DEFCON: Everybody Dies review

Introversion is a software house fast gaining recognition not just amongst gamers but also within the industry. This is its third foray into a world of original and fun gaming with its previous games being Uplink and Darwinia, both of which rightly managed to gather up favourable reviews across the globe.

This time around it is bringing us the subject of global thermonuclear war in the cheap and neatly packaged form of DEFCON. Those of you familiar with the 80s movie Wargames will find the presentation in the game very familiar.

Shall we play a game?

DEFCON is an oddly beautiful game, the map of the world drawn out in neon blue - though this can be customized to your heart's content. For such a simplistic looking game it’s incredibly effective and striking. Initially you’ll want to play through the excellent tutorial before tackling the main game proper and it’s here that you will learn the art of nuclear war.

This superb and easy to follow introduction to the game will teach you how to use the various units at your disposal such as the nuclear silos. These are the mainstay of your arsenal and are initially placed in defence mode. They only become able to fire off nuclear warheads once the threat level reaches DEFCON 1, up until that point they can be used to shoot down enemy planes that might be scouting the area.

You are also given airfields that allow you to launch fighters and bombers. Fighters are ideal for taking out ships and bombers while the bombers themselves carry nuclear warheads and are a grave threat to any continent. Then there are the naval units and you have carriers, submarines and battleships at your disposal, each with their own unique application to your war effort.

Is it a game... or is it real?

By the time you have finished the tutorial you will be ready to write slogans on your own nuclear warheads and get stuck into the main game proper. The single player game will be your first port of call but to be honest this should serve only as a training exercise for what the game is really all about, online mass destruction. This should be your aim and the idea here is that each player chooses a continent to call their own. The game starts at DEFCON 5 and as time passes the threat level escalates ever higher. The threat level must reach a certain number before you can do certain things such as launch your bombers and this is where the strategy comes in.

You have just enough time to sort out where to place your silos, radars and airfields and send your submarines to the coast of the enemy before things turn really nasty. By this point it’s likely that a few ships have been sunk and a few air battles have taken place, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Alliances can be formed with other players and this allows you to see their forces and comes implicit with the agreement that you won’t attack any other continent within that alliance. Be careful though, alliances can be broken and friends can quickly turn to deadly enemies and turn their nuclear arsenal upon you in an instant.

I loved it when you nuked Las Vegas

It’s all played at the pace of the slowest player as time can be sped up at certain points if other players agree. It’s truly awe inspiring to see the threat level rise to DEFCON 1 and hear the sounds of nuclear weapons being fired across the globe. These artfully trace an arc across your map as they head for their destination, hopefully someone else’s continent and not yours. Now is the time to surface your submarines, launch your bombers and fire from your silos. Control of the map is fantastically intuitive and effective allowing you to see exactly what you need to make use of your weapons.

The atmosphere of the game is tremendous and the music is superbly fitting and chilling. As nukes land on cities you can see instantly the number of dead which brings a sobering thought to what is essentially entertainment. Points are deducted for deaths on your continent and added as you destroy other cities and a running total for each player is kept on screen at all times. There are a couple of other modes such as genocide and survival and these tweak the scoring dynamics offering a little bit of variety. There is even an office mode tucked away within the game that allows you to play over the course of several hours so you can do a little work then play a little and hopefully your boss won’t notice.

Flush the bombers, get the subs in launch mode. We are at DEFCON 1

My main gripe is that the single player game doesn't have the durability I would have hoped for, so if you don’t plan to go online then it’s not a game I’d recommend you pick up. If however you want to try taking on the world (literally) then the game really opens up and becomes a lot more fun. It’s initially nowhere near as complicated as many real time strategy games out there - yet just like chess, the depth comes in how you play it.

The game really is a breath of fresh air in that regard. Given that the download price is a rather generous £10 and that you can also get a fully boxed copy for another £5 then I have no choice but to recommend you get over to the Introversion website forthwith and start your own nuclear war. Do it to them before they do it to you but don’t forget, there are no winners in global thermonuclear war.