DEFCON: Everybody Dies

 PC
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 215 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 169 out of 215
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 215
  3. Negative: 14 out of 215

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  1. tech-noir
    Jan 29, 2012
    5
    DEFCON borrows some of its lore and most of its appearance from portions of the movie WarGames. The multi player scene is still active, and it is very easy to find open matches with all kinds of different settings. Personally, I prefer playing against the CPU, much like in the movie. The map is fairly accurate, depicting the geopolitical era of the Cold War. Implementing orders to yourDEFCON borrows some of its lore and most of its appearance from portions of the movie WarGames. The multi player scene is still active, and it is very easy to find open matches with all kinds of different settings. Personally, I prefer playing against the CPU, much like in the movie. The map is fairly accurate, depicting the geopolitical era of the Cold War. Implementing orders to your units can sometimes be confusing and inadequate, but with enough attempts, you become used to the interface, and will be able to do all of the game's strategical requirements. What is most valuable in DEFCON is the replay ability. Certainly, each match has an ending, but the game truly shines when you play it repeatedly; alone or online. Winning is not easy. Several things must go right, and occur at specific moments in order to be successful. Because of these timing issues, sometimes you will win or lose depending on how quickly or how slowly your units execute orders in conjunction with timers. Nuking cities and other strategic locations doesn't exactly feel like you are killing people. There isn't very much tension. It all just feels like you are clicking around on the map and delegating orders. The feeling that lives are actually being lost is not truly present. At the end of each match, you will be shown a small statistics screen with how much of the enemy population you have killed, how many of your population have been killed, and so on. Each match takes between 15 to 20 minutes to complete, and it often feels like each instance ends abruptly without much of a climax or excitement in the confrontations. The entire atmosphere is very cold and impersonal. Setting up a new single player match means you will have to go into the advanced settings every single time in order to change a few options to single player mode. The default (which can't be permanently altered) is set to multi player, broadcasting your match as public. This is quite annoying and should not have been programmed as such. I am certain that there are many DEFCON players that prefer single player mode and this preference should not be hindered by permanently set options from the developers. The longevity of DEFCON is dependent entirely on the player's interest in its short matches, be it single player or multi player. Besides your initial location on the match, it feels like every single match is played almost exactly the same, with very little occurring differently or alternatively. The strategies necessary to play this game are limited and basic, regardless of whether you win or lose. The only major change as you become better at the game is that you will begin winning, but this does not mean each match will be played differently, or go through a different turn of events. As repetitive as it is, there is a small amount of entertainment gained from playing DEFCON for more than three or so matches at a time. The gaming experience quickly becomes dull, repetitive, tiresome, and almost identical to every other match you play. DEFCON is best played in short bursts in order to preserve its replay ability. Seriously lacking in variety, this diversion is suited for fast breaks and brief encounters.… Expand
  2. Pivot1022
    Dec 24, 2011
    5
    I'm giving this a 5 cause it seem's like it can be good. and my problems might not happen to you guys.
    Anyway, I bought this game today (dec 24 2011) for 2.50, And oh my god am i having troubles... The game explains nothing to me... I didin't know how to use nukes how to use fleets, and i still don't. The tutorial is messed up, when ever i try to play it, the game ALWAYS crashes. ALWAYS.    I'm giving this a 5 cause it seem's like it can be good. and my problems might not happen to you guys.
    Anyway, I bought this game today (dec 24 2011) for 2.50, And oh my god am i having troubles... The game explains nothing to me... I didin't know how to use nukes how to use fleets, and i still don't. The tutorial is messed up, when ever i try to play it, the game ALWAYS crashes. ALWAYS. So now i'm stuck here trying to figure out how to **** play this game while i get my ass kicked in 5 mins by the AI. I hate this. The game seems fun but i am having the worst time with it. WHY DO I HAVE TO GO ONLINE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO PLAY THIS PIECE OF ****    … Expand
  3. Hudson633
    Aug 15, 2012
    5
    Brilliant atmosphere, you feel the tension of the impending nuclear war as the timer counts to the next DEFCON level, moving your units in to destroy as much of the opposing continent as you can. Then you reach DEFCON 1 and watch the nukes you launched heading to kill millions, while the grim background music plays. It's too simple though, ships and planes move and shoot each otherBrilliant atmosphere, you feel the tension of the impending nuclear war as the timer counts to the next DEFCON level, moving your units in to destroy as much of the opposing continent as you can. Then you reach DEFCON 1 and watch the nukes you launched heading to kill millions, while the grim background music plays. It's too simple though, ships and planes move and shoot each other clumbsily on a small map for about 10 minutes while nukes fly overhead, gets boring fast.… Expand
  4. lukemacu
    Aug 21, 2013
    7
    Defcon is fun. To be honest, that's all you need to know but I'm going to go in depth anyway. Defcon revolves around nuking the other players. That's it; it's a good idea and it's executed pretty well. You can send bombers with mini nukes, have nuclear submarines launch bigger nukes or just use ICBMs because you have stuff to do. It's simple with a nice sound track and style but in myDefcon is fun. To be honest, that's all you need to know but I'm going to go in depth anyway. Defcon revolves around nuking the other players. That's it; it's a good idea and it's executed pretty well. You can send bombers with mini nukes, have nuclear submarines launch bigger nukes or just use ICBMs because you have stuff to do. It's simple with a nice sound track and style but in my opinion you'll play maybe one game to kill some time and then go do something else for a while.… Expand
  5. BillyL.
    Oct 2, 2006
    6
    Great soundtrack, gives you a gameplay experience that makes you feel just like a general who looks at millions of casualties as just numbers on a screen or means to an end. Simple yet exciting graphics. A good bit of replayability in the fact that you can play in different theatres of war and choose allies and enemies. But, I have the feeling that in one month I will be totally bored and Great soundtrack, gives you a gameplay experience that makes you feel just like a general who looks at millions of casualties as just numbers on a screen or means to an end. Simple yet exciting graphics. A good bit of replayability in the fact that you can play in different theatres of war and choose allies and enemies. But, I have the feeling that in one month I will be totally bored and never play DEFCON again. The pointlessness of thermonuclear war definately bleeds over into your gameplay.… Expand
  6. BenM.
    Nov 23, 2006
    6
    I thought this would be a game to play over and over again; counting on all the reviews I've seen from various game mags. Unfortunetly DEFCON does not live up to its standards and is a blow to what could be improved.
  7. VonCarlsson
    Dec 30, 2010
    5
    DEFCON offers a very interesting concept, but it fails to really involve the player.
    The game is very generic, once you've played a game you've seen it all.
    If you like slow phased strategy, then this might amuse you quite a bit, but for a person that likes medium/fast phased real time strategy it's not worth the price of 10 euros.
  8. TenchuuKhan
    Aug 5, 2015
    5
    The main issue I have with this game is that it lacks immersion and therefore gets tiring pretty fast.

    While the graphics would work great, the soundtrack and the weird game pace destroy it really. Even when I fast forward I constantly feel like: omg, move forward already... this takes forever. And quite unnecessarily so. While there's some micromanagement possible and necessary    The main issue I have with this game is that it lacks immersion and therefore gets tiring pretty fast.

    While the graphics would work great, the soundtrack and the weird game pace destroy it really.

    Even when I fast forward I constantly feel like: omg, move forward already... this takes forever. And quite unnecessarily so.
    While there's some micromanagement possible and necessary there's simply long parts in a match which don't need much attention and feel like they take forever.

    The whole concept just seems unpolished even though it's a simple game really.    … Expand
  9. SiAScORCH
    Nov 6, 2014
    5
    I found it to be an okay game, though I didn't like a few aspects of the game. I mean they clearly show you what the game is so you know what you're getting, but the movements were quite slow and even using 20x real time I found the game to be a little long. It's a good game, but just wasn't the type of game for me, so don't let my ratings affect your possibility of getting the game.
  10. Izoeros
    May 30, 2022
    5
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  11. PatrickB.
    Oct 11, 2006
    7
    Solid, simple gameplay mechanic. Good variety of modes. It's a great diversion, but I haven't found it addicting (maybe that's a good thing?) My only nit pick is that there isn't some sort of leaderboard.
  12. Roger
    Dec 1, 2006
    7
    The game is definately a great experience. I've played the demo for quite some time now, however I do wonder if the full-version is actually worth the money. Because they don't really add that much. Still, as a strategy game, it's original and definately makes you want so much more!
  13. CoryW.
    Oct 22, 2006
    5
    The game was fun at first but the slow pace and simplicity left me wanting more.
  14. StevenL.
    May 7, 2007
    5
    Great atmosphere, but the actual game leaves much to be desired. There are many subtle nuances in particular that are horrendously poorly documented, and severely hinder the learning curve to the point of a fault. I did not have fun with it.
  15. KurisuD.
    Nov 11, 2006
    5
    Unfortunately I found the experience of this game very dull and with the great reviews of this game I have seen it just added to the dissapointment. I've seen this game compared to the scenes of the movie War Games, but this game falls terribly short. The sound is uninspired and sets the mood more towards nap-time than full fledged world war. The gameplay and action is just too slow Unfortunately I found the experience of this game very dull and with the great reviews of this game I have seen it just added to the dissapointment. I've seen this game compared to the scenes of the movie War Games, but this game falls terribly short. The sound is uninspired and sets the mood more towards nap-time than full fledged world war. The gameplay and action is just too slow to keep ones attention for long. Sometimes units get crowded/overlapped and despite some icons to show available aircraft/missiles often I find it difficult to see even all the way zoomed in and I must click on each unit over and over. The multiplayer experience versus humans is okay, but still nothing special while the computer AI with this game is pathetic.. Out of the box my first match (not really knowing what I was doing) versus 5 computer opponents I won with a score of 255 while the next closest had 30pts.. Honestly, if you don't play this game your not missing out on much. More of watching a simulation than playing a game really with no quick thinking/reflexes necessary and little in terms of tactics.… Expand
  16. LetMePickThat
    Aug 7, 2018
    7
    DEFCON is a great way to teach people the futility of nuclear war. The game's visuals, as well as the thrilling soundtrack, provide for a very credible 80s experience, in direct line with movies like War Game. The game is incredibly simple, yet challenging enough so that replayability is great.

    However, the simplicity of the game is also its main weakness, in that you will not be able    DEFCON is a great way to teach people the futility of nuclear war. The game's visuals, as well as the thrilling soundtrack, provide for a very credible 80s experience, in direct line with movies like War Game. The game is incredibly simple, yet challenging enough so that replayability is great.

    However, the simplicity of the game is also its main weakness, in that you will not be able to develop either complex strategy or advanced tactics. The small number of units available (less than a dozen) do not provide enough flexibility to make DEFCON a real strategy game.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

18
#18 Best PC Game of 2006
19
#19 Most Discussed PC Game of 2006
35
#35 Most Shared PC Game of 2006

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 36
  3. Negative: 0 out of 36
  1. IGN
    85
    DEFCON's a great example of how a few simple concepts can be combined to make something that's incredibly interesting and pleasantly complicated.
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  2. Edge Magazine
    70
    The developer’s cleverest trick here, beyond creating a game that’s worth it for the presentation alone, has been to throw open so many of its rules to player customisation. [Nov 2006, p.90]
  3. Eurogamer
    80
    Defcon is as pure and direct a game as its inspiration, and its limitations are ones of the game's basic scope.
    Read full review
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