US and THEM

The steam icon for this game is from a completely different game.... I think that says it all really.

Like HOI but different, this game is a strategy-themed game that takes players into the intense geopolitical landscape of the Cold War era between the USSR and the USA. With careful attention to historical detail as well as gameplay mechanics that are somewhat lacking in my opinion, this game has something to offer both history buffs and strategy lovers. Ensures hours of addictive gameplay, whether you're maneuvering diplomatic relations, engaging in covert operations, or navigating delicate balances of power. However, I don't like learning about communist ideology. I think games like HOI are different. This game can indoctrinate you, so be careful when playing or choosing games. Not recommended to play 2/5

На гoвнe сметану не сделаешь

insgesamt sehr schlecht gemacht das spiel. ich empehle es überhaupt nicht.

Пошаговая идеологическая эпидерсия на контурной карте от 9 греков. Играние - вялое: открывай технологии годами, расселяй агентов по странам пиксельхантингом, за ход 50 раз подряд закрывай событийные окошки. Тех. состояние - сумрак: язык каждый запуск надо выбирать, разрешение монитора всегда автоматически выставляется в неизменяемые 480p, газетные вырезки могут не соответствовать содержанию статьи, открывающе-закрывающие ролики пропускаются только кликом вниз, ещё и Кессинджер. Смешнявка в том, что в широком режиме библиотеки и при запуске показана обложка от другой игры - "резидентовой" Them and Us. Но - что то, что это - как меховая шапка на голове в знойный летний день! 4 перебежчика из 10 товарищей

The hilarious thing about this, is Steam has the wrong thumbnail for this game so I thought I was going to be playing something else entirely. In any case, the game doesn't actually seem to run correctly on my Win 11 system. After the intro video I've got nothing, so I just sat around listening to the sounds for a bit thinking about dinner.

This was one of the games I hesitated twice on... all the people giving negative comments did influence my decision, and I did wait until it was on sale. Yet, something drew me to look at the comments deeper. I love cold war games, I see it as one of the most interesting periods of human history and I love to play it out in an alternate history. The good: It's fairly simple to learn, even if the tutorial misses a few points. The tutorial covers some basic UI items and some concepts, though does lack some info on the occasional game play mechanic. Of course, after your first or second play through, you easily start to catch these. Suggestion... click on things, check what buttons become avalible, and which grey out. Read through the text on the screen, it's usually all there. Once you have the game play down, it moves pretty fluid. An average game for me lasts 1-3 hours, and I play in small chuncks of 20-40 min at a time. UI options abound, if I can't click on Cuba (which is hard to click on) there is a drop down menu. Sorting agents via faction and type allows me to see who's acted and who still has moves left in that turn. And the master plan button can help set automatic respones for agents based on risk factors. (that can speed up your game play alot.) Some cold war games are beautifuly complicated, and as much as I like complexity, it can wear thin when I'm in turn 540 and still not entierly sure how the numbers are stacking up in the background. This game after a few plays is pretty easy to see the flow of numbers and probability, and still be challenging as you keep trying to crack that coup in country X, as your opponent starts fires in country Y and Z on you. It is a low budget game, but it highlights some game play and alternate history stuff that the larger developers just won't give you. The not great, but not bad: There is a save button, but you can't easily "reload" after something unexpected happens. If I'm playing as the Soviets and Castro is assasinated.. I can't just go back and "reload" my save from last time as easily. (When you exit, it seems to auto save, I guess if you really wanted to reload, you can crash the game and just see if it picks back up from the last save point.) To be honest though... I have started to like this. I'm so used to slamming my fist into the desk in Civ V after something goes unexpectedly wrong and "reloading" to an old save point, I never actually try to play through the new unexpected events. This game makes me do that, and when I can turn it around and still dominate the world with the Soviet Ideology.. even after Castro is martyred for the cause, well, that's even better. It makes me work through hard times, where often with "reloading" from an old save point... is kind of let's be honest.... fudgeing the game... *cough* cheating. I run a I5 Win 7 machine, 8GB of ram, 4.2 while overclocked. 1GB (and seriously old) video card. (I have bit of an old frankenstine here, but it just won't give up.) I do have the occasional weird error message pop up on the screen. But, the game has never crashed to desktop or frozen. for the most part I just "X" out the error message and things keep ticking along. Note: I am not a graphics hound... to me game play is everything. If you like fancy graphics... well, it's a budget game. Complaing about graphics in this is like yelling at the sun for setting. The bad: The tutorial could use some more info, and youtube vidoes or online wiki/community support is very hard to find. When I was wondering about some game mechanics regarding final scoring, when I would search for "Us and Them" you really don't find much for the game. Even editing your serach to "Us and them steam game stradagy guide." you don't really find anything that is even related to the game. If you are having trouble figureing out the game, it really boils down to trial and error. Don't be afraid to loose, learn and grow from it and then smash your enemies next time! As the capitalist player, sometimes it's hard to finish. You see that blue bar so far over... but you still have not won. The Soviets seem to win once that red bar is about 75% of the way over, but the US just needs to keep dominating almost EVEYTHING. When I was down to preactiaclly Vietnam, China, and the USSR left, I was still slogging along trying to spark a coup in atleast one of those. meanwhile those KGB and GRU officers just keep lighting fires I need to keep stamping out. This may be becasue the difficulty changed somehow without my knowing, but it did drag out a bit for that US game I played. Still, was fun to watch the soviet union twist in the wind 1991 style, that revolt was finally what bought them down. The vidoes are the old stock footage from the cold war era, some are applicable.. some less so. The ending cinematic of the USSR victory almost feels like a 1950's film strip about the "dangers of Communisim" like I was being being subjected to McCarthy's lesson to good little American boys and girls. Why not some good old fasion CCCP propaganda to book end the US victory cinematic? Overall, simple game play, replayable factor of a B+/B, Short for casual play, and alterante history at a budge price. The problems are minor and if your up for a small budget game about the cold war, it's one of the more easy ones to play. Some I've played in the past are just rough for game play and complexity, (I'm into my fifth hour of trying to invade Iran with the USSR.... gah.. it's 2am!) You feel you need to be ready for those, this one you can just turn on and go and take a break when needed. If it's about $2-3, grab it, the developers of this deserve atleast that for their work.

Us and Them is a good game. Icehole didn't sell many digital copies of it and received mostly negative feedbacks from users, but I can assure you that I've seen a lot of worse (and overpriced) games here on Steam. In this game you run URSS or USA and try to extend your political influence around the globe, just as happened in real life. You deploy your spies and other kind of experts (economical and political agents) to convince populations that your ideology is the best. Of course you can incite revolutions, kill enemy agents or weaken economically your opponent. Here a list of pros: + the AI is good enough (it cheats at the hardest difficulty, but who cares?) + random events (historical and a-historical) make every gameplay slighty (not a lot) different + your agents actually have personalities, a name and skills they can train with your help + space and arms run are integrated in the game, although Icehole could have done more with them + you can research improvements for your agents + alongside ordinary agents there are heroes like Che, Fidel Castro, Kissinger and De Gaulle + you can't put agents everywhere and actually have to make some strategic decisions. I reccomend this game if you like the Cold War Era and can stand old graphics with a static map. Us and Them is cheap and can give you some hours of good entertainment. If you want this as your primary game, you will be of course disappointed. 7/10

Broken application that messed my settings.

This is one of those unique strategy games that can only come from small companies and low budget projects. It features a simulation of the Cold War period where the worse versions of Communism and Capitalism clash. Under the appearance of democracy and respect both parties undermine each other through subterfuge, breaking their economy to break support in the ruling party, gaining political support and finally provoking a revolt. No difference between ones or others. As in good strategy games, they are difficult and you fail strepitously if you don't understand what are you doing. It comes easier after that. Fortunately, despite the spreadsheets, the game is not that complex that cannot be understood, and experimented in various strategies. Wanna conquer the space, go nuclear, play James Bond? An economic victory? A fight over the resources? Do you fancy assassinating Che Guevara or the Queen of England? Dream of the USA revolting to Communism? Take a seat! Sadly, the game would have enjoyed a more polished interface and some extra content. The video cuts from classic movies, although fun for one time, feel out of place. A veredict: an underrated game that I enjoy revisiting from time to time. If you like the kind of strategy you sit and meditate and execute and see results, this game can entertain you well enough time to justify purchase even at store price. Disclaimer: I purchased the game in a bundle outside Steam. Later, I got a gift key for Steam.