GSB is yet another addictive Steam game that serves as an electronic money vacuum cleaner. It is deceptively simple: Design and deploy a fleet of spaceships, and pit them against your opponent.
What I love about this game is that EVERYTHING has a cost and a benefit. It reminds me a lot of Battletech, a tabletop robot fighting game a childhood friend of mine and I used to play. You constantly customize and refine your spaceships, trying to find the right balance of speed, durability, firepower, and cost. Its fun trying really wacky ‘out there’ designs just to see how they play out.
The game itself is very basic- design your ship, and give it some basic AI routines, then hit ‘play’ and watch the battle unfold. Unlike most RTS games, you don’t get to make play-by-play decisions in this game; much of your success depends on your ships’ design, deployment, and AI routine. Still a deceptively addictive game nonetheless! The platform also has a lot of potential; apparently the company that makes it also makes “Gratuitous Tank Battles” which I have yet to try, but the whole ‘Design a force, give basic orders, let the wreck @#%^ up’ is a pretty fun archetype for a lot of themes.