The lights are on, but nobody is home. This game appears fantastic, until you play for a few hours, and realize what is missing. An accurate manual, a decent AI, and any sense of challenge, let alone realism.

The manual is not only woefully light on detail, it refers to features that the developers admit didn't make it into the game, as well as having a lot of obvious mistakes on those features that did make the cut.

The AI creates a mass of units, then uses them spareingly, if at all - even for self defense. It often seems to ignore air units totally. The AI cannot build new building complexes like the player can, only add to old ones. The game is exceedingly slow, even on relatively fast systems. Every game starts with the French declaring war on North Vietnam, and then the whole of NATO decides to pile into Southeast Asia too. If, playing as the USA, you help to defend South Korea after they are invaded, the UN will hate you (not join in, as in real life), and bizarrely, the South Koreans will hate you too. Oh, and the Suez crisis of 1956 will never happen - Egypt owns the canal in 1956.

This game is either woefully unfinished, or just terrible. Buy at your own risk.… Collapse

This game can get a bit scary at first because so much is going on at once, but then when you slow the game speed down a bit you can really get to appreciate the detail and the vast number of choices you get when you play Supreme Ruler ColdWar. I like the military battles side myself, so the improvements over the older Supreme Ruler games with better naval transport, and the option to fight wars as a "proxy" instead of declaring war on everybody, are very big features.

The Espionage side is a bit boring, but the tech tree is improved and easier to understand, and ties in better with the rest of the game. Diplomacy has some cool new options, and a lot of the other regions (controlled by the AI) seem to have lots of things of their own going on. I'm actually preferring the Sandbox to the Campaign game, but that may change - lots of gameplay and replay value in this game.… Expand

Not quite as difficult as you would think, but definitely a big game. The hardest part is finding any sort of manual or help file (assuming you downloaded it from Steam or other source). The interface is okay, but as far as presenting data efficiently, I believe this game fails. The financials are a classic example as you may see a daily deficit, but for some reason your treasury keeps growing. As it turns out, this has to do with trade and other items, but from the interface this is not immediately apparent. Your political leaning (ie. Conservative, Moderate etc.) has little to do with how you govern. Even if you're a free-market conservative, you're still ultimately controlling directly or indirectly (via ministers) all of the country's production and trade. If you can pick this game up for a download somewhere below $10.00, I'd say go ahead and buy, but otherwise, I'd suggest buying Capitalism II and mix it up with some Civ 5.… Expand

Very interesting type of game, but don't expect a polished high-end product. In campaign mode, you play as the USA or the USSR. It feels authentic and the developers have spent a huge amount of attention to detail. All the strategic and tactical decisions you might expect are yours to take - this is a game grand in scope, complex and realistic. I'm a big fan of that type of ambition in a developer. (In sandbox mode you can play as any nation starting in 1949, I was amused to see that they've even gotten the geography and infrastructure of Sweden roughly correct.)
However, beware that this feels very much like an Indie game. It runs a bit slowly. The AI seems so-so, it's not that proactive. The user interface is absolutely awful, no real excuse for that in a commercial product. Military unit models are somewhat detailed, but basically look like animated stacks of units from Civ 4. It takes a long time to play: after a while, even on the highest game speed setting, it felt like watching paint dry.
Buy this game if you are new to this genre, if you're interested in the meta-game of the cold war. But bear in mind that this game has many shortcomings in terms of playability, game speed, graphical quality and variety. Given more funding and a larger development studio, this game would have been truly epic. Realistic, complex and detalied. But as it stands - mediocre.… Expand

Almost a year in and its still plagued by slow downs that make any extended campaign turn into a crawl. UI is worse than its predecessor in some ways and it generally feels like its waiting on an expansion to bring the full features you would expect. If you're the patient sort of lad then wait a fair while for an expansion and pick it up cheap.

I'd actually like to give this game a 9.5, but that's not possible, so I'll round up... There is a huge amount of greatness in this game - depth, a good user interface, lots of strategy, politics, replayability, tactical battles, strategic planning, and even global nuclear war!

Yes, there are some weaknesses - a big learning curve, dated graphics, so-so sound... on the other hand there is a huge map, battles with as many units as you can desire, a very detailed combat system that includes supply, indirect fire, terrain, line of sight, and much more. And the economic/resource model is great too... maybe not enough difference between communist and capitalist economies, but the fun is in cornering the market for finished goods, or invading an oil producing country to resolve that pesky shortage!

I've been playing it for a week now and can't wait to dive in and try something new the next time. There is a LOT here for your money.… Expand

Perseverance pays. If you have the patience to explore the interface and watch one of the Let's Play SR Cold War videos on You Tube, then you'll find where this game excels - in its scope and sheer depth. The more time you invest the game, the more rewarding its becomes.

This game is clearly rich in detail, but the beauty is where you can lock out ministers and allow the AI to do what you don't want to. Don't feel you have to do everything - its not possible and isn't fun that way. Instead, focus on the arms race or the space race or domestic advancement. It's really a sandbox experience and up to you to decide how what you want to achieve from it.

In conclusion, if you're a fan of strategy games published by Paradox Interactive and Matrix, this is certainly a worthy addition.… Expand

This is the kind of game you want to give a 10 upon first firing it up just for the sheer scope, depth and ambition of it. Too bad that in the end most of the enjoyment comes from figuring out how everything works instead of actually playing it.

It just never adds up as a game for me. As a simulation it fails, as the subject matter in these seems too broad to really handle with any kind of realism, not to mention that the political aspect is very undernourished, and the AI never manages to convince you that you're up against any kind of intelligence. As a grand strategy game it doesn't work either, as the game seems more like a wargame with a grab bag of features the developers thought would be cool without really thinking how they all fit together. It fails as pure visceral entertainment as well, as any tense moments easily get drowned in the plodding pace of the game and sheer complexity, and the poor graphics and interface don't do it any favors here either.

All of these complaints apply to the other titles in the series as well, which is pretty disappointing as even the first game seemed to have a ton of unrealized potential. Too bad the devs have never really addressed the core gameplay and accessibility issues of the series, instead choosing to devote their time with small fixes as well mapping the geography and military of the world to an astounding degree. They bill this as an "Intelligent Strategy Game", but "obsessive" seems to fit the bill much better.

Despite all I've said though this isn't a terrible game, just more wasted potential, and there are better games out there. For a historical grand strategy game I'd rather play the Europa Universalis series, and both Dominions and Distant Worlds have a similarly grand degree of complexity yet remain more accessible, cohesive, and enjoyable. I imagine that anyone that really likes the combat aspect of this here would be better suited with a traditional wargame as well.

I think Battlegoat needs to go back to the drawing board with this, trim a lot of the fat and just focus on making a cohesive game for once. I appreciate the ambition, but if after five years and two sequels your concept still isn't hitting the mark there's a problem. Complexity alone just doesn't cut it.… Expand