| Crisis in the Kremlin | |
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Cover art of Crisis in the Kremlin |
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| Developer(s) | Barbu Corporation[1] Spectrum HoloByte[2] |
| Publisher(s) |
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| Designer(s) | Larry Barbu[2] |
| Composer(s) | Paul Mogg[2] |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
| Release date(s) | [2] |
| Genre(s) | Strategy (with managerial aspects)[1][2] |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media/distribution | Floppy disk (Physical) |
| System requirements
High-density drive (5.25"), 11MB available hard drive storage, 640K RAM, EGA or better, mouse[3] |
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Crisis in the Kremlin is a 1991 video game in which the player acts as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (incorrectly called the President throughout the game) from 1985 to 2017. The player assumes the role of the reformist Mikhail Gorbachev, the nationalist Boris Yeltsin, or the hardline Yegor Ligachev.[4] Actual jokes recorded by the KGB can be found in the gameplay, depicting the concerns of the Soviet people in a humorous light.
Contents |
Starting in 1985, the player handles various governing tasks, from policies such as civil rights and the workweek to budgets. It was the first game to include the individual allocation of funding in a budget.[5] A significant portion of the game involves special events, such as the 1988 Armenian earthquake or the Chernobyl disaster.[4] The player's responses to these events can involve taking the historical route or a dramatically different approach; the player is given usually three to five choices after picking up the appropriate telephone. The player must walk a line between radicals, reformists, and hardliners. Overly scoring any side can cause the player to fall out of favor with it, which may lead to a vote of confidence in the Politburo. Warsaw Pact states will also begin to shy away from the Soviet Union, as will the Baltic states, the Ukraine, and other Union Republics.
The player may cut or increase spending to various parts of the nation, such as construction, environment, the military, pensions, Soviet Republics, and so on.[4] The player can spend toward different groups, such as bureaucrats or conservatives, to gain their support.[4] A food shortage can occur, for example, if not enough money is being spent on agriculture and transport (roads, buses, railroads, trucks, highways, etc.).
Extra events occur if the player lasts past the Soviet Union's (and the game's own) time frame, such as American intervention in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or the ability to renegotiate a new Union treaty to form a confederation or disband the Soviet Union altogether in favor of a British-style commonwealth. New technology will also develop, as will fears of an asteroid hitting the earth. The new technology can include things like vaccines for AIDS (developed by Soviet scientists that will improve diplomatic relationships with other nations) and animal cloning solutions that will prevent world hunger - using in vitro meat.
Certain events repeat themselves each time the game is played: for example, the Chernobyl disaster. This lowers the replayability of the game, as a player can come to expect situations and plan accordingly. Some also view the collapse of the Soviet Union as an inevitable game result, as it is difficult to hold the country together past 1991, forcing the player to disband the USSR or face economic consequences that lead toward citizen revolt. One is doing well if any Republics remain in the Union by 2000. The player has the option to resign on January 1992, mimicking the move that Mikhail Gorbachev made. All the sounds made in the game are of very low MIDI-quality with a complete absence of a musical soundtrack.