/games/ - Games

You've got to be a special breed of nerd to enjoy these games but ya They're worth playing especially at that price point. I grew up playing the original CITK so it's my fav but since playing the steam versions I put the most hours into Ostalgie since there a lot more replay value with the many different playable countries. Wasn't a fan of Mao's legacy and the newest game collapse is trash imo but I didn't give either of these games much of a shake tbf
They're pretty opaque, you'll lose a lot at first but the games are kinda like puzzles, just trial and error your way through them. If you give into the temptation to look up guides and what not you'll ruin the fun

>>32810
The UI is ugly as sin. So only if you really like these type of games.

>>32810
Dont expect very indepth game from an economic perspective. Hell from a political perspective the political game mechanics are kinda eh. But in terms of narrative gameplay, yeah expect a very deep game.

>>32810
They are lots of fun and an aid to understanding the history of the regions covered.

The authors do have a certain ideological view (still marxist) that is informed by certain biases and that comes out in the math. However, there are a number (more and less) successful strategies that do work. Fund African countries at the expense of your own, get trade income, Socialism in one state, fine but you will find yourself encircled by the capitalists and unable to respond to world events, Automation will cause a counter-revolutionary revolt of the bureaucrats so you must be ready for it or you will lose even late game, etc. Ostalgie does have a wait to snatch leadership of the Socialist camp away from a failing USSR, but you can also support the Moscow protesters to stop Yeltsin in a counter-historical move late game that can save the Union.

There are also large mega-objectives such as forming a Socialist Middle East, In Crisis the endgame allows for world conquest albeit it is after the challenge is over. Mao's Legacy also covers a lot more of real Chinese History then you will see in most games with the option to crack down harder, go ultra-left in alliance with Jiang and the Gang of 4, compromise stay the course or go full libshit reformist and destroy the socialist project.

These are all great games in the vein of Dwarf Fortress. I wish these games had earlier start dates and were a bit more open ended, but I understand how difficult it is to manage the real historical events like Vienam and Thailand the longer you go. For that I play Victoria 3 although its openness lacks the historical depth and reality that Kremlin Games can bring.

I also wish the Nixon wage/price freeze and the failure of capitalism when the US defaulted on all its debts (ended the gold standard) was an event. Good relations with China may result in either a joint Soviet/China bailout or joint refusal that allows OPEC to beat the Imperialists down for good. Or infiltrator funding (an option ingame) would permit a Tripartite peace treaty that succeeds the old economic order as a lesser victory.

Highly recommend but must be read together with leftist theory/history or the choices will seem opaque and unpredictable especially to a moralist/idealist/utopian raised in the liberal cannon. My enjoyment of these games only increases as I realize the connections between the events and the material history they simulate.

Slight tangent but Kremlingames is remaking CITK again. Re-posting from their Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/599750/view/3811794911367346273.
"Crisis in the Kremlin: The Cold War
Comrades! On this day we would like to proudly present you a new game from Kremlingames studio - "Crisis in the Kremlin: The Cold War". We have been developing this project over a year, which is an ideological successor of our debut project, "Crisis in the Kremlin". We put all of ourselves into the new project and we are deeply confident that it is fundamentally superior to anything we have done before.
In the updated "Crisis in the Kremlin" you will once again be able to control the Soviet Union during one of the most acute moments of modern history - 1985-1999. Play as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, direct both foreign and domestic policies of the state, make important decisions and keep a close eye on the economy.
Compared to the previous "Crisis in the Kremlin", the new game, which is scheduled for release next year, will bring you a huge number of innovations:
Brand new, improved graphics. Appreciate the hand-drawn backgrounds in the game's main menu.
Transparent and clear user interface. A new milestone in the history of our games!
Improved and redesigned world map with five modes of display, which dynamically changes with the change of borders of old and the formation of completely new states.
The system of politicians with new functionality of conspiracies, appointments, intrigues and the influence of the characteristics of politicians on the effectiveness of certain bodies. Now the political struggle will be much sharper!
Redesigned economy system, equally realistic representation of planned and market mechanisms. The economy has become more understandable and diverse, and what else could you want?!
A decision mechanic with the ability to make over a hundred different decisions in different sequences and with different outcomes. Now you no longer have to fear that a missed event will take away the only chance for your grand plans!
A completely new war system with its own war maps, many new stats, features, and conflict sides: Burn, bomb, appoint advisors, keep an eye on morale and most importantly, who will come to power if you win!
A complete overhaul of in-game research functionality, as well as a new science race system with the US. Catch up and overtake, and no other way!
Full modding support: Make your own translations of the game into any language in the world or freely modify the game's source code. The possibilities are endless!
Steam Workshop support: Share your modifications with thousands of other players!
Steam Cloud Save support: Transfer your saves between any supported platforms: Steam Deck, Windows, Linux, MacOS.
Tired of real politicians? Create your own! Ability to play as a custom politician with customizable name, photo and characteristics"

>>32901
pls have a deep economy instead of this weird abstracted economy that kremlin games tend to have.

>>32905
yeah man. Play superpower 2! Love their economy

>>32922
superpower 2 is too SIMPLE ANON. I NEED SOMETHING MORE.

>>32922
so happy to see superpower 2 mentioned. i really do think it has pretty much the best "template" for a geopolitical sim, it all flows together so well despite its numerous problems

Mao's legacy now tells you what techs due to the economy as a tooltip.

Qol is increasing.

Shallow af but cozy tbqh
It's just one of those games you mindlessly play after work like Microcosmum or something

>>32810
Why do these pictures look so… gray?

my 0.02H labour vouchers: pretty fun, interesting… maybe authors have some revisionist kruschevite sort of delusions ig but overall pretty good politically for any sort of media product

some of the events and mechanics seem unbalanced or unrealistic or something but overall pretty fun to play and fair I would say.

If you are losing a lot or failing what you want to do or grasp wtf is happening and don't want to stumble around for many hours then I recommend reading the guides on steam etc that tell you what each button and mechanism does, when events happen and their consequences, strategies for achieving goals and playing different kinds of political agendas

New demo of Crisis in the Kremlin: The Cold War.

>>35437
> If you are losing a lot or failing what you want to do or grasp wtf is happening and don't want to stumble around for many hours then I recommend reading the guides on steam etc that tell you what each button and mechanism does, when events happen and their consequences, strategies for achieving goals and playing different kinds of political agendas

I would love it if this was possible to find out from WITHIN the game, though. Like imagine if we had the technology to hover over a button and some text popped up.

>>35859
I'm sorry anon but we have to be realistic

>>35860
I guess it's very true to 1991 game design…

Okay, I've tried the demo of the new Crisis in the Kremlin, and it's SO MUCH BETTER THAN BEFORE.

I can't speak for the gameplay, I haven't had time to dive deeper into that, but the UI is so much cleaner and easier to understand, you can actually interact with it like it's a real game and not someone's Java lifework

>>35909
I guess they listened to the criticism because their last game had the worst UI of all of them, borderline unplayable.

>>35909
how much is playable in the demo? im really excited for the game but dont want to try it out if theres not much content

>>35930
It only lets you play till the end of the first year so not much. It's more for seeing the new UI, map, etc.

>>35909
I'm liking the detail of the stats with graphs tracking the trend in all the variables, but it's difficult to get a good easy overview, wish they added a single page or two with the union stats like in their first remake.

>>35909
Hope the game has more events and event lines.

>>35909
>you can pick a country
>currently only USSR
That's a good sign.

Always remember Comrades. Purges wreckers and bourgeois agents like Yakovlev

>>36292
What a piece of shit.

>>36052
Hopefully you can democratise without privatisation (and with making the economy more communalised).

>>36294
The economy and government structures are separate

>>36294
That was something you could do in the original too. Hell, the easiest way to democratize was with a Stalinist-Trotskyist coalition and an automated planned economy.

>>36299
I remember it being too difficult because democratisation and privatisation factions were linked, maybe I'm thinking of a different game though IDK

>>36306
They are kind of linked if you want to take the slow path to reforms, since you need a majority of reformers in the SC to pass that law under Soviet Democracy/Party Eliterization. Right-wing thought becomes more common if "liberalization of the minds" gets too high, and that tanks popular support, forcing you to either privatize, use soldiers against protestors, or die. Events also pop up that encourage you to privatize the economy, often with penalties to popular support if you don't. Theoretically it can be pulled off the slow way, but I've never done it myself.

Although, if you centralize power completely, you can pass nearly whatever laws you want, including direct democracy. It's best to save this after you implement OGAS, since at that point your popular support and economy are perfect and it becomes impossible to have anything but a planned economy.