Phoenix 2

This game isn’t perfect, but there isn’t a better game out there to my knowledge. The major flaw that I see is that there is a hard limit on how much money you can earn in one day because the only way to make money is beating waves, completing missions, and getting tiny cash rewards from duplicate ships in the warp gate, all of which are on a timer. Once you beat the daily mission there isn’t another way to make money until it resets. I also think that the minimalist menu clashes with the graphics of the game, which are much more organic, but since they are both beautiful this is not really a problem. I wish that there was an easier way to join communities as well, I did it by spending too much time on the forums and finding an antiquated post about top communities, one of which I joined. All of these complaints aren’t going to stop me from playing the game though, I love trying new ships when I’ve already beat the daily mission, and beating my old times is always an option. Overall I definitely recommend downloading this game if you like bullet hells at all.

While progression seems slow at first it’s steady, and anyone can reasonably grind for any ship they want. The missions are fun, there’s a good system of ensuring challenge with multiple ranked ladders, and a variety of missions encourages playing with different ships on occasion. Active developers continue to update the game with new ships, new enemies, and balance tweaks. I wholeheartedly recommend Phoenix 2 to everyone on iOS. My one gripe for the developers is that the game area is restricted by invisible walls on my iPhone XR. I understand why the play area has to be restricted in order to make the leaderboards fair for people with different devices, but many times I’ve died thinking I had more room to maneuver. Some sort of forcefield or HUD looking indicator of where out of bounds starts would be greatly appreciated. Don’t let that stop you from giving this a go. Phoenix 2 is easily one of the most played games on my phone, and has been for about two years.

Unless those reviews are outdated. I'll say according to August 15, 2019: this game is spectacular. The Firi team releases consistent updates that keep the game up to par with other top notch mobile games. There's now a more in depth dialogue when you complete missions. There's new symbols to denote where you stand in the Phoenix 2 ranked community. You can view anyone's stats and compare your times on the current Daily, Community, or Special challenge missions. The Firi team has kept the game pretty balanced so far. I will say some of the Rare and Super Rare ships are a bit overpowered; but they're Rare and Super Rare so I'm not complaining about having them. This game has a great soundtrack and amazing visuals. Honestly this game is pretty on top when it comes to the bullet-hell genre. No other mobile bullet-hell holds a candle to Phoenix 2. That may be a personal bias but definitely worth downloading even if just to try out.

I have enjoyed some time with this game and think it has potential. I enjoy the ship collecting aspect and ability to upgrade, as well as daily leader boards. The core gameplay, however, seems slightly flawed. The waves of enemies come in acts that get increasingly more difficult, which is good. But, the waves are mostly divided into left and right sides, with some ships going quite off screen. This causes you to clear out one side, sometimes simply waiting for enemies to reappear on screen, then switch to the other side. But, when switching side as, side, you usually have to wait for the enemy bullets to pass so you can actually move over there, and then again you’re still faced with the issue that the enemies may be partially or fully off screen. So rather than feel like I’m really dodging and weaving like in a normal shootemup, it instead feels like I’m waiting around to move left or right in order to continue. Think some simple tweaks could fix this, but for now I don’t find myself wanting to continue to play.

So the developers really fixed the game and it is awesome, but why do I need a connection to play? What if I want to play it and don't have an internet connection. This technical issue might as well be the worst failure in an otherwise really cool game. Despite the net thing, it's worth checking out. Update: as I have now spent a longer time with this game, I can say that the internet issue is not its biggest flaw. Personally I find the reward system frustrating - it's really not fair enough. Also, the warp gate algorithm is not very smart. After you get a few, you'll receive several duplicated, and the compensation for that is below minimum. That said, I understand that this game has a fremium model with lots of in app purchases, and that is precisely its biggest flaw. With such cool graphics and power ups, people would spend money on a more balanced premium experience. As for me, I have played it enough now, and got tired of the really weak rewards all these days. Hope Phoenix 3 gets it right.