Phoenix 2 Reviews

This game is like all of these rotten mobile games. They’re all scams to have you paying loads of $$ to stay competitive. I’m not a kid or from the game console generation. I come from the generation where you paid an upfront price and then got something worth that money. In short, once you spend any money on this game and build your ship’s ability the game becomes impossible to win. However, after a period of free play and no money spent the game become boring and too slow and having to watch long ads. So, I went and spent $4.99 and used the credits to improve my ship and suddenly it’s impossible to finish a mission. The enemies become harder to kill while simultaneously sending out an impossible amount of firepower. Well, they got my $5 bucks and now I will delete the game. What’s irritating is I know how these “freemium” games are, but I thought I would give it a try because it looked like a good time waster and stress reliever. LOL!!!!! Oh, and I suppose I could spend more money and buy a more able ship, but before you realize you’ve spent $30 or more to play a game no more impressive than games from the 1970’s. No thanks.

I've been playing Phoenix II since its creation, and after many games played to upgrade my ships fully, I suddenly find they are no longer as powerful as they once were. I have to pay yet again to bring them to the "ultimate" level. I'm all for new features, but this one comes at the expense of those devoted players who have spent a lot of time and or money upgrading their ships. Perhaps if our previously "maxed" out ships would have been automatically upgraded to "ultimate" on this release, my opinion would be different, but this feels like their telling me it's time to pay up to keep playing. Can this please be rectified, Firi?

Update and Downgrade to 2 Stars: I've continued to play through my different ships and keep coming to the same conclusion: my previously maxxed out ships are now weaker than before. And the final "ultimate" upgrade tier is twice as expensive as it used to be. C'mon guys, I know you have to make payroll, but let's not step on the loyal following to get there.

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.

Updated 4/8/18
The game now rewards you for leveling up, and an update on upgrades was giving about a year ago to further the ships. But I still feel like it's about the ships abilities versus your skill. There are plenty more ways to earn coin than when I first started this game so that has been a welcomed addition. The ship preview should preview all the ships abilities. So you know what they all are if you never unlocked a ship with such an ability. Overall the game is much better since my original feedback.

I feel like the B+ rank missions require heavily upgraded high ranked ships rather than skill. I have been left with getting bored and just turning it on to open the warp gate. Then not playing mission so I don't lose my rank. More money should be awarded for completely higher ranks or a decreased amount for multiple runs. A bonus for beating your original time. A bonus for finishing within the top ten. But there should be more reward.

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.

I’ve been playing this game pretty much since it was first released, and it’s hands down one of the best bullet hell game on Phoenix2 store. For the most part, I’ve found the difficulty to be balanced, and each league/rank feels fair. As many others have said, the freemium model of the game means that in-game currency is scarce, and the odds of obtaining rare ships are pretty steep. Even this wasn’t that big of a deal, I was willing to put the time in. However, after coming back to the game a few years later and working my way back up to the higher ranks, I am absolutely seething over the controls. As with most bullet hells, your ship/player has a tiny hitbox relative to its sprite, which in theory would let you graze through dense areas of bullets within a few pixels. However, the touch controls feel loose or less responsive than they used to, and the ridiculous screen shake that occurs when you destroy any ship on screen means that more often than not you die. I would greatly appreciate an option to disable screen shake effects, or more clearly indicating to players that a row of bullets is impassable.

While I don’t have any major complaints about the game I do have some suggestions. First: when you select the specialist missions it’s a bit annoying that it’s make ships you don’t have as option to play with on those missions. Second: I think it’s a bit extreme to make the apex forms cost tens of thousands of coins while everyone the most expensive upgrades don’t even cost three thousand coins. Third: I think all of the original ships should be the default ships that you get starting the game or at least be available to buy. Fourth: I think you should bring back the feature that allowed you to buy ships you don’t have rather than solely relying on the warp gate to get new ships Fifth: I think it would be amazing if I could play and save levels I enjoyed playing so I could play them while I wait for the next day’s levels to drop Sixth: also I think it would be cool if you could sell the ships that you don’t use for coins so that you can use them on ships you do want and use frequently. Also I think it would be amazing with as a multi player All in all it’s a great game and would definitely recommend playing it.

The first Phoenix game that came out years ago was so clean looking, it blew my mind. I bought every ship and upgrade they released.

Years later, they make a sequel with a ton of polish and lovely details for every ship. So what’s the problem? So many ships and upgrades but nothing to actually use them on. There is such a severe lack of game modes and missions that it feels like you can only progress in upgrading your arsenal teeny tiny bits at a time.

When I unlock a new ship, I’m so excited to test it out but realize that I will be shooting the same cookie-cutter enemies wave after wave. I think this is Firi’s way of monetizing the game; by only letting you progress one mission a day unless you pay to speed up the progress. The issue is that I just want to play the game and I wish there was more of it. You get one (1) single cookie-cutter mission a day and your only option is to either replay the same mission or wait until tomorrow for something new to come around.

Please Firi, do not add any more ships, upgrades, characters or dialogue. We are content on those things. Give us an endless mode like the original game. Give us new enemies, a boss rush or just another way to enjoy the game. I am perfectly fine if you limit the amount of credits we can make a day but give us something fun to during down time.

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.

This is by far one of the best bullet hell games I’ve played in a long time. The graphics and controls are phenomenal and the music is great. My one issue with it would be something I’ve seen repeatedly in these reviews: the grind it takes to get more credits. I’ve seen some pretty good suggestions being offered like scaling credits to accommodate for levels as well as supply drops. I find it rather tedious to have to wait 12 hours for the possibility of a new ship (or even credits) and then 24 hours for a shot at new missions just to get more credits.

I’d like to suggest being able to earn credits with every enemy you defeat, that way the incentive is there to keep on playing, because I would really love to keep on playing in my spare time. I’d like to see something being done about this, while it can be aggravating, I won’t stop playing this.

Keep up the good work, guys!

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.

This is an amazing game. The reason it’s so amazing is because of the awesome ship selection and diverse weapons and abilities. Before the update, these ships could be previewed and purchased. I’m fine with not being able to purchase them, that’s not why it’s 4 stars now. You can’t even preview them!!! The entire AWESOME cast of ships is now hidden from you (minus the three in the warp gate). I used to just look through ships and their weapons and think of how awesome it would be to own them... but now you can just barely see their black outlines and imagine to yourself what their weapons and abilities might be. I was so excited to see the new 10 ships but NOOO I have to wait until they are in the warp gate to even preview, let alone purchase them. I just want to be able to preview all of the ships. Please bring that back. Thanks!

This is probably one of the best shooting games. But beware, its also a money pit. When you upgrade ships, they can cost as much as twenty bucks. Also, once you get to general level or better, the games becomes almost impossible to win. You are literally forced to keep upgrading ships by dumping more money to buy points. Your ship must be be at its maximum strength to mildly complete. You will never be able to win enough points fighting to complete a substantive ship upgrade. YOU MUST ALWAYS BUY POINTS. Lastly, lately the so called free points are not possible to capture as the suggested games Or Phoenix 2 does not ACTUALLY give the points. So, I am not saying the game isn’t fun, however, Phoenix2 owner truly understands The psychology of games playing. I’m considering if I should drop the game all together as its not fun if you pay pay pay but cannot win a little. So Have fun!

To this day, I find this game very fun to play once in a while: dodging bullets that go everywhere in every direction, countless ships to unlock and upgrade, daily challenges and rewards and lots of other fun things. But it’s missing this one piece that makes a bullet hell game: Bosses. Yes, there are enemies that act like one but they’re not legendary ships or guardians of some kind. It needs to be fast and have abilities and being able to dodge things; being more like your ship in a way. And each area should definitely have their own kind too! This may bring a special challenge to rookie or skilled players depending on their difficulty and stats. I bet this could make the game hundreds of times better! I hope this could possibly get your attention and make it happen at some point :D

The sci fi graphics are awesome and just what I would be looking for in any sci fi game. No real reason not to buy this game. It’s a on-the-go type of game and fits that roll perfectly. the only problem is that I have to request my parents for purchases and if they do not respond, Phoenix2 says it’s proscessing the purchase and I can’t request it again. Also, some of the abilitys look out of place on certain ships like the laser moons on the reaper ship. Changing the color of the moons and their beams will make them look more at home with the ship.

Now I will make a respond to some of the most critical reviews regarding this game.

Some people complain that they can’t get their account back. This is not the game developer’s I fault as you forgot your account info and that is your problem.

Some people say the levels get too hard. Yes a fair bit. But some ships are stupid amazing for these types of levels. I own one called the Orion and it’s disgusting as I can teleport around lasers as well as obliterate them, plus the Orion has homing lasers and is only a rare.

Some people complain that the warp gate charge takes too long. Now this gave me a good laugh as the warp gate takes only 12 hours to charge and gives you a new ship of upgrades a previous one. This means that if you wake up and use the warp gate at 8 am, you can get another ship at 8 pm, meaning that’s two ships a day if you dedicate yourself to this game.

I have played a lot of these types of old school style plane shooters and I have always found my self deleting them cause I got bored or just stopped playing but this to me is just perfect not only does it have the best music of any shooter I have played but just the game play no matter how many times I go through it is still fun and pushes you to try and beat it. I will admit the recent update made the game style better but also made it easier since finishing all 20 lvls at first was so hard but I loved it, I do love this update though it at least gives you a chance at victory but what really made me give this game 5 stars isn't just how good it looks and plays but mainly the music, I have paused the game just to hear that song over and over lol I love and think you guys a great job I hope to see a third game in the future.

I have been playing Phoenix 2 for two years. Phoenix is a hugely engaging and rewarding game, featuring depth of strategy and skill unlike any Mobil game I’ve ever played. It can be played casually as I did for my first year, but also rewards the player who delves deeply into game and ship mechanics. Competing at SSSS (max) league seemed impossible at first, but I can now clear any mission in the game with careful thought, proper ship selection, and a steady hand. To date I have unlocked max stats on 20 ships, a collection that I feel extremely proud of. Each ship takes time to fully upgrade (max upgrades unlock deeper mechanics within individual abilities) and more time to fully understand. I would suggest joining the growing and helpful reddit community, as discussion, reading game guides, and watching gameplay videos greatly increased my skill and love for Phoenix 2.

I’ve had this game for a while now. Enough to progress from D rank to S4, and with the update, Marshal S4 league. This game is amazing. If you like shoot-em-ups, this is for you. If you don’t like shmups, you still might end up liking this. Best of all, its totally free to play. There are IAPs, but you don’t need them to have fun. This game is for both casual players and speedrunners, and with global leaderboards, you can compete with your friends. The only complaint I can see that has any real weight behind it is casuals saying apexes are too expensive. Apexes are not required to pass missions, they just make it easier or to lay down faster times for speedrunners. If you play daily, there’s no trouble getting them if you save all your credits for a couple of weeks.
TD;DR Best of its class, highly replayable shoot-em-up game that I highly recommend to everyone

I’ve been playing this game for well over a year now and I played pheonix before it. The game is very well made and enjoyable to play, and the visuals are incredible. Unfortunately I’m here to review it at 3 stars today instead of five because for some unimaginable reason the developers decided that they would update the game so that even with sound turned off there are still sound effects when I have headphones connected. Please fix this, I love this game but I find the sound effects agitating and overly aggressive and if I can’t play and listen to my own music I don’t want to play.

(Update) At some point after I left this review and 3 stars the issue was fixed. I love to see responsive developers and this is a very fun game that I can now play again without it disrupting my music/phone calls/etc. Thank you!

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.