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DefCon - Everybody Dies - Review »

Authored by Shane Robinett on 2007-01-17 12:14:05

Download DefCon Here.
You can't go wrong with a storyline that assumes - "Everybody Dies". - Just can't happen. Perfect game. 99 Red Balloons – here we come! Looking like something out of the old hacker-favorite movie “War Games” (1983) comes DEFCON – Everybody Dies – Is the key to this game.

Have you considered what it would be to destroy the world, every city of it – having the power to bring death to the world? Now you can with DefCon. Start at DefCon 5 and try to make friends.. fast… and just as quickly, prepare to backstab them! The world must tremble at your feet. Destroy your enemy’s defenses, send his troops into oblivion, do the worst you can. It’s a life and death combat. There will only be one ruling country. Let it be yours.
From the creators of Darwinia comes another awesome online multilayer. The game at hand simulates a global thermonuclear war. You have only the strongest units to command, no time to play around with kid toys. You have your battleships, carriers and submarines to take the enemy by surprise from the water side. On land you have bombers hidden in airbases, silos that hold 10 ICBMs and the radars to detect any enemy that might dare to enter its range of action.

Concept
DEFCON is played entirely from a sleek map similar to those associated with NORAD. The map is broken up into five pieces with North America and Canada acting as one entity, Turkey through Japan acting as another, and so on. Represented within the borders of each of these territories are the major cities of the region. DEFCON does not rely on resource gathering or territorial bonuses, instead, each cluster of countries starts with an equal number of missile silos, naval units, radar dishes, and airfields. The basic functions of these units are easy to grasp but most units serve multiple functions such as the silo which can intercept aircraft and ICBMs. On the surface, this system appears basic. In practice, it lends DEFON's strategic gameplay a simplistic beauty which never lets teamwork, bluffing, and backstabbing go unrewarded.

Each player lays out their forces during DEFCON 5 (peacetime) and DEFCON 4. At this point in the game, no combat has broken out. However, opposing naval fleets have usually run into one another and are sharing an awkward moment of peace while alerting each player to what their coastlines will be up against. Additionally, this is a time to forge public and secret allegiances, and to watch the movements of your allies for posturing that hints at future betrayal. Knowing who to side with and how long to maintain the alliance(s) are invaluable - easily making the difference between complete domination and complete obliteration.

DEFCON Three signals the beginning of War and the map becomes alive as its tracks the worldwide outbreak of violence. Despite the obvious power hiding underneath each silo, nuclear weapons must lay dormant until DEFCON 1. Because of this, most of the chaos centers around naval and air units. This leads to desperate struggles to position fleets near the enemy coastlines while detecting and destroying invading submarines.
Controlling the action is simple as most units will pick their targets and begin hammering away. However, the player can step in and direct much of the action by hand which is all but required in heated multiplayer matches. Additionally, airfields will not take action unless given your order, so launching and directing your aircraft wisely is vital. The manual controls, while still simple and largely intuitive, but work poorly when attempting to move units in small increments.

DEFCON 2 sees the continuation of fighting but is typified by reconnaissance flights and - as naval battles draw to a close - gaining a better understanding of how the impending Nuclear War's theater will be set. There is also a noticeable tension as it is each player's last stand before the DEFON 1: the beginning of the end.

Interestingly enough, DEFCON 1 rarely begins with silo's purging their missiles. Instead, there is an eerie period of silence as each player waits to see who will strike first and how. This moment and the use of diplomacy are where the aforementioned simplistic beauty of DEFCON comes into play. Here the Fog of War in is not a gray blob surrounding a unit, but rather by a very real a pervasive uncertainty of what outcome your actions will produce.

And then the red balloons goes up – all 99 of them. Behold the majesty of the nuclear war! Everyone still having a silo is deploying all the nukes it can hold. Massive blasting. Huge clouds of dust cover the cities. Millions die. And hurry, hurry with the rest of them, ‘cause victory is near. Kill them all and you will have put together the greatest stratagem of the world.

This is it. This is the result of your master scheme. Have you defended your country well enough? Have you inflicted sufficient damage? Have you terrorized enough enemy people? Are you the one that lost the least? The panel of truth reveals itself as the timer reaches zero (not that you didn’t have a real time score all through the game, but you still hope you have caused some last minute damage).

Multiplayer
Defcon is mainly a multiplayer game. As single player you can only play the tutorial or challenge the computer, which plays pretty good, by the way, but he is unable to form an alliance with you. The tricky part with alliances is that there’s just one winner so sooner or later you might be tempted to turn the arms against your friends. There can be up to 6 players on the map. Each can choose (or will be randomly put in charge with) the command of one region: Europe, Russia, Africa, North America, South America or Asia.

Conclusion
Introversion Software brings up another unconventional, yet thrilling game. Defcon is unique and a great game at a very affordable price. I’ve personally invested hundred+ hours since I started playing it a few weeks – so beware!

Download DefCon Here .

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