Let's talk about potential. And no, I'm not using this term to sugarcoat a game that failed to deliver on its promises, relying on future updates to deliver what was promised. I'm talking about real, unrealized Potential - a game that is right on track become something truly exceptional. Nuclear Option, currently in early access, is one such title.

The aircraft handling is responsive and immersive, Planes can stall if pushed too far, but mastering their full capabilities offers great reward.
Unlike some other combat flight games, this one doesn't require a lengthy learning curve for your aircraft itself - you can jump into a plane and start performing well right away.

Engaging enemies in dogfights, strafing convoys, or bombing facilities feels tactile and rewarding. The detailed damage model adds to this: planes can lose stabilizers, flaps, or wings, but still limp home for repairs. Your aircraft can take quite a beating before becoming completely unusable, assuming you even make it to a dogfight—most engagements are over in a flash, with ranged attacks often deciding the outcome early.

The game also shines in its demand for strategic thinking. Understanding your aircraft and your enemy’s systems is key. Simply spamming flares won’t save you—surviving requires precise timing and knowledge of how different systems interact. Mistakes are punished swiftly, often leading to a quick on-screen death.

The progression system is relatively straightforward but massively rewarding. Each time you play, your level and money resets -- this might seem like a drawback at first, but it actually makes each game uniquely challenging, you cannot just grind your way to the top and then stomp every lobby you join, you start with the Cricket, just like everyone else.
Your goal is to destroy enemy targets to gain levels and earn money, with which you can then unlock and buy better jets, with better weapons. It's a nice feedback loop: the more you play and level up, the more options become available to you in terms of aircraft and weaponry, Careless play can quickly leave you without funds for new planes, making survival and returning with your aircraft intact essential.

Starting or joining a game mid-match doesn't put you at a significant disadvantage either. Basic aircraft are not to be underestimated, the lowly Compass can be a formidable opponent, even in the better planes, so even if you join late in the match, you can still contribute to the action without feeling overwhelmed.

So, what's holding Nuclear Option back from reaching its full potential? Unfortunately, it's the user interface, controls and limited content. The 'virtual joystick' using a mouse often feels clunky, though you can tweak settings to improve responsiveness, opening the map relieves you of all controls of your plane, and targetting specific enemies from first person view can be very fiddly. Flight stick users report smoother experiences, with better hardware support. The menus, while functional, can be frustratingly unintuitive. For example, viewing weapon descriptions requires you to click off and on again, which could be improved with an icon-based interface, with on-hover descriptions.

One feature that would greatly improve the game experience is the addition of dedicated servers. As it stands, larger missions can take upwards of 4 hours to complete, and unfortunately, lobbies are hosted by a single player, if that player leaves, everyone goes back to the main menu. Dedicated servers with persistent battlefields would be a game-changer in this regard, allowing matches to continue uninterrupted even if players disconnect midway through.

Currently, there's only one map (~50x50km), and while it's fun, flying the same routes, dealing with familiar enemy spawns, and facing the same mission goals does get repetitive.

I'm not going to deduct points for this (yet) however, because I genuinely believe that these issues can be improved upon or even solved outright. The developers are actively working on the game and are constantly releasing updates, it's clear they're listening to feedback, and that they want the game to end up as great as it can be.

Nuclear Option has enormous potential. With some UI refinements and more content, this game could be something special. If you enjoy combat flight games, this one’s worth keeping an eye on.

This review is in the perspective of a new player to NO, but a pretty experienced air "sim" player. I've played a lot of IL-2 BoX, War Thunder Sim and DCS. Mainly PVP in prop aircraft. The "modern standoff combat" never seemed appealing to me but this game has really changed my perspective on what it can look like if done right. This game is great, 9/10 for me.

As said before this review isn't from the perspective of someone who knows all the meta's, the min-max, map design or how to scale objectives.. It's from someone who has flown a ton in other sims and wanted to fly something different. Maybe this is just that "novelty" feeling but I can't say enough good things about the game. The gameplay loop has been really fun, and the selection of aircraft is pretty decent given the time it's been in early access. If you've played a lot of other air sim games, I'd really recommend you try NO.

I'd give it 10/10 but here are some issues I've had with it so far:

Performance, I have had some fps/lag in some of the servers when things get really hectic. I rolled back my drivers for my GPU (Strix 1080ti) and the game is running a lot better (well every game), but there is still some 500ms freezes every once and a while. Overall though it is definitely playable after I rolled back, and newer PC's will probably not have any or less issues performance wise.

Track IR 5 disconnects. Currently there are some issues with Track IR integration. It will just lock up and quit responding to the track IR camera. A good solution for this is to pin TrackIR app on the bottom of your windows bar. When the game locks it up (you will know because the camera will center itself and not react to tracking) close it from your tasks, then just click the trackir icon to re-launch the app. When you do this trackIR app will minimize and NO will be your focused window again. It can be an annoyance, but this fix should have you back working no problem in 15 seconds or so.

Other than that can't really say anything bad about the game. I can see me playing this a lot in the future. Looking forward to what's coming next. o7

good