Gratuitous Space Battles
Positech Games · 2009 · Strategy, Auto Battler, Space, Top-Down, Sci-fi
PC
Compare prices in Official Stores
Compare prices in Keyshops
Keyshops are third-party marketplaces — keys are resold and can be region-locked or a different edition. Check the listing's region & edition before buying.
Screenshots
About Gratuitous Space Battles
✦ AI summary
Design your fleet composition and give your ships pre-battle orders, then watch massive space armadas clash in real-time without your intervention. It's a strategy game that ditches resource management and real-time controls entirely, letting you focus purely on clever ship loadouts and tactical positioning across 40+ hulls and 120+ modules.
The first ever auto-battler game, from way back in 2009
Who needs backstory? Who needs resource-gathering? Diplomacy is so last year. Gratuitous Space Battles cuts right to the chase of sci-fi strategy games, and deals with large, completely unjustified space battles between huge opposing space fleets.Gratuitous Space Battles combines the visual appeal of an RTS, with the addictive unit-placement and design gameplay from tower defense games. In GSB, the player does not control individual ships at all during battle. The ships fight to a pre-determined set of orders and formations given to them by you before the battles.
GSB casts you as supreme space admiral, tasked with the design of individual spaceships, and the composition of your fleet, as well as general orders of engagement. This is not a twitch-based real time arcade game like many an RTS, but a game of careful thought, planning and big-picture strategy. Huge space battles can be won or lost depending on just how cleverly you balanced the needs of defensive shielding and armor against the expensive punch of laser cannons and plasma torpedoes.
- 4 different unlockable player races
- Over 40 different ship hulls
- Over 120 spaceship modules
- Choice of skirmish vs AI, or never-ending survival mode
DLC & expansions
🎁 Complete the collection
Base game + 5 of 6 DLC at today's best prices (some DLC unpriced).
$34.73
to own everything
Gratuitous Space Battles: The Nomads
from$5.99
lowest tracked $1.37
Gratuitous Space Battles: The Order
from$5.99
lowest tracked $1.37
Gratuitous Space Battles: The Outcasts
from$5.99
lowest tracked $1.37
Gratuitous Space Battles: The Swarm
from$5.99
lowest tracked $1.37
Gratuitous Space Battles: The Tribe
from$5.99
lowest tracked $1.37
Gratuitous Space Battles: The Parasites
No offers
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Sad to give this a negitive... i loved this game. I randomly wanted to launch it up today and play a campaign but the online servers are dead and can't validate CD Key so can't play the Campaign... it's barely half a game without it. I can understand a company not being expected to keep servers running forever and for a nearly 20 year old game, but they should of at least made it fully playable without needing those servers, especially for the campaign.3 found this helpful
Gratuitous Space Battles takes an unconventional approach to the strategy genre by removing many of the mechanics that players normally associate with real-time strategy games and focusing entirely on fleet design and tactical planning. Instead of harvesting resources, constructing bases, or issuing constant battlefield commands, the game asks players to become architects of futuristic armadas before combat even begins. Every engagement is won or lost through preparation rather than reflexes, creating an experience that feels more like solving a strategic puzzle than participating in a traditional RTS. This design philosophy gives the game a unique identity and allows it to stand apart from countless space combat titles that rely heavily on fast-paced micromanagement. The game's greatest strength lies in the impressive depth of its customization system. Players have access to dozens of ship classes and an extensive collection of modules that allow each vessel to fulfill a specific purpose within a fleet. Weapons, shields, armor, support equipment, targeting priorities, and formations all contribute to the effectiveness of a battle group, encouraging experimentation with countless …
Quick game to get used to, you can play for as long or short as you like.
It appears the servers the game relies on have been turned off, rendering it unplayable.
Unfortunately it appears this game is dead. CD keys don't work, the developer's server is returning 500 errors on key validation.
What it says on the tin.
Community reviews
—
0 reviews
Sign in to write a review.
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.
