- Platform: IBM PC Compatible
- Release Date: 1990
- Genre: Simulation
- Style: Political Sim
Game Description
A brilliant 1990 abandonware game that's likely to stay relevant for a long time, Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator gives you the job of Israeli Premier. It's set in a hypothetical 1997 that isn't so far from reality. After the last Israeli leader is murdered (a prediction only two years off from the 1995 Rabin assassination), you step into the shoes of the hardest-working man in the Holy Land. Playing Conflict puts you into the Israeli mindset like no newspaper article can. You're surrounded by the potentially hostile Arab states of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, each of which could invade Israel and end your game in a second if you lower your guard.You can stay in power through diplomacy or military posturing. Sometimes your neighbors will be willing to befriend you, and even become allies, while countries like Libya and Iraq descend into war. But usually one of the neighboring states will threaten you. Purchasing tanks, jets, bombers, spy planes and SAM launchers from arms brokers, you decide when it's wise to arm the border. You can also choose to pre-emptively strike nuclear reactors in countries like Egypt to prevent nuclear blackmail. Other factors include how you choose to deal with the Palestinian problem, which the U.N. will sometimes ask you to address. But the simulation mostly feels like 1970s-1980s Israel, when an uprising wasn't feared so much as an Egyptian tank invasion. All of this isn't as dour as it sounds, thanks to an easy-to-learn interface and the game's frequent tongue-in-cheek humor, which appears in the form of Paperboy-like newspaper headlines.
~ John Gorenfeld, All Game Guide
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