Spawn, Die, Repeat: Why ’83 Is A Tactical Nightmare For Newbies
The Cold War has finally boiled over, and ’83 drops you right into the thick of a NATO versus Warsaw Pact explosion that feels heavy and unforgiving. You aren’t some super-soldier sliding around corners; you’re a cog in a massive 80-player machine where one wrong move means a long timer and a lot of frustration. The vibe is thick with tension and the threat of a looming artillery barrage, but the path to victory is paved with some seriously rough edges.
Specs & HUD | Gameplay & Mechanics | Performance & Fidelity | Settings & Controls
’83 Steam Review: Specs & HUD
- Download Size: You are looking at a 21.8GB download to get this one onto your drive.
- Steam Achievements: There are no Steam achievements in the game yet, so don’t expect any trophies for your efforts.
- Map Intel: You can bring up the map, and it has points of interest marked out and ammo drops.
- Heat Maps: These show on the map to help gauge where the enemy might be.
- Tank Weak Spots: Tanks have weak spots, and I like that you can bring up an image showing the strength of each panel on tanks.
- No Killcam: There is no killcam, and you don’t get any help with enemy direction or where the shots are coming from.
- Ping System: You can ping items, locations and enemy players. You have a quick ping, but also a radial ping icon menu.
Gameplay Review & Mechanics Breakdown
First-person shooter gameplay is the name of the game here, but it’s a game that would favour the more tactical of players. Just so I can get it out of the way, this is not a battlefield or Call of Duty. The boot camp houses the shooting range, practice offline, and tutorials. Practice offline has 9 scenarios and is a mix of either frontlines or assault modes. Online has four game modes: any mode, frontlines, assault, and not really a mode, but a server browser. There are only a couple of maps, and that’s not a great offering, early access or not; the game needs the maps and variety.
Six roles to play as NCO, rifleman, machine gunner, marksman, grenadier, and anti-tank. When playing, you can set up your own squads and apply to be the commander of the platoon. Commanders are your leaders, and they can place radio setups and mark targets for an artillery barrage. You use a compass and binoculars, and honestly, it’s a pretty cool feel-good moment. Loadout-wise, you have primary weapons, a sidearm, ammo pouches, explosives, and equipment. Everything has weight attached to it, and you have a weight limit and going over will make you encumbered.
The stamina system for running and jumping keeps things grounded, and the recoil on weapons is unique to them. Let me tell you, every game has a kick! Redeploying is a timer, so bear that in mind. Introducing new players is not well handled; it’s just a menu, and offline is just you on your own, and the tutorials are just pictures to look at. In fact, the tutorial is just four images with writing on and one is just the button layout and that only makes sense if you do not remap the buttons! I found the controls to be clunky and slow; even the act of reloading felt clunky. The animations are robotic and clunky. Spawn die, spawn die, change role, spawn die, spawn die is the general gameplay loop of a new player.
’83 Steam Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Visual Presentation: It features decent graphics and beautiful, huge 3D locations to fight in.
- Performance Warnings: I don’t like that, despite having a semi-decent graphics card and setup, I get a warning saying straight away that the game could run badly.
- Loading Times: Not the best loading times, and many times I thought the game was hanging.
- Player Count: I struggled to find players, no matter the time of day, and I never saw more than 50 people at one time.
- No Bots: There are no bots in the game, so everyone you encounter is a real person.
- Veteran Gap: It does feel like the only players are ones that play it a lot; they have already found the choke points, the best places to camp, and it’s just not a great game for new players.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Graphics Customisation: Resolution, full screen, v-sync, lock frame rate, frame rate limit, upscale method (off/TSR/FSR/DLSS), anti-aliasing, sharpen image, HDR, overall quality, bloom, depth of field, great detail weapon scopes, and a handy auto detect option.
- Audio Sliders: Voice chat microphone, VoIP, tinnitus, announcer, menu music, in-game music, SFX, and master volume slider.
- Gameplay Toggles: Gore (off/blood/full blood and dismemberment), clan tag entry, field of view slider, iron sight field of view slider, freelook resets to weapon, auto reload, auto prime explosives, auto reload vehicle weapons, auto squad selection, send crash reports, use free aim, and use manual bolting.
- Input Remapping: Mouse and keyboard support, and you can invert the axis, sensitivity sliders, set action to toggle or hold, and remap the buttons.
- Controller Support: I couldn’t get a controller to work. Granted, I could probably get a third-party app to do it, but it’s not in game.
Related Gert Lush Gaming Reviews
- Black One Blood Brothers – The Art of Quiet Chaos
- Is Spy Drops The MGS Clone We Needed?
- Escape From Duckov Is Eggstraordinary Chaos
’83 Review
Summary
GOOD STUFF
The graphics are decent enough, and the 3D locations you fight in are huge and look beautiful, which helps with the immersion when you’re out in the field. I really liked the depth in the roles and the commander system; using the compass and binoculars to mark targets for artillery feels cool and gives you those big-picture moments. The weapon variety is solid with unique recoil for everything, and little touches like the tank armour strength images and heat maps on the map really show the tactical potential. Having an auto-detect for graphics and a good mix of offline practice scenarios is a nice touch for getting things set up.
BAD STUFF
I am not a fan of that immediate warning telling me the game might run badly on my setup, and the loading times are so rough that I thought it had hung multiple times. The controls are clunky and slow, with robotic animations that make even reloading feel like a chore. For a game that needs players, the onboarding is terrible, just four pictures for a tutorial, and the lack of bots means if you can’t find people, you’re stuck. I never saw more than 50 players, and most of them were experts who just camped choke points, making the spawn-die-spawn-die loop miserable for a newcomer like me.
FINAL VERDICT
I’m not fantastic at shooters in general, but I simply cannot get into this, between the clunky controls and the frustration of never seeing a player before dying. I never really found a flow to the game or something to work toward, and the lack of maps makes the current offering feel very thin. It’s clearly a game for the most tactical players, but right now it feels like it’s only for those who already know every inch of the maps. I’ll check back in after a few updates, but I don’t have that much fun despite trying.
