Soviet Strike: Difference between revisions

| released = '''PlayStation'''{{vgrelease|NA|October 29, 1996<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=1999-03-02 |title=Game Informer News |magazine=[[Game Informer]] |url=http://www.gameinformer.com/news/oct96/103096b.html |access-date=2023-04-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990302073022/http://www.gameinformer.com/news/oct96/103096b.html |archive-date=1999-03-02 }}</ref>|EU|November 1996}}'''Saturn'''{{vgrelease|NA|February 17, 1997<ref>{{Cite web |title=Electronic Arts - News Room, Electronic Arts Ships Soviet Strike for the Sega Saturn |url=http://www.ea.com/companyinfo/press/sovsatrn.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970605143344fw_/http://www.ea.com/companyinfo/press/sovsatrn.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=1997-06-05 |access-date=2023-04-15 }}</ref>|EU|February 21, 1997<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Lomas|first1=Ed|url=https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File%3ACVG_UK_184.pdf&page=53|title=Checkpoint - The month's events and software releases at a glance. Feb-March|magazine=[[Computer and Video Games]]|issue=184|publisher=[[Future plc|Future Publishing]]|date=March 1997|pages=53}}</ref>}}

'''''Soviet Strike''''' is a helicopter-based [[shooter game]] developed and published by [[Electronic Arts]] for the [[PlayStation]] in 1996 and the [[Sega Saturn]] in 1997. The game is a sequel to the [[Strike (video game series)|''Strike'' games]] which began on the [[Sega Genesis]] with ''[[Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf]]''. ''Soviet Strike'' is the series' first installment for a [[History of video game consoles (fifth generation)|32-bit console]] and was first conceived as ''32-bit Strike''. Early on, it was intended for the [[3DO Interactive Multiplayer|3DO consoleplatform]], before development changed to the PlayStation.

''Soviet Strike'' is set after the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|disintegration]] of the Soviet Union]], and takes place in a fictionalised Russia, Eastern Europe and around the [[Caspian Sea]]. The player pilots an [[Boeing AH-64 Apache|Apache]] helicopter and battles with the forces of Shadowman, a renegade ex-communist figure. Like its predecessors, the game features shooting action mixed with strategic management of fuel and ammunition, but has more authentic [[3D computer graphics|3D graphics]], as well as a modified overhead - as opposed to [[Isometric video game graphics|isometric]] - perspective. The game also features a more realistic enemy [[Artificial intelligence (video games)|artificial intelligence]] and environment. Critics received the game positively, praising the graphics and [[full motion video]], while commentary on the gameplay and difficulty was more mixed.

The player is a helicopter pilot in STRIKE, a special covert operations force of the US military designed for preemptive action to prevent "wars that never happen." STRIKE's commander is General Earle. Major STRIKE personnel include electronics expert Hack and agent Andrea Grey, whose cover job is a news reporter. The other protagonists are STRIKE pilot Nick Arnold, guerrilla fighter Amad, and former Soviet Army pilot Ivan Uralia. The game's antagonists are former [[KGB]] Chairman Uri "Shadowman" Vatsiznov, Ireki dictator Sadissa Savak, and disgraced Soviet scientist Dr Grymyenko {{Proper name|Ukra|nian}}Ukrainian.

STRIKE's victory in the Black Sea leads them to the Caucasus, where Sadissa Savak, leader of the fictional state of Irek, begins aggressive overtures against local fighters. In the mission (which is supposedly north of the main battle area where Desert Strike took place), the player and Amad join forces with a militia run by Amad's relatives in stopping Ireki troops from capturing an abandoned Soviet chemical weapons plant. With STRIKE killing Savak (and passed off as the victim of a car crash), the group goes to a heavily irradiated Transylvania to rescue Nick once more, this time from Dr Grymyenko {{Proper name|Ukra|nian}}Ukrainian, who wields an arsenal of ballistic missiles. The player is also tasked to kill the Shadowman's lead armor commander, Vila, who operates a special red-turreted T-80, and aid in the destruction of an abandoned nuclear reactor the Shadowman is planning to use.

The final mission takes place in Moscow, with the Shadowman's unleashing his minions in the KGB, the military and the [[Russian mafia]] in attempting a coup against President [[Boris Yeltsin]]'s government. The player must prevent a bombing on the [[Kremlin]] before seeking out and killing the Shadowman. The game's end sequence depicts Andrea delivering a televised news report blaming the destruction on an earthquake and consequent gas fires.