Screenshots :.
Defcon
PC
Jay
13-07-2007
"It may not look like much, but Defcon's all about gameplay"
"And timing..."
Yeah, I suppose you could warrant maintaining an active interest in nuclear warfare as much as you could a verruca; with a disturbing curiosity, you’d probe and you’d discover and in the end you’d hope that you could leave the experience with a strong detachment from the subject. Defcon lets you wage nuclear war on the planet, hands you the repercussions in an attractive array of Commodore 64 graphics and allows that feeling of contentment of wiping out 4.2 million people without the bitter aftertaste of morbid things like guilt and radiation.
You may be familiar with Uplink or Darwinia, and if you are then the presentation of this game will come as no surprise. Introversion Software have gone for solid gameplay rather than taunt us with a lack of content made up with a vast array of eye candy. For this, most of the games have met with a decent amount of success and allowed for the launch of Defcon. They’ve covered Hacking, Virtual Reality and now Bush’s Toy Room. I mean, Global Thermonuclear War. Quite the meaty topic as you can imagine.
The point of Defcon is to defend your country from Nuclear attack by setting up a your buildings and army to either go on the defensive, offensive, or both. You’re given a limited supply of:
Radar – Allow you to see enemy units and fire.
Silo – Acts as air defence or as your nuke launcher depending on which mode you have it in
Airbase – Can launch planes, which are mainly anti-air, and bombers that launch a little localised nuke.
Battleships – Attack multiple targets
Submarines – Nuke carrying stealth unit, which becomes vulnerable upon launching nukes.
Carriers – Can launch fighters and Bombers and drop Depth Charges to take out nukes.
The real strategy comes down to the fact that everything has a limited supply, and once you’re out – you’re out. Because of this change of tack from building up a big ol’ base and going for strength in number, you really have to be careful about where you’ve placed your units. Additionally you can’t really take on the world due to only having a limited supply of nukes and more than likely quite a few of those will be taken out with air defences. Placement and timing is the key.
The game is staged in a series of Defon countdowns, from 5 to 1 with 5 being the time to place buildings to 1 being the time to launch nukes. Upon launching a nuke, your silo’s lit up like a Christmas tree allowing all other players to know the location and start launching their own at it. This all equates to what seems to be a very balanced game if not for the fact that it’s just as easy for it to all go horribly wrong after you think you’ve found the perfect strategy.
With the hauntingly atmospheric music, the electronic displays of population deaths and the lack of graphics, it all keeps you very detached. I can’t help but wonder if this is how the superpowers look at the world on a day-to-day basis, that pushing the button does indeed come with a lack of responsibility.
Bloody good fun, though!
You may be familiar with Uplink or Darwinia, and if you are then the presentation of this game will come as no surprise. Introversion Software have gone for solid gameplay rather than taunt us with a lack of content made up with a vast array of eye candy. For this, most of the games have met with a decent amount of success and allowed for the launch of Defcon. They’ve covered Hacking, Virtual Reality and now Bush’s Toy Room. I mean, Global Thermonuclear War. Quite the meaty topic as you can imagine.
The point of Defcon is to defend your country from Nuclear attack by setting up a your buildings and army to either go on the defensive, offensive, or both. You’re given a limited supply of:
Radar – Allow you to see enemy units and fire.
Silo – Acts as air defence or as your nuke launcher depending on which mode you have it in
Airbase – Can launch planes, which are mainly anti-air, and bombers that launch a little localised nuke.
Battleships – Attack multiple targets
Submarines – Nuke carrying stealth unit, which becomes vulnerable upon launching nukes.
Carriers – Can launch fighters and Bombers and drop Depth Charges to take out nukes.
The real strategy comes down to the fact that everything has a limited supply, and once you’re out – you’re out. Because of this change of tack from building up a big ol’ base and going for strength in number, you really have to be careful about where you’ve placed your units. Additionally you can’t really take on the world due to only having a limited supply of nukes and more than likely quite a few of those will be taken out with air defences. Placement and timing is the key.
The game is staged in a series of Defon countdowns, from 5 to 1 with 5 being the time to place buildings to 1 being the time to launch nukes. Upon launching a nuke, your silo’s lit up like a Christmas tree allowing all other players to know the location and start launching their own at it. This all equates to what seems to be a very balanced game if not for the fact that it’s just as easy for it to all go horribly wrong after you think you’ve found the perfect strategy.
With the hauntingly atmospheric music, the electronic displays of population deaths and the lack of graphics, it all keeps you very detached. I can’t help but wonder if this is how the superpowers look at the world on a day-to-day basis, that pushing the button does indeed come with a lack of responsibility.
Bloody good fun, though!
7/10