If you are a space junkie of any kind, then you would have played at least a few games that are of the genre. Any on the Android, leaving aside Angry Birds Space? Well, I am discounting that for the moment because it doesn’t give me the massive feel of commanding a space ship or a fleet of ships and conquering new worlds.
We have covered quite a few space strategy games like FTL, Vega Trek, and a few more that give you that precise feeling of being in command of a ship’s destiny. An Android screen might feel too limiting to capture the expanse of navigating through space, but to test that let’s play around with Strikefleet Omega.
Strikefleet Omega is a free space strategy game for Android phones and tablets that has its feet planted on two game genres. If you like strategy games and defender games (like tower defense), you will feel right at home here. But for sake of clarity, we have placed it in the Simulation category on The Best Android Games page.
Strikefleet Omega for Android [version 2.2+] is a free game but it also includes in-app purchases of credits.
The Inter-Galactic Mission
You are the Admiral of Strikefleet Omega and the commander of humanity’s last capable fleet of defending it – The Earth Expeditionary Force. Earth has been annihilated by the Hive Queen and her Brood. Your mission, and you have no choice but to accept it, is to locate the Queen and stop her before she destroys our remaining colonies.
The game levels take you from one galaxy to the next in the search for the Hive Queen. You have to fight off marauders and enemy fighters, and also keep collecting precious crystals which allow you to warp in reinforcements from the last remaining shipyard in the Armada and build up your fleet.
The Fleet to Command
An admiral needs his fleet. For me personally, the look of the spaceships is often a determiner (it’s a throwback from my Star Trek and Star Wars fanboy days). Here’s a snapshot of the ships you can expect to command. There are different types of ships, and it is up to you to build up your fleet with the right kind of combination because it is a long mission. Also, different ships have different capabilities against the enemy.
The Launch and the First Attack of the Bugs
Strikefleet Omega is divided into Campaign and Survival modes. You have to play through 14 levels of Campaign to unlock the Survival mode. As you launch the fleet and move into the first of the star systems, expect to be attacked by waves of enemy ships – the Bugs. Defending your command hip against them is technically simple. Tap and drag a path for your fighters – tap the screen to fire a barrage at the enemy .
As you fight back, your score allows you to automatically gather ‘crystals’ and use them to warp in more ships from the last remaining shipyard. You also have to collect and store other materials like alloys and MegaCreds (which is the game’s premium currency) etc. Then your points also allow you to select Perks which are like additional benefits:
Plan Your Strategy
Controlling the flight path of your fighters with a simple drag across the screen is the easy part. Strategy is where it gets tricky. At first it is about gathering alloys and experience while building up the fleet with the right combination of ships. As you head deeper into the campaigns, it gets trickier because your accumulated alloys and little of MegaCreds might not be enough to buy the heavy-duty ships like a Lancer Class Starfighter Carrier or an advanced mining ship to gather crystals more efficiently .
MegaCreds are the premium currency of the ‘universe’ and getting through the levels enriches your bank by only a few. You may have to resort to buying them through an in-app purchase, as you can see in the screen below.
MegaCreds are also needed for power-ups (Perks) and for using the Death Blossom (the devastating ultimate weapon). You can grind your way through the game and the innumerable levels, but to finally kill off the Hive Queen and win the game, you will need the more powerful starships and the Death Blossom. That’s where a user expecting the entire game to be free hits the roadblock.
The Winning Salvo
Don’t let that deter you from playing Strikefleet Omega. There are many pluses – chief among them is the rather polished design and the sound effects. The learning curve is minimal as you just need to draw the path for the fighters and defend your fleet with a tap and also with the right space strategy game at the right time. Even if you don’t want to spend a dime, you can work your way up the levels, and enjoy the space fights as far as you can go.
Here’s your chance to answer humanity’s call for survival. Command the bridge of Strikefleet Omega and tell us if it in turn answers your wish to be a galactic war hero.