Nuclear Option

Nuclear Option is a combat flight game set on a dynamic battlefield in the near future. You fly advanced aircraft and use their weapons to affect battles, whether intercepting bombers, fighting other aircraft, flying under radar or attacking enemy formations with nuclear weapons. You can fly solo or join friends in player-hosted cooperative or competitive multiplayer, and build missions in the included editor.

Aircraft and flight

The game includes 13 playable aircraft, each with scenarios that highlight its capabilities:

• CI-22 "Cricket": counter-insurgency aircraft.
• T/A-30 "Compass": light attack and trainer aircraft.
• VT-7 "Vagrant": VTOL trainer.
• UH-90 "Ibis": utility helicopter.
• A-19 "Brawler": close air support aircraft.
• SAH-46 "Chicane": stealth attack helicopter.
• FS-12 "Revoker": air superiority fighter.
• FS-20 "Vortex": VTOL fighter.
• VL-49 "Tarantula": heavy vertical-lift VTOL.
• KR-67 "Ifrit": multirole fighter.
• EW-25 "Medusa": electronic warfare aircraft.
• SFB-81 "Darkreach": strategic bomber.
• AB-4 "Alkyon": strike bomber.

Flight physics include stalls, spins and g-force effects. Each aircraft simulates up to 50 individual physics parts, and damage to its 30–50 detachable parts affects how it flies. Cockpits feature a situational-awareness HUD that identifies nearby targets and threats, a target-view screen and flight information including angle of attack, velocity vector, climb rate, g-force and radar altitude. Night missions include night-vision cockpit functionality. You can fly using various controllers or a mouse-controlled virtual joystick, without special hardware.

Weapons and battles

You can equip aircraft with guided and unguided weapons, including guns, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, bombs, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. Countermeasures include IR flares and a radar jammer. Explosions have simulated blast effects, and nuclear weapons are simulated with shockwave propagation.

AI-controlled ground vehicles and aircraft fight in large, dynamic battles. Battlefields persist, with wreckage and smoke remaining after combat. The game includes a 100-kilometre-wide map with varied biomes and terrain, as well as a larger naval-themed map set in an archipelago of occupied islands.

Missions and multiplayer

Use the custom mission editor to build missions, then fly them alone or with friends. Player-hosted multiplayer supports cooperative and competitive play, with a public lobby browser.