The world is on the brink of Armageddon. A full-scale global thermonuclear war has broken out, and as a general in a bunker somewhere, you must direct your offensive and defensive systems to nuke your opponents. Nobody wins, but maybe you can lose the least. Everybody dies.

DEFCON is an online multiplayer strategy game, but it can also be played in a singleplayer mode. Players place units, such as missile silos, airbases and radar dishes, on their territorial maps, and the game counts down from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1, during which time the players are to make strategic choices to eliminate their opponents without losing too much themselves.

The gameplay is shown on a large world map and the action is represented by icons and lines reminiscent of the drawing style of their two previous games: Darwinia and Uplink.

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Alternate Titles

"DEFCON: Strategic Nuclear War" -- 2007 Budget Release
"Defcon: Guerre Mondiale Thermonucléaire " -- French Title
"DEFCON: Globalna Wojna Termonuklearna" -- Polish title
"DEFCON: Everybody Dies" -- European Title

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform	Price
	Defcon	Windows	$4.40
	DEFCON		$9.99
	DEFCON
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User Reviews

A breathtaking anti-war game	Lumpi (197)
A so-so game that makes you feel like a horrible person	kvn8907 (180)

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The Press Says

YouGamers	Jul 10, 2007	90 out of 100	90
Game Positive	Apr 13, 2007	8.9 out of 10	89
GamingExcellence	Dec 30, 2006	8.6 out of 10	86
Press Start Online	Sep 25, 2006	17 out of 20	85
Softpedia	Oct 10, 2006	8.5 out of 10	85
Factornews	Oct 05, 2006	8 out of 10	80
GamerDad	Oct 04, 2006		80
JustPressPlay	Dec 24, 2006	8 out of 10	80
Jeuxvideo.com	Feb 07, 2008	16 out of 20	80
GameStar (Germany)	Nov, 2006	75 out of 100	75

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Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
When the Bomb Goes Off	1	Lumpi (197) May 07, 2009

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Trivia

Inspiration

DEFCON is probably inspired by Wargames more than anything else (the movie and it's videogame adaptation). The game's look as well as text on the main menu are direct references to this.

Sound

DEFCON applies a bunch of casual sounds to heighten the psychological effect of dealing with a thermonuclear war. Among these, the background music stays very much in the background. However as the game approaches the Defcon 1 stage, the background music increases in both tempo and strength. During actual nuclear war, piano key strikes can be heard as nuclear warheads impact with cities.