Pax Britannica

It's always nice having a bunch of small multiplayer-games laying around that can be started in a few seconds and explained in even less. Pax Britannica is one of those. It's a real-time strategy game which only requires one button to play. Yes, you read that right. Up to four players can battle it out in realtime duels using only one button each. This is achieved by using the time you hold the button down to trigger different actions. Set in an underwater landscape, each player controls a big factory-ship able to construct smaller watercraft. These craft will automatically attack other players and try to destroy their main ship, in which case they will lose the game. The last player standing wins. Building tougher ships takes more loading time, and upgrading to faster loading times takes the biggest time investment of all. It all boils down to figuring out when to use which of the four available options. Simple, but very fun.

After a few matches though, Pax Britannica get's a bit to simple. A few more options to spice things up would have been fantastic. For example, I'd love an option to play using two buttons, where one researches upgrades such as stronger ships and the other is used to build the various ships. Perhaps something for a sequel? In any case, the game looks great with some well drawn 2D-graphics and atmospheric effects.

Feel lfor a bit of underwater action with your friends? Get it here! (Oh, and it has AI, so you can play it for yourself as well.)

Lots of stuff happening at once. Thankfully, the little ships keep track of themselves.