DEFCON

DEFCON

One of those games that is both well programmed and well made to make nuclear war just another giddy joyride.

The game focuses on a world during the late 70’s and early 80’s, where nuclear war is taking place, and up to 6 nations can declare into it, the nations include The European union (and several other nations not currently in the EU) The USSR, (A and some parts of Kazakhstan) Asia (Not Ocenia, Australia, or Mongolia) Lain America (Not including Cuba) Africa, and North America including Canada and the United States.

Real player with 113.2 hrs in game


Read More: Best Cold War Indie Games.


This was my first game bought online on steam… years ago. It’s an an-and-off relationship, and recently I got back into it a little, and the old fever caught on again!

Pro:

  • not much required in terms of specs (although it can blow the fan a lot in certain situations)

  • UI has a great visual design

  • soundtrack is fitting

  • game mechanics depend on other players to work out one way or another: good online games are common

  • interesting game modes, for example: diplomacy. Everyone sees everything at the beginning, being in one team. Who defects first? Lots of maneuvering and chit-chatting among parties and backstabbing! Oh the backstabbing! Boy did we have fun with that!

Real player with 90.3 hrs in game

DEFCON on Steam

Espiocracy

Espiocracy

Disclaimer: Trailer & screenshots are early work in progress

GRAND ESPIONAGE STRATEGY

Choose one of 102 countries and guide character-driven national intelligence agency through rough seas of the Cold War. From Soviet KGB and American CIA, up to Israeli Mossad and British MI6, expect different approaches to grand strategy gameplay.

INNOVATIVE MECHANICS

  • Espionage finally made as it should be

  • Precise modelling of views & ideologies

  • Direct links between causes and effects

  • System of geopolitically active actors

  • Emergent multipolar simulation

  • Operation plans, campaigns, and opportunities

MEANINGFUL DECISIONS

  • Prioritize grand scale and leave micro to your operatives

  • Establish contacts, threaten, exploit, and trade

  • Manipulate public opinion, support and establish political factions

  • Launch coups and proxy wars, falsify casus belli

  • Hunt spies and terrorists, protect internal stability

  • Form alliances, prepare all-out attacks, break rules

  • Advise country leader on critical decisions such as military interventions

DANGEROUS TIDES OF HISTORY

  • Nuclear race: first atom bombs, thermonuclear revolution, mutually assured destruction

  • Huge progress in technology, simulated in the game with Kuhn’s paradigm shifts

  • After-war poverty, civil wars, controversial past

  • Configurable balance between alternate history and determinism


Read More: Best Cold War Management Games.


Espiocracy on Steam

Supreme Ruler Ultimate

Supreme Ruler Ultimate

if you enjoy tactical planning and engagement theory this game tops anything I’ve ever played in my life thus far…. I enjoyed games like command and conquer/age of empires etc. as a boy….. this game eclipses that level of gameplay by about a million times over……..in this games layout and playability it brings about 1000 manageable tasks to hand on a daily (game day) to be tended in order to effectively manage a country; as well as development of that country’s military armed forces which are specific to thier own unique ability’s, mobility, range, and fire power based upon real world specs of each unit as well. It’s an incredible format and if you have an extra hundred hours per week to invest into it then you can really take full advantage of what it has to offer in a complete sense of understanding……. it makes for an incredibly enjoyable experience that can easily account for a fake workday….. you can make a day of work from this game…..easily…….you simply will not recieve a real life paycheck from your work at the end of the week…..lol…..so make sure it’s a labor of love in doing it…….and as a simulator comparable to actual reality a fair one at that… I’ve noticed some flaws in the progression of difficulty on an economic scale that bother me at points…..for example I wanted to improve the difficulty of my economy after I got the gist of managing it on easy…. and it became harder by America destroying thier own economy by conquering Canada and Mexico and going into major debt which screwed the entire world market in time….. and no matter how good my country’s infrastructure became I could not profit from it because every country in the world eventually became broke….. and I could never really make a significant enough profit on anything to ever really get a ahead at any point and so after I militarilly defeated every major military force in the world I decided to cheat and gift myself a few trillion dollars so I could then have some fun with that…….. in reality they would just….print more money (the UN) and tell America to f*ck off….. lol…..America would never actually destroy itself in such a way….. then again…… well I would like to hope not anyway….. you can literally lock and manage every to do in the game, from economy to diplomacy, to research and development of societal techs along with military techs and in addition build a military force of land sea and air units to be deployed unit by unit by unit hand selected to your own desire and discretion…. that’s how I like to play…. because I’m 34/ currently unemployed and living with my Grandmother….. I am incredibly healthy and fit despite my game time I am regimented and decisive with my diet and excercise which is always my top priority….next would be keeping my bunker….I mean my bedroom clean and neat…… and lastly I spend what other free time I have in between enjoying this game as of late…..eh….. I’ve had some odd jobs come up over the past few months…… I’m also an avid reader… I have my laptop going and do real world research often while I am playing….. when you actually run the game at normal speed you will reach a point where you will encounter hours of down time…. if you have good infrastructure and enough money as well as strong alliances in and around your country you can literally issue a series of orders and let the game run untended for up to 2-3 hours at a time….. and it periodically autosaves so if you do that and end up coming back to a disaster you can re-load the game to a point prior to that particular happening….. I……….love……this game…..FANKYOU BATTLEPACK STUDIO! WE LOVE YOU! . -love, Chuck…. lol….Battlegoat studios….. they are incredible and I send them many many many sincere thankyou’s many times over. You guys kick ass.

Real player with 3588.6 hrs in game


Read More: Best Cold War Indie Games.


Supreme Ruler Ultimate lets you supremely make the world your bitch. Play as any nation that existed in 1936, 1949, 2018 and beyond in a real time strategy game with so much depth you’re gonna to be drowning in militaristic decisions……such as Do I as 1936 Brazil want to buy Japanese ship designs, produce Soviet Tanks or buy outdated artillery pieces from the french?

[Military Units and Diversity]

Every major nation has a ludicrous selection of nation specific unit designs from tanks, artillery, motorized infantry, special forces, marines, planes, ships, submarines, carriers etc. However a lot of these become outdated or are by the start of the game but are still cool….. Maybe you as 2018 Germany want to rebuild the Bismark idk. Lets say you don’t want to play as the big fish in small pond Europe, the units don’t actually mater because you can just buy the designs from other nations. If you want to play as Portugal you can just buy German or Soviet tank designs to produce yourself (As both countries by 1940 typically have 40+ tank designs and specialized variants. If you ally with a country you can just buy their units directly and have them shipped off to your country. As Mexico if you ally with the United States you can just buy anything they have in reserve….. for a price (This includes nuclear bombs and missiles and ICMBs too).

Real player with 2000.7 hrs in game

Supreme Ruler Ultimate on Steam

Tropico 4

Tropico 4

Power corrupts, absolute power… is pretty neat.

Tropico 4 is the magnum opus of the Tropico franchise. It has the best gameplay, graphics, story and characters of the whole franchise. This game took the torch from Tropico 3 and made everything absolutely better. The soundtrack is amazing and gives you the Caribbean immersion you need to rule the proud nation of Tropico. The interface is clean and to the point, and the game communicates very well to the player what he is supposed to do, and the colour palettes in this game are gorgeous even by today standards. Also the jokes are hilarious and never get old.

Real player with 817.6 hrs in game

At first, I wanted to be a kind, benevolent dictator, in charge of my island which of course would be perfectly green, a land of equality, equal pay, a high living standard, jobs for every Tropican, a high level of schooling and a good member of the United Nations.

However, people kept complaining. At first, this was fine. Free Speech and all. But they were not working. Worse, they began to become rebels and attack the work of innocent, hard working Tropicans. “Right,” I thought, “no more of that.” I built guard posts around the nation to protect my other civilians and the economy which kept everyone fed and housed. After a while, the strikes became too much. “This right to protest is too inefficient”, I thought, “and we just missed that freighter. We needed that boost to the economy.” In a moment of Thatcher, I had the newly raised guards gun down some of the strikers. The rest returned to work. The right to protest had been removed, but people were happier as everyone got richer.

Real player with 258.9 hrs in game

Tropico 4 on Steam

S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster

S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster

Campaign is a bit unfair cuz of the pre-set defenses of the enemy: ton of artillery and strong defense lines + random encounters where I have to fight more units than I have for the whole mission, this makes me buy repair trailers, and the repairing is so slow, and there’s the ammo problem too… missions are usually 45+mins where the actual action is like 30% the rest are the traveling and the restoring of units. The movement is really terrible, units collide, not to mention on narrow bridges going across is nearly impossible especially with more units. The cinematics' graphic stayed the same bad quality despite of the HD Remaster.

Real player with 77.2 hrs in game

Your units gain xp, and can lvl up 2 times. That gives them additional armor and damage. They transfer to another mission. That’s main strenght and also main issue with this game.

Every time you finish map you obtain 1000 $ - you can buy new units and/or upgrades.

If you loose unit in battle… best solution is to reload save or restart map. Otherwise you might not make it with not enough units on the later game.

You use the same currency to buy ammo, fuel and repair kit. Also every time you call for bombing - it also cost 50 $.

Real player with 27.6 hrs in game

S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster on Steam