Reviews

Set in the year 2032, the world stands on the brink of all out nuclear war, with a massive proliferation of weapons in many countries. The only possible hope of a peaceful resolution of this crisis lies with the United Nuclear Nations, of which you are the supreme commander.

In this strategy game, you control a bunch of interceptor and eavesdropping satellites, plus a small peacekeeping force. Your main weapon though is diplomacy as you try to play the aggressive nations off against each other, persuade them to disarm and try to contain the wars that do break out before they escalate into nuclear exchanges.

It's all presented very tidily with a WIMP interface and neat functional graphics. The game has a bit of a problem though; it's very difficult to track your progress. The member nations rate you, but seeing as you're constantly at odds with them it seems a bit dubious and even when you think you're doing well a full scale war can break out. At that stage, your interceptor satellites come into play and, with a bit of luck they'll pick off some of the warheads. You can survive a few exchanges before the radiation levels get critical but such incidents become more frequent and less predictable as the game progresses.

As such, it doesn't quite come off. It's worth a go for a bit, but don't be surprised if the lack of feedback and the impossibility of getting all the nations to disarm without shooting off their stockpiles first makes you lose patience with it.

An original and unusual peacekeeping simulation set in a somewhat dystopian near future where the world is divided in 16 superstates, each with different technological and economical levels, but all armed with atomic weapons. Your task is to try to encourage cooperation and goodwill as much as possible in order to avoid a full-scale nuclear war. This involves diplomatic actions as well as communication eavesdropping carried out with spy satellites.

Competently done and somewhat frightening - if you think about the responsibility weighing on your shoulders - this is a complex title which requires a lot of judgement, and it is therefore not recommended for those gamers who prefer action above all.