When my gamecode for DEFCON arrived, I was ecstatic to say the very least. The latest game from Introversion, a UK based group of college students who've worked wonders and released surprise hits in the forms of their previous two games, Darwinia and Uplink, DEFCON is a real time strategy game based over the concept of Global Thermonuclear War. It's executed in a manner similar to that seen in the movie WarGames, in which a hacker cracks into a private network and nearly ends the world. Everything about DEFCON is pristine, it's graphics are demonstrated exactly how they should be, and it has all the polish of high-budget, high-profile games that are often less interesting.The game of DEFCON isn't an easy one to approach. It's a tough cookie to chew and the faint hearted may be disappointed at the time it takes to get used to the game's odd interface and style, but perseverance is a must with a game like this, and it proves itself in due course. It starts off slowly, with you being put right in the middle of things to set up your base - which is vitally important, because once you've used up your 25 or so units and buildings, you don't get any reinforcements, ever. This'll baffle and hinder starting players, but it keeps the games snappy and definitely adds to the gameplay.
DEFCON plays out over several stages, ranging through the stages of warfare - from DEFCON 5 (peacetime) to DEFCON 1 (WWIII). The first stage is the time you deploy your troops, and then for the next rounds you must set their paths to where you want them to be, deploy your defenses and hinder your enemy indirectly. There are only five units in the game, a stealth bomber plane, a fighter jet, a submarine, a battleship and a carrier. Each unit is perfectly balanced and regulated, and they work exactly in tandem with one another to create more carnage than you could ever possibly imagine.Tactics are a definite necessity in DEFCON - it's a game about using your brain, not just building a huge blob of warriors and running in there. For every action there is a reaction, and because of this it's HUGELY satisfying when you see a 'fleet' of nukes flying past your enemy's borders unhindered, because you've simultaneously sent in a squadron of fighters and bombers to distract their air defense batteries. Having said this, the feeling you get when you win the game isn't, when you think about it, a nice one. You're simulating slaughter, shooting fish in a barrel, and the faint glow and hum of your target's part of the world as nuclear winter falls is vaguely sickening.
Another one of DEFCON's best features is it's multiplayer mode. DEFCON is a multiplayer game, and proud of it- the single player modes are training, practice - they're just what teach you the ropes, and it's background mode just enforces that belief - it's a brilliant game to play at work with your colleagues - it slots into the background and can be slowed down or sped up depending on your available time and attention.
DEFCON is a game I'd recommend to anyone who's a fan of either multiplayer or strategy games. It blends the two perfectly, and is one of the few true 'greats' of the last year. Buy it, hook up with your friends and ruin the world. That's an order.
I'm 14 and I'm a student. I've always lived in South London, and don't plan on changing that anytime soon. I enjoy poor horror movies and good comedies. I love MMOs and FPSs mostly, but I play pretty much every genre there is.
