Galak-Z

I'll admit it - I bought Galak-Z on a whim and didn't really have any idea what I was getting myself into. Of course, I had seen videos of the game - it looked like a standard dual-joystick shooter and as far as I was aware it had a fairly standard level-based progression. This lead to me having a somewhat muted first few hours with the game as I played through the arcade mode (where if you die, you restart from the level you last played rather than having to re-do the whole series). I got through levels despite not really understanding the mechanics and found myself thinking things such as - "it's weird that they don't give you health back", "why don't I keep powerups in season 2" - which, having fully grasped the game now, I almost laugh at how naive I was.

Galak-Z is a rogue-like space shooter that looks like a modern version of Asteroids but you've got to look at games like Risk of Rain and Spelunky if you want an accurate comparison to make. You need to be in the right mindset for this type of game and once I was it clicked. Death and failure are all learning experiences in Galak-Z - whether it's knowing when to fight and when to run, how to make enemies attack each other and ignore you or just learning that those big Sentinels you've just met in Season 2 can take out your shield and a bit of health with one shot from that Bazooka. Part of enjoying these rogue-likes is accepting that you will die a lot and it does leave a lot to the player in terms of both managing frustration and actually taking the good out of a run rather than focusing on the negatives, something that I've learned to enjoy. Galak-Z thrives on fair challenge and difficulty and thankfully the learning curve is good despite a slight jump from season 1 to 2 in terms of what is expected of the player.

What Galak-Z does do brilliantly is give you fantastic control over your ship - it isn't a dual joystick shooter and instead gives the player control over the ships engine allowing you to choose whether you're accelerating forward or reversing. The ship always shoots out of the front meaning you have to gain a grasp on how the ship controls and how to maneuver before you can really start to feel in control of combat situations. You're also given a finite boost that can give you an escape root from combat as well as the ability to play incredibly aggressively in dogfights once you become comfortable in combat. Lastly, you're given the ability to strafe albeit it takes some getting used to - you'll strafe in the direction you already are moving in and it is a hard ability to grasp and use but about 3-4 hours in I was strafing like a champ - and the ability to dodge over enemies and bullets which on the contrary is very easy to use. It's when the player has a real grasp of all the abilities that Galak-Z shines. Some of the dogfights I've had with 4-5 enemies where I was strafing, dodging, shooting and boosting had an intensity that no game this year has matched - the end result when I was collecting all the salvage was always satisfying.

I still haven't mentioned the mech. Yes, your ship can turn into a mech that would make most Gundam pilots jealous! The mech offers a completely different experience to the ship (with the same boosting, acceleration and dodging mechanics) where it relies a lot on close range melee attacks and very aggressive offense. It also allows the player to really manipulate the environment using the mech's grab ability and completely set the situation in the player's favour before the real battle has actually begun. I still haven't really dug into the mech's parrying capabilities but it's just another layer of complexity to add to an already fantastic combat system. Once I felt comfortable switching on the fly, combat became an absolute joy to play and it's easily Galak-Z's strongest point.

As I said earlier, Galak-Z is a rogue-like although it definitely differentiates itself. Rather than playing from start to finish every time you play, Galak-Z has you playing through blocks of five levels, or seasons, where if you die you have to repeat the season. The PC version also has the arcade mode I mentioned earlier where you can retry levels after you die if you aren't feeling up to the challenge. Each season begins with the player having no power-ups and you can gain power-ups through exploring the levels or buying them, using salvage you find and gather from enemies, between each level. It's a fairly standard system but I would have liked slightly more variety in the power-ups, I did start to notice that I was finding a lot of repeats on each run and it was only in season 4 that I felt the full arsenal was actually available to me - whether that was luck or design, I don't know.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Galak-Z's characters and style. You play as A-tak who is very clearly a throwback to classic cartoon heroes - confident, funny and slightly naive. He has two commanders who are in constant communication throughout missions - Beam, who is very smooth and sophisticated, as well as Akamoto, whose hatred of the empire (the enemy) constantly sees him guiding A-tak into combat situations that he really shouldn't be in. All the characters look great when you see them and I found the voice acting from the characters of good quality. The story is... there... I don't really know. It's not really important. I should note that the game is still awaiting its final season where the story concludes. The sound is great as well, with fantastic blaster noises, explosions and an OST that doesn't stand out massively but really sets the scene well.

Galak-Z plays fantastically but I can't help but feel that considering what this game really is, the way it's structured does more harm than good. I shouldn't get to the end of season 4 and think "that's me finished" - I should be thinking "time to do another run" but Galak-Z doesn't really provide any incentive to do that. The game doesn't really have a scoring system or any leaderboards which you can attempt to beat. Compare that to something like Spelunky, where there are leaderboards, daily challenges, new characters to unlock and more and you can see that Galak-Z is a bit light on content. It would benefit immensely from an endless mode which is scored (maybe take into account enemies defeated, time taken and salvage) and can be compared to other players online. Outside of personal pride and unlocking achievements I don't feel that a lot of players would want to play more Galak-Z after finishing it and that's a shame. It's sadly a pretty glaring flaw for this type of game.

Galak-Z is a stylish shooter that triumphs through its fundamentals. The gameplay is fast, frantic and has a depth and complexity to the controls that a lot of games can't match. The game itself looks fantastic, with bright colours and an art-style that really pops. I just can't see where the longevity of the game comes from and a rogue-like needs longevity and it needs a community that you can actively compete with in order to thrive rather than fade away. With season 5 still to come and other updates, hopefully Galak-Z continues to build on what is already a great game.