As soon as you click start, you are done. This is the simultaneously the most intriguing and most frustrating aspect of Gratuitous Space Battles. The game completely removes all control from you as soon as the battle starts. Here is a strategy game that not only discourages micromanagement, but makes it downright impossible. Those used to normal strategy standards might get a bit frustrated here, and rightfully so, as the interface is not all too clear on the effects of the battle. This is a big problem with the game. perhaps the biggest. As you can not directly affect the battle, detailed feedback both during and after the battle is essential. You do get some information, but not nearly enough, and the option for a more detailed after-battle report would've been a godsend. Right now it's very oriented around pure guesswork with a little information.

The in-game controls of scenarios amount to looking at your ships (you can't see the specifics of enemy ships unless they have been destroyed), moving around the battlefield, and speeding up time. This game is exceedingly slow if played on normal time, so we suggest that you speed it up to the fastest speed during a battle to get through it as quickly as possible. It'll look just as good, but at a pace you can play the game at.

Online play is interesting. Rather than directly combat another player, you can create a scenario for him/her to fight called a challenge. This challenge is much like the normal scenarios, except you are controlling the set-up of the enemy ships instead of the computer. You determine the ships' behaviors and then save the challenge, which allows anyone to give your ship designs and challenge a try. If you want to, you can also send a challenge to a specific player, which makes this a great game for friendly competition. There's also some leaderboards, and that's about it for the multiplayer.

Gratuitous Space Battles also has an add-on called The Tribe which adds a brand new race, two new scenarios, and a bunch of new ship modules to the game. While the expansion pack itself is excellently designed, it's a rather small amount of content, and is not exactly worth the ten dollar (half the base game!) asking price. It's a glorified modification, and should be sold as such. However, if you see the expansion for less than its list price of $10, pick it up. It's quite good.

Speaking of modifications, Gratuitous Space Battles is exceedingly moddable. Almost everything in the game is governed by a .txt file with a scripting system much like the .ini days of PC gaming past. Graphics are stored in a format openable by several programs, including the freeware tool Paint.net. You can create your own ships, modules, and scenarios with ease, which is why The Tribe seems like a poor deal. However, given the amount of potential mods for Gratuitous Space Battles, the base game is definitely worth the full asking price.

When I first started playing Gratuitous Space Battles, I was curious as to why it was priced $20, as it didn't seem to have a lot of depth or replayability at a glance. Many, many hours later, I realized why it was priced the way it was. This is a real-time strategy game distilled down so that your mom can play. With the many difficulty levels, continued additions of new challenges, easy mod capability, and considerable amount of content in the base game, Gratuitous Space Battles is one of the best strategy games this year. It's accessible to new players to the genre while providing enough difficulty and variety for players of all types to get hooked. As for The Tribe, wait until it drops in price.

Update: Shortly after this review came out, The Tribe dropped to $6. This is a perfect price for the expansion, so the final verdict has been appropriately modified.