all nuetral planets before a time limit expires. Beast mode puts you in control of a few large planets while the enemy player has almost all the little planets under their controls. The 3-Way mode is just like classic except you face off against two other iPhone controlled enemies. My favorite modes were beast and 3-Way.
Galcon’s blend of quick action and strategic depth give it a ton of replay value. It’s one of those games that has enough rules to work, but enough freedom to encourage players to try different things. I found after playing Galcon for a bit that I started creating my own objectives. I found it especially fun to leave my enemies with a few planets in their control while I focused on building a central fleet of 10,000 or more ships. Once I reached that level I let the enemy take over as many planets as it could before ultimately unleashing waves of attacks.
While I really love Galcon, I found myself wishing their was a bit more to the game. The lack of Campaign, Career and Multiplayer modes was a really surprising omission from the game. It would’ve been fantastic to have a progressive set of missions to play through. Galcon could also stand some improvements to the artificial intelligence. The computer controlled player does not defend well against a specific type of zerging strategy which can make the game pretty formulaic on certain map layouts at harder levels. Additionally, there were times when I wished Galcon had just a few more in game features. Having certain planets gives bonuses to the player who controls them could be interesting as would planets that players must not loose control of. There are also no statistics in Galcon which means I can’t show off my quickest victory, most massive army, least amount of units lost and so on. I also found controlling the attack percentages a little cumbersome. The last problem I have with Galcon is the price. Currently, the game costs $9.99 from the iTunes App Store which feels about $4.99 to high considering the lack or progressive game modes.
Galcon is a great iPhone strategy game. While the game’s price and lack of campaign features need addressing, there is enough depth, game play and strategy to keep most people happy for quite a while.
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