I lost all my soldiers in strategy war simulation Radio Commander

(Image credit: Serious Sim)

Radio Commander is a simulation strategy game that throws you into nine different scenarios set during the Vietnam War. If it can be accused of anything, it's being too accurate. Radio Commander takes a heavily simulated approach to warfare from the 1960s by forcing you, the commander behind the front line, to communicate with your soldiers via radio and keep track of them on a map.

But the map is only as accurate as you are, which I found out when one of my helicopters radioed me, lost, confused, and low on fuel, to ask if I was sure I knew what I was doing. No, soldier. No I do not. Meanwhile my Alpha and Bravo units continued to radio me reporting movement, probably grunt enemies, nearby. Except those weren't grunt enemies, they were the other platoon. I suppose I shouldn't have ordered them to the exact same location where they'd be liable to trip over one another.

The only way to know where your units are in Radio Commander is to ask them. You're able to open your radio line to give orders to different units or ask them to report in on their status. By requesting their location, a unit will report back its current coordinates and it's up to you to place a marker on the map and move it around when you ask the unit to move elsewhere. Unlike what I imagine actual radio directed warfare must have been like, at least my soldiers are never wrong about their location. It's only their commander that's so incompetent.

There's unlikely to be any celebration in victory, though. Instead, Radio Commander's Steam page says, "you must be prepared to answer tough questions about the righteousness of your actions, price of a human life, and the toxic power of propaganda and stereotypes." When Radio Commander releases in September it will take players through nine different scenarios in the villages and jungles of Vietnam. You can wishlist Radio Commander on Steam now.

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She joined the PCG staff in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.