Battlestar Galactica Deadlock

Where do we even begin? Battlestar Galactica Deadlock is a true marvel for fans of the franchise. Not only is it a competent TBS game set in Ronald D. Moore's continuity, it's also respectful of the original 1978 TV series (the Artemis-class battlestar is essentially a 1:1 of the original Galactica model). It's what we've waited almost a decade for! But I cannot, in good conscience, recommend it. And that breaks my heart. For starters, there are a few things I expect from a singleplayer strategy game: clear mechanics, strong progression, threatening AI, and strategic depth. BSGD does well in the first category by virtue of being so simple. There's a map filled with important Colony worlds and lesser "gateway" planets you use to move fleets, one planet at a time. You gain resources by protecting key worlds and doing missions. You spend them for tech, commander skills and ships. Then, for the tactical layer, you issue orders of movement and attack to up to 7 capital ships and their squadrons. It's all fine, if hampered by obtuse UI. The further points are very hit-or-miss. Progression is strange. You spend a lot of time with weak units, learning to make do. Then you suddenly unlock late-game ships and you start tearing through elite enemies because the tactics you've developed are just that impenetrable. AI is only dangerous because of its numbers' advantage and some cheesy units that you're more annoyed at than threatened by. In terms of its tactical maneuvering, it's positively braindead. Speaking of, strategic and tactical depth are the most important aspects of a strategy and tactics game. And it's not good. The campaign only progresses as you do story missions, and the AI spams fleets wherever it likes, making gameplay fully reactionary. And as stated before, there are many tactical options, but only a few viable ones that you always stick to. All in all, I love this game. But I can admit it's repetitive and overpriced, and I just can't recommend buying it.

The game actually got all the story DLCs here on GOG, but for some reason the last story chapter "Armistice" doesn't show up on the store page. Just use the search function So you can actually buy it if that is what you are worried about.

Personally I'm REALLY enjoying this game. Full disclosure: I am a huge BSG fan and that may color my opinion, but I am also VERY critical of strategy games and this one has managed to capture my attention. I did not expect much from this title, but I have been pleasantly surprised. The game is VERY thoughtful. If you're not prepared to seriously consider every move you won't fare well. Battles are short and furious in real time, but can take an hour or more to actually play out. Encounters are NOT balanced to your fleet strength. There WILL be times when your fleet has no recourse but to run, especially early on when your fleets are small and under-powered. For a little extra difficulty I like to play with persistent damage turned on, forcing me to repair my fleets each turn. I have very few criticisms of the game. The unit types are limited. Upgrades don't change strategy much. The replay mode is pretty, but the cool BSG style movies it shows you don't offer any review value. They should offer a map mode version of the replays so you can actually review your battle tactics after-action. The strategic board is small. All of these shortfalls are completely forgivable, though. A solid 4. Must play for BSG fans, and a must-at-least-see for turn based space sim fans. If this game supported modding it would be a perfect five.

The basic gameplay system is set up for this to be a fantastic game. The tactical acumen required to play this game well are well thought out. Sadly, the game feels shallow, short and unfulfilling. I love the BSG franchise and would have loved nothing more than to give this an outstanding review. I managed to get through the campaign in less than a day and found myself disappointed with the lack of ship variety and upgrades. In the cold, harsh light of day the fact is that this game doesn't feel like a full game. Unless you splash on DLC you're left with a very basic and somewhat boring campaign. The real shame here is that it could have been an amazing game. The tactics and the gameplay are fun...at first. It's a really great ship combat sim. There's just not enough here to justify calling this a good game. It's fair to middling and doesn't fulfil.

To start with, your ships never actually get tougher, compared to the opposition. Heavier ships like the Artemis and Jupiter Battlestar classes carry heavier and more numerous turret batteries arranged into many firing arcs, but their accuracy against Nemesis corvettes means that you'll spend multiple turns focusing fire on a single light unit while being completely dismantled by the supporting units. "Focus Fire" as written is indefensibly stupid. When hacked, fire control is ALWAYS the first subsystem to go, which means that very shortly you won't even be able to return fire. Also, when trying to hold the range open so that replenishable fighter squadrons can whittle the op force down to something your wall of battle can handle, every single round, every single missile, and every single bullet will damage Navigation, so you won't be able to keep running. The same is not true for the AI players. Another point: Cylon boarders, left unchecked, can destroy a colonial ship. Cylon ships CANNOT be destroyed by Colonial Marines. Colonial Dradis is really myopic for some reason, which means that unless you send scouting squadrons out, you won't be able to use guided munitions or identify your targets until point blank range unless you forego offensive action for a turn. Lastly, they don't give you enough information on the strategy map. It's a given that Galactica will be attacked once recovered, so a strategy I tried was to escort her back to Ragnar with another full fleet. When inevitably I was attacked, it didn't tell me that I was being attacked by multiple fleets, or what the composition of the second fleet was which led to me using my escort fleet to smash a small raiding squadron and trying to take down one of the largest fleets fielded by the Cylon during the campaign with Galactica unaided. TL:DR It's a grind that is intended to distract you with pretty graphics in the hope that you won't notice that the rest of the game is basically not there.