digitcruncher » Reviews » Nuclear War Simulator
View Store Page
View Community Hub
Find More Like This
54 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 1.2 hrs on record
Posted: Feb 3, 2023 @ 11:19am
Updated: Feb 3, 2023 @ 11:19am

Summary: I liked the idea of a Nuclear War Simulator, but this game is so bare-bones it isn't work the very large price point. Nukemap basically is identical to it, but is free. The few differences are not worth the hefty price difference.

This game is *not* labelled Early Access, and it is not clear if the developers will add features in the future. However, this review was made on release. Check the date on this review, and check developer posts to see if any of these criticisms have been resolved!

  • The UI is completely bonkers. The default scheme is to have selection done with right click and drag only, instead of the traditional left-click + left-click and drag. Left click is the action button by default. Left click and drag rotates the Earth. Mouse-edge camera movement and keyboard movement is completely unimplemented. This means that if you have a character selected, and you want to move the camera, they will often leave their shelter and travel halfway across the world. Moving over the north pole is buggy (and you do that all the time if you have combatants that are in the Northern Hemisphere who don't share a border). Camera controls (except for camera rotation, which is the middle mouse by default) ARE NOT RE-MAPPABLE.
  • The graphics on the map are good and clear. However, the UI on the actual UI interface is completely terrible. Text is inconsistent in size, with large amounts of whitespace, and UI elements in haphazard places. The UI has literally no polish, and is highly unpredictable, making doing anything a chore. For example, most games have the 'start scenario' button in the bottom-right corner. This game has it as a small button in the bottom-middle instead.
  • These two things combine into making any complex simulation a difficult trial. It is not fun to use this simulation, because everything is ugly, in the wrong place, and using the wrong buttons.
  • Several features straight up don't work. The open source maps only seem to work in the USA, Europe, and Russia, and when I was writing my review, even that broke. My home nation of NZ is just white. Casualty calculations don't work (a package is missing from the game). There is a box saying that nuclear winter simulations over time "might be added in the future", but that feature still prominently appears in the UI. Nuclear winter effects do not impact character-on-the-ground functionality. Fires do not seem to work in NZ (probably because there is no rural/urban map information).
  • The character-on-the-ground functionality is bare bones. It does a great job of describing the injuries someone would receive in a nuclear strike (in exactly the same way Nukemap does), but aside from that: movement on the roads is always unimpeded, injuries have no impact, and the characters have no AI or agency. You can see what injuries they get, and how radiation would impact their chances of dying, but that is about it. The injury information is all available on nukemap.
  • Scripting has no AI. The AI seems to be capable of reacting very realistically when launching a total nuclear strike, but creating scenarios for others to play seems to be limited by the fact that there are no 'events' or 'conditional branches'.
  • Ground based launch vehicles, submarines, and leaders cannot seem to move: they can only teleport. Airplanes (as launch sites) do move.

All in all it is a nice simulator of immediate nuclear strikes, and taught me how long I have to find cover after seeing a ballistic missile reenter the atmosphere (less than 15 seconds), but otherwise it has no well-implemented features that Nukemap doesn't have. The one thing I appreciate is that it comes packaged with (what I assume) is a realistic collection of all real-world nuclear weapons that are currently in the world, and clearly says what nuclear platforms can hit what parts of the world.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
Developer response:
ivan.stepanov.nws  [developer] Posted: May 25, 2023 @ 10:05am
Hi and thank you for your very detailed feedback!
I am very sorry that you were experiencing these issues at release. Many of the issues were fixed since and I will try to fix the remaining issues in the future. Let me address the points you have mentioned.

- The UI does indeed need improvement and I am constantly working on it. The north-pole issue was fixed in one of the recent updates. The mouse-drag should also no longer be mixed with movement.
- There was an issue with maps missing in NZ but it was fixed now thanks to your feedback.
- Injuries do have an effect on the individuals and the probabilities are calculated according to scientific literature. An individual will become incapacitated first and will die shortly after. You may have missed it because effects of radiation are delayed. Movement on roads is indeed something I want to add to the simulation in the future but it is difficult because of the gigantic amount of information if I want to add all the roads in the world.

The simulation is constantly being improved and more content will be added in the future. Really appreciate your feedback!