Soviet Strike is a helicopter-based shooter game. As in its predecessors, the player views the action from outside his craft, using one of two available viewpoints. These are similar to the isometric perspective of the previous games, but are improved "overhead" versions. This removes the predecessors' problem of buildings occasionally obstructing the player's view; and unlike the previous games, the player can no longer collide the helicopter into structures, instead always flying over them. The first camera system fixates on the Apache, while the second allows the player to rotate the screen around the helicopter.[1] The Apache is armed with a machine gun, Hydra rockets and Hellfire missiles, which vary in power and payload. The Sega Saturn version includes two hidden power-up weapons: doubled machine guns and Maverick missiles.[4] The craft has finite ammunition, fuel, and armour, and the player must manage the payload by collecting limited supplies.[5]
The game has five large levels, each divided into several missions. Mission objectives include seeking and destroying enemy personnel and structures such as radars, training camps and ships; rescuing prisoners-of-war and other persons (including, in the last mission, Boris Yeltsin),[6] as well as recovering intercontinental ballistic missiles and capturing enemy commanders and agents. Soviet Strike employs a relatively realistic, fluid virtual battlefield and sophisticated artificial intelligence, which will put in motion set pieces even if the protagonist has not arrived to take part. The opposing intelligence can track the player using radar and reinforce positions accordingly. As such the player must sometimes pre-emptively destroy radars. Enemy troops may also flee once they have lost a battle.[5] Some missions require set piece solutions, including starting an avalanche to crush a tank battalion and sealing a nuclear reactor core in a salt mine. The game is very tightly structured, yet the player has the ability to roam the battlefield attacking enemies at will.[6]