Like many tabletop games in the online space, the game can also feel long even at thirty minutes, which is odd because a physical game of Greed Corp would likely be an hour to an hour and a half in length. Turns are timed, which keeps human players at least from wallowing in the throes of analysis paralysis, but there is a draggy feeling between turns. I don’t think Greed Corp is alone in this regard, as most turn-based games suffer from this feeling when played alone. Playing it online with friends helps greatly, as the downtime is filled with conversation, trash talk, and laughs much as it would be if the game were played face-to-face.

Like many of the best board games, it leverages a simple rules set to provide opportunities for creative play and direct, meaningful competition. Dig into it a little and you’ll start to see deeper, trickier strategies such as setting up Harvesters near enemy hexes with the sole purpose of self-destructing and reducing all adjacent tiles. There are also choices such as deciding whether to spend resources on Walkers for a more mobile war or Cannons for a stationary one. And figuring out where to place Cannons and Armories to maximize not only their strategic value but also the amount of time they’ll be on the board imparts a nice sense of long-term planning.

For about ten bucks, which is likely six to seven times less than a boxed Greed Corp board game would cost at retail, the game gives players a lot of value. There are four campaigns, one for each faction as well as ad hoc skirmish matches and a full multiplayer suite. Over Xbox Live or PSN, playing the game with friends is much the same as it would be over a kitchen table, but you can do it at three o’clock in the morning on your couch and in pajamas, with friends that live at the far-flung corners of the world. Add in a full range of achievements and titles as well as three AI difficulty levels and tons of maps, and it becomes a very attractive package for its price for gamers looking for more online tabletop games beyond the staple titles such as Catan or Magic: The Gathering.