Defcon Preview

Introversion Software:  Founded by three young college friends in London the company is often tagged “the last of the bedroom programmers.”  If the name doesn’t sound familiar, the game Darwinia should.  A true entrepreneurial success story, Introversion released its first game titled Uplink in October of 2001.  Now, almost five years later, with several awards in hand and both of their previous titles available on Valve’s immensely popular Steam platform, a third title is on the way.  Prepare for global thermonuclear war because in Defcon, everybody dies.

Introversion was kind enough to send us an asset disc from the upcoming title, containing screenshots, videos, as well as a nuclear survival guide promo booklet. The following preview/intro is based on these assets and information.

Inspired by the film WarGames, directed by John Badham, Defcon places you in the shoes of a military general deep inside a nuclear-resistant underground bunker. The game, which will primarily be online but will offer a single-player portion as well, forces you to make the decisions on how to lose the least. That is, completely destroying the enemy population as well as preventing any possibility of a counter-attack while securing your population and territory.  Similar to the cold and hostile tensions felt in the cold war era, Defcon promises to produce an environment where players will continually be looking over their shoulders.  Formed alliances can be broken at any moment as military officials will go to any length to protect their own people and territories.  Knowing millions of lives are on the line, will you be able to easily press the big red button?

Rounds will typically last around thirty to forty minutes but it will be possible to speed it up in the single-player mode.  Rounds will begin at “level 5” where players will be able to move their naval units to international territories without worrying about any hostile actions.  The levels will slowly decrease to 1 where all-out nuclear strikes are allowed to be carried out.

Similar to Introversion’s previous games, which have proven that cutting edge graphics aren’t necessary to produce a winning title, the visual component in this game is basically composed of a world map.  That’s not to say that it doesn’t look good: just have a look at the trailer, gameplay movies and screenshots for yourself to see all of the modern effects and menus.  Players will be able to zoom in an out of areas of interest.  However, you will only be able to see enemy units if they cross into your radar range, or initiate a launch.

The following is a breakdown of things you might see on the large map:

• On the ground, there will be icons to represent radar dishes, airbases, and missile silos.  Airbases can contain both fighters and bombers, and the missile silos also double as anti-aircraft/anti-warhead guns.

  
  

• In the sea, players will see carriers and battleships, as well as submarines.  Most of their features are expected and self explanatory.  For example, subs are invisible to radar and can launch torpedoes and nukes. 

  
  

• Airborne items include fighter jets and bombers, as well as nuclear missiles.

  
  

Introversion is predicting that Defcon will be an addictive game – so much so that they have decided to include an “office mode.”  Someone coming?!  Simply hit the ESC button twice and the game will be minimized to the in the system tray/taskbar.  The “discreet” icon will change when important things are happening in-game, ensuring you don’t lose to Debbie in Human Resources while also keeping the Bill Lumberghs of the world out of the loop.

With Introversion’s history of award-winning titles and the features we received I can honestly say that I am looking forward to Defcon’s release which will be towards the end of September.  The concept looks fun and addicting and the price upon release is slated to be $14.95 through Steam.  Short on cash?  Fear not: there will be a demo to give players a chance to try it out if they are unsure.  Expect to see the demo on Steam sometime after the full game’s release, a-la Darwinia. In addition we will also have Defcon reviewed here on 2404.