After I first played this game during it's second kick starter run, I have been waiting for this release with great anticipation. GoD (Graphite or Diamond) Factory is definitely the space shooter I have been looking for. It has a tremendous amount of different playstyles available, with not only a staggering number of parts for customization (this is the first game I have played in a long time in which I was happy to have a part unlock system) but also 4 different races to choose from. Also, while each races has it's own list of parts for every possible ship part, these pieces can still also be put on the ships of other races, opening up even more possible customization options. Also, as a nice stylistic feature, almost every part of the ships you build have some effect on it's appearance, even internal ones like the power core. Also, there is a very nice focus on team play, plus features which actually facilitate team cooperation and communication. While the game is set to have other modes in the future, I still love the carrier assault mode that has the center of all available versions of the game so far. However one thing that I also really wanted to clear up is a comparison that I have seen several people who have not had a chance to play the game yet making, claiming that this game looks very similiar to Strike Vector and fearing that it will suffer the same fate. I would just like to say that I have played Strike Vector as well, and that GoD factory and Strike Vector, while appearing similiar on the surface, are actually two very different games. First of all, Strike Vector's controls are very stop and go in comparision to GoD factory's. Also, in Strike Vector there is a much greater focus on people being able to kill one another in one on one combat. This isn't the case in GoD factory, in fact almost the reverse is true. GoD fcatory focuses on a rather cautionary playstyle, all player ships have a bit of health and it normally takes some work to kill another player's ship, so you won't have be dying in the blink of an eye. Even if you accidently run into a wall while boosting, it won't be a one hit kill from full health (though it will be likely to take a large chunk out of it). However, in return, each of the 2 ships you bring into a match only have one life, after which they are replaced with a weaker drone with an inceasingly long respawn timer each time it dies. Finally, while I would definitely advise that you do the tutorials before playing any matches, GoD Factory is in my opinion easier to pick up as a new player and be an effective part of your team.

GoD Factory is a space shooter akin to the ones I grew up with, it has the balls to punish you for doing stupid stuff and for having a lone wolf mentality (your gunship is replaced with a drone after it has been destroyed and it remains destroyed for the rest of the match) and there's a high skillcap which turns a lot of off on the idea of playing it because they don't like the idea of having their ego smashed.

Take a good long look at what some of the negative reviews are saying, it's basically all related to the person who wrote the review being unable to "get gud" or get over their own false sense of supremacy; this is a team game. It is designed as a team game and if you beleive for an instant that you're not part of a team but rather some special little snowflake meant to take on the entire enemy team by yourself... you will get smashed into the ground- errr... nearest asteroid.

Buy it. It's a great callback to the kind of high-skillcap, highly punishing games, of the glorious old days of PC gaming.

PS. There's not much grinding in the game, if you win a game you get quite a bit of credits to spend on parts.

This game is essentially the space battles in Star Wars Battlefront II without the small on-foot interior sections. Fly at the enemy's ship and blow up their components with bombers, or attack other enemy ships with fighters in 4v4 fights.

Customization is good, the individual parts don't make a huge overall difference, but it's easy to spec out what type of ship you're aiming to make. The overall ship style is pretty neat as well, with additional colors being unlocked by accomplishing steam achivements in game. The graphics are great, the environments and ships are amazingly detailed.

But, here's why I can't honestly reccomend the game.

First and foremost, if you crash one of your ships, it's gone for the rest of the round, replaced with a very mediocre drone. I had to check the tutorials again to reconfirm this, but this is a huge pain considering rounds typically last 10-20 minutes. Now, I know it's rather easy to evade other players with a combination of boosting, manuvers, and special abilities, but being unable to use the ship you've designed for the rest of the round is a mental nightmare, and extremely discouraging. Essentially, you've been crippled for the rest of the game, and it's difficult to stage a comeback because of it.

Next up is the controls. This is strictly a controller/joystick game. Mouse and keyboard controls are inherently flawed from the getgo because of both the default bindings, and the difficulting in turning. I believe initial bindings have the ship roating with mouse side movements, and turning binded to the A and D keys. I ended up flipping these bindings and found it far more usable. However, in dogfights that require you to constantly be turning, you are phsyically incapable of turning fast enough due to you having you keep dragging the mouse in one direction, and you will run out of desk space. Plug a controller in, save yourself the hassle.

Once you understand the previous two complaints and try to work around them, you have the rest of the game open to you. The issue is, the rest of the game appears to be exactly like your first game, with different players, and different parts, and holy hell does it get old fast. I understand the idea that it's esentially trying to be a MOBA, where everyone plays one gametype and attempts to win via various strategies, but the difference between ships in this game is limited to stats, weapons, and abilities. Some abilities are a get out of jail free card (short range teleport through walls, decoy ship), while some are minor boosts, and some just feel like they're negated entirely if the other player boosts away. Mechanically, besides for the fact that some ships make better bombers, and some ships make better fighters, you're going to be playing the same thing over and over. The game's part experience and currency system will pretty much enforce this.

Overall it feels this game could be better as a F2P based on it's grindy systems, selling cosmetics for income. A $20 pricepoint for one game mode and map is a very steep barrier of entry that in my opinion does not pay off for the content provided.

Been following this game since the Kickstarter and have been looking forward to it the entire time. I really enjoyed my time in the beta and am looking forward to the full release. Even more so that I have an Oculus Rift to play it on now!

Onto the game itself. It doesn't have a vast amount of content, but what content it has is very good. The space battles are engaging and take quite a bit of skill(and teamwork!) to do well in. My only concern at the moment is this game not getting enough support to keep online thriving. Ship customization is decent, but feels a bit restrictive at times. As with most competitive games I really feel like there is one best loadout to have. I didn't figure it out, but I am sure others were able to piece together 2 ships that were better than the rest. If you liked Battlefront II space battles and you want to play a more fleshed out version, get this game. It is well worth your time.

Based on alpha/beta experiances and from what I have seen during Nine Dot's Twitch streams (http://www.twitch.tv/ninedotsstudio). The game is amazing. If you enjoy masses of customisation options, team play orientated play and space sims in general, GoD Factory: Wingmen is a must buy.

Graphically the game is great and the audio is equally as good, and that was even before the new BGM has been put in (and if Dual Dragon's previous work is anything to go by, this will pretty sweet too).

The gameplay requires good team coordination in order to take down the very durable carrier components which will in turn put a variety of debuffs on the pilots and carrier itself. Games themselves are relatively short, never exceeding 25 minutes, which is great for getting back to spending your hard earned credits on the customisations.

The community around the game has been great up to now and it will be great to see that grow with a full release. The devs are all very open, helpful and fun to spend time with and it was great to fly along-side of (or against) during the past few months.

In my opinion, it is definately worth checking out, and is really good value for money at the £15 price tag.

TL;DR - Game is awesome, has minor faults but 9/10 from me.

So I was pretty hyped for this game, and I can say that it's exceeded my expectations for a release game. When you look at other developers like Square-Enix and Psyonix (Nosgoth) who simply don't even interact with their community much; even with a larger team, it's easy to see that this game has a special "flare" to it.

The gameplay reminds me of the old Gamecube games for Star wars (Rogue squadron) and it has all of that and so much more. The game is 90% bug-free (small bugs every now and then) but I can host games on my low-end machine and it runs great.

The controls can be a little hard to grasp at first, the first few games me and a few friends died a few times against the bots while working out what we had to do and how to do it, but after the 4th attempt we managed to win fast and not die at all.

So i'll say this, anyone who is having trouble with a mouse + keyboard - Keep at it. It gets easier.

The only downside at the moment is the slightly confusing shop/modification menu. The tutorial covers a lot of basic flight information but nothing in the menu and It looks a little scattered. But this could just be my slightly older, logical brain talking.

-That being said, it can be slightly hard in-game to stabilise yourself, I have been using the woman in the background to work that out.

Overall, having not been a part of the beta I wouldn't know how the devs are in terms of time/patch releases, but this game looks completely polished. I can't really judge it after 3 hours of gameplay, but if I was forced to i'd give it a 9/10.

The one point missing is the small gripes, but they are really small.

I look forward to spending a lot of time on this in between studying.

This is a great title, which is saying something coming from me - I am not traditionally a huge fan of PvP games, but this does tick the boxes: solid gameplay; interesting mechanics; rewarding intelligent and strategic teamplay.

Despite playing through the tutorial, it did take me some time to get used to the carrier parts and the controls, especially as I am using keyboard and mouse, but using a controller will also give a good experience. Though it is a punishing game with a high skill cap, I find myself enjoying it, despite my lack of skill. Something to work on, I suppose.

The idea about the game itself is pretty simple. It's not a deathmatch; matches are up to 4 v 4 (including bots should you wish to do so), and the two teams try to destroy the enemy carrier (base) by destroying components (in the vein of Star Wars Battlefront II). If the two carriers are destroyed at the same time, then the team which has destroyed the most enemy gunships (your fighters) is considered the winner. The race-specific abilities and the purchasable add-ons also make the game quite interesting and refreshing, forcing people to think carefully about their resources and how to use them - the cooldowns can be crippling if something is used at the wrong time.

The game looks great, with 4 very different races available to choose from. The ship and component designs are all vividly different from one another with clear distinctions and very interesting designs. The weapons are a particular highlight, with a huge variety all looking very nice. The great look is complemented by the maps - as of Galaxy Update 1.1 (15/11/2014) - there are now 4... the two carriers and the surrounding area, including the cover you can find from man-made factories in the area or the immense statue nearby all look great. The 3 new maps all include new unique and interesting mechanics in addition to more stunning visuals. One offers damage dealing locations, one offers healing, and one has teleporters spaced around the map. This is complemented by the game's audio. The soundtrack is absolutely brilliant, I could listen to it for hours on end. The sound design for the space combat is quite good too, disregarding the impossibility of sounds being heard in space... but who cares? Music makes it more awesome.

One of the things I like most about this game is the customisation available for your ships. You start with two basic ships from two races, but are quickly able to buy more. While you do need to "grind" to unlock better parts - keep an eye out on the "tech tree" in the shop to see what you want to unlock and work towards those parts - the grind is not excessive like in some other games. The range of options available is incredible, and offers a huge range of options forcing you to make some hard decisions: do you upgrade a lower tier part to it's max level or do you skip it and use a weaker higher tier part until you can level that up? This is supported by something I quite personally like - the fact that achievements unlock further cosmetic options. This makes it interesting and fun to collect achievements if you can, while not rewarding these achievements with OP ship parts. Thus, a failure to be skilled or lucky enough to acquire an achievement will not punish you further by ensuring you will be left with comparatively substandard parts.

Finally, I am pretty happy with the game developers, who are maintaining a strong presence in the community, always on top of launch issues and always happy to talk with the players and keep them up-to-date. Very, very happy with my decision to buy this game.

Fun game that puts the TEAM and TEAM work. No solo play here.... Unless you like bots.

This game is amazing. I've been playing it since the kickstarter alpha and have loved every minute of it.
The gameplay is both fast-paced and has a lot of strategic depth: hunting down people and outmaneuvering them feels extremely rewarding.
Teamwork is a huge part of the game: working with allies is extremely rewarding, both in-game and when setting up strategies and designing ships.
Ship building and design is a wonder of its own: you can build glass cannons, resilient bombers, tanky defenders, support ships that apply debuffs to enemy gunships, and more; Guantri ships can even fill two of these roles at the same time.
I can't wait for this game to launch and will be playing it every chance I get. If you're just getting into it, add me on steam and I'll show you the ropes!

We recommend this game to hardcore players who are not afraid of digging deeper into a game and find how all the mechanics are intertwined. There's a lot of customization in here and we've dedicated a lot of attention to game balance. While we aren't going the pure simulationist route we're far from dumbing it down either. Controlling your ships takes practice and I'm persuaded that you will still be learning new tricks even after well over 100 hours of playtime.

Back when we started, there wasn't much happening in the space game genre and wanted to make something on our own. Since then, plenty of games worthy of attention were announced, such as Star Citizen and Elite: Dangerous, but I think what we made still stands out with a very unique offer: ships that you assemble part by part and a deep, competitive multiplayer game with a focus on cooperation and creativity.

Sources of influence: Ace Combat, Star Fox, Final Fantasy XI, Star Wars Battlefront, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Freelancer and many more.

We hope that you'll enjoy our game as much as we do!

Don't buy for $20 you will only get to play it when it goes on sale, average players online 2-8, a full player match hosts 8 players. Just wait for a sale like $5.00 then you can get it and play it for a few days before it dies again untill the next sale.

GoD Factory: Wingmen is a fun game. With only one game mode and a single map that has randomly placed parts between you and the ship. You'd think you would get bored fast. But you honestly don't. There is always something to unlock even hitting the max level. The ships and weapon customization make it the game.

For $10, an instant buy in my book. $20...eeeeeeeh, if you're a hardcore space sim type of person, buy it.

I'm currently using mouse and keyboard and have no issue dominating. Sometimes moving the mouse is a bit much but I don't find it a problem. With that said, I have a Joystick on order for Star Citizen. I will update this review with a joystick once I try it out.

Edit: Joysticks
I got my HOTAS setup and the mapping wizard in game is great. However, I feel a little slower with the joystick than I do with a mouse. That might have a lot to do with the fact I'm still new to a HOTAS setup. As of right now, the support is there and works. I am just not use to it yet. I'll have to give it some time to get better at this.

I love this game, and have played it almost every day since release. That said, I can't recommend it, at least not at the current price of $20.

Let's start out with what's good. The game has an excellent engine, runs very smoothly, and has no notable lag issues. Initial match load times can be slow but after that it's generally smooth sailing to the finish. The graphics are good, not exceptional but nothing to complain about either.

Ships are varied, and the customization options are deep and satisfying. Taking 2 ships into each battle allows each player to prepare multiple tactics and adjust on the fly. Ships can be shared with comrades in battle. The dogfighting is solid and the carriers offer a variety of targets and strategies. A good match is a hell of a lot of fun.

So why not buy it?

GFW is an online battle arena with no single player campaign of any kind. That in itself is not a problem, except that there's currently only one multiplayer gametype, with only one map. I think the deficiency here is pretty self-explanatory. I have been assured more are coming by a developer, but until then is now, it's an issue. I believe this game should be properly classified with the "Early Access" titles at this point.

Getting a game started, especially at non-peak times, involves a lot of waiting. As of this review, the community averages 30-40 players at midday, and 80-100 peak. A full session is 8 players, and less is not nearly as much fun. The game allows you to substitute bots of varying configuration and difficulty, which would be good except that the bots currently provide better rewards than real opponents, so the lobby list is full of rooms with 1-2 people and 6-7 bots. The developer also assures me that bot rewards will be reduced soon. It can't come soon enough, in my opinion.

Compounding the frustration of the small community are a variety of social features the game is lacking. It does not populate Steam's "recent players" list, so you have to manually search for anyone you want to friend, and then sort through the many results. It does not offer in-game voice chat of any kind. It does not offer basic options such as blocking chat from a disruptive player. There is no solution to an idle host, aside from leaving and starting a new lobby. There is no persistent squad chat, as squads are immediately disbanded after each match. Communication mid-game is bolstered by a nice team command broadcast menu, but this can't be assigned to a gamepad like everything else can.

Some final notes: Gamepad support is a plus, but the recommended mappings beg to be reassigned immediately. The music is great at first, but the one extended track rapidly becomes repetitive. The tutorial is helpful and gives you a credit boost to start, but is frustratingly segmented. Notice how everything is "good, but...."

Bottom line: Unless you are a space combat fanatic, wait for more features and a lower price. You can get a hell of a lot more for $20 out of the Steam catalogue.

I demo'd this game at PAX East and was part of the beta. My experience with this game was really positive; it's a polished title that is a unique experience, especially among the space sim revival we're currently experiencing. I'll break particular aspects of the game down below:

Controls:
I'll get this out of the way right now; this game currently does not have my joystick supported (x52) but I've been reassured by the devs that the kinks for this particular model will be worked out by launch. Despite my personal joystick not working too well, the joysticks at PAX East functioned brilliantly; the input felt responsive and smooth. A lot of the gameplay of GoD Factory doesn't rely super heavily on twitch aiming, so it's possible the finer aiming problems weren't evident. The game also allows for some really cool manuevers while still maintaining a high level of accessibility (the ideal easy to learn, difficult to master, which I think is an overarching design decision for this game as a whole). A sort of temporary newtonian mode (almost like drifting) allows for some slick, intense dogfights.

Core Gameplay:
The standard gamemode for this is heavily strategic. It allows for teams to asses their strengths, the enemy's weakness, then assault the enemy in a manner that they deem will cripple them the most. Perhaps the enemy has a lot of lock-on missiles; destroying the radar tower would make it more difficult for target acquisition. Things like that. There's a lot of replayability in the core gameplay (carrier v. carrier) alone. In the future however, to maybe avoid things getting a bit stale, consider different carrier ships or even game modes. I don't forsee the core game getting stale for a long time though.

Mechanics:
This is where this game really shines for me. Finally, the ability to modularly construct your ship without a straight upgrade path. Heavier weapons? Well now your ship is slower. Let's put a bigger engine one...now you need more energy. Slap a bigger power core on; now you're generating more heat. There's a really smart system behind this that really allows for no single 'best build' ship. I'm very excited to see what kind of weird builds the community comes up with. I was able to swap between mine laying ships to support/snaring ships, to sort of rocket bombers. All within the first tier of gameplay. It's honestly very head spinning, even beyond just the simple weapons. Once you delve into power cores, ship bodies/wings, computers, etc. it can almost become a game in of itself. Particular weapons don't just become more powerful either; the model that the devs have constructed allows for really slim, minimalistic ships to potentially be viable. Combining this crazy individual customization with a 4 man team is a recipe for infinite replayability. Think Dota 2 meets X-wing.

I almost forgot combos: Weapons have damage types that can potentially be combined with other damage types that allow for combos to form. I can't imagine how difficult/awesome it's going to be to pull off some of the higher level tier combos with my friends.

Graphics/Audio:
Personally, graphics aren't a major factor for me. Especially with a game like this that has such strategic depth. I will say that the art style is definitely unique, and I'm very happy to report that your customized modular ships actually change appearance with every part. That, to me, means that the graphics definitely do their job. It also allows the game to be a lot more accessible hardware wise, which is great for the potential esport future of this game.

Overall:
To summarize my beta/PAX experience, this game looks really solid and I'm furious I can't play it right now. The game is accessible for gamers who aren't 'pilots' but allows for seasoned aces to pull off some awesome stuff. It has an interesting gameplay mode with an incredibly in-depth ship building mechanism that is dizzying in depth. All at a very reasonable price.

Star Fox Online

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBIlQyScD88

It goes without saying that GoD is truly a hardcore title, the mechanics and depth of the game make it really hard game to play and you have to invest lot of hours to learn best kit combinations and learn, which races are best along with best ships. Some could argue its not a MOBA, but its objective based gameplay make its very similar, also there is the factor that it uses respawn system and base that has turrets.

One thing that really shined through for me was the soundtrack, it is one of these OST that end up in your playlists in Youtube since they are that good. Heck i could even buy the album, since i love the sounds so much. I think its comparable to Deus EX soundtracks by its style, but it really stand on its own though.

The Overall verdict is that the game requires either gamepad and joystick, if your not going to sink tens of hours to the game, i doubt you will understand the game fully, while its not EVE Online i still think its quite depth for the type of a game God Factory Wingmen is. I Suggest buying Pre-Order since you get another copy of the game which you can give it to your friend for example or as a giveaway.

I really enjoy playing this one a lot! The art design and gameplay are superb and it's really fun blasting around the galaxy having dogfights and attacking the carriers. The 4 vs 4 format works really well and the ship customization is very deep.

I would describe this game as Starfox meets Zone of The Enders; even envoking classic space shooters like Wing Commander. The gameplay is very fast and it's a lot of fun once you get the hang of flying. I would advise turning the sensitivity up as it's set very low initially and feels a bit difficult to turn. Otherwise a mouse and keyboard work great for this game (I imagine it would play equally well on a gamepad or joystick). There are also tons of different weapon combinations and every ship you encounter will be fairly unique. The music is also well executed and provides a nice atmosphere.

The only drawback is that there is no storyline and one map. I really like the map however as it's very detailed with many structures and a huge area to fly in. There is enough variety in it that it really feels different each time. Plus it's beautiful to look at so it doesn't feel repetitive.

The devs are super cool and are online playing frequently. They seem very receptive to player feedback and genuiley interested in making a great game. Nine Dots Studio is planning on adding more content in the future, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are more maps and story missions on the way. You guys did a great job!

Now... back to blowing ♥♥♥♥ up!

One of the best games I have waited for from the time I played the beta.
A game that I can play only with a joystick. (and there are not much out there that I perfer to use one)

4 different races, with all their own style. Also the style you can't really compare that with anything else that's out right now.
A 4 vs 4 gameplay space simulation shooter.

In overall, A fresh new game on the market that looks and works great. you just only need to like space games.

This game has a great community, though not very big. The developers are quite committed to the game, and probably won't put the game down for quite a long time. I definitely suggest this game to anyone and everyone who wants a good time. Even on the lowest settings, the game is REALLY beautiful :)

One of the best games I've ever played! Very team oriented and extremely fun to coordinate attacks. Half the fun is spent in the hangar, tweaking/building ships to fit your own playstyle with a large variety of parts. It's like an online multiplayer Star Fox 64, but better. Highly recommended!