Nuclear Option on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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Fly near-future aircraft with immersive physics on intense battlefields, facing land, air and sea threats. Wage war against AI or other players with an array of potent weapons. Wield tactical and strategic nuclear weapons, capable of annihilating anything in their path.

Nuclear Option is a early access, flight and action game developed and published by Shockfront Studios.
Released on October 15th 2023 is available in English only on Windows.

It has received 3,745 reviews of which 3,519 were positive and 226 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.0 out of 10. 😍

The game is currently priced at 17.49€ on Steam.


The Steam community has classified Nuclear Option into these genres:

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Nuclear Option through various videos and screenshots.

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7600K CPU or similar
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 2GB DirectX 11 supported GPU
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 2 GB available space
  • VR Support: TrackIR, HOTAS, Gamepad, Mouse and Keyboard

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Jan. 2025
Like to watch DCS gameplay, but 700-pages manual is too much? War Thunder is too grindy? VTOLVR is too...VR? This game is definitely for you. Ideal balance between realistic mechanics and user-friendly controls. No need to buy flight joystick: game is perfectly playable with ordinary controller (or mouse+keyboard). 100/100, would totally recommend to any aviation geek.
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Nov. 2024
really nice middleground between arcade plane game like ace combat or project wingman & autism auto-infliction torture chambers like war thunder or DCS. in comparison to AC/PW, it's worth noting there's very little "real gameplay" - optimal fly-ins require slow buildup in either climbing to avoid AA firing angles or flying extremely close to the ground to avoid radar(sub-15m close to the ground). engagements are extremely brief as it's best to fire once and immediately leave; no craft has either the ammo or countermeasures for sustained fighting, on top of dodging AA or two different lock types being functionally impossible (one lock is already a huge ask) besides ammo scarcity, craft are expectedly fragile. even glancing gun hits or indirect detonation from a near-miss instantly render your craft unusable in combat due to engine or wing loss that leads to loss of control. it's also possible to "headshot" any craft by destroying the cockpit, which instantly kills the player/bot controlling them thus, a lot of ingame time is just flying back and forth rather than actually fighting. even if you don't take damage, you still have to go back to comically far away bases to reload, and even the best performance at landing and rearming is agonizingly slow some things are very forgiving: you succesfully land as long as your pilots don't die and whatever's left of your craft comes to a complete stop vaguely near your airbase. even if all that's left of your plane is the burning cockpit you unceremoniously T-pose out of, you get a succesful sortie credit and your craft is repaired for free. you don't have to taxi near an arming or fuel truck to initiate a rearming process, you just have to be parked sorta close and you instantly get your loadout refreshed. some things are really unforgiving: gforce massively limits your maneuvering by giving you a softcap of 10s during big moves before you black out and lose view/sound/control for about 5s, making cool plane moves largely vestigial (on top of them not helping at all with missiles xd). hovering with your helicopter when you find a good cover spot is actually a terrible idea, as not moving puts you in vortex ring state & you have a window of about 1s to counteract it with full forward motion before you are trapped into a crash. ultimately, the primary skill ceiling in the game doesn't seem knowing the mechanics of flying or deploying your weapons, as much as it involves reading the map and charting an optimal attack. since the time investment for each flight is so high, you might as well make it count i'd appreciate a option to increase all flight speeds, increase radar floor, a way to make AI munition & fuel trucks naturally populate 'allied' highways to allow for quicker rearming via higher risk landings, an option to disable gforce, and a proper third person camera with UI. understandably all of this would be VERY arcadey, and the devs are committed to some level of realism so probably not happening unless they open up modding more.
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Oct. 2024
Hidden gem, love the game, if you think war thunder and ace combat are too simple but you just can’t dedicate enough time to the complexity of dcs, then PLAY THIS GAME NOW
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Sept. 2024
Simulator disguised as an arcade game slowly tricking you into learning things. On the surface is just seems like a fun colorful sandbox aircraft game, there's big explosions, cool planes, and extremely simple controls that are very intuitive. However, underneath are realistic aircraft flight models that even rival expensive simulators, weapon systems that function like real weapon systems, sensors that work like real sensors and the best aircraft damage models that exist anywhere, bar none. This makes Nuclear Option very easy to learn, but very difficult to master because real world tactics are key. Nuclear option also has something that you cannot find anywhere else, and that is dynamic combat environments. Didn't bother shooting that enemy convoy? Well now they've made it to your airfield and are shooting your hangars and refuelers. Decided to avoid the enemy carrier group? Well now they've moved into the bay and the enemy can launch fighters from right outside your base. Conversely every action you do take, from jamming a radar to blowing up a factory helps shift the fight in your team's favor. While Nuclear Option is a fantastic single player experience, it is even better in multiplayer, being able to co-ordinate with other players in real-time. Nuclear Option has something for everyone, whether you just want to see things explode in a nuclear fireball, or if you're a hardcore flight-sim nerd who always gets makes sure they're on glideslope before final approach. This game replaced DCS and WarThunder for me, 11/10.
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June 2024
basically dcs with project wingman/ace combat controls also is basically the beamng drive of planes
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Frequently Asked Questions

Nuclear Option is currently priced at 17.49€ on Steam.

Nuclear Option is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 17.49€ on Steam.

Nuclear Option received 3,519 positive votes out of a total of 3,745 achieving an impressive rating of 9.03.
😍

Nuclear Option was developed and published by Shockfront Studios.

Nuclear Option is playable and fully supported on Windows.

Nuclear Option is not playable on MacOS.

Nuclear Option is not playable on Linux.

Nuclear Option does not currently offer any DLC.

Nuclear Option does not support mods via Steam Workshop.

Nuclear Option does not support Steam Remote Play.

Nuclear Option does not currently support Steam Family Sharing.

You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Nuclear Option.

Data sources

The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.

Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.

Last Updates
Steam data 14 April 2025 21:00
SteamSpy data 21 April 2025 02:17
Steam price 21 April 2025 12:49
Steam reviews 20 April 2025 09:50

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Nuclear Option, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.

  • SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Nuclear Option
  • SteamCharts - Analysis of Nuclear Option concurrent players on Steam
  • ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Nuclear Option compatibility
Nuclear Option
9.0
3,519
226
Online players
348
Developer
Shockfront Studios
Publisher
Shockfront Studios
Release 15 Oct 2023
Platforms