488th played so far
Genre: Strategy
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2006
Developer: Introversion Software
Publisher: Introversion Software
We’ve played a few of Introversion’s games before – Darwinia was fun if a bit strange, while Uplink was an early fun discovery for us while doing the blog.
The last of the three games on the list is DEFCON, a simple, board game looking game. It’s also a game that I just about missed out on playing at work – it came up, but never happened. I’m looking forward to actually trying it.
Our Thoughts
That was scary. Not the game itself – the graphics are clinical and mostly consist of a map of the world with symbols drawn on it – but what you are doing to it. As you bomb your enemy cities (in a way to take control of the situation) you see numbers go up – showing how many people are killing, but so far removed that it really is just a number.
And that shows off the almost ideological point of the game. A timer counts down to DEFCON five, the point where all nuclear hell breaks loose, and until then you mostly set up your defenses and get your weaponry in place. It’s a slow speed, with limited espionage options, but just as much hoping you got it right. Then everything starts and before you know missiles fly everywhere, subs pop up out of nowhere and all you can do is try to do as much damage while still protecting your borders – an at times impossible task.
And then it comes down to numbers. Kill more than your opponent and you win. Simple premise, presented clinically, with wall charts or figurines moved across the board. Missiles might go a bit slow for it. And while you have plenty of directing to do, you’re spending just as much time waiting for everything to go to hell.
War is ugly.
Final Thoughts
As you can probably tell from the above, I’d struggle to call this game fun. It is, but it doesn’t feel right, because it made me feel like a monster. One I could be knowing that none of it was real, but still…
Trying to remove it from that, this is a simple, but solid strategy game that reaches its gameplay quite effectively. Great as a coffee break game.