DEFCON | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Introversion Software |
Publisher(s) | Introversion Software |
Distributor(s) | Steam, Introversion Software, Ambrosia Software, Pinnacle Software UK, Encore, DesuraNET (Desura), GOG.com |
Designer(s) | Chris Delay Gary Chambers |
Composer(s) | Alistair Lindsay and Michael Maidment |
Platform(s) | Windows Mac OS X Linux |
Release |
September 29, 2006 (Steam) |
Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Aggregator | Score |
GameRankings | 83.3% |
Metacritic | 84% |
Review scores | |
Publication | Score |
1UP.com | A |
Edge | 7/10 |
Eurogamer | 8/10 |
Awards | |
---|---|
Publication | Award |
PC Gamer | Top 100 PC Games July 2008 (# 59) |
Way of The Rodent | Best Involuntary Yelp |
Way of The Rodent | Best Sound |
September 29, 2006 (Steam)
June 15, 2007 (UK retail)
April 15, 2007 (United States)
DEFCON (stylized as DEFCOИ and sometimes subtitled Everybody Dies) is a real-time strategy game created by independent British game developer Introversion Software, developers of Darwinia, Multiwinia, Uplink, and Prison Architect. The gameplay is reminiscent of the "big boards" that visually represented thermonuclear war in films such as Dr. Strangelove, Fail-Safe, and especially WarGames.
The game has been available by download since September, 2006 through Introversion's web store and Steam. In the UK it was released for the high street shops on June 15, 2007 and for a limited period included the developer's first game Uplink. On April 5, 2007, US publisher Encore announced they would be publishing the game in the United States, and had ordered an initial 50,000 copies of the game for retail.
Players are given a 1980s vector graphics computer-themed world map, a varied arsenal of nuclear and conventional weaponry, and a primary objective: destroy as much of the enemy's population as possible while having as little of one's own population destroyed as possible. A typical game will see civilian casualties numbering in the millions (megadeaths) while players try their hand at annihilating their opponents.
In most games, all sides take heavy losses, but the player with the highest score wins. Players' scores are determined according to one of three schemes: Default (gain 2 points for 1 megadeath caused, lose 1 point for 1 megadeath suffered), Survivor (gain 1 point per million survivors in your territory) or Genocide (gain 1 point for each megadeath caused); though functionally identical in a one-on-one conflict, each scoring scheme suggests large differences in strategy in larger multiplayer conflicts.