I’ve heard people who served say that your time in the military is what you make of it. Putin vs ISIS, one of the deepest and most realistic military combat simulators. This game is allows you to make your own fun using its vast array of conscientiously recreated military hardware and brilliant, all-embracing battlefields. It requires immense effort and patience before you can glean any amount of what you’d traditionally think of as gameplay from it.

What it offers in return is some of the best military simulator gameplay the world has ever seen, some of the positions this game puts you in makes you feel more immersed than any VR game ever could. I don’t really understand why this is game was even released to the public, it seems like it would genuinely help train the military, with the advanced tactics and large control scheme you need to know and easily use to even just move around in this game.

Now I am in no way saying this makes the game bad, in fact, the complete opposite, this game is so good because it’s hard to play, when people are looking for a Military Simulator, they are usually not looking for something like Heroes and Generals for example, a game where no one works as a team, you cannot be revived and there is no real coordination. When someone says “I am a big military simulator fan”, they’re talking about your Squads, your Armas, etc and now we have this masterpiece of a game to add on top of this.

This game specifically takes a bit of getting into, you need to be eager and determined to play this game, a bit like being in the real military, now before any current or ex solider jumps onto me, annoyed, hear me out, this game is not something you want to miss out on. I have had many a conversation with the makers of this game (Nikita) and they are some great guys, they have you back. They have meticulously gone round many an army base to get insights and inspiration from many aspiring people, which is how they have made this game feel as real as it does.

They made sure to craft this game and the situations it puts you in around real life and real people. Something I love about this game that many other similar games don’t do is that its not just multiplayer. Sometimes I want to get back and talk to many different people just to get my military sim fix. So I am very lucky to have this game now, this games single-player is eerily good, I mean seriously I have played many different and I sometimes forget I am not talking to real people. I asked the devs about this and they answered with an answer I was not expecting, if you haven’t played this game, I need to explain this to you, most military simulator games are very much based on communication and this game nails this even in single-player.

When going into a single-player session you can pick 3 different positions, Squad Member, Squad Leader or an even superior roll, each one has a completely different play-style. Lets start at the top and make our way down, when you choose what they call “The General” its basically a strategy game, you are looking at a map and can see all your different objectives and where all the friendly soldiers are. Using your voice you can order any squad leader into any location you want, then you can watch over them with your eye in the sky. Drones play a big part in this part of the game, they allow you to monitor the battleground without getting your hands dirty in the field. When you order someone to do something like push forward into their impending doom they will, but not without questions, yes the fake people in the game respond with tailored answers, when I asked 3 squads to push to their deaths, they told me its a suicide mission, I replied, forcing them to do it, I actually felt bad.

Next role, the Squad Leader, you take orders from The General and if you don’t listen to them he gets annoyed, I would say being a SL is harder than the previous as you have more voices in your head, you have the general telling you what to do, other SLs telling you off for not responding, then you have 10 squad members who’s opinion of you change depending on the time you log in. So if you are playing the game late your Squad will be constantly annoyed and second guessing you.

Now onto my favourite role, the plain old Squad Member, this is the best role if you want to sit down in the evening and play a Military game without having to deal with real people, as a squad member you just need to listen to your SL and reply with Yes Sir, or if you’re that way inclined you can ask you SL questions and the game does a very good job replying, making it seem like you are actually talking to a real human being.

I am now going to talk about something that I many other games have never even tried, at least to this detail and with the very realistic graphics that this game has.

If you took the building destruction from Red Faction Guerilla, the Squad based Communication system from Squad and the amazing gun-play and customisation from Ground Branch you get this game, add onto that the massive maps with helicopters, jets, tanks and other armoured vehicles and you get a spectacular game. It’s not all good, at the moment they only have two teams, the Iraqi Militia and Russia, I have been told this was done so they could get everything else to the detailed degree they’re at. I can respect that, as I have said I have talked with the guys over at Nikita and they say that more teams will be added very soon.

In these reviews I always talk about the story behind the main characters, or the graphical detail, today I am talking about immersion. This game has successfully made me believe I was a part of an active battlefield and that’s just in the single-player mode, when you have maps as big as these with 100 v 100 battles its insane. You really need to think about whether you want to go The General or not as it comes with a great deal of responsibility. You have to decided if you want to control 10 different people and their squads. If you do go down that route its fun, very fun in fact. Both the multiplayer and single-player parts of this game have swallowed me whole, to the point I forgot I was even looking at a 27 inch monitor using my hands to control my character, I felt a real weight when something went wrong because of me, I felt more than I ever thought I would when playing any game let alone a military simulator.

If you haven’t purchased this game yet, why not, this game is only 79p, I am not sure if its a price glitch or if Nikita are just a charitable company that want their game to be played by all, rich and poor. Speaking of “Played by all” this game can be run on anything, I have tried this on business laptops with no dedicated GPU that although running on low settings could still hold 60 fps at 1080p, which is very impressive. I have been told that the devs are working on a version for Linux and Mac OSX, so then literally everyone can play this phenomenal game.

Before I leave I want to talk about a feature of this game that every communication based game should have. Have you ever been in a game of Squad for example and someone has no mic, say no more, I have also had such experiences and it can be extremely annoying.

This game doesn’t stand for this.

When you open this game it looks through your audio devices for a microphone, then asks you to say a sentence into the mic to not only make sure it works, but also make sure you can be understood, so this also negates the times you will be interacting with people with loud static filled audio. This can deter people from playing this game, but I guess it pushes out the people that aren’t determined enough.

So what are you waiting for buy this game, next time you want a coffee from Starbucks, spend you money on steam to not only support Nikita, but also play this extraordinary game.

I’ve heard people who served say that your time in the military is what you make of it. Putin vs ISIS, one of the deepest and most realistic military combat simulators. This game is allows you to make your own fun using its vast array of conscientiously recreated military hardware and brilliant, all-embracing battlefields. It requires immense effort and patience before you can glean any amount of what you’d traditionally think of as gameplay from it. What it offers in return is some of the best military simulator gameplay the world has ever seen, some of the positions this game puts you in makes you feel more immersed than any VR game ever could. I don’t really understand why this is game was even released to the public, it seems like it would genuinely help train the military, with the advanced tactics and large control scheme you need to know and easily use to even just move around in this game. Now I am in no way saying this makes the game bad, in fact, the complete opposite, this game is so good because it’s hard to play, when people are looking for a Military Simulator, they are usually not looking for something like Heroes and Generals for example, a game where no one works as a team, you cannot be revived and there is no real coordination. When someone says “I am a big military simulator fan”, they’re talking about your Squads, your Armas, etc and now we have this masterpiece of a game to add on top of this. This game specifically takes a bit of getting into, you need to be eager and determined to play this game, a bit like being in the real military, now before any current or ex solider jumps onto me, annoyed, hear me out, this game is not something you want to miss out on. I have had many a conversation with the makers of this game (Nikita) and they are some great guys, they have you back. They have meticulously gone round many an army base to get insights and inspiration from many aspiring people, which is how they have made this game feel as real as it does. They made sure to craft this game and the situations it puts you in around real life and real people. Something I love about this game that many other similar games don’t do is that its not just multiplayer. Sometimes I want to get back and talk to many different people just to get my military sim fix. So I am very lucky to have this game now, this games single-player is eerily good, I mean seriously I have played many different and I sometimes forget I am not talking to real people. I asked the devs about this and they answered with an answer I was not expecting, if you haven’t played this game, I need to explain this to you, most military simulator games are very much based on communication and this game nails this even in single-player. When going into a single-player session you can pick 3 different positions, Squad Member, Squad Leader or an even superior roll, each one has a completely different play-style. Lets start at the top and make our way down, when you choose what they call “The General” its basically a strategy game, you are looking at a map and can see all your different objectives and where all the friendly soldiers are. Using your voice you can order any squad leader into any location you want, then you can watch over them with your eye in the sky. Drones play a big part in this part of the game, they allow you to monitor the battleground without getting your hands dirty in the field. When you order someone to do something like push forward into their impending doom they will, but not without questions, yes the fake people in the game respond with tailored answers, when I asked 3 squads to push to their deaths, they told me its a suicide mission, I replied, forcing them to do it, I actually felt bad. Next role, the Squad Leader, you take orders from The General and if you don’t listen to them he gets annoyed, I would say being a SL is harder than the previous as you have more voices in your head, you have the general telling you what to do, other SLs telling you off for not responding, then you have 10 squad members who’s opinion of you change depending on the time you log in. So if you are playing the game late your Squad will be constantly annoyed and second guessing you. Now onto my favourite role, the plain old Squad Member, this is the best role if you want to sit down in the evening and play a Military game without having to deal with real people, as a squad member you just need to listen to your SL and reply with Yes Sir, or if you’re that way inclined you can ask you SL questions and the game does a very good job replying, making it seem like you are actually talking to a real human being. I am now going to talk about something that I many other games have never even tried, at least to this detail and with the very realistic graphics that this game has. If you took the building destruction from Red Faction Guerilla, the Squad based Communication system from Squad and the amazing gun-play and customisation from Ground Branch you get this game, add onto that the massive maps with helicopters, jets, tanks and other armoured vehicles and you get a spectacular game. It’s not all good, at the moment they only have two teams, the Iraqi Militia and Russia, I have been told this was done so they could get everything else to the detailed degree they’re at. I can respect that, as I have said I have talked with the guys over at Nikita and they say that more teams will be added very soon. In these reviews I always talk about the story behind the main characters, or the graphical detail, today I am talking about immersion. This game has successfully made me believe I was a part of an active battlefield and that’s just in the single-player mode, when you have maps as big as these with 100 v 100 battles its insane. You really need to think about whether you want to go The General or not as it comes with a great deal of responsibility. You have to decided if you want to control 10 different people and their squads. If you do go down that route its fun, very fun in fact. Both the multiplayer and single-player parts of this game have swallowed me whole, to the point I forgot I was even looking at a 27 inch monitor using my hands to control my character, I felt a real weight when something went wrong because of me, I felt more than I ever thought I would when playing any game let alone a military simulator. If you haven’t purchased this game yet, why not, this game is only 79p, I am not sure if its a price glitch or if Nikita are just a charitable company that want their game to be played by all, rich and poor. Speaking of “Played by all” this game can be run on anything, I have tried this on business laptops with no dedicated GPU that although running on low settings could still hold 60 fps at 1080p, which is very impressive. I have been told that the devs are working on a version for Linux and Mac OSX, so then literally everyone can play this phenomenal game. Before I leave I want to talk about a feature of this game that every communication based game should have. Have you ever been in a game of Squad for example and someone has no mic, say no more, I have also had such experiences and it can be extremely annoying. This game doesn’t stand for this. When you open this game it looks through your audio devices for a microphone, then asks you to say a sentence into the mic to not only make sure it works, but also make sure you can be understood, so this also negates the times you will be interacting with people with loud static filled audio. This can deter people from playing this game, but I guess it pushes out the people that aren’t determined enough. So what are you waiting for buy this game, next time you want a coffee from Starbucks, spend you money on steam to not only support Nikita, but also play this extraordinary game.