Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! This time we’ll be looking at Sigma Theory Global Cold War. Released in 2019 it’s a turn based strategy game built around espionage and spycraft, involving agents being sent out to capture scientists in the midst of an explosive age of technological discovery. This unique premise definitely facilitates an experience that I have not quite seen before with all the good and bad that comes with that. 

So let’s take a deeper look at Sigma Theory and see what kind of secrets it’s been holding out on. 

Story 

Sigma Theory comes with three primary modes of play. The first is a classic mode wherein the story is essentially what you make of it as the events that take place are procedurally generated. There are some commonalities that will pop up in different runs but the most important part is easily the games opening which is consistent every time. Sigma Theory puts you in the shoes of the director of Sigma at the country of your choosing. As director you will have command over four agents each of which come with their own strengths and weaknesses that have both mechanical implications as well as some aesthetic ones. 

The game right away delivers on it’s engaging premise as recruiting agents is not as easy as picking them off a menu (at least, not at first). You’ll have to read through their bios and then select the right choice out of three dialogue options to recruit them to your side. Again the technical aspects of this will be handled later but I do like the variety of agents they have on display. Many of these characters feel like they could be the protagonist of their very own spy thriller although this is the first place where I have to bring up what is definitely going to become a recurring theme, Sigma Theory’s tone. 

While some of these agents offer somewhat believable origin stories some of them feel more like they belong in the pages of a comic book. Let’s do a quick comparison to show what I mean. First off we have .Mystery AKA Madison Dew. An American born academic, she’s dedicated her genius to solving cold cases with degrees in Law, Medicine and Psychology. However her pacifism may make her ill suited for the dangers that can often come with field work. 

Now we have .Shiva aka Kuma Sengupta of India. According to his bio he was a child sacrifice who managed to survive out in the wilds which gave him exemplary physical strength and as the game describes him ‘a living weapon’. His description also goes on to include he’s a cannibal and a hermit with a thirst for blood while having no moral code to speak of. Granted I am not an expert on international espionage so you can take this with a grain of salt but absolutely nothing about Kumar screams spy material to me and the fact that he’s listed as an elite agent truly is icing on the cake. 

 Thankfully though most of the agents fall into the former category of believability rather than the latter but I digress. Now having read descriptions I figured that these bios would be used only for the game’s start and would afterwards fall to the wayside. Unfortunately this mostly turned out to be true but there are points in the game where there will be the occasional callback. For instance, in one campaign I enlisted the assistance of master hacker .Double K AKA Karl Kohl, a legacy computer expert who had managed to keep his identity hidden for decades. Only at one point in my campaign his service to the cause caused him to become the target of blackmail, forcing him to temporarily abandon his duties to deal with the hacker. 

Mechanically most agents have excuses like these to be forcibly removed from field work temporarily but I like how Sigma Theory goes the extra mile to incorporate the backstories. Although one backstory that is strangely absent from the game is your own. Though you can choose the direction that Sigma moves, one thing that is forcibly pushed onto you at the start of the game is choosing a spouse (which oddly reuses the artwork for the agents). To me this is an extremely weak storytelling choice with a reason that I won’t spoil but if you’ve ever heard of the trope of ‘Woman in the Fridge’ you know exactly what Sigma Theory is trying to pull. 

Aside from these interactions throughout the story the game’s writing is generally alright overall. There are some interesting science fiction concepts that are brought up through the technologies researched but none of them are handled with any serious level of detail. Something that I do feel obligated to bring up though is the game’s ending so heavy spoiler tags moving forward. 

Assuming you achieved victory the game concludes by your character meeting with the head diplomat of your nation to discuss the true goals of project Sigma. All the other achievements were just stepping stones to the final device which is capable of expanding the human mind to unknown levels. Given your success and dedication to the cause is what got your nation to this point you are given the opportunity to now be the first person this technology is used on. And before I say what happens here I would just like to reiterate something. In spite of my previous gripes with some of the character’s Sigma Theory is a game that is mostly grounded within the real world. Sure it’s a little science fiction but it keeps those ideas rather tame with the main themes of the game being manipulation and taking advantage of the ‘human element’. 

With that said I’ll describe the ending of the game that I got on my first playthrough exactly as it happened. After being hooked up to the machine the protagonist was able to see their entire life back as a memory in perfect detail. Then they were able to see beyond that, beyond space and time down to the atoms which allows them to transcend beyond their mortal form to view humanity as a collective where they deem that it is no longer worthy of this technology wherein they delete it and its gifts from history. All before seeking a more worthy race beyond the stars to bestow this to. 

So…yeah definitely out of left field and I would imagine not what most people would predict . Now there are other endings however they are all equally outlandish with exception to the game over ones which either see you getting fired or the world ending in nuclear hellfire which are both situations I am sure most can relate to. 

Now before we move on all of these are features of the game’s classic mode however Sigma Theory also has a story mode as well but there really isn’t much to talk about. Aside from introducing a few new elements and story beats the game largely plays out the same as it would in classic mode. It’s fine if you’re looking for a more developed narrative I guess but given that Sigma Theory’s storytelling is at it’s best when it’s entirely diegetic you won’t miss much if you opt to just stick with the classic mode.

Gameplay

Sigma Theory is a turn-based strategy game that asks players to commit acts of espionage in order to collect scientists from around the globe. This is achieved by recruiting four agents at the start of the campaign which possess unique skill sets that make them uniquely suited to different tasks. Over the course of your mission you will require your agents will seduce, bribe, fight, and perhaps even kill to achieve the goal of completing the Sigma Projects. 

To some, myself included, all of this seems like a very entertaining prospect. Spycraft is a woefully overlooked genre when it comes to gaming and Sigma Theory looked set to deliver. However having spent a dozen hours with the title I quickly realized my expectations may have been set too high. So let’s break the mechanics down piece by piece to see where the faults lie. 

You’ll hear me say this a lot but Sigma Theory’s opening is quite the mixed bag. To begin with you must register your name, nation of origin, and spouse. Your name and gender are purely aesthetic but your nation will have an impact right away. And here’s where we return to the tone issue again. Sigma Theory looks as though it wants to be taken mostly seriously. We’ll discuss it more later but this is a game where you’ll have to make tough choices about who lives and dies, where civilian casualties can end up measured in the hundreds, and where you’ll be asked to torture information out of your captives. 

All of this to say it feels tonally disconnected when one of the first choices you can make is to be from China who’s passive buff is the first agent recruited will immediately know Kung-Fu. Or how hailing from France makes your agent a master Seducer. While I actually enjoy the fact that different nations offer potentially different gameplay styles I am decidedly not a fan of how it was implemented. 

After picking your spouse you’ll then be able to select your agents. Again there’s some parts that I like and other parts I dislike. To begin with, the number of agents on offer is impressive, allowing you to build a diverse roster. I also enjoy that this roster is temporarily restricted with the player easily able to earn new agents through play. This keeps things tighter at first while the player comes to grips with how the mechanics work before eventually allowing the veteran to build a more unique squad. 

Having run through the classic mode a few times I will say that there are a definitely some agents that are better than others but that doesn’t make it any less fun to try out new faces to see how they play. Additionally I like how agents are right away brought over to your side. First you’ll need to recruit them by reading their bio and picking from a multiple choice set in order to convince them to enlist in your cause. And don’t worry this is something you’ll only have to accomplish once since following playthroughs will allow you to instantly recruit already convinced agents. 

Although to begin with the complaints here there is once again a tone issue. Sigma Theory expects you to read through and understand the bios of each character which is a great way to immediately make you care more about your agents. However it feels strange that some agents will even want to work for you in the first place. For instance, why would an American combat veteran who nearly gave her life for her nation be willing to work for the Turkish government just because they were nicely asked? Once again they’ve gone through the trouble of creating these interesting characters but they don’t follow through on all that was set up. 

Because I dislike pointing out a flaw without offering a proper solution I’d like to offer a comparison here to an older strategy title Jagged Alliance. In this game you’re asked to hire mercenaries in order to overthrow a tyrannical dictator. Unlike in Sigma Theory, the mercs you hire in Jagged Alliance feel much more like characters with aesthetic things like voice acting and unique appearances but also gameplay implications like personality quirks and shifting relationships amongst those in the squad. Jagged Alliance easily feels like the superior title when it comes to making the player care more about how they build their team.

But let’s move on to the gameplay itself and the world map where most of Sigma Theory takes place. Here you’ll be able to send your agents out on tasks which are as follows. Locate scientists, investigate individuals, hack, procure weapons, and recon.  As previously referenced the way to win Sigma Theory is by collecting enough scientists to complete project Sigma. Once you send out an agent to a nation and discover their scientists you will then have to investigate them. Each of these actions can take several turns and in the meantime rival nations will be rushing to complete their own projects forcing you to choose your targets wisely. 

Before we get into what happens when you capture a scientist let’s first discuss what they can achieve. Sigma Theory has five realms of science which can be pursued all of which contribute to your end goal. One annoying thing is that at the start of the game you are granted two scientists to start with but you are not given a choice in which of the five disciplines they pursue. This is frustrating since different disciplines grant different rewards, some of which may not be conducive to certain playstyles. For instance the first stage of researching health grants your agents increased physical strength allowing them to take down targets more easily. However if you are playing a more stealth oriented squad this upgrade is significantly less useful than others on offer. 

Let’s get back to actually capturing agents. Once discovered and investigated agents will then have four different methods to prepare scientists for extraction. Abduction, seduction, bribery, and conversion. Unfortunately with exception to abduction all of these methods are functionally identical. Most of your agents will be proficient at least one of these three tasks (possessing either the seducer, puppet master, or negotiator perks) which is disappointing. This more than anything takes away from the game’s strategy elements since once you know what the scientist is vulnerable to, that’s it.  There’s no need to sneak them out for a tour of your own labs to convert or smuggle in cash to bribe them. Once you got them, you got them. 

Upon being converted scientists will then act as double agents which simply means they’ll give you some bonus research points in whatever it is they’re proficient in until you get ready for extraction. Which brings us to the game’s one and only minigame. Extractions will task your agent with getting out of the city alive. To bolster their efforts you can send in one spy drone and one combat drone, the former providing information about the route while the later can eliminate the police which will be attempting to thwart your escape. 

This system is also turned based as along the way your agent will occasionally run into a hiccup that you’ll have to talk them through. But again the game’s lack of depth rears it’s ugly head. Every single encounter only presents you with two choices of how to deal with it. And while the perks of each agent can play a role in how things play out this feels far, far too restrictive. Once again to make another comparison I’d like to take a look at the indie roguelike FTL:Faster than Light. In this game acting as the commander of a vessel fleeing across the depths of space you are tasked with making a variety of choices on how best to reach your ultimate goal. Along the way you’ll have to upgrade your ship and crew to better prepare for the treacherous road ahead. 

FTL is a difficult game for the uninitiated but one of its greatest features is the blue solution. While other choices in the game are all solved by a hidden dice roll, picking the blue solution always guarantees a successful outcome and is based upon the equipment you have. For example if you encounter a space station on fire you could send in one of your crew who’s part of a species made entirely out of stone (i.e, not flammable). Sigma Theory has the elements for this with its perk system but fails to really make good use of it. 

Outside of combating the other nations for scientific dominance there are two other mechanics to worry about, your nations trust and the doomsday clock. Reaching the end of either of these results in a game over. However the national trust system was such a non issue that I largely forget it even exists and the doomsday clock is more annoying than anything else. There are several choices you’ll have to make throughout the game and results can vary wildly. For instance you start off with the doomsday clock at around 15 and if it reaches 0, that’s game over. Helping a terrorist organization initiate a false flag attack in the capital of a major city only takes one point but withholding research data when your spouse asks you to take over 6. All without warning mind you. 

Oh yeah. The spouse. I hate to finish things off on a negative note but here we are. At the start of the game you’ll be asked to choose either a husband or wife from a nation aside from your own. Occasionally they’ll come up and ask you to do them a favor which can be as minor as making you lose some credit with your nation or as major as stealing your best agent away for five days. Eventually though towards the end of the game you’ll be presented with a choice. Whatever rival nations still exist at that point will claim to have captured them, forcing you to relinquish a significant portion of your data in order to secure their release. Failing to save them will result in a bad ending which is pretty much the sole purpose of their existence. A frankly strange inclusion that doesn’t really add anything to the game more than an additional headache. 

Presentation 

Unlike every other section thus far this is actually where Sigma Theory definitely can hold its own without any additional caveats. And while I hate to beat a dead horse I really feel like its quality is largely due to its consistency. Sigma Theory’s style opts for a minimalist, efficient approach that gels well with the game’s espionage tone. However it’s not afraid to show off a bit of flair, utilizing it’s future setting to make certain details pop.

Before we get into that though I’d quickly like to highlight the UI which I found to be handled extremely well. It allows for careful selection if need be but also permits quick selection for those who understand the mechanics. For example if you want your agent to preform an investigation into a particular scientist you can click on their bubble which will then allow you to select a scientist in that nation and then click the investigate button. But you may also just hover your mouse over the agent, click on the investigation bubble, and choose the portrait for the scientists which is less cumbersome. 

However there is one aspect that the game could definitely do better with here and that’s with the notification menu. At the end of every turn the results of the previous day are all crammed onto a single menu which can make it extremely easy to miss important details. Dividing this up among different menus or having some sort of highlighting system for significant events could have helped but it is something you will inevitably get used to. 

So definite gold star for ease of use and similarly high marks for aesthetics. The world map is basic but has a holographic look that, as previously mentioned, meshes with the game’s future setting. Similarly when completing the extraction minigames the buildings around your agent also have that sleek holo appeal. Really any game that makes me feel like Tony Stark swiping through menus is gonna have my support. 

Though what is definitely the star of the show here is the previously mentioned character portraits. As someone who is not an artistic person I would find the prospect of coming up with dozens upon dozens of character designs daunting especially when they’re all supposed to be vaguely normal people but Sigma Theory excels here. Even though these are all just headshot portraits I really feel like they lend the agents life. 

And the same goes for most of the other characters including the sub factions and diplomats although here the quality does vary a bit. There is one subfaction leader who really looks like he just stepped out from one of Square Enix’s Deus Ex games with the gold lines wired into his face although even he feels tame when compared to the art that’s used for the Spy and Combat drones. They’re so teched out even Cyberpunk 2077’s Maelstrom gangster’s wouldn’t want to touch them with a ten foot pole. 

Lastly there’s the music which is fairly unremarkable as far as gaming score’s go. I can’t say it’s not fitting even after a dozen hours and the game only having a few tracks I struggle to recall what any of it even sounds like. Still there are a few touches here and there that I like like how during extraction missions they’ll play combat sounds during the dice rolls which add in that little extra bit of immersion. 

Conclusion 

Sigma Theory is a game that succeeds not by its own merits but from a lack of competition. I really struggle to think of other titles that attempt to tackle espionage at the grand scale rather than at the interpersonal level (something like Splinter Cell or Alpha Protocol). However that does not excuse the many faults the game has. Ultimately I can recommend Sigma Theory on the basis of it’s concept and though it does execute them competently there is definitely room to improve.