Good games you might not have heard of: DEFCON Everybody Dies

In an age of Cells and multi-cores, of 1080p graphics and motion-sensitivity, it’s too easy to be blinded into forgetting what it’s all about really. Being sucked into the gameplay until you and it are one and there is nothing else (Oh, that is so Zen). Of course, increased processing power and innovation in controls were the means to that end, but as it is in so many affairs of the world, the means obscured the end until the means was all that’s left.

That’s why it’s nice to see a game that doesn’t have all that, but still manages to do what games are supposed to do. In this case, it’s DEFCON: Everybody Dies from UK-based Introversion Studios, self-proclaimed “last of the bedroom developers”. It’s a very simple game that could run on a Pentium III – TWO PC GENS AGO – but manages to deliver a gripping multiplayer experience like no other. Why? Thanks to some good gameplay design, and what turned out to be excellent inspiration, this practically emulates – if not simulates – nuclear strategy and warfare.

It’s a lot more horrifying than you think when you’re the practitioner of the craft. The premise is simple, but the strategic implications are huge. Up to six players, each with a fixed arsenal of bombers, fighters, ships, and most of all, nuclear weapons. On missiles, subs, and bombers. Your objective: use these assets to take out the enemy nukes – and his population. Before he uses his to take out yours. Classic nuclear strategy.

Nobody dies if you read on at the full article.

In an age of Cells and multi-cores, of 1080p graphics and motion-sensitivity, it’s too easy to be blinded into forgetting what it’s all about really. Being sucked into the gameplay until you and it are one and there is nothing else (Oh, that is so Zen). Of course, increased processing power and innovation in controls were the means to that end, but as it is in so many affairs of the world, the means obscured the end until the means was all that’s left.

That’s why it’s nice to see a game that doesn’t have all that, but still manages to do what games are supposed to do. In this case, it’s DEFCON: Everybody Dies from UK-based Introversion Studios, self-proclaimed “last of the bedroom developers”. It’s a very simple game that could run on a Pentium III – TWO PC GENS AGO – but manages to deliver a gripping multiplayer experience like no other. Why? Thanks to some good gameplay design, and what turned out to be excellent inspiration, this practically emulates – if not simulates – nuclear strategy and warfare.

It’s a lot more horrifying than you think when you’re the practitioner of the craft. The premise is simple, but the strategic implications are huge. Up to six players, each with a fixed arsenal of bombers, fighters, ships, and most of all, nuclear weapons. On missiles, subs, and bombers. Your objective: use these assets to take out the enemy nukes – and his population. Before he uses his to take out yours. Classic nuclear strategy.

It doesn’t boast high-end graphics – all it has is simple wire-frame symbologies and a simple world map. The RTS is nothing revolutionary. In other words, it’s simple. But that’s part of its beauty. It looks like it belongs not on your desktop, but in some workstation at US Strategic Command or Russian Strategic Rocket Forces. It feels like you’re in command of nuclear forces.

You and six other people – this brings up the multiplayer appeal of DEFCON. You can freely ally with – and betray – each other. You’ve got to learn not only when and how to employ your nuclear arsenal, but how to connive the other players into attacking the other guys before they attack you. Something like Survivor, really. It makes for some intense multiplayer experiences as you prep for nuclear war and scream holy hell at your enemies and supposed allies.

Like we said, it’s the feel of the game that matters here. Because of its inspiration from the 80’s near-nuclear-war movie “Wargames”, DEFCON at its best really evokes the tension of superpower conflict, of an all-or-nothing contest with opponents you can’t trust. The very haunting soundtrack adds to the effect: the music is very moody – if not creepy. You will swear to God you’re hearing someone cough every time you hit a nuke, and some woman cry when the nuke hits. Shudder.

All in all, it may be the closest humanity can get to nuclear war without suffering it – or joining the nuclear arm of the military. Play the game, remember the bad old days, and you leave the game with the same horrific awe that may have greeted the first atomic bomb. “Now I am Death, the Destroyer of Worlds,” thought the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, after the first successful test of an A-bomb.

Perhaps one of the most notable achievements about DEFCON is that it’s only $17.50 through digital download services. A simple, complete, quite compelling game that is affordable and downloadable. Not only is this proof that great ideas don’t have to come with multimillion-dollar budgets (though it helps), this makes DEFCON a great game for consoles, too. The gameplay dynamic is a perfect fit for XBLA-type matches, for example. The most likely candidate, however, is the PS3. With Introversion working on a Linux version, Fedora/Yellow Dog-enabled PS3s will be able to play the game on their console’s “other OS”.

Even better if there were Xbox 360 or PS3-devved DEFCONS in the near future. Introversion may find themselves from being the last of the bedroom developers to part of the leading edge of a new wave in console gaming.

Our suggestion: you wanna be the man now, dog? Get this game and find out why the best way to win a game of nuclear war is not to play the game at all. Except in DEFCON.