Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power Demo

Sci-fi turn-based strategy games have quite the long history, although very few of them turned out to be memorable over the years. Titles like Battle Island or Massive Assault might come to mind, but even these two are pretty different from each other. Hence, there’s always the potential for something great in the genre, as long as the developers put a bit of thought into it.

Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power is a turn-based strategy game with many tactical options and a science-fiction theme to go along with them. Hence, you get to be a general in command of powerful alien races as they go head-to-head against each other. Your role is to obviously win the battles, in order to help your side win the war and gain complete control over the galaxy.

The story should be quite interesting, given the fact that it’s inspired after the Prisoner of Power book written by the Strugatsky brothers, the ones who are responsible for Roadside Picnic as well. Hence, the conflict is between three rival races, namely the Insular Empire, the Khonties, and the Barbarians, all of which have different reasons for wanting the others dead.

At the beginning of each mission, the game starts with a planning phase and you get to position your units, as well as give them some basic instructions for when the battle begins. Once the setup phase is over, the action begins and everything takes place in a classic turn-based manner, with every vehicle/unit on the battlefield being allowed to perform one action per turn.

Visually, the game does indeed look very similar to the Massive Assault series, but it is different from a level design point of view. Hence, while the graphic style might be familiar, the environments and the landscapes are quite different and unique in their own way. A nice soundtrack plays in the background, which goes well with the action unfolding on the screen at any given time.

Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power is not for everyone, due to the fact that it is a tad too explicit from a strategic point of view. However, if you are familiar with the usual TBS mechanics and you do not mind a bit of science-fiction thrown into the mix, then this can certainly be a right choice for you.