Godspeed Commander Review

Developer: Nah-Meen Studios
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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Godspeed Commander is a multiplayer-focused, head-to-head match-three game with a space combat aesthetic not too unlike FTL. In it, players match tiles that represent powering up lasers, plasma, shields, etc. in the hope of outclassing their opponents. With a deep upgrade system and fun mechanicsGodspeed Commander makes a heck of a first impression, though it can be quite hard to understand how it works at times.

At the outsetplayers are given a training ship and are walked through some basic concepts, but from there they are are on their own to engage in fights against the AI, random opponents, or Facebook friends. To keep the tile-matching interesting, certain tiles work toward offensive systems (i.e. weapons) while others work to repair your ship or restore its shields. Additionally, matching four or more tiles creates special tiles that - when matched - can activate entire rows or columns of the board, granting an advantage. Although the game moves at a quick pace, choosing what kinds of matches to make when is key to racking up wins and rising in rank.

After every match, winners are awarded credits that can then be spent on new ships, new weapons, crew members, and even cosmetics to apply to your in-game avatar. With ten purchasable ships, even more weapons, and crew members, there's a lot that players can use to tweak things to match their playstyle. With all of these things to account for, Godspeed Commander also seems to do a good job of matching online players so that they aren't always outclassed by someone that has spent more time playing.

As great as all this sounds, there are a couple drawbacks to Godspeed Commander. The first problem is its relative lack of explanation when it comes to certain elements. The in-game tutorial just doesn't explain things like how it's vital to have all weapons systems on a ship or how to check the health of an enemy during a fight, and there's no discernible way to replay the tutorial if you forget how something works. A bigger problem is that it's so fast paced that the nuance of strategy is easily lost in the rush to match as many tiles as possible. While it is conceivable that some players may be able to monitor their systems at the top of the screen while finding the most advantageous tiles to match and win consistently, most will have to frantically match to survive, regardless of their ship's loadout.

Despite these issues, Godspeed Commander manages to retain a good amount of appeal. Its head-to-head combat matches players up quickly and is as fun as it is demanding. Although it can be confusing to figure out what's going on and difficult to implement actual strategy, Godspeed Commander is still a fun way to test your match three skills against others.