“Would…you…like…to…play…a…game?” For those of you old enough to have seen the classic yet slightly chilling primordial hacker movie, “Wargames”, starring Matthew Broderick, those words may stir up fond memories of a cold-war influenced 80’s flick about the threat of Global Thermonuclear War. For Introversion Software studios, it stirred up a gem of an idea, “Why not make a game based off of that cool NORAD Nuclear War strategy map?” So they did.

DEFCON is Introversion’s latest independent game and was just released for digital download via STEAM or directly from Introversion as of last week. Those of you who are hardcore PC gamers may remember Introversion as the creators of the award-winning indie game title, “Darwinia”, a cool hybrid RTS focused on saving a race of tiny electronic creatures from a runaway virus that threatens to consume their entire world. “Darwinia” was both a critical and commercial success for Introversion, who are known as the ‘Last of the bedroom programmers’ and who are focused squarely on the exciting and refreshing Independent PC market. One look at DEFCON will remind you that game developers don’t always need superb graphics to provide an awesome game experience (though in DEFCON’s case, they still look good and appropriate). DEFCON offers simple wargaming with suprisingly depth and subtely as players can form alliances only to switch allegiances at the last second. As the game counts down from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1, each missile launch fills gamers with suspicion and dread as they wonder if their staunch allies are as ‘staunch’ as they’ve claimed to be. It’s this sense of cold-war paranoia that ramps up the interest level in DEFCON and makes it more than just a passing fancy and something a bit more sublime. Check it out at: WWW.EVERYBODY-DIES.COM

Did I mention that you can purchase it online for $15 – $17?