EA put out their open Alpha on Star Wars: Rise to Power giving lucky players a chance to experience the most recent Star Wars game for mobile devices. Based on the closed Alpha, many players hedged their expectations with the already looming pay-to-win system that was already prominent. Many bad connotations surround EA already, but the nostalgic taste for Star Wars is much more powerful.
It’s not quite the epic strategy/action game most would hope for as it is a strategy/Diplomacy game with Star Wars paint. So here are 10 things we learned about Star Wars: Rise to Power from the Alpha test.
10 No Action Screens
One thing that was off-putting from the game was that there are no action screens when combat between two factions happens. It’s just a stagnant screen where the action happens off-screen, giving a kind of displeasing feeling when most of your work is based around the combat.
There’s a lot of build-up producing all your ships and command bases only to face an enemy faction just for it to be the equivalent of a Light Novel screen, better to close your eyes and use your imagination. It’ something they’ll hopefully improve in the final version, but hopes are not high as a lot of features seem to be in the finalization phase.
9 Building Starship Fleets
The main gameplay is building your base and upgrading your ships. It takes time to reload upgrades and, of course, you can expedite the process by paying for in-game currency. You can buy upgrades for your ships with other in-game currency and acquire said currency with real money.
You get stronger by taking over territory and building more bases, so it benefits you to make coalitions with other players in your faction as they can support you with in-game currency and donate ships. When fighting other armadas, other players can help turn the tide by adding their strength in numbers.
8 Ship-to-Ship Based Combat
The end result of a fight can be known before the combat itself starts, as the total power points of sorts are what determine who wins the confrontation. Essentially if you’re approaching an enemy armada with 300 power and you have 290, retreat or get help.
It isn’t an action game where the underdog wins thanks to massive skill and strategy, actually, it doesn’t take much skill to play the game as it does time and resources. Being at the time of the Alpha, it also takes being glued to the screen because the game does not stop if you’re asleep; someone can easily attack your base and there’s no protection against it.
7 Pay-to-Win Microtransactions
One of the greatest fears of this game was that it was microtransaction ridden. It does have them but perhaps not in the smartest ways. One of the biggest issues is the endless black hole of upgrading your ships, nothing is permanent and much like Fire Emblem’s perma-death mechanic.
The ones who are going to be at the top of the game and the leaders are going to be the ones who pay hundreds in ships. Those who don’t pay are going to have a tough and slow time building up resources, which can be annihilated very easy while they’re away from the game.
6 Lose All Your Money if Your Ship is Destroyed
The biggest killer on this game is no regenerating ships, whatever money you spend on upgrading your armada is lost if you lose them or they get destroyed.
This brings it back to the problem of no-sleep mode, if someone destroys your whole base with a powerful armada, like someone who paid for a stronger armada, all your ships and base upgrades are gone. If you spent $50 on that, that $50 is gone and you need to spend it again to get back the same resources.
5 Choosing a Faction
There are two factions in the game: The Rebels and the Empire-esque First Order. Easy bad guys versus good guys setting that most strategy warlike games have. Overall customization comes in the armada you build rather than the character, you don’t get to play as fan-favorite characters or get customization per se.
The gameplay is mostly based on player to player interactions for the infrastructure of each side. The only particular benefit you get from either side is player size, one of the biggest worries is a faction disproportion which would lead to a lot of lost resources and a not very competitive game. If all the paying players are on one side, it would essentially ruin the game.
4 Much Like Nova Empire
Its structure and gameplay are very similar to Nova Empire, no joke. If you enjoy Nova Empire you might enjoy Star Wars: Rise to Power, otherwise, you might find it derivative and overly pay-structured.
If you enjoy that style of games it might be a good fit, but again it depends on post-release and how balanced it is. Many of the same gameplay elements are present in this game.
3 No Strategy Needed
This is a resource-building game, it’s a slow process unless you pay. You build to fight and to give your side the advantage. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a way to get around the paywall, so in essence, it is a pay-to-win game.
You could team up with others to take down a larger armada or join a group already taking one on, but that is more opportunistic than strategic.
2 After Return Of The Jedi
The game’s setting takes place in a very specific part of the Star Wars universe’s timeline but lacks a lot of the major characters that define it. Its take of what happens between sagas is mostly between the First Order and the Rebels without any context on the story.
There wasn’t any story in the Alpha as there was a tutorial, so it doesn’t have much to contribute to Star Wars story-wise. It simply feels like a game that was based on the franchise.
1 Diplomacy in Coalitions
One of the big features of the game, and hence the subtitle Rise to Power, is the use of diplomacy in the game as an element to get ahead and win it. This is mostly determined by resources as payers vote for their leader, which makes sense with the permadeath option of armadas.
You would want to go with someone with a lot of resources so you don’t lose your own. But this rules out being the head of a coalition out if you’re a low resource player.
NEXT: 10 Things Everyone Completely Missed In Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
