By Liyo Kikon
I have been waiting for a good Star Wars game to play on the go and I have finally found the one! Force Arena is a PvP (Player versus player) game with great graphics and fast paced gameplay. In classic Star Wars style, there are two sides – The Rebels and The Empire and players can choose any side they want before each match. The player has a main leader whose movements can be controlled via tap and a deck of cards to deploy allies. The objective of the game is to destroy your opponent’s shield generator before they destroy yours. Both players have turrets protecting their shield generators and destroying the turrets usually determines who will win. During gameplay, there is a time of three minutes and the players must try to destroy the shield generator before the time runs out. However, if the time runs out, then the winner is determined by the number of turrets they destroy and if both team has the same number of turrets when the time runs out, then we get an extra minute where the player who gets to destroy just one more turret will win the match and if no one can destroy another turret, then the game is declared a draw.
Much like Clash Royale, this game is also a collectable card game but unlike Clash Royale, this game is mostly oriented towards the battle arena system. You can collect cards to get different units for your attack and the best bit is that you can get iconic Star Wars characters and units to fight alongside you. There are more than 60 cards and each card can be upgraded to make the unit stronger. The cards range from common cards, to rare cards, to epic cards, to unique cards, to legendary cards. Common cards are basic troopers and standard air support while rare and epic cards are advanced troopers and abilities. Unique cards are special sidekicks which can only be used by specific leaders. For example, Chewbacca is a unique card which can only be used if you have Han Solo as the leader. Legendary cards are your leaders, such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. With all these different cards, you will surely spend a lot of time on this game as you try out all the troops and abilities, trying to find the best combination for your attack style. The best way, however, is to arrange your cards according to the leader you choose since each leader has their own unique special ability and skill. The Leader’s special ability usually helps your allies and the skill is usually an attack with a high damage.
I love the way the PvP in this game works, but I noticed that there is a slight lag from time to time which many other users have also reported. But aside from this minor inconvenience, the game works great! You can tap anywhere on the screen to make your leader move to that location and double tap to make them run there. You can tap on an enemy to make the leader attack them and if an enemy is close enough, the leader will automatically attack them even if you don’t tap. The leader’s skill can be accessed by a button just above the card deck which will unleash the leader’s ability. When it comes to deploying troopers, you can do so either by tapping the desired troop’s card or by dragging and dropping the card to specific locations on the map. Your tactics depend on the type of troops and the location you drop them in and each card has a required energy level to deploy them and the energy bar is displayed just above the card. Aside from the single player versus player mode, there are 2PvP where you will be assigned a random ally and the two of you will fight two other players. This game mode is quite good but risky as well, since you have to put your faith in a random stranger and if that is not your thing, you can join a Guild and team up with players from your own guild to fight against others. In 2PvP, each team has a single shield generator which they must protect while trying to destroy the enemy’s generator.
At the end of each game, you will be rewarded a deck of cards which you must unlock in order to get the cards and this is torturous since it takes several hours to unlock a deck. But the good thing is that there are free packs which you get every few hours, along with a play pack which can be unlocked once a day if you play several times daily. And then there is a trading section, where you can give up cards which you don’t use in exchange for better cards.
This whole system of gameplay will surely keep you on your toes as you try to run after time and with so many units to choose from, your attack tactic will keep changing as you try to win every game. and I have to admit, since I have been playing this game as soon as it was released, and I am absolutely addicted to it. Even if you are not a fan of Star Wars, you need to give this game a try and I promise, you won’t be disappointed.
