This is probably the most emotionally heavy game I've ever played. Fighters leaving their bases to scout, only to be shot down minutes later. Bombers flying over the ocean, never to return. Submarines firing their missiles before being destroyed. Dozens of ICBMs streaking over the Arctic, bound for doomed cities. The sense of relief when a nuke is knocked out by air defense, sparing millions of lives. The dread and fear when the game announces that the enemy has launched their ICBMs. The urgency to retaliate before your own silos are bombed. And finally, the horror as a swarm of nukes race towards your defenseless cities.

Reminds me of a quote, "When the game is over, the king and the pawn go in the same box."

And I thought Plague Inc. was depressing....

It's only a game It's only a game It's only a game It's only a game

Played this with some friends, and at Defcon 1 Nobody fired a missile for a solid 5 minutes. Once the first launch was detected you were able to hear the fear in the voices while playing. We were playing the slowest game mode, and it really felt like something bad happened once the missiles were under way. Its a great game.

You know what the most tragic part is about using your silos to stop missiles? Even after it stops 5-10 of them, one always gets through.

I love how Oceania just sits there doing fuck-all.

Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

NEW YORK HIT 7.2 MILLION DEAD

Thank you Petrov for sparing us...

What is the sound of killing millions of people within a second? Well, from your subterran bunker, it's just a distant rumble.

I like the reverse war thing during the second half of the video, with the missiles returning, and fleets retreating. Gives a nice "it doesn't have to be this way" vibe.

where's the creepy womans breathing? That makes this game from entertaining to horror

Forget horror games. This is the most horrifying game around

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

i once played this game on a Big game settings, maxed out everything. max nukes, and controlled 3 continent's, the match lastet about 8 hours, and it was.. and experience a can't forget.. it was depressing.. and it felt like.. i was actually in charge.. sitting in the war room, leading my troops to hell.. and death... a war that wasn't meant to be won.. the experience is unexplainable.. for every city I've destroyed... i felt sad.. and not only that.. it was also for every city i couldn't defend... i even felt sorry for the pilots i send over to attack the enemy planes.. knewing that the enemy was to far away for my troops to return back and land.. knowing they died in vein.. those 8 hours.. felt like forever, and the when i send some bombers over those hellish lands i have destroyed with the nukes.. i just wanted to know.. what those pilots saw from their cockpits... looking towards major cites.. capitals.. lands.. continents.. in flames... pure hell.. and the worst part was.. even tho i won... i didn't feel like i even did anything close to winning.. only the lost everything.. both sides lost everything... and the music haunted me.. this game made me feel... something i really never felt before... play it, and you'll experience it too.. i do not regret it

This game is a unique example of a horror RTS. It does a very good job of invoking the feeling of existential dread, that unique fear not just of death, but of utter obliteration of everything you ever stood for and cared about.

This game was so depressing, after completing the tutorial I turned the computer off and had to go sit down with a cup of tea looking out the window.

The darkest game I've ever seen! Let wars be only in video games. I wish you all a peaceful sky!

Everyone: This game show the destructive power of the human race and how we are always teetering on the edge of total annihilation. Stellaris Players: Nervously chuckles after wiping out have a galaxy and enslaving the rest.

Well... As of today... This soundtrack got even more scary and ominous...

4:10 - 5:00 always sends chills down my spine

There is always a disarm button on the nukes but I never click it :(

It's unbelievable what a perfectly fit soundtrack can do awake human emotions, even in such a simple game, both conceptually and visually.

It's like a "hand squeeze" contest (if anyone else has done that), you know the other person is going to squeeze your hand as hard as they can, and if you do nothing, it will hurt more, but if you squeeze back, the pain is less... but then no one wants to let go first

"I know not what World War 3 will be fought with, but I know that World War 4 will be fought with sticks and rocks"

Up in the International Space Station.... Scott Tingle: Hey. Anton.... Look.... We're passing over Russia now. Anton Shkaplerov: Scott? Do you see on the Crimean Peninsula? About the southern border, 44 North and 33 East? Slightly left. That's my home. Scott: It's.... Burning. It's goddamn on fire, Anton! *Anton says nothing but tears are forming in his eyes.* Scott: Is it meaningless to say "I'm sorry", even when I'm technically your enemy? Anton: Never. In fact, it's probably the sweetest thing I've heard in a long time.

When Himmler does a gamer moment

That final part of Madness just tears at me every time. Usually around the time it plays in-game a woman begins to cry as she watches her world come to a violent and abrupt end from the safety of the war room's computer screen. I can only imagine the horror and sorrow she must feel knowing each blip on the radar brings forth another nail for the coffin of humanity.

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?

I think I underestimate the power of atomic warheads. It would be awful in a large city centre, crowds of panicked people rush around you, seeing a mother clutch a baby in her arms, hearing a rifle shoot in the distance, a man leaning against a wall, with a bottle of liquor in his hand, given up. In a home with an open door, an extemely eerie test tone plays as the leader says their final words to their doomed nation. You see a figure leap off the top of a large building. Then, silence. The entire city halts as everyone stares at a small flash of light. Many clutch their eyes and scream. For a second, everything around you bursts into silent flames as if it were touched by the hand of a demon. All of a sudden, your entire world explodes and is turned into nothing as atomic fire swallows you and a hundred thousand people. Every building, hundreds of years of ingenuity and creativity, are immediately vaporized. Every artist's painting, every child's scrapbook, every baby boomer's mixtape, every effort of all these people are immediately for naught. Millions of collective consciousnesses are lost, every scrap of your past, present and future existence completely obliterated, eternally buried in the depths of human hostility and error.

"Thousands of souls extinguished, by the push of a button" - Yuri

Developers should have added more things, like Geiger Counter sound on areas with heavy radiation and maybe even fragments of panicked radio chatter and news before nukes hit major cities (With radio activity becoming static when bomb levels the city). + there should be something in game that would make you feel like a complete crap and war criminal if you started launching nukes first.

The timing of the Madness track to all the silos in synch going into launch mode is just one of those unintentionally perfect moments

I grew up on RTS games. It's a shame they've fallen out of fashion, relegated to a niche market. Maybe it's always been that way - a "30yo boomer" genre. Still, when you grow up in a family with a military background, chances are, you'll feel compelled to serve your nation too. I never could - disabled on paper, unfit for service. Maybe that's why I naturally flocked to RTS. Maybe that's why I became politically aware at an early age. Command and Conquer taught me the adrenaline involved in warfare - the action, the struggle and stress for a leader to make the right decisions on a moment's notice. But still, it was very clearly a game - fictional universe, crazy tech... As I got older, I moved to 'grand strategy' - Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, and such. Here, you were taught about the logistical nightmare of war - allocating equipment, running a nation, trading, being diplomatic... Instead of putting you on the field, it put you in an administrative position - 'desk warriors' the regulars in most national militaries call them; people who've never seen combat firsthand, and are mentally disconnected from the reality on the ground and how bad it gets. In games like these, you're introduced to the SCALE of the event - millions of deaths, billions of dollars in destroyed equipment - all neatly tacked on a clipboard when it's all said and done. Disconnected as you may be, there's still a human element involved - the units talk and shout for glory, your men desert, a nation's spirit breaks as the people rise up in a civil war for freedom... This one strips it all away - the bloodrush of action, the unit feedback, the lives of the everyman... None of that shit matters. Here, you're introduced to fear. A sterile, pale blue monitor with primitive, raster-line visuals that look more at home on a late 70's. supercomputer. You don't hear anything but mild beeps and steady breathing. You don't see anything but sterile, plain graphics representing boots kn the ground - and a steadily climbing count of numbers. Who are they? Who cares. War doesn't care.

today i put the West against the East... just to see how it would play out... wow... this game manages to put you in a very sad mood with only a few stats popping up here and there... there are no winners in nuclear warfare

Whenever I feel happy and hopeful I come to listen to this.

You don't win at defcon. You only lose last.

0:00 fear 9:23 madness 19:11 loss

With the current events right now.... its been nice being with y'all

Hang on, I paused the video but I could still hear the music...

The add on sound effects, a woman crying, a woman coughing, echoing feet walking down a hallway. The ominous AUUUNK!!! of the DECON clock counting down to DEFCON 1. Then the even more ominous AUUUNK AUUUNK AUUUNK AUUUNK AUUUNK of nukes being launched, the low rumbling sound of millions of people vaporizing. Such an incredible game. Very simple, very few bells or whistles. Just nuclear devastation then the cold scorecard at the end telling you who won. This game was bloody genius. Horrifying, but genius.

the hymn of our future . the song of a dying world .

This is art and this is how I judge game value. The music is genius. It deepens one's melancholia and anxiety while depriving you of any dreams resulting in the striping of the soul overshadowed by the powerlessness of the ever impending doom.

Imagine sitting in a silo and pressing the red button, later realising that everyone is probably obliterated or is dying from cancer.

I could only picture just being in a fallout shelter with this on a giant screen, watching in silence as humanity tears itself apart.

I want to make an escape room where the theme/timer is preventing imminent nuclear war. A dictator of a small fictional nuclear armed country has lost support from his people and has no intention of stepping down. The participants of the game are his closest cabinet/generals/whatever, who have also lost faith in him. An argument ensued immediately before the start of the game and the dictator has escaped to his panic room, where he is capable of launching the weapons from. The whole building is locked down and you've got to break into the panic room and murder the dictator before he's able to launch missiles from. I'll steal the soundtrack and game footage from Defcon to play on a projector screen when I do

This game is extremely depressing.

Probably the most haunting game soundtrack especially along with seeing "X" City Hit - X Dead.

Playing this in 2022 feels different... Even more terrifying

this is in my top 10 games of all time. It's so simple, yet so engaging. Introversion are an amazing company. I'll never forget the games that would last 6 hours, and the pacts made that were always ultimately broken. Playing this game when I was 12 years old is probably the reason for my nihilistic outlook on the world now

I now go to bed every night wondering if I'll live to see the light of tomorrow

"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light." -Dylan Thomas

So fucking eerie.

"There are no winners in a war. There are only losers. At both sides. And those who live on, sometimes envying those who left. Because your body may remain intact, but your soul never. War spares no one. And leaves behind not winners, but ... survivors. Crushed. Crumpled. War is not the feats that are sung in songs. Not legendary heroes who are remembered forever, and not a beautiful dance with swords. It is fear, rot, emptiness and death. And victory is not a holiday, but a time when you can throw down your weapons and dismantle the ashes left in the place of flourishing cities. To clear the land from the remains of people, animals ... states. Trying to find and collect fragments of a former life, a peaceful life, and not being able to do it..." Ridge Gambit. - Evgenia Safonova

We're close...

"How about a nice game of chess?"

Defcon, the game where there are no winners, only those who lost slightly less.

Such a simple game... Yet, the most realistic simulation of humanity’s darkest nature...

Horror games always lack that personal touch. That universal fear. But this.. this is like making the victim of domestic violence play the game of hiding from a spouse who wants to murder you. Only it's everyone. Everyone has a personal element in this because everyone is always under the threat of nuclear annihilation by human fallacy. There will never be a feeling of complete safety again.

I read 1984 along with this soundtrack, and it made the book even more depressing

no other game can ever make us feel the madness of a nuklear, war like Defcon

You dont win, you just lose less.

This is slowly becoming a reality

After playing this game, I like to play Fallout to see the aftermath up close.

THERE IS NO HOPE UNDER THE BLACK SUN- wait wrong game

Goes great while watching the John Hopkins Coronavirus Map

"They said it's the end of the world... it happen's, none of us are prepared, none of us, known this could happen, we did everything we can to not let that happen, but it happens.... Year's of peace ended when the politicians cares about power, money and prestige, they ended the world with a single button, i don't care who started this button, what i care is to know i still alive, i lost my family, my friend's, my beautiful wife and my son in this world... i am alone with my daugther & son, i can not make them like how my wife did, all i know... is another bloody chapter of the world." **Notes of a Survivor unknown**

This soundtrack is definitely appropriate for this game...fits the mood well

A very intense game indeed. The soundtrack only adds to the game perfectly. Creepy and scary, it even seems to go into slow-mo play, making it sound very eerie.

Imagine if a fullscale Nuclear war to happen in this day and age...

I just discovered this game and I love it. The soundtrack and design...what a gem.

This track is oddly comforting to me when I listen to it alone

My reaction: :(

25.03.2022 defcon 3

what fascinates me is how we went from battles in plains with swords, to intercontinental front lines spanning thousands of kilometers. during the cuban missile crisis, kennedy and khruschev both thought of politics as a game of chess, only to realize later on that they were merely throwing dice with the amount of screw-ups that happened. october 27th 1962, nicknamed the "black saturday" is the single day the world came closest to nuclear annihilation with the US defense condition at DEFCON 2, the infamous doomsday clock could've nearly counted down to zero. the craziest part about this game is that the world map given to you is a featureless war room style map. you're hidden in a bunker, all the while not seeing what you're actually hitting in person. you get to see your country burn

This game makes me cry.

Game: defcon KZfaq: it's actually civilization: beyond earth

Now we are playing defcon irl

"A strange game, The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"-Wargames.

Humanity is so beautiful...Yet so disgustingly destructive...

It's beautiful how the video halfway reversed everything. Like it never happened. Instead of nuking the world. You're saving it.

Madness starts at just the right time

"Loss" sounds like something right out of David Julyan's score for Memento, pure pathos.

27.02.2022. came to this video right when I first heard that Putin declared a high state of readyness for the Russian nuclear force. I'm no believer so forgive the irony in the expression but god be with you all.

15:30 Probably the best music in the game. Gloomy, and makes you think that's what may happen in the future if SHTF

This music is so calming yet so chaotic

What disturbs me like all we can see is just a digital screen of real time war but we would be always wondering what is actually going on in the actual war.

At 15:00 it’s extremely frightening. The deafening silence of the world after multiple Nuclear explosions sends chills down my spine. Deaths in the billions, globe enters a deep famine and nations torn apart. There’s nothing… nothing.

"In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers."

"Map games are not scary"

there's something very relaxing to this music

This is the Game that every World Power Leader has to play and think 2 times before unleashing Exterminatus

You know, the game really becomes an absolute smash blast when you put energetic music to it.

Anyone else listening as Russia invades Ukraine? scary times. Scary times.

The most ominous ost, the sensing doom awaits everyone in that battlefield.

Did anyone notice London getting hit 4 times in a row?

Meanwhile, in the real world: It's two minutes to midnight.

We do a little to much trolling

The music is actually genius. Disturbing but also relaxing & beautiful.