A surprisingly deep and well-designed FPS/RTS hybrid. A Team Fortress 2 alternative that needs a community to thrive.

Nuclear Dawn is a compelling combination of FPS and RTS elements that provide an unique experience among other online shooters. With an array of class customization and ability to control the battlefield as a commander, a trip to the war torn world of Nuclear Dawn is highly recommended.

InterWave Studios combines FPS and RTS in a technically dated but successful mix that can entertain for a long time, provided that the incoming huge FPS titles won't subtract its player-base.

What Nuclear Dawn does best is perhaps how it requires each team of players work together.

If InterWave manage to grow alongside the community, Nuclear Dawn could become the most important FPS game to arrive in a long time. Right now, it's a welcome replacement for Team Fortress 2 and stopgap until Natural Selection 2.

So, overall, FPS fans rejoice, for this is a darned good game for the price. However, definitely keep in mind my previous advice: Get a headset, work together, play the tutorials. If all you care about is a high score and a KDR, don't bother, this isn't your type of game. If you truly care about teamwork, and love games which encourage it, this is definitely your thing.

Despite some art direction issues and the lack of a tutorial system, dedicated players will have some fun here.

Nuclear Dawn combines two great genres and is simply a good game. Nuclear Dawn provides the 'missing link' between FPS and RTS gamers which hasn't been seen in a long time. If you're looking for a good shooter and if you are prepared to use your brains, then this just might be the right game for you.

It's far from the best-looking game on the market, but it's also far from the worst, and the gameplay makes up for it anyway.

Nuclear Dawn is an intense first-person shooter/real-time strategy hybrid that has a lot to offer when it comes to teamwork.

So in the post-Call of Duty/Battlefield/Team Fortress 2 world of today, Nuclear Dawn will not have an easy time finding a safe place, not only because of the risk it has taken as a genre combination, but mainly because of the work that the FPS side still needs.

As I said before, it may not be perfect, but it's a step in the right direction for the genre. It'll be interesting to see what improvements come to the game as the minor bugs are ironed out. And even more interesting will be where we go next, now that Nuclear Dawn has shown us what a game is capable of doing.

To have fun with this game, there need to be a lot of players and able commanders. If you find some with matching abilities, the game is extremely entertaining. But that's a rare case.

Even with all its flaws, Nuclear Dawn is a treat for those who wanted a decent FPS/RTS hybrid.

It could do with a practice mode or some proper tutorials to introduce newcomers to the commander mode, but if you're up for a challenge or find a decent server, Nuclear Dawn is an exciting take on a genre that's usually lacking new ideas.

Quotation forthcoming.

Attractive combination of first person shooter with real time strategy delivers balanced action and tactical parts and offers a good alternative to other shooters. [Dec 2011]

It's certainly one of the better RTS/FPS hybrids, and with any luck, it will become a little more welcoming to players interested in something other than the typical shooter fare - and for people willing to invest themselves, it's already worth a look.

It's unfortunate to see Nuclear Dawn suffer from such simple errors, as underneath these tiny flaws is an above-average game with some new, interesting ideas at its core. If you're playing with friends or get lucky with a random server, it can be a lot of fun - but often that's not the case and as a result Nuclear Dawn doesn't quite earn the recommendation it's otherwise capable of receiving.

I applaud the developers for trying to make this work, but I honestly don't see many players spending too much of their time trying it out.

Despite its good ideas, Nuclear Dawn's rough edges, particularly on the FPS side, mean curious players will check it out, but they might not stay for long. [Nov 2011, p.104]

Interwave needs to deliver the promised modes, improved tutorials and an offline option quickly if it hopes to survive beyond the release of this fall's marquee titles like Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. There's a lot to like in the concept, but I don't think Interwave has earned your money yet.

While it won't be able to compete with its big budget peers in pretty much any aspect, at least it's a fraction of the price of the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Some way of teaching the players its mechanics were really required (even if it was just pages of text with pretty pictures, just something... anything). Unfortunately Nuclear Dawn has none of this and is instead a confusing game that isn't all that much fun to play.

Nuclear Dawn is a game that can reach great things if it was put together more coherently. Bugs, balance issues, and an uninspired use of the apocalyptic settings make for a game that feels competent at best and incomplete at its worst.