A Vietnam War RTS
Real-time strategy in the Vietnam War. Lead an American rifle company through the Central Highlands in 1965, or take the jungle as the Viet Cong. Coming soon to Steam for Windows and Mac.
About the game
Crimson Haze is a real-time strategy game about the war on the ground in Vietnam. You don’t build a base and mass an army. You lead a handful of squads through jungle, paddy and hill country, where the enemy is usually closer than you think and rarely where you are looking.
The campaign follows one American soldier, Danny Mercer, through his year with the 1st Cavalry Division, from the base camp at An Khê to the Ia Drang valley and on through 1966. The battles are real ones; Danny and his squad are not.
Outside the campaign you can play either side in skirmish: the Americans against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese, up to four players a side, against the computer or with friends online over Steam.
Gameplay trailer
Recorded in the game as it runs, with its own sound: the landings at X-Ray, a firebase at night, a battle in the monsoon.
What it’s like
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Squads, not armies
You command a company: rifle squads, machine guns, mortars and radio men. Every man in a squad has a name.
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The jungle hides everything
You only see what your men can see. A squad lying still in the trees is invisible until it opens fire, and the first burst of an ambush hits twice as hard.
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Support from the sky
Helicopters, artillery, air strikes and napalm, called in by radio. It takes time to arrive and it does not care whose men are underneath.
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The wounded are carried
A man who goes down is not dead yet. Get him to a landing zone and call a medevac, or he bleeds out where he fell.
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Both sides are playable
The Americans have the firepower. The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese have the numbers, the tunnels and the ground.
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Nobody is forgotten
The men you lose in the campaign go on a memorial wall, by name, and stay there.
The Americans
Firepower
Helicopters put your squads anywhere on the map, and the radio brings artillery and air strikes. In the open nothing can stand against you. In the jungle you cannot see who is shooting.
The Viet Cong and the NVA
The ground
More men, cheaper men, and a country you know. Wait in the trees until they are close, come up out of the tunnels behind them, and be gone before the aircraft arrive.
Photos from the field
Taken in the game and printed like the snapshots soldiers sent home.
The campaign
Danny Mercer’s year with the 1st Cavalry, told one mission at a time, with his letters home in between.
Read moreEleven Months: story trailer
Danny Mercer’s year in the Central Highlands, from An Khê in September 1965.
Dedicated to all who lost their lives in the wars fought in Vietnam.
May their stories never be forgotten.