Positech Games’ Gratuitous Space Battles is free to play on Steam from now until 1:00 PM PST on Sunday, February 24^th. In addition, they’re offering a weekend deal that ends on February 25^th – you can buy Gratuitous Space Battles for $3.74, or you can by the DLC-bundled pack for $4.74, a whopping 75% off the normal price.

Gratuitous Space Battles throws diplomacy, reasoning, and justification aside, and simply tosses players right into large-scale interstellar warfare between enormous fleets of opposing ships. The gameplay is a blend of real time strategy and tower defense. Players will not be able to control individual ships once a battle has commenced – ships will fight to a pre-determined set of orders and formations that are given to them before the battle begins. Players will take on the role of a “supreme space admiral,” and will be charged with designing individual spaceships, the composition of their fleet, and the orders of engagement. It offers 4 different unlockable player races, over 40 different ship hulls, over 120 spaceship modules, spatial anomalies that will affect the rules of each battle.

An interesting multiplayer challenge system is also available – players can upload their fleet to serve as an enemy for other players, and track how many challengers have been able to win or lose against them.

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