Battlestar Galactica Deadlock

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

Battlestar Galactica is one of those sci-fi franchises that is pretty highly-respected by those who watched it, but it never reached the same cultural saturation of franchises like Star Wars or Star Trek. Starting with the 1978 TV series Battlestar Galactica, then rebooted with the 2003 miniseries… also called Battlestar Galactica… and further continued in a 2004 successor TV series to follow the miniseries… also called Battlestar Galactica (guys, it’s okay to use subtitles), throughout its incarnations, Battlestar Galactica focuses on a conflict between colonial humans and sentient machines called Cylons. The last noteworthy media release in the franchise was the 2012 web series Blood and Chrome, so at this point the property is something of a nostalgia piece for those who remember it.

Despite the fairly small audience of the franchise, and despite the years that have passed since it was last relevant, the series nevertheless received a Turn-Based Strategy game, Battlestar Galactica Deadlock, in 2017 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with a Nintendo Switch port in 2019. In 2025, it was announced that as of that November the game would no longer be available on any platform. Yet despite this, as I type this in 2026, the game seems to have survived on one lone platform: the Nintendo Switch, where it can still be purchased.

Deadlock is something of a prequel to the series, taking place during the first Cylon War, and it’s clear that this game’s creators had a fondness for the franchise, mirroring its tone, music, and elements of its presentation. Even for someone who never followed the franchise, it’s hard not to appreciate the quality of the presentation here, with detailed spaceships and an epic soundtrack

The gameplay focus here is on turn-based combat as well as resource management, though the way this game handles its turn-based nature is interesting, because your turn and your enemy’s turn take place simultaneously, with each side determining the route and actions their ships will take and then seeing that play out in real-time while discovering what your enemy does while that plays out. This means that some amount of anticipation of enemy actions is required, as an enemy ship’s location and orientation will likely change by the time you move one of your ships over to confront them. This proves important as ships’ orientation determines where they take damage, and targeting a weak point can become a guessing game when you’re not sure where that weak point will be as the turn progresses.

Further complicating matters is that ships are limited in how they can move, with each having a limited turning radius, so if you accidentally move your ship past a target, you’ll be at a disadvantage until you can haul the ship around… and while you try to do so, that enemy ship will be continuing to move and exploiting your mistake. What’s more, ships don’t just move in two dimensions, they can also rise or lower, adding an additional complication to battle.

“Complication” definitely seems like the name of the game here, and Deadlock’s at times confusing menu systems don’t help to simplify matters. What’s more, the gamepad controls feel clunky and make it too difficult to select what you want. Thankfully, the Nintendo Switch version of the game does offer touchscreen controls in portable mode, which I would argue make this version preferable to other console releases of the game. Even so, I wish the gamepad controls were a bit more cooperative.

There’s another issue here, one which I glossed over when talking about the visuals, and that is that in the inky blackness of space, it can be difficult to make out all of the ships in a battle, not to mention trying to distinguish your ships from those of your enemy. The game’s turn-based nature thankfully gives you all the time in the world to make these determinations, but it’s frustrating all the same that you’re not provided a clearer presentation.

I have quite a lot of complaints about Battlestar Galactica Deadlock, but when it comes down to it, this is still a deep, original approach to the Turn-Based Strategy genre, and one with a fantastic presentation that’s sure to please fans of the franchise. That said, fans of a franchise whose relevance is now roughly a decade and a half over who are also fans of complex, technical Strategy games… well, that’s sure to be a pretty niche audience. And while I think more technical-minded Strategy fans are sure to enjoy this game even if they have no familiarity with the Battlestar Galactica franchise, this is definitely not going to be a game for everyone.

tl;dr – Battlestar Galactica Deadlock is a Turn-Based Strategy game that focuses on that franchise’s first Cylon war. This game has a really clever approach to the Strategy genre, and an excellent presentation, but it’s also complex in a way that makes it less accessible, and confusing menus and frustrating controls don’t help matters. Still, if you enjoy deep Strategy games, this is absolutely worth checking out, regardless of whether or not you’ve watched the TV shows the game is based on.

Grade: B-

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