Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes Brings Tactical Roguelite Fleet Survival To PC In 2026
Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is a story rich tactical roguelite from developer Alt Shift and publisher Dotemu that puts you in command of a Colonial gunstar in the aftermath of the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Your small warship escorts a fragile civilian fleet through hostile space while the Cylons close in, and every jump is a gamble that might bring you closer to the Battlestar Galactica or straight into a kill box. The game is planned for PC via Steam with a Q2 2026 release window and already offers a free demo for players who want an early taste of command.
Scattered Hopes is set during the Second Cylon War, directly after the annihilation of the Twelve Colonies. You take the role of a Gunstar Captain trying to shepherd a scattered convoy of survivors to safety, answering Admiral Adama's call to rejoin humanity's last hope, the Galactica. The premise leans into the bleak tone of the television series, with your fleet always outgunned and on the run rather than hunting for easy victories.
Narrative events hit you between battles as you move across planets and points of interest. You have to juggle dwindling resources, clashing civilian and military factions and the constant threat of Cylon infiltrators hiding among your crew and refugees. Some crises let you pick between a costly instant resolution or a risky mission that might snowball into something worse, and previews highlight that there are rarely clean answers, only tradeoffs that echo the moral pressure of the show.
Fleet management and real time tactical battles
The campaign is built around two phases. In the Fleet Management phase, you have a limited number of turns before the Cylons catch up. During that time you repair your gunstar, upgrade fighter squadrons, train key officers and explore points of interest for scrap, fuel and supplies. Each action burns time on a Cylon countdown, so even useful tasks can become dangerous if you linger too long. System wide situations such as fires, hull breaches or outbreaks can be handled with supplies or by sending heroes, but either choice may carry serious long term consequences.
Once the timer runs out, Scattered Hopes switches to the Combat phase. Battles play out as real time engagements with a tactical pause, where you deploy squadrons, assign targets and line up weapon trajectories while protecting civilian ships during the two minutes needed to complete FTL calculations. The Cylon fleet usually outnumbers you, so the goal is survival rather than total destruction, using tools like missiles and nuclear strikes from your gunstar alongside specialized squadron abilities such as EMP or camouflage. Losses in combat feed directly back into the next management phase, forcing you to live with the damage you took to earn that jump.
Roguelite structure, factions and release plans
As a roguelite, Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is designed for repeated runs. Each journey procedurally mixes events, crises and opportunities, and between attempts you spend a meta currency called Fate to unlock new gunstar variants, squadron types and stronger hero traits that slightly tilt the odds in your favor. The full game features seven playable factions for your starting fleet, each with its own flavor and bonuses. Early previews focused on the Nomads, an independent human group outside direct Colonial control, hinting at very different political and narrative dynamics depending on who you choose to lead.
A recently released Steam demo lets you command the gunstar Callisto and one of the available fleets through several early sectors, including a first boss confrontation, with demo progress carrying over to the full release if your people survive. With its blend of tense fleet management, real time tactical battles and punishing decisions, Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is positioning itself as a spiritual follow up to both FTL and Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock for fans who want a new way to experience the desperation of life on the run from the Cylons.
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This story was originally published by GameDaily on Feb 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add GameDaily as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
