I've been playing this game for a little over 3 years now and have finally decided to write a review... Most games- if you play them long enough- get boring and tiresome. The people I play with weekly and most of the time daily, have played totals of thousands of hours and yet continue to play weekly/daily. This is because there really can't ever be a round in ND thats the same as another. Each team won't ever be exactly the same, the commanders won't usually be the same, and how the players play in each map will always be different so that you really aren't just going through the motions after hours and hours of gameplay. I know that myself and at least 100-150 other dedicated core players feel the same way. The other reviews of this game that I see are from people who really havent played it all that much and have just taken their first look FPS and RTS aspects. A lot of what they say is correct.. There are definitely areas of ND that need work, and since theres no real developer working on it not much can change.

However, even though there is no actual developer, ND is constantly being improved and tweaked to make gameplay better. This is because of server managers and testers in the community itself who have fixed glitches, improved team balancing, made mods, and have organized ND soooooo much in the past 2 years. Nuclear Dawn was on a downswing and playercounts were at an all time low, but now that there are scheduled events, groups, and stats, things are getting better fast!

So to people who say Nuclear Dawn is dying: It WAS dying, now its only getting better little by little. I highly recommend this game and encourage people to give it a fair chance. Join the group "ND Battles" for scheduled formal and casual events. I truly love this game and will never stop playing it!

This game deserves much more attention than it's getting. It's an amazing concept, and it works really well. It has all of the aspects of the best FPS games, like requiring a balance of different classes (not everyone can run and gun) and communication to win. Matches can completely change over just a few minutes. It's got incredible potential if they make another and perhaps polish it, but I would definitely support this game. Not very expensive for a lot of potential play time.

First thing's first: I am a passionate lover of FPSRTS genre, having played both Savage and Natural Selection (1&2) for many many hours. So bear that in mind.

So what's Nuclear Dawn? It is a representative of a very rare breed of video games, which combine classic FPS action as a foot soldier and Top Down RTS style commander role. Two teams fight for dominance over critical locations on the map with commanders providing support in form of abilities and buildings which allow forward psawning of reinforcements, ammo/hp regen and defences.

The game itself is fast paced, with several classes to choose from: classic Assault with powerful weaponry, able to take a few hits before going down and iconic thermal vision which negates invisibility, EXO with tons of health and deadly weapons, most effective against buildings, Stealth for general sneaking about, either with knives which can backstab unsuspecing players to sniper and unique sabateur with remote bombs, and lastly a trusty support with lightning-fast firing SMGs, shotgun or a freaking flame thrower. Everyone will find something fun to choose from.

Unofrtunately the game does not have a massive following but there is a good server or two, one in US one in Germany to choose from.

As always remember: there is no middle ground when it comes to FPSRTS matches. You either get a complete stomp of a match, which thankfully does not last too long or you get a very fun and amazing experience, which will keep you coming back for more, day after day.

Amazing game. Surprised it isn't more popular. Like Supreme Commander meets Counter Strike

this game needs more people playing (+ more servers)

This game is a combination between RTS (Commander) and FPS (Foot soldiers) that features two factions, multiple classes with multiple layouts which lead to different playstyles, leveling (upgrades), an incredible amount of huge maps with multiple layers and nice little details and many more features.

For the commander it's a RTS. He can build stuff, e.g. walls to protect his comrades from bullets or turrets that support them on the battlefield.

The goal for both teams is to secure points of interest that generate resources for the team and ultimately lead to the destruction of the enemy base.

I could go on and on, but I know that nobody will ever read this, so ...

I highly recommend this game. It's a shame I've never heard about this awesome game until a few weeks ago. It's one of the best Multiplayer/Tactical-FPS I've ever played, competiting only with Natural Selection 2 I guess.

Actually an amazing game, sad that there are so few people playing it though. The Strategic asset goes well with the actual gameplay as well though it can get out of control pretty fast as well.

Would recommend if it had a larger player-base.

Great, easy, and still complex.

The 2 sides are different, in commander aspects, and in soldier aspects too. You will find the best playstyle that suits you. Sadly there isn't always too much players online.

Got this for $2.49 (75% off) during a steam sale. If you had any remote intrest in Gloom, Tremulous, Natural Selection 1 & 2 or Savage 1 & 2 then this might be up your ally.

Niche games, but these fps/rts hybrids have a cult like dedicated player base even if it is small. +1

I totally recommend this game. Bulding mode is awesome and combat is fast Action paced fun. Only few servers are full but you always find good gaming company.

Nuclear Dawn is one of the best mash ups of FPS and RST currently available on Steam. It is my impression that the only contender in thei genre on steam is Natural Selection 2, so i will do a little compare/contrast at the end of this.

The good:

-Excelent RTS gameplay. UI is basic, and at times a little clunky, but in general it gets the job done for both macro and micro management of building, upgrades, and resources. The biggest problem is relying on your soldiers to defend your structures and get you resources.

-Decent FPS class based combat. Each class has thier strengths, and thier weaknesses. Weapons are well balanced across classes and teams. Certian mechanics can be difficult if you are used to more FPS centric games, and getting used to having to rely on someone to get you better weapons and spawn points can be tough, but in gerneral the FPS gameplay is rewarding.

-A Great community. The people who play this game LOVE it. They set up events on popular severs, help out new people, and are very communicative.

The bad:

-Small base of players. Time has taken its toll on the number of active players. At peak times there is often a server of 30 players or so, but other than that there are very few people playing.

-Small selection of maps. Although the community has done thier best to make a wider selection of maps, there are still a very limited amount compared to FPS centeric and RTS centeric games.

***Natural Selection 2 vs. Nuclear Dawn***

Natural Selection 2 has 2 radically different sides. Although this creates some more variety, thier strengths are appearant at different points throughout a match, which makes the game much more difficult to balance. At this point in time I would say that for balancing reasons alone Nuclear Dawn is the better game.

Nuclear Dawn has considerably larger maps than Natural Selection 2. This allows for more strategy for each commander, expecially when compared to Natural Selection's closed corridors and small rooms.

Both games have equivilent FPS gameplay, with the exception that NS2 is only class based for one of the teams. The other team can custimize thier loadouts (shotguns midgame, grenade launchers/flamethrowers late game, exo suits end game), but thier overall stats are the same.

Nuclear Dawn blows the pants off NS2 when it comes to RTS UI. Because the 2 sides have very similar buildings, the developers were able to keep the key bindings for each side's buildings the same, so it is very easy to play as commander for either side. This is not the case for NS2.


Overall, if you like FPS, or RTS this game is worth a try. Make sure to sign up with the community groups so you know when everyone else is playing.

A final note: This game, like many team based FPS, really requires a mic. You can still be an effective team member if you don't (there are in-game voice commands), but I can assure you that at least once every game you will wish you had it to call out enemy locations accuratly, or request supplies in a very specivic spot. For the RTS element a mic is a must.

Please buy it. It is an amazing game that needs more attention.

A good mix of FPS and RTS, built on the Source engine. You get to play either as NATO like Consortium, or Warsaw pact like Empire (or blue team vs OpForce, as I like to call them). Game is really well balanced, with 4 different classes with different traits, and various different weapons and kits for each class.

Community is great, once you get to know them, and there are weekly events to keep the servers busy.

Also, +1 for linux release.

Looking forward to Nuclear Dawn 2, since it's a great concept, but could be improved (since I played BF2 back in the day, I miss the vehicles). ;)

This is an interesting game with both pros and cons

Pros - Fun having a real commander and controlling real people making it more realistic
- Good community
- Solid game mechanics

Cons - Some bugs on mac
- People don't listen to RTS commander
- Small weapon selection
- No in depth strategy
- Becomes repetitive
- Graphics aren't great
- Bad RTS interface which is difficult and challenging to use and generally unpleasant.

Overall I wouldn't recommend buying this unless it was on sale of at least 75% off but if you enjoy both RTSs and FPSs and don't mind some flaws such as graphics and horrible interface on RTS side then buy it anyway.

When you get a full server it's tons of fun.

a very well thought out game with the purfect mix of stratagy and action, it reminds me of a game called battlezone, when i was younger it was my favourite game and nuclear dawn reminds me of it, the classes are really balanced as well, overall a good game, but i think is should be more popular then it is at this time.

nice strategy mixed with combat

Seriously I do not understand why there are not more people playing this game, especially from the Linux community. There is still a lack of good native games and this one is just awesome. Add to that a great bunch of players and its seriously good fun. Two play modes as well should suit most poeples tastes.

It is a fun game with a nice concept. The only issue is that a lot of people don't play it.

So far i played a few min of it and i can see so much good inthis game It needs more people in it i sure hope it will.