I'll use the old PC gamer review format to show what I consider to be the good, the bad, and the ugly of this game. The Good: I think the interface is very well designed; it is easy to place and control all your units, turn on and off layers of the map, yet at the same time it looks 8-bit enough that you can imagine that you're sitting in a bunker in NORAD or wherever those computers are. It is also a very atmospheric game, that manages to be creepy on a level most games can't hit. Knowing that other players are, in real time, placing missile silos and deploying subs to blow you up is a little sickening, and it forces you to deploy your own silos and subs, almost against your will. Finally, despite the widespread dissatisfaction with the CD-Key issue, there is still a pretty lively online community, filled with people who actually want to show you how to play. The Bad: Online games take forever, since usually the slowest person gets to set the game speed for everyone. I called it quits two hours into my first game, little knowing that that was a serious faux-pas. Also, even though there is a game mode called "Diplomacy," there is no game mechanic to have international agreements staving off nuclear war (which is what happened in real life); the game would just go on forever until someone launched. Also, there are no resources to control and thus no reason to fight with anyone. The game just relentlessly counts down until everyone is forced to launch. The Ugly: the game's take on nuclear technology is a little incomplete. For instance, in the game, your silos also act as missile defense platforms. However, in real life there were never any missiles fast enough or powerful enough to defeat incoming ICBMs. Also, for balance the game sometimes assigns players to Africa or S America, which were never host to significant numbers of nuclear bombs; even if they had been they were too politically fractured to ever had cooperated effectively. Also, there are no conventional land forces in the game, even though several nuclear powers had ground forces equipped with mobile ICBMs. Overall: B+. This is an enjoyable game, and I would recommend it if you're interested in strategy or if you like the concept. However, the design has a few too many oversights/flaws, and the game is a little too short on strategic depth, for me to really get into it.
