Nuclear Nightmare is a game that asks: What would happen if you and your friends were dropped off in Antarctica and asked you to collect some classified materials? There may also be an impending nuclear strike heading to your location, best to clear out before that happens. Oh and did we mention the snow monsters? No, well there’s snow monsters! They don’t like you, there might be a gun around here somewhere, check one of the living pods or maybe an office building. Anyways, have fun!

The next line should read “hilarity ensues” but, sadly, it’s more like “frustration ensues”.

I may have been spoiled by good early access party games as of late. Games that come to mind: Lethal Company, Phasmophobia, Murky Divers, and Devour. Ok, those last two aren’t in early access anymore but they were when I last played them. So maybe my expectations were a bit high going in to Nuclear Nightmare, especially with the Very Positivie rating. I’d forgotten that early access sometimes comes with a lot of bugginess and jank.

Brother, Toast, and I put just shy of two hours into the game. That time could be summed up by the following phrase: “This would be fun if it wasn’t for the _” Where the “_” ranges from technical issues like random disconnects to annoying game mechanics such as snowmobiles that use a half tank of gas to go 100 meters. Or my personal favorite, the master audio slider doesn’t do anything. This game tries to blow your eardrums out with constant howling wind and the only way to turn it down is from the Windows audio mixer.

But I can see the bones of a fun, unique, game buried in the snow here somewhere. You and your friends are dropped off at one of a handful of sites scattered around the map, it’s a different drop point every round but the locations stay the same. You’re team is tasked with completing a set of objectives at each site. A minimum different site objectives need to be completed before extracting and you have 75 minutes to do it. Each objective is 300+ meters away so it takes little while to travel by foot. There are usually snowmobiles at each site but they don’t go very far unless you can find a gas can to refuel them. It seems to be random whether gas will spawn or not, and, in my experience, it’s more likely that they won’t which makes travel risky. You’re in Antarctica, if you stay outside too long your body temperature starts dropping. Get too cold and you die, just like real life! We seemed to be able to walk pretty fast thoug, so traveling by foot wasn’t too bad until one of us inevitably got separated and was either picked off by a creature or froze to death wandering around in circles.

The gameplay loop is go to a site, complete the objectives, scavenge all the items that have spawned, hope you find a gun and some ammo before night, then try to survive the monsters that spawn before moving on to the next site. It should be a fun loop but if you don’t find a gun or enough ammo, there isn’t anything you can do against the monsters. Night lasts a long time and other than bullets, there doesn’t seem to be a way to deal with the enemies. You can’t outrun them and you can’t hide from them. We tried a few times and they seem to home in on your location, kick down the door to the building you’re holed up in, and kill you.

I know, I know, emergent gameplay or something. Except, without other options for dealing with these things, the best option is often to get yourself killed and start over. Not exactly riveting.

We also ran into a bug where one of our character models just disappeared. It was funny when I was running around firing a gun near an unsuspecting Blades.. It was less funny when I then go killed by an enemy that then took over my body which then killed an unsuspecting Brother and Toast…

This isn’t to say there were no entertaining moments with Nuclear Nightmare. At one point, there was a computer behind a locked door that we needed to upload files from to complete Base Camp #2s objective. I stood outside the door while Blades went to find a generator so we could unlock the door. As soon as the power was back on, I flung open the door and rushed in to complete the objective, only to activate a trip mine by the doorwhich blew me through the wall of the building! I also accidentally, beheaded Toast as he walked in front of me as I was trying to open a glass door with a pick axe….oops!

I’m slightly baffled by the Very Positive rating Nuclear Nightmare currently retains. It is rough around the edges and clearly very early access right now. I would have expected a Mixed rating based off what I played. But gameplay can be improved and bugs can be fixed. The game released in October 2024 so maybe it just needs more time to cook. I can see a good game in here somewhere that offers a novel way for you to get your friends killed. Maybe it will be worth revisiting in a few months after some more updates.