Good mix of excellent puzzling and exploration/trading game. Let down by insufficient in-game trading data.
The centre of each mission is a 3-in-a-row puzzle game, similar to 'Bejeweled' style games, but set in a hexagonal rather than a square grid. Some challenges and battles have you playing against an AI opponent, and others are time-based or require you to clear a certain number of tiles.
As with the original game, the mix of puzzling and RPG style adventuring is well balanced. However, Galactrix also introduces a trading element. Your ship has a certain capacity for carrying cargo, and each puzzling encounter can result in you picking up more cargo - and there are also opportunities for mining for cargo on particular planets. There are trading posts around the game area, and these will offer different prices for various types of cargo. The money earned through this can be used to level up your ship and weapons - a necessity later in the game.
It is in this trading element that the main down side of the game lies. While the game gives you some indication of whether the prices at any given trading station are better or worse than the 'average' price for each cargo type, you really need to keep a manual list of cargo prices in order to make sure you are getting the best price for your cargo. This is a laborious job, and could easily have been incorporated into the game - some sort of journal that records the prices offered for cargo at various trading stations would have been a welcome addition.
The difficulty curve is well judged, with enemies on the main story missions getting progressively more difficult. There are a variety of side missions that it is helpful to take in order to level up your ship and weapons for the main story missions.
Overall a solid addition to the 'Puzzle Quest' series.