Galcon 2: Galactic Contest is a mad rush of triangles, a strategy game stripped down to the bare bones of numerical supremacy.
But in its sparse vision of warfare there's surprising tactical depth. You're not just rushing your foes, you need to build forward bases, capture important territory, and use your forces to rush them into making fatal errors.
It's a multiplayer RTS for the blink-and-you-miss-it attention span of mobile gaming, and the end result is a fraught, engaging, and sometimes literally overwhelming experience.
Real time, real trianglesThe first thing you'll notice when you start the game is that there's very little in the way of a single player campaign. It's marked as practice, and there's no story holding anything together.
The meat of the game lies in its multiplayer lobbies. You can scrap with strangers, or team up to take on challenges, earning XP as you fight.
Like the previous games in the series you're still trying to capture all the planets on a map, flooding them with ships from your bases to take them over. There's a more granular level of control of the number of ships you can send, and a smarter control system that uses taps and double taps to let you launch your armada.
But the addition of human players adds a real edge to the game. There's a greater urgency, and a sweeter taste when you manage to eradicate a player's colour from the map.
Angular actionObviously you'll need to have an internet connection to get the most out of the game. But if you're looking for a game to dip in and out of when you're at home there's an awful lot to like here.
Galcon 2: Galactic Contest is almost a more stripped back version of one of the most stripped back games out there.
And if bone-showing multiplayer strategy action is to your liking, then it's definitely worth some of your time.