Best Cold War Games on Steam
Games set around Cold War politics, espionage, paranoia, or military tension.
Browse all Cold War →
1Call of Duty®: Black Ops - The biggest first-person action series of all time and the follow-up to critically acclaimed Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 2 returns with Call of Duty®: Black Ops.
Nov 9, 2010
In this game, you can…
- break out of the main menu, find a terminal, type ZORK, and play a full 1980s text adventure.
- push zombie rounds for hours with friends, reviving each other and holding chokepoints you've memorized.
- lead a full-on prison riot escape in Vorkuta with Reznov.
- get yanked into an interrogation chair between missions.
- fight zombies in a ruined theater as boarded windows splinter open.
- hunt hidden zombies easter eggs as a squad to unlock secrets across the map.
- jump into a top-down arcade mode where you mow down hordes in pure chaos.
- bet it all in high-stakes party modes like One in the Chamber and Gun Game.
- practice and rank up in bot matches to test loadouts solo or with friends.
2Sprocket - Carefully balance mobility, firepower and armour in a dedicated tank designer. Then uncarefully put them to the test in a series of combat scenarios progressing through the ages of the tank. Here, your limit is what you can fit inside your hull and turret while still being able to move forwards.
Aug 26, 2021
In this game, you can…
- design a tank so overarmored that an enemy destroys itself without you firing.
- build a trench-crossing tank with an almost 8-meter hull and a huge front sprocket to crawl over cratered WW1 trenches.
- shape hulls and turrets into almost any form, then bolt on multiple turrets until it stops looking like a tank.
- set up one transmission per track so one side drives forward while the other reverses to spin in place.
- angle armor plates and watch the effective thickness change against incoming shells in the analysis.
- recreate real tanks with matching parts and end up within about 5–10% of their real-world stats.
- place fuel tanks as external components so a hit can get absorbed there, then potentially ignite and cascade into internal damage.
- spawn your custom builds into battles to immediately test mobility, armor, and weird mechanical ideas against other creations.
3Tropico 4 - The world is changing and Tropico is moving with the times - geographical powers rise and fall and the world market is dominated by new players with new demands and offers - and you, as El Presidente, face a whole new set of challenges.
Sep 1, 2011
In this game, you can…
- click any citizen to see their job, home, politics, and daily routine, then decide to reward them, bribe them, brand them, arrest them, or execute them.
- commit election fraud, cancel elections, declare martial law, and use secret police, hitmen, and "accidents" to stay in power.
- join Cold War sides, flip allegiances, build assault rifles and even a nuclear weapon, and make superpowers back off through force or diplomacy.
- start with a bare island and build it into a working country where every citizen walks around, works, prays, rests, and dies.
- rig seven factions and multiple superpowers against each other, choosing sides in disputes while pushing policies with ministers, bribes, and arrests.
- watch hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, volcanoes, and tsunamis wreck specific towns in real time while you rebuild around the damage.
- run exports through physical logistics, where teamsters haul real goods to docks and one transport bottleneck can choke the entire economy.
- turn retirees into forced labor, send children into military training, and decide what to do when immigrants become a huge majority.
4Jazzpunk: Director's Cut - Jazzpunk is a comedy adventure set in an alternate reality Cold War World, plagued with corporate espionage, CyberCrime, and sentient martinis. Gameplay is inspired by spoof comedy films and cartoons of yesteryear, with a focus on weird gadgets, exotic locales, and open-world style exploration.
Feb 7, 2014
In this game, you can…
- spray pigeon perfume on someone and watch a flock of pigeons carry them away.
- open a pizza box and suddenly get dropped into a survival mode against pizza zombies.
- get swallowed by an alligator man and crawl through his digestive tract to come out the other side.
- clean a man's bat ears with a giant q-tip, start a pillow fight, and knock someone straight out a window.
- play a Wedding Quake parody where you shoot wedding guests with champagne while collecting prenup agreements.
- race like Wave Race in a fountain filled with gravy, then wander off into other mini-games hidden in the level.
- pick your nose to open a door when the game decides that's the key you need.
5Gunner, HEAT, PC! - Gunner, HEAT, PC! (GHPC) is a simulation game about modern mounted combat, with special attention to authenticity and fun.
Sep 6, 2022
In this game, you can…
- replay a shot afterward and see the round path, ricochets, and fragments slice through the inside of a vehicle.
- put a shell through one BMP-1 and have it keep going into the BMP-1 behind it.
- fight at night using low-resolution thermals, IR spotlights, and star shells to find enemies.
- laser a target, fire, and watch the first hit decide everything.
- blow a tank's ammo storage and see its turret launched skyward.
- have a 14.5 mm heavy machine gun break a tank's main gun.
- turn a hand crank to steer a missile, translated into repeated key presses.
- call in A-10 strikes, artillery, helicopters, and other support as missions allow.
- swap vehicles and ammo loads and rerun missions with randomized friendly and enemy layouts for new ambushes each time.
6Sea Power : Naval Combat in the Missile Age - From the lead designer of Cold Waters, Sea Power lets you control NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in modern naval conflict campaigns. Use your advanced naval weaponry and sensors to respect rules of engagement and defeat the enemy forces in a tense fight for initiative and air/naval supremacy.
Nov 12, 2024
In this game, you can…
- sink ships from hundreds of miles away, launching missiles at map contacts and waiting for the impact report to land.
- watch a sea-skimming missile swarm hit a ship group as chaff pops, jammers light up, guns open fire, and interceptors launch back.
- run a carrier deck cycle where planes form up, drop flaps and gear, and land while the carrier keeps moving.
- play hide-and-seek with entire fleets, staying dark while you build a track, then striking first before they can react.
- follow a missile from launch to impact in 3D while the battle keeps unfolding around it with aircraft takeoffs and ship explosions.
- command the whole force while your crew works targets for you, slowly classifying contacts from partial radar, sonar, and signal clues.
- build a scenario on a world map and share it instantly, then jump in and fight whatever the Workshop throws at you.
- go from a totally empty scope to "missile inbound" in seconds, then scramble everything as the situation escalates all at once.
7Martial Law - Martial Law is a game about difficulties that came with Communism in Poland. The story is shown from the perspective of a man who is abandoned because of his low social status. He tries his best to be there for his daughter despite the difficulties.
Dec 23, 2021
In this game, you can…
- fight people for nearly an hour just to secure ultra-rare tangerines.
- start a riot in a factory after a simple street walk and a few choices.
- follow a dialogue thread about fish all the way to "fish headquarters," then buy fish and keep it in your bathtub.
- get kicked out of a tangerine store for talking too much to the clerk.
- get forced into propaganda work in one ending while trying to provide for your daughter.
- go from buying a popular doll to scrambling for candy and tangerines as your whole remaining mission.
- get drunk on a bench as a detour during your Christmas Eve errand.
- replay the same short Christmas Eve route to reach four, five, or even six different endings based on small conversations.
8UnMetal - UnMetal is a 2D stealth action-adventure that pays homage to the classics with a healthy dose of humor and satire. You play as Jesse Fox, who is definitely NOT an elite commando, under arrest for a crime he didn't commit, and must escape a covert military base using his wits and fists.
Sep 28, 2021
In this game, you can…
- save your game anywhere by using a broken toilet or a porta-potty as a reusable checkpoint.
- watch a blank blue grid map fill itself into a full level as your character narrates the story in real time.
- answer story questions mid-mission that change what you're facing, like picking a boss's tentacles and turning it into two dozen.
- escape without killing anyone by knocking guards out with bare hands, chloroform, sleep tricks, distractions, and improvised takedowns.
- smash crates to find depleted uranium balls, then turn them into ammo for a handmade slingshot.
- solve an encrypted-radio problem by breaking electronics for wires, then combining the scrap with the radios to decrypt them.
- punch a wall over and over and trigger a cutscene that calls you out for doing it.
- sneak past and take down enemies like drones and fish people using the same stealth tools as regular guards.
9I Expect You To Die - Test your problem-solving skills in this virtual reality escape-the-room puzzle game. Play as a secret agent armed with telekinetic abilities on a mission to stop Zoraxis, an evil corporation with plans for world domination.
Apr 25, 2017
In this game, you can…
- load wads of cash into a cannon from inside a car, then fire it through the side of a plane.
- skeet-shoot explosive and gaseous chemicals over a highway while dangling from a window-washing platform.
- light a cigar, float it around the room, and use it to set books and potted plants on fire while you cook a sandwich with a lighter.
- drive a car off an airplane.
- escape a submarine as the room collapses and floods, solving puzzles under rising water pressure until you finally break free.
- disarm a missile loaded with a deadly virus before it can launch.
- drop a chemical into a swirling rocket vat with ten seconds left before it shoots off.
- cut power cords before airborne neurotoxins wreck your lungs, while the whole room keeps trying to kill you.
- grab objects and flip switches from across the room with telekinesis, pulling them straight into your hand without leaving your seat.
10Military Conflict: Vietnam - It’s 1968 in Vietnam, the time to “Make War Not Love”. Side with the Viet Cong or U.S. Army in this intense, fast-paced FPS set in the Vietnam War — now with co-op zombie mode. Choose from 300+ weapons of destruction. Kill or be killed!
Dec 16, 2022
In this game, you can…
- possess a bot while you're dead and waiting to respawn.
- fight bots that strafe, drop prone, take cover, and ambush you in buildings.
- play a 6-player co-op zombie mode with barricades, deployable turrets, and 16 zombie types.
- build a loadout from a deep stash of obscure Vietnam-era guns.
- fan the hammer on a revolver, or fire it single-action or double-action.
- ask bots for ammo or health mid-fight, and sometimes they actually respond.
- hold a bridge against Vietnam-themed monsters like punji-stick soldiers and scythe-wielding farmers.
- call in airstrikes or mortars, then push in with ammo drops and med kits from your team's classes.
- earn progression and achievements entirely offline in bot matches across the full mode list.
