Terminal Conflict

Verdict: Recommended, but only as a promising work in progress. I have been looking all my gaming life, nearly three decades now, for an excellent Cold War game. This isn't it. But, it has potential to be a good one. Its greatest strengths are in its core concepts, mechanics and historical depth. To be able to say this of a game still in early development is to be able to say quite a lot. Many strategic simulations never achieve any of these things, let alone all of them. As a professional historian and someone who has played wargames since the days of mapsheets and cardboard, I have standards and expectations that are demanding, and plenty of experience with games that fail to meet them in these essential regards. The game manages, with a great deal of elegant simplicity imposed upon a wealth of historical understanding of political, economic, social and strategic information and realities, to capture both the macro scale imperatives of maintaining domestic stability, security, g...

Good UI, terrible balance and gameplay decisions. Game is not ready at all yet, but the devs are making new DLC. This is definitely not as playable as Arms Race: Cold War Era or Ostalgie. Too many bugs, not implemented things.

Don't buy unless it's really low priced. Ok, so the interface is awesome if you like the old terminal view and the sound effects are really on the spot. Where it's less good is the whole gameplay and understanding of the whole situation. This is a combination of a risk game wanting to be a geopolitical simulator. The fact is that you have no real say in the decisions, and the MIRVIN system is joking all the time, it's just plain stupid. - Like choose your side, either you are serious with this or this is a complete joke. Don't buy unless it's really low priced. Create a serious version, without MIRVIN jokes and trying to be funny and all, and you might have a solid game - i say might because even then, the game is really not that fun with all that you have to learn just to endure the stupid remarks and jokes. - Bought it for the interface, never completed a game, was bored before the end.

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. Being one of my favorite eras to study in history, the Cold War era is severely underappreciated in video games. Terminal Conflict is worth a play just for that reason, as it tries to accomplish something new in a niche market. Granted, there is...

The game is definitely unique and is one of the rare grand strategy games set in the Cold War era. The problem for me was that it is conceptually too silly, and uses a rock paper scissors warfare design which is too simplistic. Just not the game that it could be.

TLDR: Game is unfinished and resembles a started status, stay away. Game is unfinished. I liked the idea but the execution is not very good. There are spelling errors in the flavor text and the tutorial video the devs suggest to watch is outdated, the game has changed since then. I will keep trying to learn the game but that is only because I dropped money on it. At this moment the game is only a handful of tutorial scenarios which do not allow for free play, a verses mode with the AI and a 1v1 mode against people. No custom games with drawbacks or unit restrictions, no limiting the campaign to certain regions of the map.

The game greatly improved since the initial release. At the moment it is the best Cold War game available, it is way better than Twilight Struggle.

This is a thoughtful simulation of the Cold War. The logic and mechanics of the game take a bit of getting used to, which is due to the game's rather novel take on some things, but it seems to have a lot of depth and gives an engaging gaming experience that should appeal to strategy gamers. The developers are very enthusiastic, responsive, and active on Discord. My earlier criticism concerning lack of multiplayer saving capability (see my original review below) was resolved in less than two weeks of me making the complaint on Discord and here. The game has its quirks, and some features are not well documented, but I recommend it for anyone looking for an intelligent take on this subject. Previous review: If you are buying this game primarily to play multiplayer, as I did, then I can't currently recommend it since it is not possible to save a multiplayer game. It would take many hours to complete a full multiplayer game, especially if you are new to it, and you'd have to do it i...

This could be a great game with some polish. It would benefit from a more detailed tutorial, as a lot of the mechanics are not explained that well and the objectives are sometimes a bit vague. Also, the game needs a better way to save and load games that are in progress. There aren't a lot of video games set in the Cold War so it's nice that somebody at least tried to make this, I think it just needs a bit more work.

Not intuitive. From the start already bugs/graphical glitches: Uses >5 GB of Ram and growing, until it crashes back to desktop. Later on random crashes. When it works, it does not feel 'fun' at all: - Unfinished, half-cooked at best. - Spelling errors and hard to understand concepts. - Usability is bad. - Misses not only proper testing but grand plan/structured design approach. All in all it showcases lack of developer experience (?). Not recommended & Refunded.