Death Trader: Cold War
This game was great! It was super fun and im suprised its not more laggy and gltchy than it is, i was sceptical buying it but im glad i did, lots of fun, you need to fix a few bugs but i loved it otherwise and suggest you buy it! One thing I would like to see is things like being able to change the time you start like 1960, 62', 65, etc. I would also like to see more weapons from more country’s, I would like a variety in this game.
– Real player with 31.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cold War Indie Games.
Oct 28
The game has a few kinks but the dev(s?) have been quick to patch. It is worthwhile, especially on sale. I’ve not been able to get more than 2 years into the 30 that the game has due to bugs but I’ve gotten a lot of fun out of it.
Nov 8
I can now play 15 out of the 30 years of the game before it crashes or becomes unplayable. The majority of the early bugs are gone, the gameplay is more user friendly with a better ui/tooltip, was a fun game before but it’s even better now. The devs may have released it prematurely, even as early access, but it’s been rapidly improved.
– Real player with 18.7 hrs in game
Terminal Conflict
Edited review at 106 hours played.
I would definitely recommend this game for anyone interested in the cold war. I haven’t played the game ‘Twilight Struggle’ myself, but I hear it is quite like that game and I reckon if you like that game chances are good you’ll like Terminal Conflict too.
I think game captures the essence of the cold war quite well - USSR vs USA, proxy wars and managing the home front while you’re trying to achieve your goals. Intelligence is a big part of the game, especially with the Eyes Only DLC. War is abstracted, but still challenging.
– Real player with 168.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cold War Retro Games.
In this Cold War strategy game, you assume command of either the USA or the USSR. You compete with the enemy by influencing regions, recruiting historical leaders to your cause, sometimes outright engaging the enemy forces in combat as well. Both factions have unique events, decisions and leaders. Literally every singleplayer playthrough can result in a different conclusion as the AI is dynamic and provides a challenge on its own, although its still no match for an experienced player. One thing to note though, the game is more focused on the political machinations of the Cold War, rather than military. Funding, spying, sometimes even assassinating your way to victory. Despite this, of course, military units still play a large part in the game.
– Real player with 36.3 hrs in game
Arms Race - TCWE
Arms Race - The Cold War Era is pretty promising with the way game mechanics work and the AI is good. The recommended strategy in the guide section doesn’t work reliably for me and I ended up using a different strategy. The AI is also pretty good at adapting to what you are doing. The limited 3 budget changes ends up meaning every decision has long term implications.
Most games turn out slightly differently due to the AI choosing different tactics and the randomness of global crisis events.
The game isn’t as full fleshed as say Hearts of Iron but I feel like the mechanics are well thought out and the AI provides a challenge even on easy. It does a good job of abtracting the cold war and reducing decisions to the macro level (‘meaningful decisions’) compared to HoI3/4 which features considerable micromanagement. I personally prefer macro level games (less micromanagement) but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. If you prefer to play M&T in EU4 vs base EU4 or if you prefer to play Darkest Hour/HoI2 vs HoI4 then this is the game for you.
– Real player with 17.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Cold War Historical Games.
This is a fun little game which plays a complete run in about 2-3 hours.
It runs through the whole of the cold war and includes extensive historical detail and research - history geerks will enjoy looking through the tech trees and space race just reading some of the interesting commentary.
The game itself is primarily about resource allocation - the resources being influence (generated by diplomats) spies, and military. These three resources allow you to control the board through a variety of diplomatic coups and military intervention.
– Real player with 14.9 hrs in game
Orwell’s Animal Farm
This game explains nothing about its gameplay (after multiple playthroughs I’m still unsure of what the Animalism stat does) and appears to be a buggy mess of RNG. Dead animals can still comment on events occurring (Napoleon and Boxer appear to be the biggest culprits) or show up at the gravesite despite being dead (such as the Cabal of Pigs ending where Snowball and Napoleon have died, but Napoleon is at the grave). You can run into problems where you have plenty of supplies and want to repair the buildings but you can’t until the option presents itself, or similarly where you had the opportunity to harvest with multiple animals to fill the supplies to their maximum but suddenly only one animal can be chosen and you have far less than usual. Sometimes it skips letting you plant for next year which makes supplies much worse and no longer lets you plant on subsequent years, even if you have the supplies to do so.
– Real player with 12.9 hrs in game
Introduction
George Orwell’s dystopian and satirist literary work undoubtedly influenced, and still influences, a lot of other creative people, who are inspired by his themes, and use them for their own work. However, having a full videogame adaptation of his work is something else, and now we finally got it with Orwell’s Animal Farm, which adapts the original allegorical novella. This text-based game tries to capture and expand the book’s themes and experience a bit by adding several story choices. There is not much more to this game, as you could say it is similar to a visual novel. Is it a good addition, though? Well, let us dive into the review to find it out!
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Black Border
They don’t want you to do your duty, they want you to obey.
-Mark Madison
Brothers and Sisters , Alanan greets you.
After the independence of the states of our motherland , Mudland, we were the only ones who stayed true to the ideals of Mudland. Based on the speeches of our Leader, we searched for nothing but freedom, but the intrusive and corrupted regimes of Partakna And Denber were against the freedom of our country. After years of bloody war with enemies of the people and the killing of innocent women and children of Alanan, now is time to rebuild the country, let’s unite once more and create Alanan anew. Shall our Great Leader be with us along this journey.
China: Mao’s legacy
I would definitely recommend this game probably the best Kremlin Games has out insofar as the whole political dynamics are concerned (you are able to fully shape your country' s policies and the factions are much more ‘real’). The economy however could have been dealt with better and have a proper blend between it and Ostaglie (placing individual buildings alongside the investment).
Alike Ostaglie, relations with individual western European Countries are generalised as NATO and it would be better to not have done it in this way so we can see how the worldwide socialist movement is doing at the time, which in turn, could affect individual countries rather than having it all generalised as ‘NATO’. This would have been much better as China often had more interaction with Western Europe (with the initial funding of left-wing guerrilla groups then to investments) as the WPO did (which mainly tilted towards its own bloc, which China interreacted less with whereas the game sometimes focuses too much on Chinese-Soviet or Chinese-Middle Eastern Relations, whilst relevant it mises opportunities with Western Europe) as well as making the international playing field (which takes up a large bulk of the game) more active, especially seeing how the Years of Lead, the Spanish Transition, the German RAF and the French Maoists pan out with China still being a beacon of Maoism. Or it could show how China has been integrating more with the west and encouraging the growth of the EEC or NATO (if not becoming a member then associating maybe if you take a hard anti-Soviet line).
– Real player with 131.3 hrs in game
I write this as a gamer who has played Kremlingames previous simulations, Crisis in the Kremlin, and Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall. As such, I can’t write this from the perspective of a person who will be exposed to this type of gameplay and Kremlingames' unique idiosyncrasies for the first time. I can only write subjectively from the viewpoint of someone who has played both games already.
First impression: it uses the same map as Ostalgie, with some haphazard modification to add Malaysia, Indonesia, Rhodesia, and the USA to the nations you can interact with. It’s better than the huge scrolling map of Crisis in the Kremlin, so I suppose I can’t complain too much. Go with what works.
– Real player with 76.8 hrs in game
Shadow Council: The Puppeteers
First of all: I do this Review especially for the developers, since I hope they will read this and respond, like they did with other Reviews.
The game has a pretty cool idea and really nice concept, however there are some slight issues or rather.. inconveniences?
For example there is a common lack of transparancy, you really should get much more information about who supports you, how much money do you get, what will exactly happen if youdo this or that - a good idea to achieve this would be the implentation of things like “military support-23% conservatives support 75% socialist support 1%”.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
Honestly the game has died, for $15 this is very unfilled and doesn’t have content. The game is basically a wait along that pits you against a country (or more fittingly it’s many different provinces which I will admit have a good tid bit of backstory) fighting to get the people to uprise against their government. The game is a shell, a husk waiting to be filled by content like (not story) mechanics, game speeds, a pause option, and other valid criticisms made by the buyers of this.
And if the developer answers this, I have seen you comment and try to communicate with the community but honestly I have not seen many updates actually be fulfilled and action being done. Please, if you want to improve your game then stop using the good ol' politician’s response of promising and waiting for it all to blow right over.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Jey’s Empire
Great game! Very complex, tons of weird ways to get from A to B, and very funny under the very serious veneer. I saved America from the Red Menace by making a child cry. The only Steam achievement I’ve ever been proud of!
– Real player with 75.5 hrs in game
The dev is a really cool dude, I’ve helped him out with a few projects. The Discord server is also good and I’d recommend his other games like Cold War 2, Cauldrons of War - Barbarossa, and Cat Fu MI.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall
It’s hard to really describe what makes this game so much fun.
Is it the ability to save the Warsaw Pact? Maybe, but that’s not quite it.
Is it the possibility of reforming the Eastern Bloc? Hm, perhaps…oh, no, got it!
It’s the ability to do both those things, while building an excessive number of TV towers and imagining that you’re broadcasting the amazing in-game soundtrack to every citizen of Europe, constantly, at 100 decibels, forever.
Seriously though, this is one of the best ‘small’ games I’ve played in a while now. It’s fairly short, spanning three ingame years, and although you can go longer, not much really happens after 1992, but what happens in those years is enthralling.
– Real player with 258.0 hrs in game
Reminds me of the old-school Paradox Interactive games. You want tooltips? Clear explanations of what is what? Too bad. Stare at a statistics screen for a while, you’ll figure it out.
There is a neat game here, but good luck surviving for even a year. It is very hard.
edit: Okay, I have played enough I can write a little more.
Did you play Crisis in the Kremlin? It was about leading the USSR through the time of political turmoil and reform when there were many factors that would eventually bring the country to its collapse into many autonomous states. In the game you had a lot of freedom to pursue your goal. You could become a liberal reformer, play as a hardline-communist or somewhere in-between with many other variations. However, you were the main actor. You could decide how you would play. The only real condition of the game was “don’t let the USSR collapse outright.”
– Real player with 250.2 hrs in game
Dirty Wars: September 11
Chile, September 11, 1973
The Military Coup of Pinochet’s army overthrows President Salvador Allende’s democratically elected government, marking the beginning of 17 years of horror and genocide. Exile, censorship, torture and the forced disappearance of people who oppose the new regime are performed on a daily basis.
Maximiliano and Abigaíl, a young couple who decide to stay in Chile, join the resistance against the dictatorship, sacrificing everything to enter a life of secrecy in which they must face multiple challenges.
Dirty Wars is a video game that combines stealth mechanics, puzzles and interactive dialogues in a closed and immersive world with defined objectives.
You play as Maximiliano and Abigail, who must overcome difficult objectives in order to opose the regime, in a time where only one side had all the weapons and the use of information and counter-intelligence are much more valuable.
There are no inventory systems or acquired skills, in the resistance the only weapon to survive is your intelligence and your ability to understand the security rules that will keep you going in the fight against the dictatorship, an unequal fight that will take years.
The compartmentalization is the iron law of resistance. No member can know personal information about an other, or anything that the dictatorship can use. Anyone could be captured, tortured and forced to give out information at any time.
In moments of great tension and danger, armed confrontation is not an option. Use the elements of the environment to hide and avoid being heard by the repressive forces.
Dirty Wars is a Chilean video game for the world. Introducing a completely Chilean and Latin American story that shows part of the culture, art, music and aesthetics from this corner of the world.