Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
Publisher – Electronic Arts/Capital Games
Platform – Android, iOS
Release Date – November 24, 2015
Longevity – A+
Studio Confidence – C
In-game Performance – A-
Fun/enjoyment – B
True to IP – A
Game Crashing/Reliability – B+
New/Fresh Content – C
FTP Friendly – C+
Customer Service/Support – D+
Downloads & Growth – C
Community Engagement/Feedback – C
Overall Rating – B-
Gaming-fans.com Notes – Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes was released in late 2015 and quickly became one of my personal, all-time favorites. As a Star Wars fan, it helps players connect with (most of) their favorite characters and learn names of other, lesser-known characters as well. The developers of the game, EA and Capital Games along with both Disney and Lucas Film, continue to keep the game moving forward and evolving, but this is something that became a real challenge in 2019 and 2020 specifically. The entire calendar year of 2019 only saw players get more PTP content (gear and Relics) and a reskinned Territory Battles mode as the game struggled to stay fresh despite the SWGoH community clamoring for more. 2020 was not much better with the addition of Galactic Legend events, a Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker event and a reskinned Rancor Raid as the only new “content” added until the end of the calendar year.
2021 has seen a lot of changes in Galaxy of Heroes. The addition of the Conquest game mode has come with a lot of criticism, but new content is new content and I find it fairly enjoyable albeit incredibly time consuming. Updates to Territory Wars have made that game mode much more competitive and important with Relic 9 materials at stake, and updates to the Grand Arena Championships along with the addition of several popular non-canon character in November & December, and new Omicron abilities, has the game really trending in the right direction. Say what you will, but most of this positive progress has come after Sr. Producer Mark Dickenson silently left EA Capital Games in July and it is hard to ignore the fact that SWGoH was much better when he arrived, struggled while he was with the company, and seems to be trending upward again now that he has left…
Gaming-fans.com is proud to be one of the most thorough and respected sources of SWGoH content online today and is a go-to for players to learn about the best mods for these Star Wars heroes, individual SWGoH character Relic reviews and more. As one of the former SWGoH GameChangers, I have had a more in-depth collection of experiences than most and I have been inside the doors of Capital Games. In addition to being able to see a lot behind the scenes I have also maintained many fantastic contacts with knowledge of the inner-workings of the studio. I have watched time and time again while the studio struggles to release new content in a timely or accurate fashion, and despite my many offers to help on proofreading and communications, the studio continues to publicly view specific former content creating partners as a liability rather than an asset.
My rating above is based on my overall love for Star Wars content in general, and I have improved the grades given the positives of late 2021. New players of the game would not experience many of the headaches that veterans have had to endure, so in no way am I discouraging anyone from downloading and playing SWGoH daily. I just feel that Capital Games, due to a combination of issues, has really held the game back in recent years is not allowing it to realize its true potential. Yes, SWGoH made one billion dollars in their first 4 years, but there is no doubt that Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes could be much greater than it has ever been if a proactive strategy was used to keep this game fresh. I am hopeful that the late 2021 trend is something we can plan to get used to with a plethora of new Star Wars content coming on Disney Plus in 2022.
– LJ, Director of Content, Gaming-fans.com, updated December 2021