Free Android game pick: Pax Britannica

We here at Pocket Gamer Towers have two rules when it comes to games reviewing.

One is that the game needs to look interesting in the first place - the sort of game you guys would actually be inclined to play, rather than any random MS paint-job - and the second is that it has to cost money/is freemium (or else you may as well just try it out for yourselves first).

This second rule, however, means that quite a few great free titles have slipped by us in the past - especially on Android, where it can occasionally feel like every game is an ad-supported release.

So let me tell you about Pax Britannica, a free multiplayer real-time strategy game from Stefan Wagner.

Right now, the game is fairly simple, although there’s plenty of potential. You and another human (or AI player) take control of a giant space ship, which is capable of pumping out various sized craft for use in combat against your opponent.

Controls are entirely tap-based - with how long you hold down your finger affecting how big the craft your mothership dispatches.

As the game progresses the screen becomes a fiery space battle of epic proportions, with the smaller craft nipping around, dogfighting with lasers, and your heavier brutes menacingly manoeuvring across to take down the other mothership.

There’s no campaign or much in the way of features to extend this basic concept just yet, but for a multiplayer title the game is oddly competitive - helped by the fact that you both play on the same screen.

It looks like there will be options for up to four-players in later updates from the main menu (which would be a little tough on a phone, but might be good on Android tablets), so we expect a few more updates to come along in the near future.

You can grab Pax Britannica from the Android Market for free right now (download).