Review for Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore. Game for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 18/05/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 19/04/2018
Since the dawn of time, man has always turned his gaze towards the stars: the black mantle of the night has always revealed to his eyes the infinite essence of deep space. As evolution has taken its course, this curiosity for the hidden meanders of space has inspired artists, scientists and dreamers and even today the immensity of the cosmos does not stop making mankind dream. Great fathers of science fiction like Isaac Asimov dictated the laws and foundations on which today our assumptions about the unknown lay, effectively creating in the collective imagination a series of plausible conjectures such as galactic federations, non-carbon based life forms and star wars for the supremacy of portions of territory and planets rich in precious substances.
In every century, human beings thought they had definitively understood the Universe and, in every century, it was understood that they were wrong. From this it follows that the only certain thing we can say about our present knowledge today is that it is wrong.
(from Big as the Universe, Essays on Science)
Despite the hackneyed theme, not having certain answers on the matter, we claim the right to tease the collective imagination with dreams, fantasies, films and - why not? - also videogames. Thus the saga arrives on the Nintendo Switch Galaxy on Fire, which sees its epilogue (at least for now) in Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore, the latest effort of the development team Deep Silver Fishlabs.
The game catapults us into deep space as allies of the Manticore, a space association that offers its services to the highest bidder. Our tasks mainly concern a sort of security service: this means cleaning up a sector of space pirates or escorting convoys to their destination. In practice, everything we encounter on our path must be destroyed.
Each game phase is outlined the same way: carry out the main mission (take out all the bad guys, scan a target or protect the defenseless on duty) and collect materials scattered around the sector. Sometimes a limit is imposed: a specific weapon or target or a time limit, but in the end it all comes down to annihilating the hostiles.
The gameplay is fast fun, at least at first contact: the first right dorsal to change weapon and the second to fire. The left backbone for missiles, the left lever for maneuvering and the right one for evasive maneuvers and speed. The A and B buttons for specific power ups complete the whole. All very simple, perhaps even too simple. We could think of making better use of all the keys left free and above all we could also provide a function for automatic heading reversal, which in such a game would have been really useful.
The game HUD is in keeping with expectations, giving directions, armaments and a few other useful information: it could perhaps have been better structured, but in any case it is not invasive and is functional to combat, the true soul of Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore.
Unfortunately, the recovery phase that follows the battle is boring right from the start. Aided by a drone we will go around in a three-dimensional space in search of resources to complete the sector: our assistant will not give the slightest specific indication, limiting himself to change color from neutral to yellow and green depending on how close we are to the find . One wonders if the galactic federation could not have spent more for the construction of a more precise apparatus. Unfortunately this phase is very boring and at times frustrating, the objects are often close but hidden from view in what is to all intents and purposes a 3D space to be discovered with a spacecraft in constant motion and limited maneuverability.
From the graphic point of view, the show in the first bars is exciting: fighting ships on fire off the ramparts of Orion and the B-rays flashing in the dark near the gates of Tannhäuser are the most thrilled that appears before our eyes. Too bad for elementary physics totally ignored: even leaving aside explosions and fire that cannot exist in space but which serve the context from a scenic point of view, the static debris glued motionless in deep space without the possibility of destroying or moving them really out of tune.
The equipment is quite varied and consists of nine spaceships that can be used with the progress of the game and various and disparate firearms that differ in range, type and damage. All upgradeable through items found in the exploratory phases and all very valid for fast and fun gameplay.
Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore is a fun title and suitable for short sessions, as the repetitiveness of the clashes is soon felt. Its mobile gaming background feels and penalizes the first Star Wars title to land on Nintendo Switch. The only thing that saves the whole project is the battle phase itself: fast, fun and frenetic, exactly as you would expect from such a title. An opportunity that could have been better exploited.
► Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore is an Action-Shooter type game developed by and published by Koch Media for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 18/05/2017 The version for Nintendo Switch came out on 19/04/2018
