
The first ever auto-battler game, from way back in 2009Who 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.
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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
Play with different rules as each battle has different spatial anomalies to deal with.
Note that this game is 16 years old and that screen resolutions larger than 1920x1080 may result in some visual issues on certain screens.
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 40 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
The idea seems promising. Unfortunarely, at the time of writing this review, the servers are down/broken, which prevents you from playing the campaign. That is terrible because I'm assuming the campaign is singleplayer. Checked the forums and this seems to be a long term issue. Refunding.
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.
I remember loving this game, super fun. If anyone is still looking to buy this game, I think it aged poorly, not because it is bad but because better options are available. Worth it only if you are curious or on extreme 90% sales/$1. For a more modern equivalent game of similar theme I personally recommend Cosmoteer.
This game used to be great, but it's fundamentally broken now and will not run.
The game is magical cuz only babies can start it. I cant play this game as i would never be a child again. :(
SPACE BATTLES - одна из игр "ошибок молодости", покупал, чтобы создать дешевые значки для профиля! В 2026 таким бы я заниматься точно не стал! Особо не планировал играть в эти игры, думаю так это и останется! Но если вдруг окажется, что одна из них это "Скрытый гем", то обязательно дам знать!
does not allow you to register
honestly one of the greatest games just for fun
Personally not a fan of designing ships but I do like space battles
A classic from childhood. Ill admit I didn't have a legal copy back in the day so playing all the campaigns now is bittersweet.
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Trends
Modeled estimate over time, reconstructed from Steam's monthly review histogram.
Momentum
Pace estimated from the game's recent review growth (our daily snapshots) at its own sales-per-review ratio — a momentum signal, not booked sales.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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