IGF 2008 finalist Mayhem Intergalactic offers no-frills turn-based strategy in an elegant, easy-to-learn wrapper that boils the so-called 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate) genre down to just the "expanding" and "exterminating" stuff.
On a flat map sprinkled with planets, players launch ships at neutral nearby planets in a bid to see who can grab up the most in the shortest time and then train all their firepower on the opposition. Simple colors identify who's who, and deploying ships is easy as clicking a planet and confirming your fleet size. Longer distances add extra turns, but adjacent planets are usually just a single interval away. While the demo only lets you play with a dozen planets, the full game offers hundreds, promising extensive enfilade maneuvers and back-territory raids that combined with the simplicity of the mechanics make this strategy game feel almost tactically speedy.
Mayhem Intergalactic's AI automatically gets smarter as you win battles, with half a dozen adjustable levels, but the game's clearly designed for multiplayer, where flank maneuvers by multiple opponents can be devastating.
--Matt Peckham
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