Chris Sanderson reviews Star Wars: Commander…
I am not one who usually frequents casual games, however after visiting the App Store on iPad this weekend I was pointed towards the Editors Picks section where I discovered Star Wars: Commander.
Commander follows the usual casual games ideology of free to download with in-app purchases in the form of Crystals, which in turn clear the time you have to wait for certain actions to complete. The game has a nice feel of the Star Wars universe to it, starting out on Tatooine building a base out in the desert to take on your enemies in a series of quests which tell a story of the Tusken Raiders trying to kill you for coming onto their lands, of course there is a series of twists and turns as the story goes on but this review will be staying spoiler free.
The game comes with a storyline which starts you out as a smuggler with no allegiance to anyone, after the first few missions you get a choice to side with the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire each with their own series of buffs and abilities. I myself chose the Empire which gives a boost to technology allowing you to build powerful tanks and more powerful soldiers due to their weaponry. The game centres around your base and protecting yourself from mission NPC’s as well as the PvP element of the game which sees other players coming into your base and destroying as much as they can within a 2 minute time limit, stealing resources of Credits and Alloy from you without bleeding you dry so you can comeback from them quite easily.
The time limits that are everywhere in the game from creating Stormtroopers to buildings and upgrades are usually ridiculous in games I have found, whereas in Commander they are quite minimal which is a refreshing change from other games such as The Hobbit or FarmVille. However if you cannot be bothered to wait the time limit, as always, you have the option to spend the in game currency as I mentioned earlier called Crystals. The game gives you 500 to begin with which I couldn’t resist but use them quite quickly and expended within 24hrs after which you are promoted to buy more ranging from 2.99 for a further 500 to 69.99 for 14,000. However after playing for a further 24hrs I have found the urge to buy more has only come up a couple of times and I managed to resist.
Star Wars: Commander is interesting as a casual game and doesn’t demand you spend more money every time you try to do something like most games although you will find the urge creeping in when you spend all your Credits or Alloy on upgrading units and structures. If you are looking for a game that’s set in the Star Wars universe and enjoy a causal game where you don’t mind waiting or spending the occasional few pounds here or there to speed things along with a few new characters to get you ready for Star Wars: Episode VII then head over to the App Store at the link below.
In the next month or two they are planning an update which will bring in Campaigns which almost nothing is none about currently but looks to be an expansion on story lines. The game is available on iOS currently and will be available on Android soon according to the developer.
You can download Star Wars: Commander here.
Rating: 5/10
Chris Sanderson
Originally published August 24, 2014. Updated November 29, 2022.
