The world is slightly unstable, with you taking control of the United States or the Soviet Union and trying to keep diplomacy between your allies lest you tempt nuclear apocalypse.
In Precipice, you must face off in an intense game of atomic chicken, as nuclear weapons can be deployed at any time.
After choosing if you’d like to play as the United States or the Soviet Union, you then get to pick three bonuses. These bonuses give you stronger powers with specific countries, which can help with your strategy in the game. Once you’re into the world, you can see a map of various countries, as well as the amount of pull you and your enemy have within those countries.
These countries are saturated, either blue or red, to various degrees. Deeply saturated countries are really aligned with their nation, while less saturated countries can be swayed. You have a set amount of cash per turn, which is broken down into something like movement points. There are also various things that you can do to gain diplomacy points, like sending your spies into countries, invading others, and helping out those who need help.
Once you are out of cash, you’ll need to end your turn, and watch as your enemy takes their moves. At times, when you make drastic moves, they can actually be stopped by your enemy and vice versa. These decisions can be protested, taken to the UN, and threatened. Following this line of action is quite a risk, as you can lose diplomacy with more and more countries and end up at a nuclear war, ending the game. Going back and forth in these threats is essentially a game of chicken, hoping someone backs down before the game is over.
Precipice has some pretty neat backend work, especially for single player. When you play against the AI, it starts to watch you, carefully, and figure out how exactly you are playing. If you go in aggressively, it will start to account for that. If you favor countries, it will provide measures to make sure those are more safe in the next round. This adaptive way of play provides for many interesting replays. You could always play against a second, real life player, if you do have a friend, though.
You’ll need to make good decisions, look over all your actions, and see just how many risks you can take in order to keep your country safe in Precipice.
Precipice is available now on Steam.
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