A near-future air war
Nuclear Option is a combat flight game set on a large, dynamic battlefield of the near future. You fly from a detailed cockpit with a situational awareness HUD that marks nearby targets and threats, plus a flight HUD showing angle of attack, velocity vector, climb rate, G-force and radar altitude. Battles run across land, air and sea, with AI-controlled ground vehicles and AI aircraft fighting alongside or against you. The maps cover a wide range of terrain, including a 100km-wide area with several biomes and a naval-themed archipelago of occupied islands. Night missions are available, and the cockpit supports night vision.
Flying and fighting
Each aircraft is built from dozens of individually simulated parts, up to 50 per plane, so stalls, spins and G-force effects are fully modelled. The damage model tracks 30 to 50 detachable parts per aircraft, and the state of each part changes how your plane handles. You can fly with a range of controllers or use a mouse-controlled virtual joystick, so no special hardware is required. The arsenal includes guns, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, bombs, cruise and ballistic missiles, with both guided and unguided options. Explosions use simulated blast effects, and nuclear weapons produce a shockwave that propagates across the battlefield. Countermeasures include IR flares and a radar jammer.
Playing with your group
Multiplayer is player hosted with a public lobby browser, and it supports both cooperative and competitive play. Your group can team up against the AI or fight each other in PvP, flying missions you build together. The included mission editor lets you set up scenarios before you launch, and each of the thirteen aircraft comes with scenarios that show off what it does best. The roster covers light attack and counter-insurgency planes, trainers, VTOLs, helicopters, stealth aircraft, air superiority fighters, electronic warfare planes and heavy bombers, so a group can split roles across the flight.
Before you start
Nuclear Option is in Early Access, so expect the game to keep changing as development continues. The flight model is realistic rather than arcade, so learning how each aircraft stalls, spins and responds to damage takes some time. Missions you build in the editor can be flown solo or shared with friends, which makes it worth spending a few minutes there before a session.