Lazy Galaxy

This is my first 'idle clicker' game and yes I'm having fun with it: you click around to gain resources, upgrade stuctures, build a fleet of space ships and then go to battle, participating directly or just let it play itself. The resource gathering continues when the game is closed so you come back the next day and spend them where you see fit. I like the sci-fi setting and the humour, I like the whole idea of space octopus that are bored and lazy :) At the time of this review I have 16 hours of gameplay and I didn't beat the game (didn't upgrade the structures at max and didn't get all the power ups). The game's price is cheap and I recommend it for some casual, relaxed gameplay. Also thanks Devs for supporting Linux!

It's always tricky to rate an Idler game -a game that you are supposed not to play and yet get fun from it. Some Idlers ask you too much involvement so that you can let them be played in the background. Lazy Galaxy goes in the opposite extreme. It asks you very little but... does it do much by itself? [h1]Pros[/h1] + The overall theme is fun. + The game is not too addictive. + There are a lots of automatized functions. + It features three levels of 'restart' (that I know of at least). + The progress is very fast in the first few hours of the game, enabling to unlock most of it. + There is a good variety of special powers for the ships. [h1]Cons[/h1] - Micro-managing the battles has no use, making these special powers moot. - All runs are exactly identical to each other (the game acknowledges it by giving you have a button to rebuild the base exactly as it was). - Progression becomes incredibly slow after some point. - Only one resource is limiting, so you can spend all your efforts on a single structure. - After two hours, you've seen about everything the game has to offer. You also should have unlocked all achievements by that time. Playing further seems pointless. [h1]Verdict[/h1] That's a hard one. If anyone asks me if he or she should play Lazy Galaxy, I will answer: 'Of course not! There's no point in it!' Yet, do I regret purchasing it? Do I regret the time spent on it (not so much honestly, as it ran in the background most of the time)? Do I think the game is bad, or broken? Not at all. But it's immensely dispensable. So, I'm a bit torn. There's absolutely no reason to play this game. The RTS part is completely useless (it's a feature that is there, but serves no purpose, more on that below if you want). On the other hand, it is a nice game. The pixel graphics are pretty and colorful, the humorous tone works well. There is no technical issue I can think of. And they don't try to suck the player's time or attention in any way. Maybe they should have tried just a bit, though, for the game to be at least minimally engaging. Anyway, I like this game. I don't recommend it to anyone and you'd better to skip it, but there's no addiction risk in indulging you with a try. So, I guess it's a very mild thumbs up in the end. [h1]Progression[/h1] It is customary in idlers to 'reset' your progression and start again with a small bonus. This game is no exception. There are three levels in this progression: systems, galaxies, and games. Once you clear a system, you can jump to another system. You lose all your resources, all your ships, all your buildings. You earn, however, candies that accumulate throughout the game and boost your progression. You also get a military advantage for your ships which builds up as you conquer more systems. Candies roughly play the same role as Mysteries in Idle Wizard. Once you have conquered more systems, you can go to a new galaxy. Your military bonus is then reset, but you keep your candies. Finally, at some point, you are offered the opportunity to 'win the game'. Then even the candies are reset. You do keep, however, your inventory. Your inventory is filled with ingredients that you earn by doing battles. You can combine 5 of these ingredients to get an ingredient at a better level. I never reached the max level for any ingredient even though I cooked nothing but omelets. It takes a lot (and I mean a real lot) of grinding to get there. Ingredients provide a permanent passive bonus. When you start a new game, you are allowed to choose a small bonus. I did not feel, however, that this small bonus provided enough speed-up to warrant going through to the whole game yet another time. [h1]Space battles![/h1] One of the key appeals of Lazy Galaxy is that it features RTS-based space battles. Well. Sort of. In battles, you can select your ship to target a specific enemy ship. You can also move them and use their special powers. Finally, you can collect power-ups to heal your ships or earn candies. If you do nothing, moves and attacks are automatized, and later in the game, collecting power-ups is automatized as well. Battles bring you resources, XP (which is converted into candies when you go to a new system), and later in the game, candies. However, the quantities involved are too small to be of any impact in your actual progression. The main reason for battling is thus a) because it is mandatory to jump from one system to the next and b) because you have a chance to collect ingredients for your inventory (the most permanent thing in the game). Now, the RTS part is useless. All ships have their own special powers, but you won't use them. The reason for that is that there are way too many battles. Most of them are won in a split second -faster than the time elapsed between two battles. Some just cannot be won. There is a very tiny interval for which micro-managing the battle might be useful, but chance is, you won't be there. And it will last for maybe a dozen or so of battles, after which they will be unwinnable due to sheer numbers. But a dozen of battles is nothing out the hundreds you're likely to go through in each system. So, they may have implemented some neat ship powers, but it's just utterly useless. All ships are different, but in the end, you're best with taking the one with the best defense and the most HP. That's it. Eight identical ships, automatic stream of battles, you can now do something else and forget about the RTS. There are no tactics, no strategy. How could there be when you go through more than a thousand battles each run? [h1]Incomplete?[/h1] The game becomes a serious grind pretty quickly. One key problem is that, you can unlock in-game achievements (e.g. each level X of a building) which triggers a research that you can then purchase with your resources (and you will be able to purchase it in every system after that). Researches are what boost the game the most -same as abilities in Idle Wizard, there's also a similar thing in Clicker Heroes. However, after some point, achievements stop to trigger new researches. That's when the game becomes a total grind and you feel you can't go any further. It's a bit of a pity. It feels like these researches are missing. If they had been there, it would have allowed you to go past the grind and actually progress. So, I think the game has never been quite finished. That, and the fact that you can personalize your armada of ships before each system, choosing the 8 ships you'll be able to purchase in this system... out of the 8 proposed. Hem.

Lazy Galaxy is fundamentally an idle clicker game, but one packed with fun features like base building, useful achievements and research, simplified space combat, item crafting... and candy (eye-candy included). I find myself returning to it on a regular basis to craft a little more, upgrade a little more... All in all, it features all the addictiveness of a well thought-out casual game, for a very reasonable price.