Gratuitous Space Battles

 PC
User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 77 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 77
  2. Mixed: 28 out of 77
  3. Negative: 13 out of 77

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  1. eagle262
    Jan 2, 2013
    6
    A very interesting concept with lots of potential that misses several key points. The art is very pretty and simple so it can work even on older PCs and laptops. The concept is interesting but poorly executed. You can design your own star-ships with different weapons and attachments, but most need to be unlocked first and don't do much but perform slightly better than previous iterations.A very interesting concept with lots of potential that misses several key points. The art is very pretty and simple so it can work even on older PCs and laptops. The concept is interesting but poorly executed. You can design your own star-ships with different weapons and attachments, but most need to be unlocked first and don't do much but perform slightly better than previous iterations. no huge weapon variety either it is mostly lasers, missiles and ion weapons. DLC races don't have much differences except cosmetic slight stat changes and a few unique weapons. During battles you can't really tell what is working and what isn't or what kind of weapons the enemy has. After battles there are charts you can look at but don't really explain much. It tells you your best and worst ships and weapons but doesn't go into much detail so it's kind of useless. Pretty much the only way to win is to just throw lots of cruisers and one or two frigates at the enemy but that doesn't get you much reward to improve your ships and still suffers massive casualties to an apparently inferior enemy fleet.. Also campaign mode is a paid DLC which seems kind of stupid to me. Collapse… Expand
  2. fartheststar
    Feb 4, 2013
    6
    I really wanted to like this game more, but to rate it higher would not be truthful because it doesn't keep drawing me back like games I'd rate higher in the "green" here on metacritic. "Mixed" is a good a description of how I feel about it. The "game" is really more like a tweaker's battle simulation paradise, but I agree with many of the other comments here that it's difficult to toI really wanted to like this game more, but to rate it higher would not be truthful because it doesn't keep drawing me back like games I'd rate higher in the "green" here on metacritic. "Mixed" is a good a description of how I feel about it. The "game" is really more like a tweaker's battle simulation paradise, but I agree with many of the other comments here that it's difficult to to understand during battle what is working or what isn't so a lot of the time I found my guessing what might work when I re-outfit and redeploy my ships. I came to feel like I was often just experimenting and pressing "go" for the battle to see what would happen rather than having solid expectations that what I'd done was an improvement or not. So I'd guess I'd say the game could use a better user feedback mechanism so we'd know what's working or not. I enjoyed the time I put into the game to learn the dynamics (probably about 20 hours at this point), but even as I unlocked more stuff it seemed to increase the amount of tweaking possibilities instead of clarify what I was doing with my ship builds.

    That said, I did like the game, but I'm just not drawn back to at this point which disappoints me. It's an interesting battle simulator w/ nice graphics and humor. Another plus for the game is a good community on the developer's website which is filled with tips for players wishing to improve their builds, tactics, and formations. The game has it's frustrating moments particularly ships getting all jammed up together and my ability to find only limited use for certain entire classes of ships like the frigate. To a degree all the tweaking trying to get usable frigates derailed me from the game because I sortof played myself out trying to find decent uses for the ship and it seems they are limited compared to larger cruisers.

    Be aware also that while new DLC is still being released it can also limit the online aspects of the game for those that don't keep up with the DLC it can be a two edged sword if you just want to try out the base version of the game first.

    So who should get this? If you want a space battle simulator that let's you tweak tweak tweak your fleet this is your game. If this sounds like it could get to be a little bit "samey" over time well, that's my feeling. Fun while it lasted, but it just doesn't draw me back for more tweaking.    … Expand
  3. BruceB
    Nov 5, 2009
    7
    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.
  4. tech-noir
    Apr 9, 2012
    5
    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 anyIn 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
  5. keefbaker
    Nov 13, 2013
    7
    TOYS! Make spaceships and set them up to blow each other up. This is the space scalextric set, no controls except what the spaceships are and what the formations are. Set 'em up and watch 'em explode!
  6. gist95966
    Feb 23, 2013
    6
    It's not a bad game, lots of customization options for your ships and cheap. Decent amount of missions to keep you entertained for a while.
    The music gets repetitive very quickly and it would be nice to know why you lost sometimes. As another reviewer already mentioned the best feature would be if you could see what your enemy ships are doing. I think the mystery would be cool on the    It's not a bad game, lots of customization options for your ships and cheap. Decent amount of missions to keep you entertained for a while.
    The music gets repetitive very quickly and it would be nice to know why you lost sometimes. As another reviewer already mentioned the best feature would be if you could see what your enemy ships are doing. I think the mystery would be cool on the online portion since if everyone could see each others ships it would be kinda lame. In single player mode, I don't see much reason to not have this info. Can't argue too much with a good price though (while it's on sale anyways.)

    The new races don't seem to add much of a difference to the battles which is a bit disappointing. It's understandable to make them balanced with each other but at the same time, they need to feel different.    … Expand
  7. NichG
    Apr 30, 2013
    5
    This is a game where you design ships and they blow eachother up basically what it says on the tin. It provides lots of tools to give feedback on this process after-combat damage breakdown by ship and weapon and other things like that but the process just doesn't feel that satisfying. The fights are glacially slow even on the highest speed, to the extent where I've wanted to basicallyThis is a game where you design ships and they blow eachother up basically what it says on the tin. It provides lots of tools to give feedback on this process after-combat damage breakdown by ship and weapon and other things like that but the process just doesn't feel that satisfying. The fights are glacially slow even on the highest speed, to the extent where I've wanted to basically Alt-Tab and do something else and come back in 20 minutes when the game has decided if I've won or not. Fleet maneuvers aren't fast paced enough to really be all that pretty, so after you've seen one fight you've more or less seen them all. In addition, while the battlefields have high-level strategic constraints such as 'shields don't work here' they don't really have any tactical depth which, since you can't actually control your ships and still have the run 'count', I suppose makes some sense.

    10x faster ship battles would bump my rating by 1 immediately. Building the game both around the player controlling the ships rather than just designing them and watching them blow each-other to bits would bump it another 1. At that point I think it'd be a perfectly serviceable game not a grand strategy game sprawling across the galaxy and requiring 10 hours to play, but something I'd play when I just have 30 minutes to spare and a desire to refocus or relax a bit something that has a charm in its own right.    … Expand
  8. AWG
    Jul 6, 2013
    6
    When I play a game I like to, well, *play* the game instead of being forced to read walls of text just to understand the fundamentals. This is the main reason why I'm not really into strategy games.
    "Gratuitous Space Battles" seems to be a fair game with a lot of things to do but I couldn't really be caught by it.
  9. TheSaltyPilgrim
    Jun 10, 2018
    5
    Story and Writing: 2
    Game Play: 5
    Music: 5
    User Interface: 7
    Optimization: 8
    Graphics: 5
    Replay Value: 3
    Would Recommend: No

Awards & Rankings

91
#91 Best PC Game of 2009
71
#71 Most Discussed PC Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Eurogamer
    Dec 23, 2010
    70
    I do like Gratuitous Space Battles. I think it's a great concept, beautifully presented. I just wish it would let me like it more.
    Read full review
  2. PC Gamer UK
    72
    Imperfect spaceship engineering and asynchronous online dueling combine to deliver a flawed star. [Dec 2009, p.94]
  3. Boomtown
    70
    Gratuitous Space Battles manages to strike a respectable balance between casual gaming and deep, engaging strategy.
See all critic reviews »