Mostafa Salem
Head of Gaming Research
Updated:
10/01/2024
Posted:
14/10/2022
Phantom Galaxies is a fast-paced third-person space simulation experience with core role-playing elements. If you ever thought about playing Transformers in space, then Phantom Galaxies is the perfect game for you.
With players capable of building and upgrading their own mechs, spaceships, space stations, and their galactic empires. The breathtaking visuals, space fights with your mechas, and the EVE Online-inspired approach to the man-made economy Phantom Galaxies is setting out to build with their planets
The title gives players an expansive world to freely explore and forge their own path to galactic domination. Mechanized Starfighters are the core item that the player utilizes for exploration and combat, which can be upgraded and needs to be repaired every now and then.
The essential four gameplay elements in Phantom Galaxies are Missions, Quests, Operations, and Raids.
Phantom Galaxies is one of the few titles in web3 gaming at the moment that can give you this much single-player content. It is a breath of fresh air considering you don't need to always stay competitive and can easily jump into a mission and follow along where you stopped in the storyline. In other cases, you can simple group up with your friends and complete raids together and reap the rewards left behind after taking everyone down.
Single-player is such an important element in Phantom Galaxies that you rarely feel the urge to engage in PVP because the studio did a tremendous job in giving you content that introduces you to the game's world while still rewarding you with valuable items to upgrade your mech, your character, and everything else.
The only downside is Blowfish Studios, the developer behind Phantom Galaxies, missed the mark slightly in giving its NPC some more life or more intriguing background stories. In comparison to Mass Effect for example, every character you encountered looked and sounded interesting enough that you wanted to dive deeper into what brought them here and what lead them down this path. In Phantom Galaxies' case, they are purely NPCs there to serve a purpose, and even when they have a background, it is often uninteresting at all.
Player-versus-player, or PVP for short, pits players against each other in two modes, Arena and spontaneous fights across the Frontier and Rebel space regions. Not only that, periodic PvP events will be held with player rewards provided through random drops, an event-specific progression system, and leaderboard rankings.
Multiplayer is probably where Phantom Galaxies shines bright. Its massive scale battles and Transformers-like mechas just continuously switching forms in space is probably one of the most epic things you can find in web3 gaming right now. Arena makes for a good introduction into the PVP world of the game then you are bound to eventually take those skills into Frontier and Rebel. Both modes feel much more competitive, and especially when you belong to an organization and have that sense of belonging attached to it.
Phantom Galaxies is easily above and beyond countless available web3 games at the moment. Very few titles can compare or even provide a similar experience to what Blowfish Studios managed to create. It is impressive to consider this isn't even the full game and just a portion of what the studio has in store for its players.
One of the major points to take into consideration is the fully fledged single-player experience that is often overlooked in web3. If you decide to ignore the relatively emotionless dialogue and forgettable NPCs, you are in for a treat because Phantom Galaxies' world is the closest thing to Mass Effect's intriguing intergalactic universe.
Phantom Galaxies brings incredible quality and captivating gameplay enriched with stunning visuals. Both its PVP and PVE modes can keep you busy for hours with no end in sight. The only thing holding back Phantom Galaxies is themselves with how little they are taking advantage of how much lore and intriguing intergalactic stories they can deliver to their players.
6.5
Stunning visuals
Customizable mechas, stations, etc
EVE Online-inspired player-controlled economy
Hardware barrier of entry
Little explanation on what to do at times
About Phantom Galaxies
Phantom Galaxies is a fast-paced third-person experience that looks and plays just like the traditional 3D action RPGs (ARPG) already familiar to millions of gamers.