# Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander — user reviews > 50 indexed App Store user reviews of Halcyon 6 by Massive Damage, Inc., rated 4.44/5 from 832 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/halcyon-6-starbase-commander/id1264707038/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/halcyon-6-starbase-commander/id1264707038.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 615 · 4★ 87 · 3★ 51 · 2★ 27 · 1★ 48 ## What do users think of Halcyon 6? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Engaging gameplay - 👍 Immersive story and characters - 💡 Unique blend of strategy and tactics - 🚀 Satisfying combat system - 👍 Retro art style and music **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and performance issues - 🔍 Unintuitive user interface - 🔍 Difficulty selecting actions due to overlapping UI elements - 🔋 Slow performance on older devices **Commonly reported bugs** - Inability to return fleet to starbase - Leveling issues with preset officers - Force targeting skill freezing the game - Saved game corruption and data loss **Most requested features** - Optimization for newer iPhone models - More frequent updates and bug fixes - Additional content and story expansions - Customization options for UI and controls ## Newest reviews (10 of 50) ### 4/5 — Really good, just needs a tweak or two! *2019-08-05, version 1.4.2.6* So I normally don’t write reviews, but Halcyon 6 is a fun and interesting sci-fi strategy. Gameplay is addicting and so far enjoying my purchase, but I do have one suggestion. The devs haven’t updated in a few months, but this game needs XS/XR support. That’s really been the only thing keeping me from enjoying this game completely. But kudos, Massive Damage. Thanks for the great game! ### 4/5 — Great game but needs update *2018-11-14, version 1.4.2.6* This game has a rich story. It is reminiscent of other space games I’ve greatly enjoyed, but has its own unique depth and flavor. At this point I only wish the developers would take a bit of time to update the app for the newer IPhone X. There are times that text is off the screen due to the app being out of date. Additionally they are not taking advantage of the double speaker system on the new iPhone X like other games do. (Namely “Monster Hunter Stories” by capcom). All that said it is still worth playing. ### 4/5 — Awesome game, one really annoying bug (no - not crashes) *2018-09-28, version 1.4.2.6* Fantastic game as all the other reviews say. Great balance of planning and tactics with a wonderful sense of story and humor that reminds me of Star Control II. (Yes, I’m showing my age. No, when 900 years old you’ll reach, look as good you’ll not.) The big bug is the UI on the iPhone (X in my case). The officer buttons at the bottom of the screen are much bigger than they appear and overlap other buttons, so trying to tap even the top edge of the (very frequently used) confirm/cancel buttons, VERY carefully still brings up the officer screen instead 75% of the time! Dear developers, please fix this to take the constant annoyance out of an otherwise fantastic game experience! ### 4/5 — Please update for iPhone X *2018-09-19, version 1.4.2.6* Been playing on my old iPhone 6s. There are some interface issues like the game selecting a different room instead of confirming the task you setup, but it was generally good. Just got my iPhone X and it’s clearly not optimized for the newer phones. For abilities with multiple inflictions/exploits they’ll trail off the bottom of the screen. Besides these issues it’s a solid game, but I had to take a star off for them. ### 5/5 — Satisfying gameplay and quirky characters. What’s not to love? *2018-07-12, version 1.4.2.6* I found this game on steam and was intrigued by the concept. Halcyon 6 combines base management with turn based combat both in ships as well as on the ground. It feels similar to xcom 2, as you play as the last humans fighting an alien threat by building up resource avenues and maintaining secure territory by assaulting the portals that spawn waves of chruul raiding parties. There is a sizable amount of ships and officers to choose from, each bringing unique abilities to the table. For example, engineering ships pack an attack called disassembly, which sends a swarm of tiny drones, which highly resemble a swarm of bees, to lacerate the enemy ship, inflicting a dot effect. It is worth the money if you are looking for an offline game that has satisfying turn based and base buildings gameplay. ### 4/5 — Incredible *2018-01-08, version 1.4.2.3* One of my favorites on my phone. I even choose it instead of some triple-A games on PC/platform. (As far as I know) there are zero IAP's- not even cosmetic add-ons- and very worth its cost. One major issue, and one personal issue; the game crashes. Like, a lot. Every 15-20 minutes I get booted from the game. I've never experienced any frame rate drops, but the game crashing almost makes me want to stop playing after 3 minutes of the time I played that day. The personal issue I have is that I feel that there should be more, wild planets to explore, to colonize and conquer or exploit. An opinion, but one that may be shared. All in all, fantastic game, highly recommend giving it a try. ### 3/5 — Crashes way too much!! *2017-12-05, version 1.4.2.2* I love this game. It was 5 stars when I first started playing, and then about two hrs in, the first crash. Now the game can’t run for more then 40 min without crashing. EDIT: Better! Update fixed the initial crashing. Now that I’m later in the game, it’s back to crashing again. Disappointing. Have to save every 5 min or risk losing progress as auto save only saves before an event/battle and not directly after. ### 3/5 — One of my favorite games of all time BUT !!! *2017-11-19, version 1.4.2.2* This is what a strategic space rpg should look like in terms of the gameplay it’s solid as hell , I’d rate it a 10 if possible but the constant and consistent crashing is literally killing the immersion for me ... can you guys patch this masterpiece please y’all need to do your product justice ... seriously ! If you care bout us leaving ratings then please take these words into account so I can tell others to get in on this ! Until then it’s gonna stay at a 3 star rate or I may want my money back ... ### 3/5 — Super Fun! But... *2017-11-16, version 1.4.2.2* I really dig this game it was exactly what I was looking for. It has already provided me with hours of fun. But this game has some MAJOR problems and if they are ever fixed this review will easily be a 5 star. Okay so here are the big issues: 1) as the game progresses the load times are insanely long- like 3 minutes. 2) the game CRASHES ALL THE TIMES. I can’t play it for more than 10 minutes without it crashing. This coupled with the long load times makes it almost unplayable. ### 3/5 — I love this game, BUT... *2017-11-09, version 1.4.2.1* I have always loved games like FTL, Out There and various Sid Meier games like Starships, Civs, etc. this game is fun and engaging and just a fantastically playable experience. My issue: it crashes a lot. I would say for every 10 mins playing, it will crash at least once. I save it almost every in-game day, as progress lost after a fight is frustrating. I know devs are working out bugs and can't be expected to launch the perfect game with every possible scenario of different installs, systems and other games completely tested, so I'll be patient while they try to work it out. For the one commenter who claimed the crashes are untrue and people are lying: nice trolling attempt. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Don’t bother *2019-01-18, version 1.4.2.6* Game is fun but nefarious in that you can play from the start with no/relatively few crashes. But the longer you play the more frequent they become to the point where I MUST manually save after every fight or after doing base micromanagement. Otherwise I get booted out and have to reload and redo all the tedious work I spent a few minutes doing. 3-5 min may not sound like a lot for the infrequent crash but it CRASHES EVERY 5 minutes (or less even). For the record I’m on an iPhone 6 Plus. My advice is stay away and play something else or play this on PC. It’s such a shame really because I liked the game otherwise. But I can’t finish it after investing so much time into various playthroughs only to keep being prevented from finishing. ### 1/5 — Salty! The Game Crash is ubearable *2018-05-09, version 1.4.2.6* Very Salty. The game is unbearable to play. First part of the game. Was fun and smooth. And as I porgress in the game. App crashes started happening. First its every three events or soo. Now its every event. Sometimes it even crashes in the middle of a fight. Logically I decided to save each fight or anything I do important. But now even saving the game crashes the app. And whats worse. It corrupted my recenr savefile and IT's GONE. Ive already repeat quest 2-3 times just to pass it due to constant crash. Now I am forced to start from 10 quest back. Really salty. To the point that I will delete this game. Don't waste your time playing. Maybe worth it with PC but not on Mobile. Doing quick search in the internet I found thatIts been a problem since 2016. And obviously its not fixed. There was even a support that mentioned having at least 2GB free space can help prevent crashes (Which I did). I deleted some of my favorite apps to make 3Gb free space. Not I just regret everything uuuuuuugh. I want my money and my time back🙄😒 ### 2/5 — Unfortunately cannot recommend *2020-11-24, version 1.4.2.6* I bought this game hoping it would be what other reviews stated: basically a goofy X-COM. It is much less exciting than that. Ship battles take forever, and ground battles are a joke. Cultivating your team is a huge pain because your officers are your fighters, pilots, scientists, and engineers. You never have enough resources, even if you lean hard into just acquiring them and ignoring other facets of the game. It’s a slog. The final straw has been the repeated crashes that lose all game data, forcing a hard restart. All in all, I wish I had spent this money on a real game for a console, not a cheap knockoff. ### 2/5 — Good but buggy *2020-05-24, version 1.4.2.6* Game is really enjoyable. I can’t believe how much time I spend playing. But there are flaws. The interface isn’t perfect as has been pointed out on many reviews. You will often try to start a task and end up selecting an officer by accident negating everything you were trying to do. The start task menu is too close to the select officer menu which leads to that problem. Sending out fleets takes some getting used to but I’d actually leave that as is. The other problems are major slowdown & occasional crashing. Despite the update that supposedly fixed this issue it still happens. The slowdown becomes really problematic after playing half an hour or so. It’s borderline unplayable after awhile. I still enjoy the game and hope these issues are fixed but it’s been 2 years without an update so I’m worried game has been abandoned. The game is highly entertaining but crashes are game destroyingly frustrating. If devs ever update & actually fix the bugs I will revise my rating ### 2/5 — Constantly crashes. *2020-01-31, version 1.4.2.6* Crashes all the time. I want to love this game, have it on my computer and supported it way back when on Kickstarter. However it’s unplayable at this point. I have an iPhone that’s less than one year old so performance should not be a problem. Glitchy UI as well. Bottom row of officer skills on level up skill selection can’t be selected as it will just pop you back out into the world (too close to officer portraits). I’m pretty sure they will fix this with an update but right now it’s not playable. Sorry folks. ### 3/5 — Really Had Me For a Bit *2022-08-31, version 1.4.2.6* My first attempt taught me a lot about what is important. Second way through I hit my stride and began to really enjoy the game - in that sweet spot where I couldn’t put it down. But then, just as I was smooth sailing, I got walloped by an unexpected invasion. I really didn’t see what I had done wrong and honestly am not interested enough to spend any more time figuring out the dev’s complex shenanigans. ### 3/5 — Needs tweaks *2020-04-05, version 1.4.2.6* The game is a lot of fun and I played it a whole bunch like 5 hours in one day, but there’s little things like how hard it is to make your officers do things because when you try to click confirm do that action the game always thinks your clicking on an officers portrait and takes u to their skills. It’s so frustrating when you try clicking confirm 11 times and it takes u to the officers skills again no matter how hard u try. I don’t even use those buttons very often why do they have to be so sensitive of buttons. I also can’t decide if I like the dialogues like they can be funny but every race acts like literal retards. Over all though a pretty good game and I don’t regret buying it, but the skills thing is probably gonna make me rage quit playing soon cause clicking the confirm button is how u do everything from moving fleets to building rooms in the base, but I hate having to attempt to do that 5 times at least every time I want to do something. ### 3/5 — Fun game overall but the UI is bad enough to hamper enjoyment *2020-02-17, version 1.4.2.6* I love the concept, and it’s a nice combo of mechanics that I enjoy. The x-com style base building is fun, and I like that it’s a full game for one purchase. BUT, as others seem to have noted, the UI is rather poor. It might work better on a tablet, but if you’re going to charge this much for a game and sell it for phones, you need to put more work into making it playable. The officer select area at the bottom of the screen is ridiculous. It’s straight up impossible to select some of the options at the bottom of pop up windows like the officer skill trees, because it selects an officer and kicks me out of what I’m doing, even if my finger isn’t even touching the officer selection. The hitbox on that button is way too huge, and it should not be prioritized over windows that are opened on top of it. It’s frustrating enough that it has frankly made me want to stop playing the game. It’s a complaint that I noticed when reading reviews before purchase, but it’s hard to understand just how constant and annoying it is before you’ve experienced it yourself. Since you’ve already got my money, and this is a two year old game, I’ll just have to remember and avoid this developer in the future if this does not get fixed. ### 3/5 — Fun but buggy *2018-10-11, version 1.4.2.6* This reminds me of an old favorite: Master of Orion. It's a fun game of universe denomination, strategy, resource allocation, technology research, fleet construction, etc. Unfortunately it crashes very often--about two to three times per hour and takes a long time to reload. It also has some awkward interface glitches where one cannot access fleet control due to being covered by pop up menu. If it didn't crash so often, I would give it a solid four stars as a good, fun game one can easily spend hours playing. ### 3/5 — Great game-when it works *2017-12-06, version 1.4.2.2* I love the game, as I’m sure plenty of others have said. It’s fun, and it’s a great experience when it’s working and you’re building your station. The only problem is that sometimes it really slows down, giving me 5-10 frames per second or even freezing for a few seconds. It can get worse as the game completely crashes and erases my saves so I can’t pick up where I left off. It’s really painful seeing as I can’t get past the final boss since the game would always crash after the second stage, only to reset me to 8 days before the battle. I’ve tried to battle 3-4 times and I still can’t finish it due to this problem. Please fix it because I love this game but it won’t let me play it. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Oldie but a goodie *2021-10-11, version 1.4.2.6* This game is 5 years old, but a breath of fresh air amongst freemium or microtransaction types of games. I play on iPhone 12 and for me the screen size is sufficient. Only sometimes you are trying to press an icon and it isn’t registering easily but it’s easy to work around it. Well worth the low cost. ### 5/5 — XS Max Playability *2021-06-04, version 1.4.2.6* To the people who think that this game is “unplayable” due to the age and new IOS(plural) and New Phones, you are completely incorrect. I never write reviews but after seeing the reviews calling the developers scammers, I decided to leave a remark. I have recently started playing this game on the PC however I plan on taking a trip without my PC so I wanted to be able to play this Mobile, my expectations were low because of the prior reviews. I was blown away it is completely compatible for this iOS and for the XS max, it may not be the most beautiful graphics but do not let this unique art style drive you away. Wonderful mechanics albeit, not perfect defintely a bit touchy at times however, if you have played the PC version you will climb up the metaphorical learning curve very quickly. ### 5/5 — Very cool *2021-04-21, version 1.4.2.6* I’m looking forward to a long love affair with this game. Only been playing for a day now, but I love the genre, the snarky wit, and the way options are presented in every facet of the game. You’ve probably noticed the negative reviews based on UI problems selecting the right button. I can’t speak to the problems on a phone, but I’ll tell you that those problems don’t exist on a tablet. I’m playing on an iPad mini, and I have had no playability issues whatsoever. I can see how it could be an issue on a smaller screen (so be warned) but on a tablet this game is gold. Very well developed game from what I’ve seen so far; I might lower this 5* rating if I run into huge problems with it later, but so far everything I’ve seen tells me that this is a gem. Sad to see that the last update was three years ago, but it looks like there is plenty enough content to justify the purchase. ### 5/5 — Massive Damage *2021-01-20, version 1.4.2.6* Massive Damage has put out my 2 favorite games on the AppStore. 1. Please Stay calm(Bring it back) and 2. Halcyon 6!!!! I’m a Console gamer but I’ve been having so much fun playing this game that no other entertainment matters anymore. All jokes aside you are my favorite game developer. Please put out more content at the same level of quality as you always have!!! -Big Fan ### 5/5 — Add more *2020-01-03, version 1.4.2.6* Love the game it’s probably one of the best bought games I play other then a few bugs that should be fixed I believe some more should be added to the game such as a different option where you start as a race you choose and grow your space and compete diplomatically and strategically against the other races and just more options in the game then there are already ### 5/5 — Easy to pick up gameplay makes it one of my fav games on iPad *2019-11-03, version 1.4.2.6* Had this game for about 2 years now, and there’s nothing I can really complain about. Officer portraits disappear sometimes is the only gripe I have. Turn-based combat and status effects are very straightforward. Story is simplistic and side quests aren’t too elaborate. It’s a good way to go if you want to try dipping your feet into 4X but don’t wanna go immediately into Stellaris or something like that. ### 5/5 — Superb *2019-03-08, version 1.4.2.6* The story, art, and music are all high quality. The combat system is somewhat deep, with a lot of status effects and combinations to consider. However, difficulty ramps up slowly enough to discover your play style as you go. The closest comparison I can make for this game is XCOM. You have base building, resource management, alert-type events, technology research, unit skill trees, and exploration similar to XCOM. Instead of only one monolithic enemy, like in XCOM, there are different factions beyond the main antagonist in H6 that you can war or ally with. Also, some of the in-base events in H6 seem a bit more fleshed out, with different decisions sometimes leading to unexpected results. So, the H6 story telling seems to be a little better than XCOM’s, which is quite a feat. Unlike XCOM, there is no isometric battlefield. Battles in space and on the ground are classic turn-based style, without consideration for elevation, range, or positioning. So combat is a little less in-depth, which is just fine for a mobile game. As far as I-Phone games go, I’d put it in my top 5. ### 5/5 — One of the best games *2019-01-19, version 1.4.2.6* As someone who doesn’t write reviews for apps often, I felt it necessary to do so because Halcyon 6 may be one of the best games I’ve ever played; not just on iOS either. This game includes some of the most in depth turn based combat as well as hosts an immersive and rich galaxy of races with their own interracial conflicts and agendas. This game can be completed relatively quickly though, which is my only complaint given it’s relatively higher price, as far as App Store games go. Despite that, I still have spent more time with this game than most others due to its high replay value. ### 5/5 — A full solid mobile game *2018-12-12, version 1.4.2.6* This game has no IAP and feels a bit like XCOM. It’s my new favorite iOS game and doesn’t have that gross App Store game feel most others have. It reminds me of a solid 2000 space game you’d get on PC before the mobile market ruined games. Definitely a must have if you are looking for a mobile strategy game. I only wish it used the entire width of the screen on the iPhone XS Max and hid the bar on the bottom which covers the crew names. The game is totally playable on be phone though so don’t let that discourage you. ### 5/5 — Game actually worth buying *2018-07-22, version 1.4.2.6* This game falls into the top 5% of best games in the app center for iPhone. You pay one time for a fun, intelligent, humorous and engaging game. Fully fleshed out, NOT trying to perpetually siphon cash out of you with no actual care for you as a consumer and using cynical addictive gambling psychology like most of top rated games. Really great and would love to see way more games like this one. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*