Space Arena: Spaceship Game Reviews

Great idea poorly executed

Mad Jimbo

First, let me say that this game is built on an excellent idea. Building ships for combat is fun and provides tons of hours of enjoyment as you test out the effectiveness of different designs. However, the game is completely ruined by its matchmaking system and timers. I’m currently at level 32, which means I’ve put considerable time into the game. For the last month I am almost exclusively matched with “Vega Destroyers” which aren’t even a ship you can earn or buy at the moment. My battleships lose to the star destroyer clones 99% of the time and then I have to wait half an hour before my ship repairs. This makes the game become tiresome and boring.

Fun on the surface.

Cael87

At first, the game is extremely fun, finding ways to maximize weaponry - using armor placement and managing power and shields for ships, different weaponry for all kinds of situations - but it becomes nefarious quite quickly. At first the problem is about large ships people can buy with real money, the destroyer Vega is especially egregious for this, you’re stuck taking ships with less than a 1/3 of the total space for internal components against this pay-to-win behemoth. But as you even find ways to fight back against those you notice the real issue: The game uses different AI for your ship and the opponents, to make the game more difficult and try to encourage buying ships with real money, not even an in game currency but actual USD purchases. Enemy ships with long range weapons will try to stay at long range, while placing long range weapons on your ship is a sure fire way to get your ship to try and endgame close range as much as it can. Enemy ships will even back up as you approach to buy time at longer range, never seen that once by any of my ships. So you put close range turrets, sacrifice range and damage to play along with your pilots idiocy and then suddenly you will only press the enemy when his shields are up, the second those are down he will either warp to so far away that none of your weapons will hit, and the enemy ship regents his shield entirely, and often will just sit back there. I uninstalled after having 4 fights in a row where the enemy was literally 1 shot from a dead reactor and my ship warped to long range and just turns slightly back and forth in place as the enemy picked away at my sides ( and my pilots just wobble back and forth exposing each side in turn for the long range weapons to strike. They are suicidal, and don’t even try to use your weaponry, if you have turrets they sit too far back, if you get long range weapons they try to get right up on the enemy and never get your fire cone pointed in the right direction. And yet, the AI of enemy ships almost never has a bad warp (half my damned warps put me in close range directly in front of the enemy, which since they know to backpedal it is never an advantageous position. I can count on one hand after countless battles the amount of times other ships have done that for me, it is an every single battle for your ship though. This wouldn’t be a problem, if you didn’t have to earn levels to buy new ships - I have so much money because I win 5 to 1 when people attack my ships, but I lose constantly when I attack. I can’t spend it on a new ship, because I can’t win a battle I initiate. It’s a maddening cycle, continually watching your pilots be idiots and lose and coming back to so much money I can’t even spend as my ships are ruining other people’s chances of advancing all the same. It’s either the worst bug ever, or an intentional act to make you spend money.

Vega's have ruined this game.

jmk443

This game is pay to win

Needs an update for iPhone X display

Warcorer

Please update the game with support for the iPhone X display. Hard to play the game as it currently is on my iPhone.

Beautiful game!!!

terry722

Yes it’s challenging and if you buy every ship that you unlock you won’t get far in the game but if you micro manage and use common sense this game is fun and progress. Love the game guys.

I’ve been stuck on level 20

Cheesyboy9000

This game is really cool idea and I really enjoy how simple the game is... On the other hand: I’ve been stuck on level 20 for 2 weeks now. I’m playing when I can but, every time I get into a battle it seems like it’s rigged to have the other player win every time! I’ve tried everything I even use some of my own money but the effects quickly dissipated. I really don’t know what I’m doing wrong but it seems that the game has been come just unplayable because I fight once and have to wait 15 minutes later to even try out my new set up! (which is more than likely to fail again) Creator, I would love to hear your thoughts, and don’t get me wrong I like the game enough to spend money on it it’s just this “flaw” (if it’s not actually just me) is driving me nuts!!

Not fully compatible with X

Tanarakis

You cannot see how many credits you have, as well as some of the dialogues being cut off on the edge of the screen. Still a fun game so far.

Fun overall!

Odium Hector

I originally tried this game because it seemed like a potential cure for my nostalgia for a certain MMORPG that allowed players to build/buy ships and parts to use in them that could be customized to each players' preferences. After playing this game for about a week, it's pretty enjoyable. I have gone through phases every few levels where I'm losing a lot, but I've realized that's because there is a learning curve for strategizing how to build different ships depending on what's available at each level. Some require a balance of weapon types while others fair better by focusing more on 1 kind. Same thing for engines and defenses. I have made some premium currency purchases, but they're hardly needed unlike some other mobile games. After playing this for a couple of days, my wife started playing too, and she also loves it! I do have a few suggestions for the developers though. 1. The introductory tutorial needs to be expanded a bit. For example, I had to play around with tapping buttons at random just to find out that ships can be upgraded with extra boxes for ship parts. Also, none of my web searches will tell me how many bays I can unlock with premium currency to collect ships, and I stumbled into the Fleet Arena with no idea how it worked. This game does have a character give a few brief instructions at the beginning when buying and outfitting the 1st couple of ships. I just think that it would help to have that with more of the screens selectable in top bar of the UI. 2. When I play mobile games, I really enjoy the sound effects, but I get tired of the music after a little while. I can turn off the music in those games and leave the sound effects on, but not in this. Please make separate controls for the sound effects and the music. All in all, this game's developers have my thanks!

Garbage

Andy tha bau5

Devs post copy/paste responses to comments and also this is just a money grab of the original version of this game made Private a couple years ago.

Some critiquing

Joe D. Johnson

I noticed the devs responding to reviews so I decided to write some feedback based on what I’ve experienced. Because the game is based on rank rather than ship/weapon level you technically get punished for playing too much by getting taken to a high rank before you have enough money to match the level of ships you’re facing. In my case I have no ships past the corvette level and every enemy I get pitted against is using a frigate. I have no way of getting cash but hoping that my ship focuses the same area enough to break a piece of the enemy to give me a fraction of the victory money. I now am forced to wait for handouts from dailies or the shop in order to scrape by. I do like the ship customization and the strategy and thought that goes into it and even by just allowing your rank to go down when you fail an attack could fix my problems.

Space Arena: Spaceship Game Reviews – Page 32