BIOS: Technology Means Business

Not to be confused with the rather more abstract Cubist Missile Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis is a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game combined with a turn-based global tactical mode. While the storyline is compelling - it’s 1962 and the world has been ravaged by the military-political confrontation between USA and USSR - Cuban Missile Crisis is a complete mess in terms of gameplay. And although you can play out some of the battles of history that never were, you’ll wish that you had never bothered.

Gamers are offered an alternative interpretation of the events that followed the famous global standoff on the small island nation. After the crisis broke out, two superpowers unleashed their nuclear arsenal on the world, levelling Cuba and turning it, along with the majority of the world’s metropolitan expanses into scorched radioactive deserts. So far so good, as long as you weren't Cuban...

The ones that managed to survive the disaster realised that the most precious resources are clean earth and water. The remaining world citizens find themselves in a war fighting for their very survival. This is where you take over, once you’ve completed the overhwhelming and totally incomprehensible tutorial. In fact, it’s more of a novel than a tutorial, requiring you to read page after page of instructions. What a turn off! We imagine this has everything do to with G5 Software, a Russian game development studio who has obviously taken in-depth gaming to the extreme.

Cuban Missile Crisis provides a mix of real-time battles and a turn-based global strategy mode, forcing you to use tactical troop movements while managing resources and armies. The problem is that neither works well. For instance, the enemy is an awesome fighting force and is virtually unbeatable and your troops are complete morons, running around like lambs to the slaughter. Resources are valuable. Not only do they power your forces, but you can exchange them for equipment and armament.

There really is no middle ground in these battles, unlike the excellent Dawn Of War - it’s kill and conquer all the way. And unless you move forward pixel by pixel, the enemy will pick you off even before the paint has dried on your new tanks (enemies cannot be seen until you are in firing range). Even if you select the Auto Resolve feature, which fights the battle for you and lets you know the outcome, you’ll still lose!

Control of units is managed in the same manner as most other RTS games: left click to select the unit, right click on the map to set a destination or attack an enemy. Double-clicking on a unit selects all of that type and dragging a box around several allows you to create a group. At the bottom of the screen are several icons to change a unit’s facing, order an attack, entrench, set an ambush, select ammunition type and in the case of infantry, chose formation type. An in-game tutorial option runs through the uses of these functions, but is hard to follow.

As well as standard shells and smoke, many large caliber guns and rocket artillery can also fire anti-personnel and anti-armor mines. These have a long range and are a quick way of setting up a minefield. Engineers can also be ordered to lay mines and clear them once detected. They can repair damaged bridges too and construct new ones in certain areas. This is useful as many maps have bridges on them, which can be easily damaged or destroyed.

There are dozens of missions, through four sides of the conflict (USSR, French and German alliance, China, American and British alliance), and different types of weapons and equipment - including helicopters, rockets, reconnaissance troops, and the like. There’s even radioactive contamination zones that have an influence upon military equipment and troops, which is a nice touch considering the storyline.

Other neat features include an alternative history timeline which assumes that the actual Cuban Missile Crisis provoked a nuclear disaster in 1962, the inclusion of both turn-based strategy mode and real-time strategy mode, as well as the ability to use maps to place, group and position your forces for a strategic attack. In the turn-based strategy mode, every single turn is limited, adding realism to the whole experience of the game, while non-critical additions, such as optional missions, add a little depth to the gameplay.

Cuban Missile Crisis has a multiplayer network game option through a LAN TCP/IP connection. From two to six players can battle it out on special network maps that are similar to scenario game mission maps. A network game can be one of two types, 'assault' and 'capture', both of which are based on capturing and holding objectives marked by flags on the map. Unfortunately the strategic mode isn’t available in multiplayer.

In terms of graphics neither the turn-based mapboard strategic elements nor the real-time combat will cause any wonder. The game is very ordinary looking, at best, and realism levels are laughable - scenery disappears immediately when your tanks run riot and burned-out vehicles and killed troops also vanish in a ‘puff of smoke’. Audio effects are nothing above average, although the soundtrack is atmospheric.

If you enjoyed CDV’s Sudden Strike and Blitzkrieg you’ll probably jump right into this title as they use the same engine. In Cuban Missile Crisis not only will you be able to enjoy all your familiar tactics, but you will be introduced to way more metal as you field post WWII armaments and weapons of mass destruction. For the rest of us, there are much better titles in the genre. [5]

[Best PC Game Pricing UK]
[Best PC Game Pricing US]

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