Cold War Games: 4 History-Bending Titles Rife With Spy Rings, Conspiracies, And Nuclear Threats

Defcon

Cold War games turn the propaganda and espionage that marked the near fifty-year conflict between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc into interactive experiences. The Cold War lacked the direct combat situations of World Wars I and II, but the underground nature of the conflict meant that paranoia was at an all-time high.

Cold War games use this paranoia, mixed with a healthy dose of conspiracy, action, sci-fi, or humor elements, to turn history into an entertaining adventure. While these four games might not be the most historically accurate, they turn the Red Scare, Nuclear Arms Race, and political tensions of the era into riveting gameplay.

Metal Gear Solid 3 Features Double-Crossing Agents and Futuristic Weaponry

Metal Gear
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater sets Naked Snake at the center of Soviet espionage, blending the real history of the Communist Party with the series’ experimental supernatural and sci-fi elements. Image Source: Nate Dan via Wikipedia.

The Metal Gear series is known for popularizing stealth mechanics that remain standard today, but Metal Gear Solid 3 is also ranked highly among Cold War games for its history-bending, sci-fi influenced plot. The game is a prequel, putting players in control of Naked Snake (later known as “Big Boss”) in Cold War-era USSR, attempting to rescue a defecting Soviet scientist who is developing a nuclear-powered tank. Colonel Volgin, the game’s antagonist, is tangled up in an attempt to seize power from real-life Cold War figures Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin, high-ranking Soviet members of the Communist Party.

The plot is filled with twists, turns, and traitors, as major players switch sides and stab each other in the back. The addition of supernatural elements like spirits and controllable hornets, as well as advanced gadgetry like jetpacks makes it an even more intriguing story. You never know what route it’s going to take or what arsenal of weapons will be awaiting you in the next battle.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Returns the Series to Historical Roots

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops takes players into the internal workings of the Cold War as Alex Mason works alongside real-life figures like Robert McNamara and John F. Kennedy. Image Source: URL via Wikia.

Call of Duty gets a lot of flack for being formulaic but when the series gets it right, it really gets it right. Most fans agree that the series is at its best when using historical wars for story inspiration, and in Call of Duty: Black Ops, the journey into the Cold War era provided an intriguing new direction. Black Ops 3 turns the more straightforward war stories of its predecessors into a twisting labyrinth of espionage, brainwashing, and sleeper agents. Over the course of the game’s story, the player encounters John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro, and even takes part in an attempted assassination on the latter during the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Despite the real-world players, Call of Duty: Black Ops also takes a liberal approach to history. Its weapons are frequently anachronistic, and its plot deals with brainwashing, a fear of the era that existed but wasn’t commonly practiced due to its ineffectiveness as a mind-control solution.

This series return to a historical setting, after the success of Modern Warfare and World At War, gave the game a chance to be inventive in new ways. The constraints of the time period meant Activision and Treyarch had to craft a narrative of intrigue and action, rather than the forgettable narratives of previous installments like Ghosts and Modern Warfare 3.

Explore the Escalated Cold War Conflict in DEFCON

Defcon
Rather than striving for accuracy, DEFCON paints a picture of a world where the Cold War has escalated to a global conflict, pitting countries against one another in full nuclear war.

Real-time strategy games are natural for war settings, and DEFCON is considered one the best RTS Cold War games out there. Rather than retelling the story of the Cold War as it happened, DEFCON imagines a future in which the intense paranoia and fears were well-warranted. The world erupts into full-scale thermonuclear war as depicted in films like Dr. Strangelove and WarGames. While it lacks representation of actual Cold War events, DEFCON allows the player to assume the role of various countries in the conflict, such as the US and Russia, to explore how conflicts might have played out if things went differently.

As in any RTS game, the ultimate goal is domination over your opponents. In DEFCON (with the tagline “EVERYBODY DIES”), that domination occurs in the total destruction of enemy citizens through a variety of military actions determined by the DEFCON level—ranging from “least severe” to “most severe.” Players can form and break alliances with other players to save their own skin or stab them in the back. Add to that an array of ground soldiers, ships, aircrafts, and nuclear missiles, and the world of DEFCON is a very dangerous place. This escalation of the real events of the Cold War paints an intriguing picture of a dark, alternate timeline for humanity.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert Soups up the Soviet Union With an Alternate History

Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Command and Conquer: Red Alert explores an alternate future in which the Nazi Party never rises to power, allowing Joseph Stalin and Soviet Russia to take control. Image Source: Mikael GRizzly via Wikimedia Commons.

Another RTS game, Command and Conquer: Red Alert took the successful mechanics of the first Command and Conquer game and set them in a parallel universe to our own, where Albert Einstein manages to time travel to the past, shake the hand of young Adolf Hitler, and prevent the rise of the Nazi Party. Without the Nazi Party, Red Alert’s Germany doesn’t rise to power and the Soviet Union grows to full strength under Joseph Stalin, putting Europe and Asia into peril.

Originally released in 1996, Red Alert differentiated itself from other RTS games of the era with its variable power structure across factions. The game’s Soviet vehicles were typically stronger (and slower) than Allied ones, while the Allies boasted quicker production of units. Players could also use spies and military intelligence to undermine enemies, underscoring the game’s nature as a dire alternate history where Soviet Russia triumphs. Re-released by EA in 2008, Command and Conquer: Red Alert continues to claim fans in the new millennium.

Cold War Games Don’t End There

Alekhine’s Gun
Alekhine’s Gun will put the player in the middle of the paranoia-fueled Soviet/American conflict as Agent Alekhine unravels a global conspiracy.

Cold War games seem to be a minority compared to games representing World War II and other major global conflicts, but that doesn’t mean the genre is going away. Rather, the growing popularity of stealth and survival themes could mean a revival of game plots set in this era. To help slake your thirst for more Cold War-era gameplay, check out these recent releases and upcoming titles:

  • Alekhine’s Gun (Now available for PC or console!): Unearth the conspiracy behind the Cold War as KGB agent turned CIA operative Alekhine. Use disguises, weapons, and creativity to assassinate your targets and determine the fate of the world.
  • Tropico (Released May 2014): Do whatever it takes to stay in power as El Presidente, leader of a tropical paradise’s government, while Cold War powers, rebels, and your own army try to oust you.
  • Jazzpunk (Released February 2014): Hilarious and surreal, this game puts you in the shoes of secret agent Polyblank as he attempts to infiltrate a Soviet consulate in a bizarre Get Smart-style spy spoof.