Hi Folks. Galak-Z came out in 2015 on PS4, and Kaofloppy mentioned it as one of his top 5 games of 2015, but I didn’t get to play it until this month when it’s a PS+ freebie.
I enjoyed the tutorial, but I really enjoyed the first level, 1-1. I think this game has the potential to be fantastic. I plan on tackling level 1-2 this weekend. Has anyone else played it? What do you think?
Personally, I love the momentum based space combat, it reminds me a little bit of Star Control. I love the controls on the gamepad, which is a first for me. The only thing I don’t instinctually grasp yet is reaching for the R1 and L1 buttons for afterburners.
I have had a great time with GalakZ! I also like that the season starts over when you die. Since you get coins that boost your budget in your next lufe, it isn’t really bad.
I’ve reached season 2 where really cool stuff happens!
I played through 1-2. Very nice. The new ability (Juke, on the Square button) is a mystery to me though. I guess you’re supposed to press it at the precise moment that you’re about to get hit? Anyway, I’d rather just avoid fire, like I have been so far. In 1-1, I got hit quite a bit, and almost died, and I had no idea damage didn’t reset between levels until I started 1-2. Luckily I found the mercenary ship in 1-2 and got some repairs which gave me more leeway.
So wait, you guys are saying that dying makes you start the game over? I’m not sure how to feel about that, since I haven’t died yet.
I’m really enjoying the combat though. It’s the first game I can recall from this kind of top down view which gives you reverse thrusters. I’m also getting used to using afterburners to get away from those bugs. This is a blast.
Yes, that’s right. The ship makes a jump over the shots. I don’t use it that much tho since second or third shots always seems to get me when the maneuver is over. Instead I try to take the battle to a big open area with lots of space and use strafe (L1 if I remember correct) and then go around my enemies in a big circle.
When you die the game restarts the season you’re in and you loose all upgrades. It’s not as bad as it sounds, imo. You collect purple coins that gives you a bigger budget to start over with.
I can’t stop thinking about this game when I’m not playing it. I’ve played it on rogue mode now a couple of times, and died on 1-2 or 1-3. I’ve never been a fan of rogue-likes, but because I love 2D physics-based space combat so much from the early Star Control days, those kind of punishing mechanics don’t matter, and only add to the game for me. What I’m saying is, dying is a good excuse to start over and enjoy the game’s combat some more. So that’s why it’s not really a punishment.
I just wish this was available on Xbox One though. I’m loving it on PS4, but this is THE PERFECT GAME to be playing while watching Meet The Press this morning, for instance. Or to play while watching Saturday Night Live last night. The gameplay is what needs the attention, not the story. So that kind of game is perfect to play while also snapping TV to the side.
I’ve also been playing this a bunch lately, and really liking it! I love the roguelike structure to begin with, and having a really fun action combat system to use in that structure is great. They were also smart about balancing the persistence and roguelike elements. The season system means you aren’t losing more than 90 minutes or so of progress at a time, which keeps it from being too crushing when you die.
I’m currently struggling with Season 4, which has some really tough new enemy variants that laugh at my previously effective tactics.
I just ended a marathon session. I ended up getting to 1-3 four times. Well, that’s not fair. I got to it 3 times, and then when I died that third time, the game said “Hey, you have 5 purple coins, want to cash them in to play 1-3 again?” I took them up on that. It was a blast playing through 1-3 with a weak level 1 ship with no improvements and no money to buy improvements. Basically most of the ships in 1-3 were still powerful ships, and beating them with my little pea shooter required a lot of skill, and it was a blast. Ironically, once I got the recovery capsule and got all my old stuff back, then I got careless and died again.
Yeah, I tried it as a part of the Marche “free games” on PS4. I think it’s pretty cool! I might say a little bit more once I get a little bit deeper.
Uhh, not to brag or anything, but how did you guys diw so many times? I got through the first five levels on Rogue on my first try. Backing up from enemies while shooting and pressinf square when bullets get close works wonders.
The first time through it’s really easy. I only know this now, in retrospect. But after you die, the enemies that spawn, and the missions themselves are a little harder and scale to whatever equipment you have. So if you died with some coins and are able to get some equipment, even the enemies in 1-1 can be stronger than the enemies I encountered in 1-3 on my first run through.
With that said, most of the time, I die accidentally by dipping my ship in lava.
I died a few times in season 1 while getting used to the controls, but after that I didn’t have too much trouble finishing it and doing 2 and 3. But 4 is a huge step up, and I haven’t managed to make it past 4-2 despite a number of attempts. Hyena Captains and Elites are my bane.
I made some good progress in 1-3 this time. I got the ability to slide, a new move that should help a lot. But at the end of 1-3, before I warped home, I got into a fight in Deep Space with a ship that took me from 4 health down to 1. I was damned lucky to get out of there alive. I’m a mean killing machine at this point, but with 1 health, and no salvage left (I’d spent it all mid-mission to get a weapons upgrade), it means I’ll have to attempt 1-4 with only one health.
Looking at my crystal ball, I forsee 1-1 in my near future.
1-4 was indeed too tough with only one health. But then I did a recovery mission (trade in 5 coins for a chance to replay 1-4, but first you have to recover all your equipment in a beginner ship). I never got to my equipment.
Next time though, I got to 1-4 again, and this time died to a really big ship with a huge gun. My best piece of equipment on this run had been the thermal coating that allows me to not take damage from fire and lava. So just like I’d done with 1-3’s heavily shielded ships, I shot at the lava to try to get the fire to kill the big ship. Only the big ship in 1-4, even though I almost had it down, each pellet of his gun was so huge that it was almost impossible to dodge in tight quarters. I had his shields down, but he got me. That was a very satisfying death. Every other death up to this point had felt like it was my fault for playing poorly or making a mistake. This death felt like I died to a badass and I was just outmatched. I even had the right tactic, I just couldn’t play offense and defense against an uber-gun.
That’s what juking is for! It’s definitely worth getting used to now, because you’re going to need every trick at your disposal as the enemies get tougher.
Speaking of which, season 4 is down! Had some very close calls, but as with the other seasons, all my deaths were in stage 1 and 2, as once I got a decent set of equipment, the extra firepower was just enough of an edge to stay ahead of the enemies. Got to have some satisfying major brawls where I was able to get the enemy factions to fight each other while I picked them off from a distance.
I did it!!! Woohoo! I just had a 2.5 hour marathon session. Went all the way from 1-1 through 1-5, and finished it with 2 health left.
Season 2 is certainly unexpected. The tutorial for it changes the game so much, I’m glad this is like a whole new game, since Season 1, I felt, had taken the upgrades and the gameplay as far as it could go.
I was wondering if our resident space-games fan had played Galak-Z, and I found this gem in the bargain thread:
It’s a Box Quote!
Honestly, this is my favorite 2D space shooter since Star Control 2’s Super Melee mode. I know most people played Star Control 2 for the adventure, but I loved Star Control 1’s combat, and Super Melee in Star Control 2 improved it so much.
Galak-Z is the first game I’ve played of this type where the controls using a gamepad feel so natural.
Ok, I’ve hit a brick wall of difficulty in 2-1. They force your first ship form to start over from the beginning, and I’m still kind of unfamiliar with the new ship form. Near the end of the mission you have to fight three imperial ships, no matter what the mission objective in 2-1. And those ships are the kind which they never made you fight with a basic 1-1 ship. So I guess I have to use the new ship form somehow.
How do you guys do it? Do I have to look around for something to grab and throw at these ships? The pirate ships are easy enough, you just grab them and hit them until they get destroyed, or throw them at each other. But that doesn’t work with the imperial ships which have lots of shields.
