Gratuitous Space Battles

Gratuitous Space Battles - $14.99
Time Played Before: 0 Hours
Time Played Upon Completion: 2.8 Hours

Review

Gratuitous Space Battles takes a mix of strategy and RTS games and mashes them together, making a game that you can quickly pick up and play, but to really excel at, it takes time and careful thought. Battles in GSB usually take no more than 5 minutes, if you put it on the fastest speed, making the game accessible to players that don't have a lot of time. It's a fun little game, but I'm glad I got it for cheaper than the list price.

Essentially, in GSB, you build an army of ships, either fighters, frigates, or cruisers, equip them with armor, shields, and weapons, place them on a grid across from the enemy, and hit fight. They do everything, making the fights more about your builds than your skill. I got roughed up quite a few times before I really understood some of the finer points of building ships. And I'm sure my designs would be destroyed instantly by a veteran of the game. When you decide to build a ship, you first pick out a hull design. Each hull has strengths and weaknesses, and more or less slots to equip the items you want. Each object you place, adds weight, a higher power consumption, and needs crew members to operate. By placing Power generators and Crew Quarters, you increase the latter two. As for weight, it obviously just slows you down, which is countered by the engines you place.

There are many choices to say the least. I found myself moving toward slow moving cruisers that packed a huge punch, surrounded by smaller ships to defend against fighter ships. But using fast and agile frigates with beam weapons can take down cruisers in no time flat, as well as avoiding damage. You get to choose your way of playing, if it doesn't work, you tweak it until it will.

Each battle earns you honor, which you can spend to unlock new weapons, defense, shields, tools, or new ship designs. Defeating the enemy using the least ships possible will earn you more honor than using the max. Earn enough and you can even unlock 3 different races. Apart from ship hull designs, which have vast differences, the races all play the same. You play the same levels, use the same unlocks, only building new ships. Each race hulls seem to favor one aspect, whether it's speed or power or shielding, using the race that benefits your style greatly benefits you.

Upon the deployment, you can give ships certain orders. You can order them to focus on certain ship types, say fighters dog-fighting other fighters. Other orders allow you to use fighters or frigates as escorts to the cruisers, telling ships to never stop while fighting, or protecting ships that are damaged. I never found myself using much more than the escort once I found the way I played, though as I said, I doubt my strategy was very good. You also have the option to control your ships manually, making the game more of an RTS minus the resources.

The levels are varied, making you face off against different races with different ship builds and formations. Some levels are heavy with fighters, some cruisers, some a mix of everything. Also each level has challenges, adding a bit to the replay. But overall, after I finished the 12 levels, including the tutorial, I really had no desire to go back and play through each challenge mode. The game is a fun strategy title, but it's too much of the same over and over again. While people seeking real strategy will happily configure their ships for a long while I'm sure, it just couldn't draw me in once I  had unlocked all the races and the hulls and objects I needed to dominate the levels. It just is too short to really make me want to continue to refine my ships.

Graphics are good for this style game. Missiles fly across the screen and exploding ships light up the space sky. The backdrops, usually consisting of nebula or planets, look good. Sound is also decent. Ships explode and with my sub woofer, a deep bass came out. The firing of lasers and beams could be heard over the heat of battle.

Final Verdict

Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 7/10
Replay: 5/10

Overall: 6/10

Gratuitous Space Battles is a fun little strategy game. The problems arise in it's length and lack of story. I know as an indie title, a story may have been too much to handle, but having a reason beyond hull design to explore each race would have made the game far better. I can only sit and watch my designed ships battle for so long. Even a minimal effort story would have helped here. But I digress. If you enjoy strategy and building ships to your specs sounds fun, pick it up. If you want to try it but aren't dying to, wait for sale, as the price seems a bit high for the game.

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Next Spin is...

Thief: Deadly Shadows - $9.99
Hm, a whole series I've never played. This apparently is the 3rd one. No idea if there is an overarching story to the series, but I suppose it's time to create a new rule.

5. If a sequel to a game I've never played is selected, I'll play the first in the series instead.

So, instead of Thief: DS, I'll be playing Thief Gold - $9.99 , which is a re-release of the original, Thief: The Dark Project

Pretty old game, 15 years old, so I'm sure it'll take some finagling to make run, but I'll try my best. Updates to follow.