Nuclear Union Preview

Nuclear Union is an action RPG that takes place in Russia 50 years after the Cuban missile crisis. In this reality, a nuclear war sees the destruction of the USA and the Soviet Union - and much of the surface of the planet is unfit for living.

The society as it once was has collapsed and the central government has moved underground, where survivors of the nuclear war were brought before the bombs hit and found a way to survive all these years. In 2012, the USSR is still a state using the same symbols as before. There is a power and there is order, but definitely not everywhere. There are bandit groups roaming the province outside of the reach of the government. The USSR has changed dramatically.

Most of the gameplay takes place in the Moscow region that survived the nuclear apocalypse, where the protagonist will visit the new capital – Pobedograd (Victory City).
The main character in Nuclear Union is a Soviet officer who was present at the start of the nuclear war and by some power finds himself suddenly 50 years later in the year 2012. He starts a search for a higher ranking officer because he needs to report to one and to deliver some secret documents, which was the last command he received.

There was no actual gameplay that could be shown during the presentation as it was way too early for that. The game is currently in alpha but is not yet a stable build, with several elements still being designed - so instead, we got an explanation based on the video. 

One of the noteworthy features in the game is the anomalies that appear throughout the gameworld, which are somewhat like environmental puzzles. The video that was shown had an example of such an anomaly with a gravitational force that attracted all the debris in its surrounding. These anomalies come in pairs where one is stationary and the other is active and there are different ways they can be interacted with. First of all, you can activate the static anomaly, thus deactivating the active one. You can also move some of the anomalies by touching them in the right way.

Besides the gravitational anomaly there will be several other types of anomalies like invisible labyrinths that can kill the hero if he touches the walls, a sequence of flames appearing from the ground and more. Not all anomalies can be interacted with in the same way - for example, to pass through the invisible labyrinth the player needs to use a special device that makes the walls visible for a very short period of time.

In some cases, you’ll need to cope with anomalies to proceed in the story, but some of them will be optional and will protect nice artifacts that provide a bonus or can be used as a weapon.

There is nothing that could be told about the system that takes care of stats or skills or what options might be available when you level up as that is still under design. Also, the combat system is still under development, but it will be using a real-time system with the option to pause, called ‘GATS’. In this mode the player can queue several shots and then watch the hero executing the order.

Nuclear Union will have party members that will follow you, but only one at a time that you cannot control directly - although you probably will be able to give them orders.
The game will feature moral choices that can change certain plot lines, but they will never change the alignment of the protagonist.

The concept of Nuclear Union, using the Cuban missile crisis and taking the angle from a Soviet officier who is moved 50 years in the future by some power could very well be the basis of a very good game. We will, however, have to wait for more details when the game is further in development to find out what the combat and other gameplay elements will be like.