Deep realistic tactics without base building
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“Wargame focuses on: flanking, maneuvering, unit position, stealth, supply lines, moral, terrain, and tactics.”
Steam review · 5 h played ↗
Wargame: European Escalation
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Mostly Positive · 76%Mostly Positive · 76%Eugen Systems2012RTS · Wargame · Strategy
$9.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 5 h ago
The verdict
A deep, hardcore Cold War tactical RTS with a strong scripted campaign and huge unit variety. Skip it if you dislike cheating AI and steep difficulty, or if you want multiplayer, which is dead.
Great for
Patient strategy fans who want a hard, realistic single-player Cold War campaign with no base building
Main risk
Brutal, seemingly cheating AI with no pause or difficulty options, plus a dead multiplayer scene
What players love
Strong scripted campaign
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“European Escalation, on the other hand, has a fully-scripted campaign where a real, human designer has taken the time to think carefully about the narative”
Steam review · 54.6 h played ↗
Challenging and rewarding difficulty
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“It's very fair, but hard.”
Steam review · 15.6 h played ↗
Huge variety of authentic units
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“A huge amount of vehicles. The variety of units is amazing.”
Steam review · translated · 41.8 h played ↗
Good starting point for the franchise
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews
“It was much more easier to pick up and understand, and I had the basics nailed down in a short period of time.”
Steam review · 4.5 h played ↗
Runs well on low-end PCs
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews
“Incredible optimization. The game would run even on a calculator.”
Steam review · translated · 41.8 h played ↗
What players complain about
No pause or slow-down, overwhelming difficulty
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“I cannot issue new commands to every single one of my units every second.”
Steam review · 6.5 h played ↗
AI cheats and is omniscient
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“AI simply cheats, as the last try to make it "challange". It dont need recon, ignore "line of sight" rules, can replenish ammunition and fuel before your very eyes”
Steam review · 58.5 h played ↗
Poor tutorial and clunky interface
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“there is not even a tutorial. no idea whats going on”
Steam review · 0.6 h played ↗
Brightness/gamma bug makes game unplayable
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“after so many years the game developers never fixed the gamma issue, game is unplayable with dx11 and full screen”
Steam review · 2.2 h played ↗
Multiplayer is dead and units are locked behind stars
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“there aren't enough command stars in campaign mode to unlock all the units, and the multiplayer is dead, which means it's impossible to enjoy all the game's content.”
Steam review · 13.2 h played ↗
Units miss shots and ignore orders
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“units cannot hit the broad side of a barn even if they are right in front of it.”
Steam review · 57.1 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Unknown10 GB
Minimum
OSWINDOWS XP SP3/WINDOWS VISTA SP2/WINDOWS 7
ProcessorAMD/INTEL DUAL-CORE 2.5 GHZ
Memory1024 MB (XP)/2048 MB (VISTA/7)
Graphics256 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 AND SHADERS 3.0 COMPATIBLE. ATI RADEON X1800 GTO/NVIDIA GEFORCE 7600 GT OR HIGHER
Storage10 GB
OSWINDOWS XP SP3/WINDOWS VISTA SP2/WINDOWS 7
ProcessorAMD/INTEL DUAL-CORE 2.5 GHZ
Memory1024 MB (XP)/2048 MB (VISTA/7)
Graphics256 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 AND SHADERS 3.0 COMPATIBLE. ATI RADEON X1800 GTO/NVIDIA GEFORCE 7600 GT OR HIGHER
Storage10 GB
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