Last updated on December 9th, 2025 at 08:45 am
First Strike – Nuclear RTS – Strategy Game Review
First Strike – Nuclear RTS is a Strategy/Education/Action game from Blindflug Studios AG, first launched in 11th October 2019.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 8,709+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes First Strike – Nuclear RTS Stand Out
Lead your nation to global dominance or annihilation in First Strike! This intense 1v1 multiplayer RTS puts you in command of a nuclear superpower. Launch rockets, manage resources, and outsmart rivals in online space battles. Every decision risks survival. Top the strategy games charts!
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– "A thought provoking and fast-paced strategy game" – pocketgamer
– "A gorgeous game with a message, that doesn’t forget that it’s a game" – 148apps
½ – "An awesome game suited for casual and professional nukers alike" – appszoom
– "For my money, there is no better-looking game on the App Store" – pockettactics
****½ – "One of the best releases of the year" – whatsoniphone
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Will you conquer the world or be the architect of its demise?
First Strike is a fast-paced strategy game that blends the intricate planning of turn-based strategy with the dynamic action of real-time combat. Command and Conquer your enemies with a vast arsenal of nuclear missiles, advanced weaponry, and cunning strategies. Forge alliances, engage in espionage, and navigate the complex web of international relations as you strive for global dominance.
Features:
Intense Real-Time Strategy (RTS): Experience the adrenaline-pumping action of commanding a nuclear superpower in a dynamic and ever-changing world.
Global Domination: Conquer nations, expand your influence, and establish a new world order. Will you rule with an iron fist or forge a path to lasting peace?
Advanced Weaponry: Unleash a devastating arsenal of nuclear missiles, lasers, and other cutting-edge weapons. But remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
Multiplayer Battles: Challenge friends and players worldwide in online battles for global supremacy. Prove your strategic prowess and climb the leaderboards.
Strategic Alliances: Forge alliances with other nations to bolster your defenses and expand your reach. But be wary of betrayals and shifting loyalties.
Realistic Geopolitics: Navigate the complex world of international relations, diplomacy, and espionage. Every decision has far-reaching consequences.
Planet Destruction Simulator: Witness the devastating consequences of nuclear war as cities crumble and civilizations fall. Will you be the harbinger of destruction or the savior of humanity?
Experience the ultimate test of strategy and leadership in First Strike!
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Winner "Best Mobile Game" – Indie Prize Amsterdam
Winner "Most Innovative Game" – Best App Ever Awards
Winner "Game of the Year" – BOSA Awards
Winner "Newcomer of the Year" – SwissICT Awards
Finalist "Best Upcoming Game" – International Mobile Game Awards
Finalist "Most Meaningful Play" – International Mobile Game Awards
Finalist "Best Hardcore Game" – Game Connection USA Awards
Finalist "Most Innovative Game" – Game Connection USA Awards
Finalist “Best Strategy Game” – Best App Ever Awards
Finalist "Best International Game" – Ludicious Game Festival
Finalist "Best Swiss Game" – SGDA Awards
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** Compatability:
Recommended: iPhone 6S or higher, iPad (7th generation) or higher
Required: iPhone SE or higher, iPad (5th generation) or higher, iPod Touch (7th generation) or higher
EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, First Strike – Nuclear RTS is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 24th January 2025
Recent improvements include:
Service Update
- stability improvements
- bugfixes
- minor changes
Download & Availability
First Strike – Nuclear RTS is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get First Strike – Nuclear RTS on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This game is the best nuclear war game we have ever played they have realistic stuff and its overall fun and you can send nuclear attacks and expand your territory.
We have been playing this game for a year and this game is really good but where did the peace button go to solo game.
Unique concept, good delivery and overall fun.
Us and our fiends like playin it.
First of all there are zero ads and it is super realistic personally we are a big fan of countrys and world maps and second of all its like your the president of Brazil or USA or North Korea and more! Absolutely 5 stars with no doubt.
We love the idea but could use some minor additions. Maybe make some of the special weapons like submarines not premium.
We honestly love the game but we do t like how we have to buy something to get most of the countrys and special weapons. Not only that but the science tree is shorter so it just kind of makes the game a bit faster which we dont like either.
The game is awesome, but there are too many ads.
This game was our favorite game on iPhone for a while, however they slowly started getting rid of features and locking them behind their monthly subscription service, we were fine with it for a while (Starting with weak countries is a fun challenge) but today was the last straw, almost everything is locked or has been removed from the game entirely (you can no longer Allie yourself with other nations, which was a cool early game tactic) so we have abandoned this game until they get rid of the monthly subscription service and replace it with in-app purchases (WHICH we WOULD PAY FOR BY THE WAY!) we suggest buying the classic version of the game, which we suspect has all the features they blocked.
When we first joined the game, it was great! But then, When we were trying to start the game, it said the only way for us to play it was to pay for it. And we get that, but for such a well made game, it should atleast come up before you evan go to the tutorial.
Not good you have to pay for everything.
By adding MAJOR microtransactions to this game, you have alienated a large part of your playerbase. We used to have every country unlocked, most challenges completed and all the superweapons. Now we have lost that progress, and if we want to play the game normally, we need to either pay $25 or $8 a month. This is not good. We know you guys need to make money, but there are so many other methods to gain an income, like ads after each battle, payment system for more tickets in multiplayer, payment system to unlock superpowers early, paid skins, cosmetics, etc. It's a shame to see one of our formerly favorite games going this way. We will not be playing or paying until theres changes to the payment systems, like so many others.
Hey devs idk if you read these reviews but it would be cool if you guys added a mode where we could pause and setup stuff then let the other countries start/ and another mode where counties wont give up until you completely ahhnilate them.
Good strategy development game and its addictive. Just wish all of it would be free.
You guys really out did your game congrats! But theres something that should be added like a mini size shuttle leaving Florida to give it that more realistic vibe and and let us shoot a nuke at the moon so other countries would fear in the damages, and let there be interstellar exploration like visit mars or other planets, these are just some ideas we had that would make the game a little more realistic.
It just is the best game ever we killed many people.
Love the colors and the graphics. Really fun to play.
Yes its a good game ads at the end of games but its free they need to pay for servers somehow.
Great game would b even greater if u didnt have to pay.
Best balstico intercontinental strategic game.
This game is sooo good, only problem is that you have to pay for more nation instead of unlocking it throughout progression of the game itself.
This is the best nuclear warfare game we have ever played it is very immersive and realistic If this were how nuclear weapons worked anyone could use them.
The pass in the game is to unlock anything and you need multiplayer card to play with other people making the game dry. The fact you have to pay to get more into the game is stupid and makes it boring over time we recommend to play this if you have the money to spend if you want to get more in the game.
We will say we absolutely adore this game, its a very fun and unique experience that we havent gotten from any other game Ive played. However, the in app purchases completely ruined the game for us. Now, we wouldnt have as much of a problem if they had added the in app purchases to specifically new content, because a lot of the new content we can live without. But our problem is that they added in app purchases to content that was originally free when we downloaded the game, like what?? We understand that the devs need to make money but they lost us as a player when they did that.
Overall, this game is so much fun! Ive always enjoyed the concept and interesting idea of a nuclear war game and we have been given a good candidate right here! Ive played First Strike for quite a while, a few years, and remember the old game. Even though the game is a bit repetitive, it never gets old for us and we still enjoy playing against the AI once in a while on hardcore mode. Our only big issue is the pay wall. Going back to old version of the game, everything was completely free and you could be any nation with any super weapon. Now, you have access to very few free nations and super weapons and if you really want to get into the game, you must pay money to enjoy other perspectives. Because Ive always enjoyed the game and concept we did buy Russia and China, but even then, just to buy 1 nation, it cost 5 bucks. Thats not a lot, we know, but just for one territory, its kind of expensive. And the other thing is the monthly subscription. Boy oh boy, we hate the idea of a monthly subscription. If it was just one consecutive purchase for access to all of the nations and super weapons, we would most likely buy it. Instead of a monthly subscription, make a one time purchase that gives you everything without the need for a subscription. If you had that, we would happily pay 15 or maybe even 20 for access to everything. It makes everything more easier to just do a one and done purchase. Other than that, overall the game is a fun and exciting game that we still enjoy and have a place for in our heart, but that paywall just really disappoints us. We wish that the game was just kept free and there would be no paywall at all. But we get that money must be made to continue updating the game. Although, the idea of a one time payment would be a much better idea than the subscription. Thats all from us, thanks.
First Strike is a fun way to kill a few minutes between tasks or in transit. Most of the additional weapon systems and counties appear to be locked behind paywalls. There is no apparent progression system to unlock any additional content without subscribing. Without a progression system the game goes stale quickly.
When playing multiplayer, the connection gets lost so often and usually when someone is losing. We rejoin multiple times and instantly get disconnected, we think they're cheating.
Overall this is a very unique and simple game, but if we could have a meeting with developers id definitely want to add a private and global chat in game, to form alliances with other countries, weather they backstab you, or help you concur is up in the air. That would set this game in a very competitive and fun dynamic, we think the quick chat makes it very bland and gets boring. Add that, we see us playing this for a very long time.
We will give it a five star but it wont let us say anything that we want even with the new update.
This is a really great game and all, but we suggest to make it more detailed,there should be a very detailed tutorial on nations, alliances, and how to become better in general, the game should be better performed and other nations should be named.
Great game but we are encountering a bug that whenever we try to play the classic mode(offline) and as we go to hit play, nothing happens that game doesnt start whatsoever. We pay for the monthly subscription and us not being able to play this game which we pay for is really disheartening. Can you please provide some insight to help fix this issue. Thanks.
Now you have to buy all the weapons, beforehand was able to use any weapon of choice, its just boring.
Been very into it! Just dont like pay to play. Till it changes 3 stars.
We think you should give us two options, buy it for the pay to play players, but give the people who wont pay to play a way to unlock these. Like in multiplayer or single player have objectives to meet n if you do you get a super power or a new country.
Be warned. This would be an amazing game if it wasnt for a monthly fee to unlock the most basic things.
We played this game about a year ago and it was fun you could grind and get countries and super weapons. We recently came back and found everything locked behind a paywall. We were fine grinding and watching ads but to lock everything behind a monthly subscription was just to much.
You managed to turn a great game into a bad one first of all what happened to the simple things with being able to choose your country for free. We now cant use the United States and the trident missile and thats a problem. The game has become pay to win and with how the research tree has gone down the drain (as well as the alliances) the only winning qualities is how the game could still be fun but barely enjoyable compared to what it was before.
This used to be a great game upon re downloading the game you are immediately met with a paywall. We cant even figure out how to play the game anymore without paying and we refuse to make monthly payments for a mobile game. We would love to come back someday if the money hungry devs decide to change sadly we are no longer a fan of this game.
Cant control our nation when hosting. Need an update. 5 star game other than this.
This game used to be pretty much accessible to all, allowing all players to eventually reach the furthest point in the game without buying an in app purchase. Now, only four special abilities are available without payment, with one requiring the player to sign up for the newsletter to use it. Seriously devs? Selling out like this will always make us delete an app INSTANTLY. Do better.
This game was a great free to play game but sadly over time it became infested with pay walls it is a shame that a great game has fallen so far. If you want to spend money to play content that was free to play previously then you go ahead and do that but Im uninstalling.
This game used to be absolutely great fun times whith friends at school and everything now you can only play some countries you can pay to win by buying overpowered nukes you need to watch a ad to play multiplayer heck! Even single player is pure pain you have to pay to get 90% of the cool bombs or some nations specials this game is now terrible ruined your player base over money this game can burn to the ground in greed no more time will be wasted to this game.
We used to play this game a lot and it was fun to unlock the different super weapons and countries, but now everything is pay to win and its just not fun.
We understand it was necessary to make this a pay to win, or even play, game, but its unfortunate, seeing as to how good of a game it was/is for those seriously needing a monthly subscription to a mobile game.? Wish you guys nothing but luck, but we definitely wont be playing anymore.
Game appears to be bugged and unable to start a game.
These reviews are all outdated. The game used to be free to play with no paywalls a few years ago. At some point they went back and locked all but like 5 countries behind paywalls. Most of them are 99 to $1.99. Each nation has a special weapon apparently exclusive to them now (which used to be free for any country) which is the justification for the different prices but then randomly the United States is priced at $7.99. The US weapon is arguably one of the weakest ones in the game and is only priced so high to make bank out of American fanboys who only want to play America and try to capitalize as much as they can from it. What the devs did here is extremely dirty. Theyre piggy backing off of reviews when the game was FTP and used to be fun to play.
Unless you but the monthly subscription dont bother games utter trash compared to when it came out.
Sad how this game used to be fun a free (didnt even mind the ads). Unfortunately, they now charge a stupid amount for content that already was free. Sad to see how money changes good thing :(.
And a little depressing! End of the world and the happy go lucky days that follow.
This game makes us feel like Im in a real nuclear war.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 4.11.6
- Size: 275.84 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: AR, EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, KO, PL, PT, RU, ZH, ES, SV, TH, ZH, TR, UK
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes, Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes, Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Blindflug Studios AG
Last updated: 24th January 2025 | Genre: Strategy, Education | Developer: Blindflug Studios AG