Review: Sigma Theory - Global Cold War

Sigma Theory: Global Cold War (2019)

Developer: Mi-Clos Studio, Goblinz Studio, FibreTigre

Platform: Personal Computer

Induction Date: 03/09/2020

Manipulating the world from a cozy little office.

We all crave power, whether we know it or not. The power to live a better life, the power to buy more games, the power to control the world? This need for power is the most compelling aspect of the game for me: you take the helm as a director of operations for a team of agents and scientists in a race against both the doomsday clock and the world to secure advanced humanity altering technologies extracted from a newly discovered scientific method called the "Sigma Theory". It's a rather epic setup and if you buy into that fantasy, the game is able to fulfill some of your expectations with its effective offerings before you realize how deceptively simple things really are.

A team of supermodels that is doomed to fail.

The first thing I noticed about the game is its slick presentation. Though there isn't anything fancy going on with the graphics - for the most part, you are just looking at a simple map of the Earth - there is a thematic coherence in the game's visuals with the dominant blue-red hues and stylish layouts. There is a cold, distant feel to the game that is strangely appropriate as you move pictures of your agents around the map and monitor the progress of your scientists as well as the available information on your opponents. All the faces you encounter in the game, friends and foes, are unique and striking. Obliviously in the world of secret dealings and secret agents, everyone involved suddenly looks quite attractive. The presentation definitely carries most of the weight in this game and it distracts you from the fact that you do a lot of very repetitive things.

The Eye of Sauron is forever watchful.

And repetition is truly the name of the game here. There isn't a lot of different actions that you can partake in though to path to winning the game is a long one. The bulk of Sigma Theory involves either hacking into another country or sending your agents to different locations across the map, all in an effort to secure scientists to work on Sigma technologies for you. All of these actions are represented by text and the details of the actions taken are automated. Most of them take multiple turns to complete with successes or failures reported at the end of the tasks. The exception to this are the "exfiltration" missions that involve your agents attempting to take the scientists out of the opposing countries. These missions are quite exciting as you get to directly communicate, step by step, with your agents and influence the choices they make with each dilemma they face along their escape routes. Unfortunately, even these missions lose their sense of variety rather quickly. All of your agents and scientists have their own quirks as well as specialties so you do have to put some thoughts behind their assignments. Though you are limited to having only 4 agents at a time, once you have figured out the flow of the game, this number is more than enough and even though every single agent is unique in each of their combined traits, the game doesn't offer a lot of experimentation in your overall approach.

Can you escape the country unscathed?

Sigma Theory offers 3 modes of play. There's the default classic mode, a custom mode where you can play around with the game's settings, and lastly, a story mode that mandates you to play for the United States and it comes with more narrative flourish. The problem with the game, however, is that once you have played through it once in any mode, there is little motivation to go through it again. The game is quite repetitive though I must say that when I was in the thick of things during the late game, it did get really, really exciting because you are richly rewarded for your progress with plenty of fun upgrades. The journey to get there though is long which makes subsequent playthroughs feel quite laborious. You do have to keep playing the game to unlock more agents but if you have found a combination of agents that worked really well for you, why would you even change it up? Well, unless you really want to work with each of these crazy, sexy, and cool looking agents just to check them out.

You will spend a lot of time staring at this screen.

I enjoyed my time with the game. I failed desperately during my first attempt but then figured out a solid strategy the second time in and that session was a blast. I didn't however feel too compelled to keep playing the game again so there is definitely a replayability issue here. If you enjoy a bit of counterespionage in your free time, give the game a chance. Sigma Theory does offer a diplomatic path to securing a win by the way but I found that part of the game severely lacking. There is one downloadable content available called "Nigeria - Additional Nation" and yes, it just adds another country into the mix plus 4 more unique agents from that region. The base game is available on Steam for $17.99, a bit pricey for the limited content it offers, with the Nigeria DLC priced at $2.99.

RATING: 3 out of 5

Steam keys provided by developer.