fun and addictive but doesn't have the same spark as the first and hacking really wares on even the most patient people
the leveling up is a lot simpler and clearer with only 3 things to divide your points into. (health is upgraded automatically with leveling which is nice)
i think the mini games are better in this game, particularly the item crafting mini game
OK, except for the leap gate hacking. imagine that before you could go to a new area in PQ1 (that means any sort of tower, city, or whatever, any time there is a bend in the road basically) you had to play a little mini game where you had to match a particular gem colour before you can move on to the next gem colour. you have a time limit to match all gem colours and if you fail then you have to start all over again. once it's hacked you generally don't have to hack it again (though gates randomly close from time to time requiring a second hack if you want to use it) so you end up with a sort of system that you can freely travel around as long as you avoid any paths which pass through enemy factions which triggers at least one battle.
That would be fine if your objectives were always just 1 hack away but more often than not your going to have to hack through three or even four of these gates before you can reach your next objective. its not fun, its rarely tense, its just plain frustrating.
it is possible to build (and by build i mean building weapons for a weapon combo on a ship that was given to me for free) an absolutely unstoppable ship at a little over half way if your clever enough (i've managed it) and even though its awesome when you first obliterate your enemies defences the game gets too easy after that. but before then the game is very challenging stacking you up against enemies with much better ships than yours.
Your allowed to own 3 ships at a time so my recomendation is to keep a ship that isnt unstoppable but still fairly strong for most battles and save one unstoppable ship for boss battles and then have one piss weak ship thats tons fast so you can fly through enemy teritory without having to initiate battles.
the graphics are better in Galactrix, the puzzles have more depth, shields add an interesting new dynamic to the gameplay and leveling up is simpler and clearer, so in my opinion, Galactrix is technichally the better game as long as you have enough patients to grind through all those annoying hacking mini games. but its better in the way that Zelda Twilight Princes is better than Ocarina of Time. Its better technically in just about every way but it just doesn't have the same zing that the first game had.
I'm really not sure how to call this one. its tons of fun in the first half, leveling up your ship, building weapons, collecting crew and just scathing through battles. But dont be surprised when you find yourself putting down the controller and stop obsessing about it at about half way through the game. the leap gates are just far to annoying and are almost a deal breaker.
I gave it 7/10 because its probably a 9/10 at first but lowers to more of a 5/10 after having to hack through what feels like a million leap gates.