Everybody Dies

I finally got around to actually buying Defcon. No, you didn’t misread that link… the website is indeed everybody-dies.com. This game is for two kinds of people: the ones who enjoy strategy games (me), and the ones who like to blow up things (me).

It’s not very straightforward. Defcon is not a game that you try to win. You try to lose less than everybody else playing (up to 6 players online, full AI supported). This will all become clear in a second.

The game takes about 30-40 minutes on the average x5 speed (you have x1, x5, x10, and x20). It progresses through 5 DEFCON levels. There is Defcon 5, where it’s nonviolent chess; this is where the game starts. Everybody places their buildings and fleets and whatnot. At Defcon 4 (6 minutes in), Radars take effect and you can see what they reveal of your enemies’ territory and units. Defcon 3 (12 minutes) really takes off. Nothing more can be added to the world; units and buildings left over are lost now. Naval and air combat is available, and the fun begins. Defcon 2 (20 minutes) is simple: one away from 1. Nothing different from Defcon 3, gameplay-wise, however. And at Defcon 1 (30 minutes into the game), nuclear war is declared. Bombers, submarines, silos, everything. Half of the world is often a white radiation splotch.

Here’s the breakdown of winning: kill everybody else (+1 points per million kills for you, -2/mil for them), defend your homeland (-2/mil for you, +1/mil for them). In the final Tutorial mission, you play a quick 1v1… I ended up winning 100+ to 6, even though the AI knocked me down to single digits early on. A great game.

Now, the download is very convenient. Just get the “demo” client from the website. Try it, if you want. (Restrictions in a second). If you want to buy it, cool. Just do it from the Introversion store (like I did), or buy it at another place (AAFES has it in some PXs…). Enter the key into your installation… poof. Full game. Yeah, this did spring up keygens. But support Introversion and get their great game! (I also suggest looking into Uplink or Darwinia…)

Here are the restrictions on the unregistered client; there aren’t many. No special modes (Big World, Diplomacy, etc.). Only 1 AI player in a game that you make. You can’t join a game using a mod, or with another demo player already in it. That’s about it. You can still do the tutorials, play with 5 full players, and get a good taste for the game.