WARNO Review – A Deep Dive into Cold War Tactics

WARNO, a.k.a. “Warning Order,” is a 2024 real-time tactics and turn-based strategy hybrid developed and published by Eugen Systems. Set against the tense backdrop of an alternate 1989 where the Cold War erupts into full-blown conflict in Western Europe, WARNO pits Western NATO forces against the Communist Warsaw Pact across massive, hyper-detailed battlefields that span forests, towns, and strategic chokepoints like the infamous Fulda Gap. With its dual layers of gameplay, this title is more than just another RTS—it’s a full-scale military simulator. Let’s break down what makes it tick, what works, and where it stumbles in this comprehensive WARNO Review.

The Alternative History is delivered through many high quality cinematics.

Graphics, Sound, and Presentation

WARNO is a visual spectacle. Utilizing the Iriszoom engine, it delivers stunning unit models and destructible environments that bring every shell fragment and tank track to life. From verdant forests shrouding ambushes to crumbling brick facades that still provide cover, the environments are alive and dynamic. The cinematics and briefing screens add polish and context to missions, enhancing immersion without dragging you out of gameplay.

Audio-wise, WARNO is equally impressive. Tanks reverberate with heavy-thud firing sounds, artillery report with deep resonance, and infantry murmurs give life to the front lines. Aircraft effects occasionally feel subdued, but the ground battle ambience remains top-tier. Overall, the visual and audio design sets the tone perfectly: tense, atmospheric, and authentic.

Gameplay Mechanics & Unit Systems

At its core, WARNO emphasizes combined-arms tactics: infantry, armor, artillery, air support, and recon must work in harmony to claim victory. You deploy battlegroups drawn from real-world Cold War-era divisions—like the U.S. 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment or the Soviet 79th Guards Tank Division—each with unique doctrines and unit rosters. Facing the enemy head-on without recon risks disaster; thus scouting, camouflage, and smoke are essential on the battlefield.

The tactical map comprises the majority of time spent in WARNO.

The economy is abstract but clear: you gain command points over time that replenish your deployment options. At scale, this becomes a tug-of-war: hold key zones to starve your opponent of resources and build momentum. Many units also offer special traits and custom loadouts, letting players tailor their forces to their style or select samurai-like specialization decks.

In fast-paced skirmishes, battles often span dozens of minutes, featuring intense 10v10 matches in multiplayer or solo confrontations. Players have lavished praise on WARNO’s depth and feel: praising how coordinated play—supplying, recon support, and combined arms—is vital.

The Strategic map makes each tactical battle in the singleplayer campaigns much more meaningful.

Where WARNO truly evolves beyond typical RTS formulae is its Army General mode—a strategic layer reminiscent of board wargaming or grand-strategy mechanics. You maneuver battalions and brigades across a campaign map in turn-based style, deciding when to auto-resolve conflicts or dive into real-time battles. With five main campaigns—ranging from introductory scenarios to 30–40 hour behemoths—the mode offers both broad strategic thinking and tactical freedom.

While it lacks deeper logistics or empire-building mechanics, it encapsulates operational warfare: balancing fatigue, reinforcing broken units, and managing fronts. It nails that “total warboard” feel while remaining accessible.

User Interface

The UI in WARNO caters to both beginners and veterans. A well-designed side panel shows unit stats and categories while interactive cards clarify roles like anti-tank, support, or recon. The translucency and minimalistic HUD ensure the battlefield remains in focus. Meanwhile, the line-of-sight tool, intuitive overlays, and unit selection systems improve map awareness and decision execution.

Despite its clean presentation, this can be overwhelming at first. Tutorials help, but the layered tactics and unit differences mean newcomers may feel daunted until they grasp key principles like zone control, supply lines, and combined-arms interplay.

AI and Balance Issues

Here’s where this WARNO Review gets critical: the AI tends to exhibit predictable. It will often press repeatedly at the same choke points like bridges, playing into prepared kill zones. This can feel historically awkward—but can also become an advantage once the player learns its tendencies. Multiplayer runs hotter and more unpredictable than AI engagements, in part because human opponents strategize dynamically.

Unit balance remains a mixed bag. Air units are heavily countered by AA, while artillery spam and tank rushes can dominate if unchecked. Some community voices describe gameplay as “tank-spam fest” due to the potency and mobility of armored units. The same is often said of helicopters, though balancing efforts by Eugen are constant.

WARNO’s multiplayer lies at its beating heart. Real-time tactics in large-scale scenarios require teamwork and communication. However, even with well-coordinated teams, matches can turn sour if players drop out or rely overly on helicopters or arty without synergy. When things click—scouting, supply, recon, and firepower in harmony—there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of pushing a zone and tipping the match in your favor.

Content and Longevity

Offered at ~$40 USD, WARNO delivers significant content for its price point. With multiple campaigns, skirmishes, diverse battlegroups, and an in-development map editor, the game supports deep replayability and community creativity.

While scripted missions are limited, the Army General campaigns, combined with user-built maps and potential co-op modes, promise hundreds of hours of engagement. The developers seem committed to post-launch support, with balancing patches, UI updates, and DLC promised.

Summary of Pros & Cons

✅ Pros:

• Immersive, detailed Cold War atmosphere with top-tier audio-visual design.

• Engaging combined-arms mechanics with deep tactical rock-paper-scissors interplay .

• Strategic depth in Army General campaigns and real-time skirmish gameplay .

• User-friendly interface with clear unit roles and helpful UI overlays.

• Active, vibrant multiplayer offering adrenaline-fueled matches.

⚠️ Cons:

• AI is predictable, prone to tactical blunders.

• Balance leans toward artillery and armor spam without strong counters .

• Steep learning curve may be intimidating for less experienced players.

• Scripted single-player missions are limited in number and repeatability.

Final Verdict

In this WARNO Review, the verdict is clear: WARNO is a standout title in the Cold War RTS landscape. It combines cinematic presentation, layered tactics, and strategic depth in a package that both challenges and rewards coordination and foresight. Its weaknesses—predictable AI, balance concerns, and sharp learning curve—don’t erode the powerful core experience, especially in multiplayer.

For war-gaming enthusiasts, Cold War fans, and strategy players craving scale and authenticity, WARNO is a must-play. For newcomers or those seeking cinematic drama akin to World in Conflict, it may feel technical and demanding—but it is unquestionably worth the investment if you're drawn to tactical depth.

Final Score:
8/10 — A compelling, richly detailed real-time tactics experience with strategic underpinnings. It rewards dedication, punishes sloppiness, and flourishes most in multiplayer teamwork.

WARNO Review Round-Up:

• Immersive Cold War visuals/audio

• Combined-arms tactical combat

• Strategic depth via Army General mode

• Great UI, but steeper learning curve

• AI/balance issues, but community patches incoming

Should You Play It?
If you love realistic military strategy and don’t mind spending hours mastering its systems, Warno is one of the best tactical experiences of 2024. Whether as a supplement to your RTS collection or a deep solo/multiplayer conquest—it’s a battlefield you won’t soon forget.

Final Rating: 8/10 – Highly recommended for tactical veterans and strategy fans.

Let me know if you’d like tips on getting started or analysis of specific division setups—happy to share!

Sea Power Review – A Cinematic Jump Into Cold War Naval Strategy

Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age offers a dramatically different experience offers an experience that is slow-burning, deeply methodical, and rich in military detail. Developed with an unmistakable reverence for late Cold War naval tactics, this game invites players to assume command of advanced fleets, orchestrating tense cat-and-mouse engagements across the high seas.

For those wondering if this complex simulator is worth your time and money, this Sea Power review aims to explore the game’s mechanics, strengths, and current shortcomings, especially as it continues to evolve.

A Cold War Theater of Conflict

An Iowa Class Battleship launching a cruise missile in Sea Power.

Set between the 1960s and 1980s, Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age recreates a believable, data-rich simulation of maritime warfare between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces.

This title is unapologetically serious. You’ll manage entire carrier strike groups, oversee sonar sweeps for enemy submarines, and launch coordinated air strikes with precision.

The game includes over 150 naval units, 60 aircraft types, and multiple geographical theaters — including the North Atlantic, Gulf region, and parts of the Mediterranean. Whether you're deploying reconnaissance aircraft, engaging enemy fleets, or patrolling with nuclear submarines, each mission plays out like a high-stakes military chess match.

Gameplay Mechanics: Depth Over Speed

Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age is a real-time strategy game with pause and fast-forward capabilities, offering players immense control over pacing. Most missions follow a tactical rhythm: search, identify, engage. You can toggle radar signatures, command aircraft decks, launch missiles, and monitor sonar and radar feedback.

In this Sea Power review, it’s important to emphasize that the game doesn’t hand-hold. There’s a steep learning curve, and although there are tutorial videos available, in-game guidance is minimal. This can be a hurdle for newcomers, but for seasoned strategists, it adds to the immersion.

Luckily compared to other games in the genre, like Command: Modern Operations, Sea Power is much easier to grasp when starting out. Though that doesn’t make it easy. Since this is a little closer to a military simulation than a game some understanding of precision weapons, radar, sonar, aircraft, and ships makes the game much easier to grasp.

Tactical Displays and Interface

The tactical maps and displays are amazing in Sea Power and are much more accessible than other games in the genre.

A hallmark of Sea Power is its dual-interface approach. Players can operate from a 3D perspective to appreciate stunning visuals — including torpedo trails, phalanx CIWS engagements, and carrier landings — or they can switch to a tactical 2D map for command decisions. Most of the game unfolds via the tactical screen and event logs, where alerts inform you of enemy radar pings or missile launches.

While graphically impressive, the UI has its issues. As noted in this Sea Power review, user feedback mechanisms are lacking. At times, it’s unclear why a unit is not responding, or why specific orders are not being executed. This can be frustrating, especially when managing multiple units during large-scale confrontations.

Submarine Warfare and Sensor Mechanics

Submarine warfare in Sea Power is not just a feature — it’s a full-blown discipline. Using active and passive sonar, deploying sonobuoys, and patrolling under thermal layers adds another layer of realism. It's a slow, deliberate process where one wrong ping could give away your position or miss an approaching torpedo.

Detection mechanics rely heavily on sensor range, atmospheric conditions, and stealth, creating a paranoia-laced environment. Will you go dark to avoid being spotted, or risk lighting up the radar to locate the enemy first?

This Sea Power review finds that these mechanics capture the tension of real Cold War naval standoffs better than any game since Harpoon or Command: Modern Operations, albeit in a more accessible package.

Combat Engagements and Realism

Sub Combat is a huge part of Sea Power.

When missiles fly, Sea Power becomes a spectacle. Dozens of projectiles arc across the sky, anti-aircraft systems roar to life, and countermeasures are deployed in real-time. It’s as thrilling as it is overwhelming.

But combat here isn't only about launching. You’ll need to manage ammunition, consider the angle of your ships for optimal CIWS coverage, and utilize electronic countermeasures effectively. Decoys, chaff, and infrared noise-makers all come into play, especially against heat-seeking or radar-guided threats.

The game also offers a full unit encyclopedia, allowing players to study everything from missile types to radar frequencies — a testament to the developer’s commitment to authenticity.

Modding, Mission Editor, and Community Content

Another standout in this Sea Power review is the game’s mission editor and robust mod support. Players can tweak scenarios, add units, or simulate historical confrontations. The Workshop community is already flourishing, with new campaigns, realism enhancements, and rebalanced weapon behaviors.

If you’re the kind of player who values community-driven longevity, this feature alone may be worth the price of admission.

Bugs, Limitations, and Early Access Caveats

Craft even down to small patrol boats are modelled in Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age.

Despite its strengths, Sea Power is not without flaws. AI behavior can be inconsistent — sometimes ignoring orders or halting entirely.

At £41.99 (or ~$50), the Early Access price feels steep. While we recognize this Sea Power review evaluates a work-in-progress, the lack of campaign, incomplete tutorials, and occasional bugs mean the game might not be ready for everyone just yet. However, if does seem that the team behind this game is in it for the long haul with consistent and meaningful updates.

The Dynamic Campaign on the Horizon

Looking ahead, the most exciting promise is the addition of a dynamic campaign, planned for late 2025. This feature could transform Sea Power from a sandbox of individual missions into a grand, evolving narrative experience.

Imagine orchestrating a series of interconnected naval battles where unit loss, resource management, and political decisions matter. It’s a tantalizing prospect for fans of complex strategy games.

Visuals, Audio, and Presentation

Graphically, Sea Power strikes a strong balance between utility and style. Submarine views, missile trails, and ocean dynamics are visually satisfying, even if some ship models could use texture improvements. Sound design is decent, with the soundtrack contributing to the game’s suspenseful atmosphere, although occasional audio glitches persist.

There’s a lot of potential here to elevate the immersion further — like adding crew animations or more detailed environmental audio cues.

Who Is This Game For?

Land units are also in Sea Power as well, like this airbase that is being carpet bombed.

If you’re a military sim enthusiast, naval history buff, or a fan of Cold War tension, Sea Power: Naval Combat In The Missile Age is probably already on your radar.

However, if you're new to the genre or unsure about real-time tactics and micromanagement, you may want to wait until more polish and accessibility features are added — especially given the current price point.

The Final Verdict - Sea Power Review

Sea Power is not a game for everyone — and that’s exactly why it matters. In a landscape filled with generic shooters and strategy-light management games, it carves out a unique niche. Its dedication to authenticity, tactical depth, and player control is unmatched.

As this Sea Power review has shown, the game is already a formidable naval warfare simulator. With continued development, bug fixes, and the highly anticipated dynamic campaign, it has the potential to become a genre-defining masterpiece.

Until then, it remains an Early Access gem — rough around the edges, but glittering with promise.

Path Of Fury - Episode 1: Tetsuo’s Tower Review

If you’re a big fan of VR Exercise, VR Workout Games, or just VR Fighting games for any reason, then I’ve got a pretty solid recommendation to make for you this week. That’s Path Of Fury, or at least the first Episode titled “Tetsuo’s Tower”, which released this previous week.

Here I’ll help you out by giving you a brief overview of what the game is, how it feels to play, and why I think it’s a solid new VR Fighting game that’s worth your money and time.

Oh, and if you’d rather just watch a video about the game then check this one out about it on the Reality Remake Youtube channel.

What Is Path Of Fury - Episode 1: Tetsuo’s Tower?

The Path Of Fury - Episode 1: Tetsuo’s Tower Logo.

So here’s the gist of the game. You’re angry at a guy called Tetsuo. To be honest I’m not sure why, but you are his greatest enemy and he lives at the top of a big tower full of various goons and fighters that don’t want you to reach him at the top.

So this means you’ve got to fight hundreds of people to get to the top of the tower. They’ll be different sorts of people, different styles of fighter, and will go toe to toe with you in a variety of environements.

A solid premise for a Virtual Reality beat-em-up, and here’s what the actual gameplay is like.

In this Path Of Fury - Episode 1: Tetsuo’s Tower Review you’ll find that this is a very punching centric game.

Path Of Fury - Episode 1: Tetsuo’s Tower - Gameplay

The gameplay of this game is pretty simple as easy to grasp. You stand still and are moved through a part of the tower automatically and stop whenever there are enemies in your way. Targets will appear on those enemies that you need to hit with your hands. They are blue or red or grey. You’ve got a blue hand and a red hand. You deal extra damage by hitting a target with the hand colored the same as it, and hand color doesn’t matter for grey targets.

If you don’t hit an opponent fast enough and the target on them shrinks then they get a chance to strike you. You have to punch whatever limb they’re hitting you with to block the blow before they hit you or you take damage.

You’ve got to hit with some force though, and as the game goes on it gets harder and you have to strike faster and faster in order to knock your enemies down and avoid being hit yourself.

This boss absolutely loves to kick in Path Of Fury - Episode 1: Tetsuo’s Tower

There are levels with different themes and environments, and a boss at the end of each level. You get a score depending on how quickly you completed it and how few mistakes you made.

That’s basically it. The game also switches things up by having you punch different things like doors and objects to get them out of your way and progress, or choose which way you want to go. The entire game is basically an on rails shooter… except with punching.

Oh, and should you lose then you have to start from a previous checkpoint (which might be a very far way back). The game is a roguelite in that way, but is far less punishing than other games with a similar system.

Path Of Fury - Episode 1: Tetsuo’s Tower - Review

There are some crazy set pieces in this VR Fighting game.

The end result of all of this is a game that is very quick and easy to get into, but very hard to master because it relies so much on your physical speed and endurance.

You get a break at the end of each level so you won’t have to completely drain yourself to finish one, but the game does get very intense. While it doesn’t involve moving your legs and upper body as much as other punching games like Thrill Of The Fight, Path Of Fury does a great job at wearing your arms out and making you breathe heavily. You’ve got to do a lot of fast punching, and that makes it both very entertaining and a great workout.

The aesthetic of the game is that classic Playstation 1 style so commonly seen in indie games, yet not so much in Virtual Reality. It fits with the grungy setting and world.

Punching a Cop In Path Of Fury - Episode 1: Tetsuo’s Tower

The score is pretty decent with some great upbeat tracks, and in the end Path Of Fury relies on replayability, because it does have a roguelite format that may keep you stuck in a certain portion of the game. Should you actually complete the game though then there are also challenge modes to keep it interesting.

Still, even completing it once is quite the achievement, and even when you do there are multiple paths up the tower to take, and each time you can focus on completing the level faster and more efficiently. All while getting a fantastic workout.

It’s a fairly straightforward premise for a VR Fighting game that Path Of Fury executes excellently with a fantastic gritty look and feel. It is an absolute blast to work up a sweat in this game, and you don’t need a huge VR play space to enjoy it.

An Amazing VR Climbing Game - Crowbar Climber

When I first shelled out 6.99$ for Crowbar Climber in the Meta Quest store I wasn’t prepared to be so impressed by the game, but I was very intrigued by the concept of a VR Climbing Game using crowbars.

It’s one of those ideas that is so simply straightforward and seems obvious when looking back at it. It really brings the hit indie game Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy to mind.

Oh, and if you want to see some video of this game check it out on Youtube.

What’s So Fun In Crowbar Climber?

You can even wave at yourself in Crowbar Climber.

Alright here’s the game put quickly and simply. You’re a little guy in a pot and your hands are crowbars. You climb upwards and try not to fall back downwards.

Boom, bam, that’s it. That’s the game, and it is a lot of fun for such a simple concept for a Virtual Reality Climbing Game. Instead of just putting your hand over a grabbable thing and holding grip down you actually have to concentrate on how you are hanging on to something with the hooked end of a crowbar.

The stages get progressively harder in this VR Climbing Game.

Let’s face it we’ve seen that old “raise hand and hold grip” climbing system in so many VR games from adventure titles like Skydance’s Behemoth to dedicated games like The Climb 2 that it’s just so old and tired by now. It was never a particularly interesting way to simulate climbing in the first place.

Well Crowbar Climber might not be a simulator for real life climbing, but it sure is fun and interesting. The more obstacles you manage to climb past the harder they get. From hooking your way from ledge to ledge to swinging and jumping off of small handholds. After a while the platforms move as well, adding an element of timing.

Things get sort of hectic in Crowbar Climber as you keep going, and it offers a fantastic VR Climbing challenge.

If you fall down you can lose quite a bit of progress, and the feeling of playing Crowbar Climber is a lot like that of playing Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy. It can be so frustrating to miss and fall down, but it just makes you want to climb higher even more.

The only downsides are that the visuals are very basic and the clanging of the crowbar can get a little annoying. It could use a little music. Still, I never thought I would have so much fun pulling myself up a hill with a pair of crowbars in VR.

Crowbar Climber is a fantastic use of VR hand controls to create a unique and fun VR Climbing Game. I highly recommend it if you want a Virtual Reality climbing experience that feels fresh and unique, is easy to get into, and it’s reasonably priced.

Alien: Rogue Incursion Is Still Fun Despite The Bad Quest Port | Alien: Rogue Incursion Review

So Alien: Rogue Incursion has hit a bit of flak for the quality of its port to the Quest 3. I’ve played this fantastic Alien VR game exclusively on the Quest 3 and I’d say that well… yea there is some justification to the criticism.

The game occasionally struggles on the Quest 3 even when not recording, and my recordings of it often came out choppy at points, which is a pretty good indicator for an unoptimized game. Not to mention the most obvious indicator of the visual fidelity being below what you would be accustomed to expect on a Quest 3.

There were some bugs as well. The occasional missed trigger for a mission (defend this area… and then nothing happens for five minutes).

Though I do have to say that despite all of this I had an absurdly good time with Alien: Rogue Incursion, as you can see on Youtube.

I’m not saying that the criticism of the low quality port isn’t valid. I am saying that I really loved this game despite the issues that others, and myself, have with it. I guess you’d call this an Alien: Rogue Incursion review… but I’m really just biasing towards the good parts here (and there are many more good parts than bad).

What Alien: Rogue Incursion Does Right

Blasting Xenomorphs in Alien: Rogue Incursion is an Unmatched Aliens VR Experience.

So ignoring the technical faults of the Quest 3 port, what does Alien: Rogue Incursion do right that makes it such an enjoyable VR shooter adventure game?

I think the foremost thing that it does, and how it utilizes Virtual Reality the best, is it immediately gives you a pulse rifle. No intermittent period of the game where you just use a pistol or something stupid like that, you just get a pulse rifle at the very beginning.

Oh and what a pulse rifle it is. It’s got the sound, the heft, the feel, and the firepower of a hundred round magazine that you’d expect from such an iconic weapon. Alien: Rogue Incursion has a pulse rifle that is really the closest you could get to using a real one, since they don’t actually exist. It’s a magnificent and iconic weapon to any lover of the Alien franchise.

Check out the Pulse Rifle in Alien: Rogue Incursion.

The other weapons in the game, while not as unique as the pulse rifle, are also all well implemented and fun to use. Though it would be nice if there was a way to turn off the “snap aim” feature the game comes with that forces your sight down the barrel of a weapon when your eye gets close enough to it.

I’d rather aim the old fashioned way, thank you very much, but this is a feature that you can get used to. I’ve also heard some complain about how slow the weapons are to move and load, but that’s another thing that I think is actually really great about this Aliens VR game.

Guns are heavy, and you can reload guns ridiculously quickly in many Virtual Reality games because you don’t feel the weight of them. Well Alien: Rogue Incursion is part horror game, just like all Aliens games are, and the horror of trying to reload a weapon as quickly as possible mid combat should be well known to any VR gamer. Drawing that out and giving the weapons some real heft as you try to aim and load them not only increases the feeling of immersion with the items you are using, but also increases the tension of every situation.

Of course these situations wouldn’t be tense without a proper creepy setting, and Castor’s Cradle is a really good choice. It’s a barren icy planet, and you spend your time there inside of a Xenomorph infested clandestine research base. It is about as grim and creepy a setting as you could hope for out in space. The place is trashed, it’s cold, and it’s creepy.

Castor’s Cradle is your classic creepy Alien infested facility… but now in a Virtual Reality shooter!

The Xenomorphs themselves, the titular Aliens, also make a pretty fine showing. Though they may also draw criticism as being “not clever” or running into your gunfire too easily.

Sure the Aliens take chances on frontal charges often, but also consider that in this game you have a motion tracker on you at all times. If you consider the Aliens to be too dumb, then turn that tracker off and never use it. It gets a lot harder to even know when a Xenomorph is nearby, and twice as much so to be looking in their direction as they charge you.

Every sound might be an Alien in a vent sneaking up on you. They really are hard to see, and often flee or try to attack you from another angle when a frontal assault isn’t expedient. Though you can tell that they don’t try to attack you from behind as much as they could. Likely for balance purposes.

Let’s face it, fighting a facility full of Aliens that are as stealthy and clever as those in the movies would be a suicide mission.