Would you like to play a game?
I?ve had a change to play a couple of games of DEFCON from Introversion Software now, and it is very much a complete rip-off of Global Thermo-nuclear war from WarGames ( not a bad thing
) ? the presentation is a dead ringer, all wireframe 3D stuff, on a world map with little missle, ship and plane icons moving about the place.
The aim of the game is to cause as many casualties as possible to your enemies, whilst defending your own installations and cities. It breaks down like this: Pick a country, choose online or single player with AI and off you go. The game is played against a timer, which as it ticks by, changes the DEFCON level from 5 to 1 automatically; this dictates the actions you are allowed to do at that time.
At DEFCON 5, the limited number of Radar Stations, Missile Silos, Air Bases and Naval fleets can be placed on the map. Naval fleets can be moved in international waters, but no hostile actions can be taken.
At DEFCON 4, units can still be placed, and radar stations show what units are in range, so not placing all your units at DEFCON 5 is probably a good idea.
At DEFCON 3 and 2, you can?t place units on the map anymore. Air and Naval units can be used to attack the enemy, but only in a conventional means.
At DEFCON 1 you can start launching the nukes ?
The radars allow you to see what?s approaching your air and sea space, taking these out makes gaps in detection coverage, so you can sneak through air units easier as anti aircraft fire isn?t accurate.
The airbases have fighters and bombers units, so intercept and destroy options come from those. There are three naval unit types; battleships, subs and aircraft carriers, and these can make fleets of up to six units.
The missile silos act as both defensive and offensive units ? but they can only be used in one capacity at a time; when you go to launch the nukes ( which have to be primed for two minutes before they launch ), you can?t then use it at a missile/air/naval intercept device.
It?s dead easy to select and move units, but you can?t build new ones at all. It?s all mouse driven with left or right button clicks. To launch the nukes you just right click silos and select ICBMs, it shows a cursor with the number of missiles left, and then you simply click on the city to hit ? when you mouse over it shows the city population. When the nukes strike, there?s a white glow, and you?re told the number of casualties killed, my best end game score so far has been 81.9 million killed. Destroying Moscow and Leningrad worked a treat
The number of strategies you can use seems a bit limited, just a case of timing your launches, using subs for surprise attacks and hitting the most vulnerable targets. All the games I?ve played so far all seem to play out in the same way, ie, place units, blow stuff up, end of game, but I haven?t tried any online multiplayer stuff yet.
So, totally lacking in any depth, not really that much to do, especially at DEFCON 4, but not bad for a quick bash at Mutually Assured Destruction, and for getting your 1980 WarGames kick.
How about a nice game of Chess?
I?ve had a change to play a couple of games of DEFCON from Introversion Software now, and it is very much a complete rip-off of Global Thermo-nuclear war from WarGames ( not a bad thing
) ? the presentation is a dead ringer, all wireframe 3D stuff, on a world map with little missle, ship and plane icons moving about the place.The aim of the game is to cause as many casualties as possible to your enemies, whilst defending your own installations and cities. It breaks down like this: Pick a country, choose online or single player with AI and off you go. The game is played against a timer, which as it ticks by, changes the DEFCON level from 5 to 1 automatically; this dictates the actions you are allowed to do at that time.
At DEFCON 5, the limited number of Radar Stations, Missile Silos, Air Bases and Naval fleets can be placed on the map. Naval fleets can be moved in international waters, but no hostile actions can be taken.
At DEFCON 4, units can still be placed, and radar stations show what units are in range, so not placing all your units at DEFCON 5 is probably a good idea.
At DEFCON 3 and 2, you can?t place units on the map anymore. Air and Naval units can be used to attack the enemy, but only in a conventional means.
At DEFCON 1 you can start launching the nukes ?
The radars allow you to see what?s approaching your air and sea space, taking these out makes gaps in detection coverage, so you can sneak through air units easier as anti aircraft fire isn?t accurate.
The airbases have fighters and bombers units, so intercept and destroy options come from those. There are three naval unit types; battleships, subs and aircraft carriers, and these can make fleets of up to six units.
The missile silos act as both defensive and offensive units ? but they can only be used in one capacity at a time; when you go to launch the nukes ( which have to be primed for two minutes before they launch ), you can?t then use it at a missile/air/naval intercept device.
It?s dead easy to select and move units, but you can?t build new ones at all. It?s all mouse driven with left or right button clicks. To launch the nukes you just right click silos and select ICBMs, it shows a cursor with the number of missiles left, and then you simply click on the city to hit ? when you mouse over it shows the city population. When the nukes strike, there?s a white glow, and you?re told the number of casualties killed, my best end game score so far has been 81.9 million killed. Destroying Moscow and Leningrad worked a treat
The number of strategies you can use seems a bit limited, just a case of timing your launches, using subs for surprise attacks and hitting the most vulnerable targets. All the games I?ve played so far all seem to play out in the same way, ie, place units, blow stuff up, end of game, but I haven?t tried any online multiplayer stuff yet.
So, totally lacking in any depth, not really that much to do, especially at DEFCON 4, but not bad for a quick bash at Mutually Assured Destruction, and for getting your 1980 WarGames kick.
How about a nice game of Chess?
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