Supreme Ruler: Cold War

 PC
Metascore
63

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. GamingXP
    Aug 9, 2011
    71
    A solid strategy game for exciting hours in a historical context.
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Sep 4, 2011
    70
    Huge and extremely ambitious strategy with exceptional attention to detail. In other words this is not a game for common gamers – it consumes great amounts of time and requires absolute attentiveness. [Issue#208]
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  3. Eurogamer Italy
    Aug 11, 2011
    70
    Supreme Ruler: Cold War is an old strategy game whose gameplay recalls the times when you had to face real difficulties and every videogame was a challenge. Same goes for the technical side, with its graphics and sound that seem to come back from the '90s. Only for fans.
  5. Everyeye.it
    Jul 20, 2011
    70
    Despite the shallow graphics, the new Supreme Ruler is a solid and incredibly depth strategy game that will appeal to every fan. On the other hand the new players will be overwhelmed by its complexity due to the complete lack of a tutorial.
  6. Absolute Games
    Sep 18, 2011
    65
    Supreme Ruler: Cold War can quickly become a chore, despite the amount of detail that went into this game.
  7. GameWatcher
    Aug 5, 2011
    65
    If you're looking for what is probably the deepest and most complicated strategy game ever made, oh boy have you found it.
  8. XGN
    Aug 5, 2011
    65
    Just like most Paradox Interactive strategy games, Supreme Ruler: Cold War has become a very difficult game that is made for the best strategists out there. The lack of a tutorial doesn't help and the meagre graphics don't make the game any more accessible. However, if you're looking for a deep strategy game that can give you a big challenge, try it out.
  9. SpazioGames
    Sep 6, 2011
    60
    A deep and profound strategic title wich fails to deliver, mainly due to a lame user interface, lack of tutorial, questionable AI, bad graphics and boring moments. The multiplayer fails to save it. It's definitely better to look elsewhere into the Paradox portfolio with better, more refined, titles as Hearts of Iron or Europa Universalis.
  10. Multiplayer.it
    Aug 3, 2011
    60
    Excellent simulation and storic research, Cold War suffers some AI problem, poor engine and inconsistent music and sound effects.
  11. Da Gameboyz
    Jul 21, 2011
    60
    Supreme Ruler: Cold War is a superb simulator.
  12. PC Gamer UK
    Oct 8, 2011
    58
    Some nice touches, but lethargic AI, performance issues, and personality - deficient premiers make the ruling gruelling. [Nov 2011, p.120]
    All this publication's reviews
  13. Gamekult
    Aug 11, 2011
    50
    Quotation forthcoming.

Awards & Rankings

96
#96 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 28 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 28
  3. Negative: 7 out of 28
  1. onomatopeia
    Aug 16, 2011
    3
    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 accurateThe 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.    … Full Review »
  2. pherd77
    Jul 20, 2011
    10
    A detailed and sophisticated strategy game - you won't master this in a day (or a week or a month...) but it should offer huge replayability,A detailed and sophisticated strategy game - you won't master this in a day (or a week or a month...) but it should offer huge replayability, between the campaigns (play as US or USSR), the Sandbox (play as one of about 200 regions), or Scenarios (shorter games with specific objectives). It will take about an hour to get used to the interface and the controls/options, and there is a good manual and some good "walkthrough" guides. After that it is about trying to master the control you are given versus what you can get your ministers to do for you, etc etc.

    Warfare can get a bit cluttered at times, but this is in part to the much improved game speed versus earlier titles in the series - when things get hot you should 'slow down' to the lower speed levels, so that you can properly manage your units. At the fast speed, let the AI take care of it and just watch the fun.    … Full Review »
  3. tudoor
    Jul 22, 2011
    9
    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 reallyThis 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.    … Full Review »
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