We all have that one mobile game that we download out of interest and just get addicted to. My journey started in December 2015 just a few weeks before Star Wars: The Force Awakens would release into cinemas. I’d gotten back into the hype train for all things Star Wars and decided to search the play store for anything. Very quickly I found Galaxy of Heroes, a game where you collect and battle with characters from the franchise. I thought I would play it for a week and let it fade out naturally, unfortunately for me I told my friends about it at the midnight release of TFA and then my love for the game spiralled.

When you load the game for the first time you are given a Clone Trooper, Chewbacca and a random Jedi, you feel cool but you begin to notice how many characters there are in the game. At the time of writing there are over 120 characters from the franchise as well as some old republic faves. It’s designed to pull you in and collect everyone, the same way Pokemon did back in the 90’s. However beyond collecting everyone you’ll have to level and gear them up to max. Then you’ll be taking them into battle to unlock and gear more characters and the cycle continues. Sometimes you’ll have a very special character who requires a team of specific people to unlock meaning you are always on the grind for something.

I understand that this might not sound like the most attractive thing in a video game, but it’s kept me around for nearly 2 years now. At the moment I’m trying to level up the phoenix squad from the TV show ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ so that I’m able to unlock Grand Admiral Thrawn at the highest level. While there is an incentive to get the characters you love, you have to be aware of what actually works. Starting out you might go for characters like Mace Windu, who do have some functionality but won’t get you very far. You have to know who works together and what will let you progress the most.

Aside from collecting characters there’s an online arena mode where you take on other players squads and climb the ranks to unlock better rewards. This is a fun daily thing to do and rewards you pretty decently no matter how new you are to the game. However the main attraction for me is the guild portion of the game. You can join and create guilds with up to 50 other players/friends. As a guild you can take on the two raids available currently in the game, where you’ll take on the rancor or General Grievous. Taking part in these raids gives you more gear and currency as well as the ability to unlock some fan favourite characters like General Kenobi and Han Solo. Being in a guild is a fun community based thing to log into and you have a chat to communicate with everyone about the game.

Also the game recently received a huge update along with a new mode to take part in with your guild. Something called Territory Battles, which take place during historic events of the franchise. At the moment there is the Hoth Invasion where you take all of your rebels into the front lines each day to gain some huge rewards. This is something that can be played at any level and still reward you, my guild isn’t insanely great but we are still getting what we need to progress.

As a mobile game I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how often I want to play it. There’s daily activities as well as events taking place every so often that will always benefit you as a player. However there are sometimes where you might get angry with the game. Sometimes a certain character will dominate the online arena and make it impossible for anyone else to progress. Also as a game with micro-transactions you are going to run into “Whales” which are people that spend thousands of pounds to be right at the top. Luckily all the players are separated into different servers depending on when they joined the game.

To think this game is made by an EA studio always makes me laugh every so often as you really do see a large amount of optional purchases. Some of them are a bit of a rip-off (Like the current Captain Han crystal pack) but you can get some great value sometimes which makes people want to spend money. You have to give EA some credit, they know how to get you to spend. You can give this game a week to see if it sucks you in. If you can bring along some friends or find a guild it will improve your experience 100%.

If you want to give the game a try be sure to download it from the Apple and Google Play store on your mobile/tablet.