If a nuclear bomb goes off in Germany but nobody hears it explode, does a nuclear war start? Under most circumstances, I’d hope your answer to be ‘did you hit your head’, but during the rainy November of 1983, the world as we know it came dangerously close to ending thanks to bombs that didn’t quite exist exploding.
The 1983 edition of the Able Archer exercise almost got a little too real, marking the last nuclear close call of the Cold War, and setting the scene for one of my most anticipated games of 2025. I am talking about ’83, the spiritual successor to Rising Storm 2: Vietnam.
’83 was unveiled in 2019, but the initial hype quickly turned into panic as developer Antimatter Games folded in 2023. The survivors rebranded as Blue Dot Games, and with it came painful rounds of negotiations to acquire the ’83 brand, and some do-or-die fundraising efforts. At one point, the studio was kept alive by a single Rising Storm 2 fan with deep pockets.
Of course, none of that matters now. In a move that surprised just about everyone, Blue Dot Games announced that ’83 would be coming out in Q4 2025. They also recruited a small army of players to test the game ahead of the early access drop.
Like Nuclear War During Able Archer, ’83 Keeps Getting Closer
The way something is done matters almost as much as the action itself. Back in 1983, a series of disconnected events managed to do the unthinkable: to convince a superpower that an unprovoked nuclear strike was happening. Documentaries like Able Archer 1983: The Brink of the Apocalypse do a better job than me at telling the story.
Unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 though, the Able Archer close call came and went almost unnoticed by the general public. Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union were a hair’s breadth from becoming an atomic wasteland worthy of the best post-apocalyptic games out there, but most people remained blissfully unaware of it for years.
Call it morbid fascination, but that is what draws me to ’83. You see, I love games set in the Cold War, but between the historical recreations (like the upcoming Hell Let Loose: Vietnam) and insane fantasy (think Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater), there’s a concerning lack of Cold-War-gone-hot games with a grounded premise.
Right now, the closest thing I have to it is ARMA Reforger, where I can pretend to fight for a fictional island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where the cities are French and the soldiers speak Czech. The next ARMA update is set to change that, but that is a ways out.
’83, on the other hand, wants me to imagine a war that very nearly happened. The explosions ring through Eastern European villages and German forests, where you could still hear the echoes of the previous big war.
In the snippets of gameplay I’ve seen from ’83, things are barely above that of Battlefield titles of yore in terms of realism, but the setting and execution carry a weight that its rivals are too scared to bear.
Beneath the tired gunfights between Kalashnikovs and M16s is a reminder that this could have happened, and the end result of it could only have been one: the atomic sunrise at night, and the end of days.
Now that ’83 went from a cancelled pipe dream to a real, tangible game that is set to come out soon, I want to stare that grim alternate reality in the eye. When the bombs go off and the game enters early access later this year, the nuclear flash can blind me and I’ll be at peace.
’83 is scheduled to come out before the end of 2025 on PC.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
