One of the best spaceship strategy games is free for a limited time on Steam

The delightfully strategic turn-based strategy of Battlestar Galactica Deadlock is free on Steam for a limited time, and I'll go ahead and encourage you all to go ahead and jump in there. At about six years old BSG Deadlock is showing its age, but still has a lot to offer even those who've never watched the old sci-fi classic or its 2004 reboot.

Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock will be free for a while longer on Steam, ending on April 9th.

So go get that thing. It's quite fun, blending a 3D tactical experience with simultaneous resolution spacefleet combat: You queue up the orders, see how they play out, and do it all over again. We quite loved it at release, enjoying its emphasis on humanity's fight to survive against its overwhelming and technologically superior robotic Cylon creations.

"There wasn’t a single engagement in Deadlock that didn't put me on edge," said writer Len Hafer at the time. "Each scrap I was lucky enough to emerge from in one piece left me battered, bruised, and usually having lost expensive ships I’d spent my very limited resources building. But in precisely that way, it’s a successful adaptation of the BSG universe. The Colonial Fleet is supposed to feel like the deck is constantly stacked against them, and survival is on the line in every battle."

The nice part is that the free version you're getting now is bolstered by years of development that came alongside Deadlock's numerous DLC releases. Starting in 2018 and running through 2020, Deadlock got a lot of updates and upgrades to both interface and the general play experience.

Plus there's all that DLC. If you like the free experience, that stuff goes on sale pretty frequently. There's something like five more campaign arcs alongside a boatload of new ships and a survival mode, based on the story of the 2004 TV series, that sends you on a kind of roguelike story arc.

So, well, go get Battlestar Galactica Deadlock for free while you still can.

Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

Read more
Company of Heroes 3
Company of Heroes 3 is free to try and 50% off, so it's the best time to check out the beefy 2.0 overhaul
Fighter spacecraft maneuver around carrier ships in Nebulous Fleet Command
Spacefleet fight sim Nebulous gets carriers in biggest update yet
'S**t's about to get real': The first Steam sale of 2025 is live, and it's all about strategy games
The RTS genre might be in a bit of a state, but at least you can pick up these 10 classics for $30 in the Steam Real-Time Strategy Fest before it ends soon
Adventurers exploring a fantasy world
I missed this co-op open world base-builder when it first came out, but it's got over 10,000 positive Steam reviews and it's free to play all weekend
Best space games on PC
The best space games on PC
Latest in Strategy
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
Age of Empires 2
Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
Endless Legend 2 Kin faction reveal
It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn
Latest in News
A female Zoi making two hearts with her fingers.
Following 24 hours of Denuvo-based backlash, Inzoi is taking a surprising step and removing it entirely: 'We want to sincerely apologise for not aligning more closely with player expectations'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
An ancient, angry stone mech from No Man's Sky's new Relics update
No Man’s Sky lets you unearth ancient, angry mechs in the astro-archaeology filled Relics update
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
An image of a golden first place award from Geoguessr
'We're actually getting GeoGuessr on Steam before GTA 6': the Google Street View puzzler arrives on Valve's platform this April