Balance of Power

Balance of Power is a political strategy game by Chris Crawford in which the player takes on the role of the President of the USA or the General Secretary of the USSR during the Cold War era. The goal isn't military victory but maintaining and expanding global influence without triggering a nuclear apocalypse—any escalation of a crisis that turns into a direct armed clash between the superpowers ends the game immediately in defeat for both sides. The player invests in allies around the world, responds to uprisings, coups, and diplomatic crises, and negotiates wherever possible to maintain the fragile balance of power. The game also continuously evaluates a so-called prestige score for both superpowers, so the player feels the consequences of their actions even without open conflict, simply through a comparison of global influence.

On the Commodore 64, the game works with a clear world map and text reports on events in individual countries, placing emphasis on thinking and decision-making rather than action or visual flair. The pace is slow and deliberate, close to a board game, and the game actively punishes aggressive or reckless moves—an unusual approach to the topic of nuclear confrontation in the mid-1980s that was much debated within the player community. The atmosphere is rounded out by terse, matter-of-fact diplomatic reports that give the player the feeling of sitting in on a real briefing rather than playing an action game.

Balance of Power is often remembered as one of the first games to seriously engage with the political and diplomatic dimension of strategy instead of pure military expansion, and it is still cited today as a pioneering title of the genre. On the C64, it still offers an interesting look at how games of the 1980s managed to treat the serious topic of the Cold War without reducing it to a mere military shooter, which is why it's still talked about today as one of the first truly serious political simulations for home computers.

Why play it: Worth trying for its fresh, seriously handled treatment of the Cold War without reducing it to a military shooter, as one of the first serious political simulations.