First Strike
FIRST STRIKE is a fast paced real time strategy game where you play one of the twelve biggest nuclear superpowers of the world – from known superpowers like the USA to an upstart hellraiser like North Korea – and try to be the last one remaining when the whole world blows to smithereens.
Sync your Steam wishlist to find the lowest game prices instantly. No login required, just paste your Steam profile URL!
⚡ Try Wishlist Radar!
Sync your Steam wishlist to find the lowest game prices instantly. No login required!
⚡ Try Wishlist Radar!
Close
ICBM: Escalation on Steam
Quick menu
ICBM: Escalation is a grand RTS where you command armies, develop cutting-edge tech, and wield devastating weapons. Conquer enemies with conventional forces or nuclear firepower. With new modes like Standoff and Conquest, the game offers deep strategic layers in a global warfare setting.
ICBM: Escalation is a strategy, rts and cold war game
developed by SoftWarWare
and published by Slitherine Ltd..
Released on November 21st 2024 is available only on Windows.
It has received 878 reviews of which 771 were positive and 107 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.3 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 28.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 15.94€ on K4G.
The Steam community has classified ICBM: Escalation into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at ICBM: Escalation through various videos and screenshots.
Load More
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: 64-bit Windows 10/11
- Processor: 4-core CPU
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GPU GTX 970
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 8 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card
Steam Price & Best Deals
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
It's a pretty good game. Many problems still need to be worked out. --It crashes often --I dislike how much of the tech tree is dead space which you have to interact with to advance from one era to the next. AFAIK, the best way to progress through tech involves a lot of "there are 5 worthless techs remaining in this era I'll never use. Which 3 can I get most quickly?" --It's unclear how much of an effect each tech has. E.g. do my armies do 5% more damage or 20% more damage? --Getting units into and out of army bases for airlifts is buggy as hell. --"Sir, we've conquered New York and Philadelphia, but it's pretty much a draw until we conquer some random town 500 miles away." There's a lot of this. --Game seems to be a roll of the dice where if you click on an update (like "Enemy invasion - Belem"), about 50% of the time, it will bring you to the relevant location. If you roll badly, I hope you know where Belem is. --It should be a lot easier at a glance to tell cities are in which province. (Almost 100% of the benefits of conquest happen when you have conquered the entire province). --I think the game is excellent for strategic depth in non-nuclear war. The nuclear war element is, ironically, meh. --Destroyers are stupidly underpriced. For most of the game, 2 destroyers will thrash 3 airfields, which cost a combined ~8 destroyers. Destroyers cost $60 vs. $150+ for most of the airfields and $330+ for an aircraft carrier. I would guess a fair price for destroyers is probably $100+. A destroyer has a radar worth $10+, a sonar and anti-sub weapons similar to a $30 naval monitoring station, anti-air capabilities similar to a $24 mobile SAM, AND there's AT LEAST $40 of value from being a tanky gunboat that can fire at ground targets from a good range. AND late-game it'll eventually be maybe half as effective as a ~$30 terminal anti-ballistic missile system which is unusually stackable . --carriers feel hideously overpriced. Naval helicopters blow and the AI does not know how to patrol them. Hint: your auto-patrolling naval helicopters should look for submarines in the OCEAN. For most of the game, carriers have few options against a pair of destroyers and are much more vulnerable to submarines. Late game, it feels impossible to cost-effectively guard them against nuclear strikes or submarines. --Winning on the hardest difficulties with builds of all armies/destroyers is fairly trivial with possibly a few Specialized Airbases which are fairly useless until you have late-game tech but very efficient for destroying the world when you have a huge tech advantage and only then. On the hardest difficulty, the AIs get a 60% boost to production and research or whatever. But, we both started out with 4000 production points and destroyers are worth 3x as much as anything they built, so building *nothing* in the first hour and totally abusing how randomly they place their troops at minute 1 of the game is very doable. Russia often places 5+ of its 10 starting troops in the eastern half of the country, so if you're India/Central Asia starting with 20 troops within airlift distance of Moscow and St. Petersburg, this will go very well for you very quickly. --By default the game gets into nuclear weapons jarringly quickly, at which point armies in general are not very effective at anything except for kamikaze airdrops to destroy key infrastructure. --The AI is very bad at recognizing when they have been destroyer-locked. --Against hard AIs, it is hugely important to NEVER BUILD ANYTHING pretty much. Pick your starting unit set very carefully. Optimize for destroyers holding key defensive points and clearing invasion points, and a ton of armies with a few airbases to airlift them into position. Be on 100% Research pretty much all of the time. I recommend setting the match to NOT cap GDP from conquest -- conquering an incompetent AI is the easiest way to double your research quickly. --It is stupid how critically important it is to spend 30-40 clicks at the start of each game offering 9 AIs the same research/production/nuclear agreements. It's like a 30% boost to research and production? Why? What is the point of this mechanic? 40 mindless clicks, GO! --The game IN THEORY has a war plan where you can automate your land troops to invade. I have never gotten it to actually work to get armies to split up and conquer cities on their own. --AIs struggle with some custom rulesets (e.g. if you use custom settings so that only MOST of a province needs to be conquered, they will still try to conquer unneeded cities).
Really fun rts game. Pretty difficult but you get used to it. One thing. There is a problem with the game showing you what someone has researched/warheads available. There have been countless times the ai hasn’t researched something. And neither have their allies. Yet they all of a sudden automatically get the tech you just researched. Kinda of a big issue tbh. But other than that no problems either performance.
ICBM Escalation looks from the outside like a standard strategy game that you can find like sand on the beach in the Steam shop. Whoever overcomes this hurdle, however, is rewarded with one of the best niche titles: a true "last war" simulation in which the use of chemical, biological, and nuclear options is in no way inferior to conventional warfare.It is best explained with this example: As Europe, I had prepared everything at the beginning for a war with Russia... a massive airborne operation to defend the entire border to Russia with troops. I positioned airports and missile silos in such a way that I could cause maximum damage even deep in Russian territory. But as luck would have it, I became the victim of an invasion by the Middle East! A massive battle broke out around Greece, and to regain control of the situation, I made scientific advances in ballistic missiles and Sarin gas. With these weapons, contrary to all humanity and reason, I was able to eliminate all enemy invaders... Now... what revenge would a Europe that is willing to use Sarin gas carry out? OF COURSE! Operation Constantinople, in which I then loaded an atomic bomb onto a civilian truck and carried out a terrorist attack.Whether alone, with or against friends, a fun world war without regard for creation and God's green earth is guaranteed.
---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☑ Short ☑ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☑ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☑ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☑ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10
Similar games
View all
Cossacks 3
Cossacks 3 is the return of RTS classics. Obtain resources, build cities and research technologies while taking command of great armies, crushing enemies in grand historical warfares on land and sea!
Men of War: Vietnam
Men of War: Vietnam brings the acclaimed real-time tactics series into a new theater of war – the jungles of Southeast Asia, 1968. Experience the chaos of the Vietnam War through two story-driven campaigns that reveal both sides of the conflict.
Wargame: European Escalation
The New Fatal Error DLC includes a new 5-mission Operation and touch-screen controls.
Impossible Creatures Steam Edition
Impossible Creatures is a 3D RTS game that pits the player against an evil villain. Using Earth’s most formidable animals as building blocks, the player must create an army of genetically-altered mutant monsters in a titanic struggle to protect an unsuspecting world.
Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition
Celebrating its first year of delighting millions of global players, the award-winning and best-selling strategy franchise continues with Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition, putting you at the center of even more epic historical battles that shaped the world.
Halo Wars: Definitive Edition
Halo Wars: Definitive Edition is an enhanced version of the real-time strategy classic, Halo Wars, updated to run natively on PC. Halo Wars: Definitive Edition includes improved graphics, new achievements and all of the DLC created for the landmark real-time strategy game.
Wargame: Airland Battle
2 SIDES, 12 NATIONS, 750 UNITS: THE STRATEGY GAME REFERENCE IS BACK! Richer, more beautiful and more accessible, Wargame AirLand Battle is the sequel to the explosive real-time strategy game Wargame European Escalation! 1985.
Company of Heroes 2
Experience the ultimate WWII RTS platform with COH2 and its standalone expansions. This package includes the base game, which you can then upgrade by purchasing The Western Front Armies, Ardennes Assault and/or The British Forces. More info in the "About This Game" section below.
Earth 2140
The year is 2140. After numerous wars and several environmental disasters, only two world powers remain; the United Civilized States (»UCS«), covering the American continent, Western Europe and North Africa, and the Eurasian Dynasty (»ED«) covering the coherent landmasses of Eastern Europe and Asia.
Frequently Asked Questions
ICBM: Escalation is currently priced at 28.99€ on Steam.
No, ICBM: Escalation is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 28.99€ on Steam.
Yes, ICBM: Escalation received 771 positive votes out of a total of 878 achieving a rating of 8.29.
😎
ICBM: Escalation was developed by SoftWarWare and published by Slitherine Ltd..
Yes, ICBM: Escalation is playable and fully supported on Windows.
No, ICBM: Escalation is not playable on MacOS.
No, ICBM: Escalation is not playable on Linux.
No, ICBM: Escalation is not playable on Steam Deck.
No, ICBM: Escalation is not playable on Steam Machine.
No, ICBM: Escalation does not support VR.
ICBM: Escalation offers both single-player and multi-player modes.
ICBM: Escalation offers both Co-op and PvP modes.
Yes, there are 4 DLCs available for ICBM: Escalation. Explore additional content available for ICBM: Escalation on Steam.
Yes, ICBM: Escalation is fully integrated with Steam Workshop. Visit Steam Workshop.
No, ICBM: Escalation does not support Steam Remote Play.
Yes, ICBM: Escalation is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for ICBM: Escalation.
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 | 18 October 2026 23:21 UTC |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 17 October 2026 15:47 UTC |
| Steam price | 26 October 2026 19:19 UTC |
| Steam reviews | 18 October 2026 16:08 UTC |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about ICBM: Escalation, 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 ICBM: Escalation
- SteamCharts - Analysis of ICBM: Escalation concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck ICBM: Escalation compatibility
Game modes
Multiplayer
Features
Online players
102
Developer
SoftWarWare
Publisher
Slitherine Ltd.
Release
21 Nov 2024
Platforms
Clicking and buying through these links helps us earn a commission to maintain our services.