Final Strike Final Hour PC Review
If you have ever fancied controlling one of the worlds nuclear superpower countries then Final Strike may be the game you have been waiting for!
Final Strike Final Hour is a fast paced nuclear warfare strategy game, giving players the ability to control one of the twelve biggest nuclear superpowers of the world.
Once players start Final Strike they will be greeted with a with a few options, the game shows players the shortcut keys, how to play and options.
Upon hitting the Start Game button players will then be required to select the superpower nation they would like to control, from the start only three nations are available and include the United States which is classed as easy, Western Europe classed as Normal and North Korea which is classed as impossible and just for the record I actually think it is impossible!
With the nation chosen and amount of enemies selected the next thing to do will be to choose the super weapon your selected nation can build once it has been fully researched. As with the Nations from the start there are only three unlocked with a further nine to unlock throughout the game. The three unlocked are a Global Strike Triden which is a advanced nuke delivering multiple real and fake strikes at once making them extremely hard to defend against. The stealth bomber with it’s near undetectable and instantly reusable attacks and last but not least the dirty radium bomb which is a low tech dirty bomb strapped to a IRBM rocket, which upon impact will leave the impact area uninhabitable forever!
Into the game and you will be greeted with a globe of the world with the selected nation chosen in front of you, the aim of the game is to basically take out all the other nations and have world dominance.
Each part of the world is segmented and it will be your aim to drive out the existing country and take over the land or negotiate with other superpower nations to team up against others, while teaming up can keep that selected nation at bay it can also hit you when you least expect it as they can attack at any time.
Players will need to start building the nation in size by invading segments nearby, some parts will need to be attacked before they can be acquired but some surrounding ones can be taken from the start just by invading. Another key starting point is to start building defense by making cruise missiles to intercept incoming rockets from other nations trying to wipe you out.
Nations will also need to research new abilities like being able to see an incoming rockets destination, building missiles faster with less cool down time and removing the fog of war so the whole globe is visible to just name a few, each segment after doing anything from attacking to even researching will take a cool down time after, in this cool down time the segment will not be able to defend itself or so anything so planning ahead is key to not losing any of the nation.
Each part of the nation can make a certain amount of missiles to hold, but with research this can be increased to hold up to five missiles in each nation.
As players progress and start taking other nations the attacks will come thick and fast with other superpowers doing all they can to slow and stop the players growth around the world, other nations will launch first strikes which fire a series of rockets at your nation which you will have to defend against in order to not lose any ground.
Graphically the game won’t win any awards, it’s basic but everything is still very clear and accurate. Explosions could be a little better to really see a nuke going off and the devastation it would cause. On the other hand with the graphics being basic a supercomputer won’t be needed to run this game due to it’s small GPU demands and would make a great game for laptops without a really powerful GPU. As the FPS shows on a GTX 980ti the game ran a stable 165FPS the whole time with no lag whatsoever.
Controls work well and the mouse is really the only thing needed, the keyboard is an option and there is a shortcut list available but playing with a mouse would be my referred choice as it’s easier to get quick decisions made and accurate in attack!
One other thing that really makes the game playable in short bursts is the save game option, players have the ability to pause the game at any time and save, this allows players to come back to the game at anytime, making this a great game for anyone with limited time as you can just pick up where you left off and play in smaller sessions.
Below is a play through using Brazil as the selected nation with normal difficulty.
Verdict:
First Strike Final Hour is a really addictive game with a few things to unlock to keep players wanting to play, I would recommend First Strike to anyone who is into strategy games, the sense of achievement when you manage to take a small nation and turn them into a force that takes over the world is great! Just a few graphical improvements would be nice but apart from that Final Strike is a good solid game and should keep many gamers entertained for hours.