Multiplayer

While you can set up games against AI opponents, Defcon was clearly made for LAN and online play for up to six players. One of the interesting things about the game is that Introversion clearly made this title for sneaky co-workers with a LAN set up. Indeed there is a separate “Office Mode” that plays the game in a window, eliminates sound and allows people to quickly eliminate the window if the non-cool boss decides to look at your monitor. Other modes include Diplomacy where everyone is pals and you can see everyone else’s set up until the first missiles are fired and Bigworld, which reduces the size, weapons range, speed and radar range of the units which makes the game itself longer. Defcon also allows people to create their own rules for custom matches.

As you can see from the included screenshots, Defcon’s visual look is more like an interactive user interface that other full-fledged RTS games might use but there’s something to be said for the game’s simple look and the folks at Introversion have even used the game’s fonts as an effective graphical device (you can’t help but get a little chill when you see something like New York Hit; 10 Million Dead show up above the nuclear strike on the Big Apple). Introversion does have a graphical editing tool inside the game that will allow folks to tweak the colors and looks of Defcon to pretty much anything they want. Of particular note is the game’s music. It’s not the typical military symphony you might expect but a moody and even haunting piece of musical score that makes you realize that even though it’s a game its dealing with a fairly sensitive subject matter. The manual for the game (available as a printed copy or a PDF file) is also a hoot as it describes not only how to play the game but also has some satirical “how-to” articles on how to build a bomb shelter and fallout suit, a clear homage to the “duck and cover” nuclear scare days of the 1950’s.

While we tried to find some human opponents for combat in our testing today there were not any around when we looked but that’s to be expected with a pre-release product and that’s why this is a preview rather than a review. It will be the online multiplayer against live opponents that will sink or swim Defcon. However we are fairly confident that this game will find an audience and cause a lot of downtime in the workplace as employees take some long lunch breaks to fire weapons. Introversion plans to release Defcon on September 29; while it will be sold in retail outlets and on Introversion’s web site we suspect most people will buy and download the game via Valve’s Steam service; it’s currently available for pre-order on Steam for just $9.95 until its launch; after September 29 it will be available for $14.95