WarGames: Defcon 1
1998
- shooter
- real time strategy (rts)
- strategy
- science fiction
- warfare
- single player
The story
The player gets to play as NORAD or WOPR. According to the game's cover box, the story takes place 20 years after the film: WOPR attempts to exterminate humanity and NORAD tried to stop it. During a mission the player takes control of a vehicle and can change the controls of any vehicle the team has - for example, while NORAD has heavily armored and armed tanks and aircraft, WOPR possesses exotically futuristic mechs and hovercraft. Vehicles could recharge ammo by obtaining powers. A unique feature in the game allows the player to command their team to send resupply on ammos or repair damage units. The game allows the player to command teammates to attack or follow the player's main vehicle.
What it’s like
Hard-edged military hardware against a bleak, ruined-future backdrop: olive and gunmetal tanks and armored aircraft on one side, sleek alien-looking mechs and hovercraft on the other, with the nuclear threat hanging over every mission. The mood is tense and grim rather than cosy, somewhere between cold-war war-room anxiety and post-apocalyptic scrapping. Its rhythm is that of a PlayStation-era action game, with fast engagements, a constant need to manage ammo and repairs, and the satisfying stress of barking orders to a squad that can follow or attack on command. Combat violence is present throughout, delivered through vehicles destroying each other rather than close-up gore, so it reads as war-game intensity rather than horror. Emotionally it stays detached and strategic, with little interest in quiet character moments. It suits an evening alone with the controller, a retro session for players nostalgic for late-nineties console games, and anyone who enjoys tactical command over a team in a hostile, high-stakes setting.
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