Roadwar 2000 (1987 DOS Game) – A Post-Apocalyptic Strategy Classic

Roadwar 2000 is a classic post-apocalyptic turn-based strategy game developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. and released in 1987 for DOS and other platforms like the Apple II and Commodore 64. Set in a dystopian future, it immerses players in a chaotic world where survival, combat, and strategy are essential to success. As a significant entry in the strategy game genre, Roadwar 2000 attracted gamers with its challenging gameplay, rich narrative, and open-world exploration.

Whether you're revisiting this title from your youth or discovering it for the first time, let's take a detailed look at what made Roadwar 2000 such an iconic DOS game.

The Storyline of Roadwar 2000

In Roadwar 2000, the world has been devastated by a mysterious biological weapon unleashed by terrorists. Civilization as we know it has collapsed. Disease is rampant, governments have fallen, and anarchy reigns in the cities and countryside. Gangs and warlords have taken over, making travel dangerous and survival difficult.

You play as the leader of a gang of survivors in this new world order. Your goal is to navigate the shattered United States, form alliances with other groups, recruit gang members, scavenge for supplies, and fight hostile forces, all while trying to discover a cure for the plague that is ravaging the world. Along the way, you must also fend off violent mutants, marauding gangs, and rival factions.

This unique combination of a survival and strategy-focused plot made Roadwar 2000 stand out, especially during its release period in the late '80s.

Roadwar 2000 Gameplay Overview

The gameplay of Roadwar 2000 is primarily turn-based, combining elements of tactical combat, resource management, and exploration. It offers an impressive range of mechanics that made it quite innovative for its time.

1. Turn-Based Combat and Strategy

Combat in Roadwar 2000 is turn-based, requiring players to strategically plan their moves. As the leader of a gang, you’ll command your units during battles and make tactical decisions that can sway the outcome of fights. You’ll engage in combat with rival gangs, hostile survivors, and mutants that pose a threat to your group.

2. Vehicle Combat

One of the unique aspects of Roadwar 2000 is its focus on vehicular combat. As you traverse the dangerous roads, vehicles become critical to survival. You can upgrade your vehicles with better armor, weapons, and crew to make them more formidable in battle. There’s a variety of vehicles to control, from motorcycles to heavily armored buses and trucks, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

3. Resource Management

Managing resources is a key aspect of Roadwar 2000. Supplies like food, fuel, and weapons are necessary to keep your gang alive and equipped. Scavenging plays an important role as you’ll need to find these supplies through exploration and battles, looting defeated enemies, or by visiting what remains of functioning cities.

4. Gang Recruitment and Morale

Recruitment is another critical aspect of the game. You’ll need to build and manage a gang of survivors who can help you achieve your goals. As your gang grows in size and power, you'll be able to take on bigger and more dangerous threats. However, managing the morale of your gang is important too—discontent can lead to desertion or even mutiny.

5. Open-World Exploration

Roadwar 2000 offers a vast post-apocalyptic map of the United States for players to explore. The game is non-linear, meaning you have the freedom to travel anywhere on the map, visiting cities, looting, and engaging in combat along the way. Cities are often overrun with hostile forces, so careful planning is needed before entering one.

6. Diplomacy and Alliance Building

Though Roadwar 2000 focuses heavily on combat and survival, diplomacy plays a role as well. Players can attempt to form alliances with other gangs, negotiate for resources, or strategically avoid conflicts. These interactions can have lasting impacts on your progress and standing in the world.

Graphics and Sound

For a game released in 1987, Roadwar 2000 featured relatively simple graphics, as one might expect from an early DOS title. The visual style is largely text-based with basic tile graphics representing cities, vehicles, and units. Combat scenes and travel across the game map are minimalistic, but functional for the gameplay. Despite the lack of high-end visuals, the game’s atmosphere—enhanced by its setting and narrative—captures the bleakness of a post-apocalyptic world.

The sound design is similarly modest, with beeps and simple tones representing actions and events, typical for the time. However, the focus of the game was always on its deep strategy and gameplay mechanics rather than its audiovisual experience.

Cultural Impact of Roadwar 2000

Roadwar 2000 gained a devoted following due to its immersive blend of strategy, survival, and post-apocalyptic themes. It was one of the early games to combine vehicular combat with strategic, turn-based gameplay, which later inspired many games in the strategy and simulation genres. Its premise of gang warfare and survival in a lawless world also paved the way for other popular post-apocalyptic games like Fallout and Wasteland, which expanded on these ideas in later years.

The game was followed by a sequel, Roadwar Europa, which expanded on the original by moving the action to a devastated Europe and adding new features and challenges. However, Roadwar 2000 remains the more popular and widely recognized of the two titles.

Similar Games to Roadwar 2000

For fans of Roadwar 2000 or players interested in similar post-apocalyptic strategy games, here are a few recommendations:

1. Wasteland (1988)

Released just a year after Roadwar 2000, Wasteland is another classic post-apocalyptic role-playing game. While it leans more into the RPG genre, it shares similar themes of survival, exploration, and gang warfare in a world ravaged by nuclear war.

2. Auto Duel (1985)

Developed by Origin Systems, Auto Duel is another vehicular combat game set in a dystopian future where you can upgrade cars with weapons and armor and participate in dangerous, Mad Max-style arena battles. It’s a fitting companion to Roadwar 2000.

3. Mad Max (1990)

Inspired by the Mad Max film series, this game also features vehicular combat and survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Its setting and themes are similar to those in Roadwar 2000, making it a good choice for fans of the genre.

4. Fallout (1997)

Though it was released a decade after Roadwar 2000, Fallout builds on similar themes of survival in a post-apocalyptic world. The open-world exploration, turn-based combat, and narrative depth in Fallout were influenced by earlier games like Roadwar 2000 and Wasteland.

Roadwar 2000 is a captivating blend of strategy, survival, and post-apocalyptic chaos that has left a lasting mark on the gaming landscape. Its innovative gameplay mechanics, such as turn-based combat, gang management, and vehicular combat, combined with its open-world exploration, make it a memorable experience for fans of classic DOS games. Even decades after its release, Roadwar 2000 remains a beloved title for those who enjoy strategy and survival games set in dystopian futures.

If you're ready to revisit this piece of gaming history, you can play Roadwar 2000 on classic gaming platforms like ClassicReload, where you can dive back into its brutal world of gangs and survival.