Best thing i can say about this , it made me dig out & play my old Master of Orion 2 Copy,which has Space battles *and* Ship Design which is far superior to this braindead (but pretty!) crap. Why i say this : 1.No Tactics are needed (*No* enemy AI) ,so the "strategy" always boils down to droppin one big ball of ships on one side of the battlefield and a cheap decoy on the other. 2. Design possibilities are pretty limited. First,all slots are assigned to one kind of item (weapons or Equipment). There is hardly ever a reason not to equip as many weapons as you can,and the weapons essentially only differ in being either antishield or antiarmor. The normal slots must usually be filled with the needed stuff (power stations,crew quarters,armor,shields,maybe 1 or more engines which dont make much difference in speed),which leaves even larger ships with few empty slots for specials. Ah yes,one can buy upgrades,which boils down to the same weapons firing a bit faster,the armor is a bit thicker,no game changers here. Then the game has no background story,no campaign,no immersion whatsoever. The Graphics are 2d but nice But this game gets very boring,very quickly. There is simply nothing to do,to experience or to control.… Expand

A graphically stimulating game that relies on my imagination without treating me with as much respect as one would treat a mouse attached to an electrode that had to figure out which button to push to get the cheese, and which button not to push if it does not want to be painfully shocked? You gotta be kidding me! A game that rewards you for decisions as opposed to button pushing skills is refreshing, and restores my faith in humanity, frankly. Well done sirs!… Expand

Now I'll freely admit that I'm not massively into strategy games, but having picked this up in one of the recent indie bundles, I thought I'd give it a go. If ever there was a game that threw up barriers to introducing people to the strategy genre, this would be it. I get that strategy games are often complex, but when the tutorial involves reading screeds of text, going through numerous pages of options and ten minutes later, you finally get to see the battle take place? I'm sure the hardcore strategy nuts are frothing at the mouth reading this already, but from someone who wanted to see what all the fuss was about, I'll try and find a more accessible entry into the genre.… Expand

Fun game initially, fun concept. Easy mode is completed without much thought or strategy needed. The latter two difficulties need much more thought, but it tends to feel repetitive after a while. Lots of graphical and musical polish, with a sense of humor to boot. It's worth getting if you appreciate a Star Trek-styled Tower Defense game.

A wonderful game for those of us who enjoy designing our own units and watching them get blasted/blast other units to bits. There's a good variety of weapons, armor, shields, power plants, etc, to give you plenty of options, but not so many it get's overwhelming. Great replay value, I love trying out new ship designs and playing the online challenges. The only big letdown is the online play. One would think you pit your fleets against others in a live online game,, with allies or in a free-for all mode, one instead plays against fleets that other people have saved and uploaded online. While not horrible, it adds little to the game. A great bonus you rarely see, is a game with NO loading points, not even upon start-up, no unskippable cut scenes, and a game designer that not only listens to people's suggestions, but implements them in patches that actually add content, not just fix bugs (though it looks like this game will have an expansion pack coming out for it that will cost money.) You can go into the games official forums, there's a suggestion section, and you can see the game designer commenting on people's ideas. It's wonderful. Overall, a fantastic game, if you like this sort of thing. Totally worth the $20. I just hope it gets some great multiplayer action where several people battle at once.… Expand

Great idea, well executed. Very clever in the way that the game play is mostly hands off but still incredibly strategic and tactical. I've found myself endlessly tweaking designs and ship placements. Needs more... more levels, more ships and more items.

Amazing space combat simulator with lots of customisation and hugely addictive qualities. One of those games that - if it's your thing - you'll be playing for months after purchase.

Absolutely brilliant. For the low price I think it an excellent sci-fi strategy game. Simple and exciting the campaign adds depth and allows players to conquer the galaxy in this not too serious space shooter.

I love this indie game which allows me to fulfill my childhood fantasy. Players set up their fleets from designing individual ships from a huge selection of subsystems to setting up strategies, formations and orders. Then all that is left is to push 'play' and watch a magnificent space battle unfold on its own without the players' control.

In Gratuitous Space Battles, the player is allowed to design ships with various elements, arrange them on a grid prior to battle, and provide each ship with preset orders. That's it. You are not allowed to participate in anything else. There are many unlockables and such, but this does very little to make the bare bones game enjoyable. There is no storyline, nor a campaign of any description. The game provides the player with so-called scenarios, and all that means is that the developers arranged the enemy ships in a grid. Once again, that's it. There is not much else besides that. You may also unlock a few other races, and each race has about a dozen "scenarios" (if I can even continue to refer to them as such). Each component that could be equipped for each of your ships has different descriptions , but they do not impact the overall performance of the ships in any significant way, nor do they alter the player's overall game play experience. Each and every time you go into battle, is almost a near perfect repetition of the last attempt, with very little variation, if any at all. Each of the races do not provide the player with true alternatives in order for them to actually be considered unique or different from each other. There is absolutely no action, nor climax in any of the battle instances you may go through as you play the game. It is like watching a limited and basic screen saver, over and over again, with very subtle differences each time. Even if you unlock all the hulls/components and implement them in ship design, there is barely any noticeable performance difference in the battles. It is as if nothing changes. In addition, the game does not inform nor hint at the effectiveness of any of the components you will have available to equip your ships. The AI is also comparable to that of a screen saver, in every describable way. There also appears to be no sound effects whatsoever, besides the ever repeating music. A representative from the developer named "cliffski" can be found in the Gratuitous Space Battles Steam forums being arrogant, pompous, and rude towards others who have a negative opinion about the game. At the time of this writing, the developers are asking for $20 for the game, and an additional $37 for six DLCs. There is basically very little content here, for an irregular and exorbitant amount of money. I have never come across such an exaggerated difference between content and pricing prior to this shameful release. This is completely unacceptable and despicable, and developers such as these should not be supported in any way, shape, or form. It is with releases such as Gratuitous Space Battles that we see proof of very low quality and very low content getting worse and worse. This game is comparable to adjusting the settings of a screen saver, then watching it run. There is very little actual game play to be found in Gratuitous Space Battles. If you like screen savers, you may want to give this displeasing, limited, uncreative, and meager attempt at a game a try. I hope you have a CRT monitor so that this glorified and expensive screen saver could actually become useful.… Expand

Just another example of how DLC can ruin a game. If you don't buy it with all it's DLC at once, you're left feeling like you ordered a pizza and only three-quarters of it is in the box when it is delivered. This is pure and simple disabling features for a game you already paid for and twisting your arm to pay for them again. People who are obsessively detail oriented or anal retentive will enjoy this game more than some, I think. A great part of the game is fiddling with ship designs -- and I was surprised at the distance between starting the game and actually engaging in a ship battle when I first began playing. For what the title seems to be offering, that's almost silly. Better titles out there -- Master of Orion 2 came out YEARS before, it's ship design was deeper, more interesting, less complicated, and more elegant and nuanced. All that, AND the space battles in MOO2 didn't HAVE to be gratuitous. Get that title instead.… Expand