Thank you Qplaze for sending us a review code!

Galaxy Warfighter doesn’t have a story. It just promises shoot ‘em up action inspired by classic games. Your objective in each level is to survive the waves of enemies and defeat the boss at the end. The levels are randomly generated and they scale up in difficulty at a reasonable pace. I’m not sure if there’s a maximum level, but I did get past level 100 to earn all of the twenty available Steam achievements.

Like many horizontal shoot ‘em ups, your ship constantly spews out projectiles. However, you don’t have a clear screen/bomb ability. Power-ups appear randomly in the level and when some enemies are defeated. In lieu of bombs, the nuclear power-up will clear the screen of hostiles. Another power-up gives your ship rapid fire. The cluster fire power-up has your ship shoot a spray of bullets around in a circular pattern. The last power-up restores a floating shield if your ship has the shield mechanism installed.

As enemies are defeated, they will drop green coins. They will not gravitate towards your ship so you’ll have to go out of your way to collect them. It’s nice that you get to keep any money earned even if you don’t survive the level. Before you depart on a mission, you can visit the shop in the ship’s hangar. There are lots of worthwhile upgrades to purchase including:

Armor – More health for your ship
Drones – Tiny ships that fly by your side and shoot enemies automatically
Gun – More firepower
Shields – These help absorb damage from enemy gunfire
Shock Wave – A powerful burst attack
Stop Time – Lets your ship attack while everyone else stands still

All of the upgrades have different levels that cost more than the previous one did. There’s also a level limit for each upgrade so your ship won’t be over-powered. You’ll earn a Steam achievement for each maxed out upgrade.

The visuals are decent and I like the various space backdrops for the levels. I’m not a huge fan of pixel art, but it's present and functional in this title. There’s not a lot of enemy and boss variety. There are less than ten enemy types with predictable shooting patterns and fewer than five boss types. When you multiply those across 100+ levels, it gets to be repetitive quickly. One of the bosses is significantly harder than the others so they’re not that well balanced. If I failed a mission I would exit the game and relaunch it with different results and would usually have an easier boss on my next attempt. With the Time Stop and Shock Wave attacks, most of the bosses are pushovers.

The sound effects are decent as your ship makes the appropriate pew pew pew noises. The explosions look and sound good as well. I’m baffled as to why this game only has two songs in it. One for the hangar and one for the levels. A little more variety in the battle music goes a long way!

There’s not much to worry about morally in this title. Ships explode when shot at and disappear off of the screen.

Galaxy Warfighter is fun in short bursts but gets repetitive quickly. I would recommend waiting for sale if you’re on the fence about getting this game. It took me a little over seven hours to earn all of the Steam achievements. Though tedious, it’s nice to have another 100% completed game under my belt.