Have you seen the trailers for the latest Will Smith movie? The one where he’s the last surviving human on the planet? When you sit down and fire up Ambrosia Software’s DEFCON – you’ll come to understand that such a survival rate is unacceptable.

Inspired by the 1983 cult-classic film “Wargames,” DEFCON is an amazing online multi-player simulation of global thermonuclear war. Playing the role of a military Commander hidden deep within an underground bunker, your mission is nothing short of exterminating any and all “enemy” civilian population while at the same time destroying their ability to do the same to your own.

Sound fun? Well, it is – in a weird way. Maybe that’s just me feeling guilty for having fun while millions of innocent electronic people die horrible radiated deaths for my amusement. Ah, heck with that, war’s supposed to be brutal!

Game play begins with taking time to set the conditions of the impending war. There are six superpowers fighting for global domination (Asia, Russia, North America, South America, Europe and Africa) that players get to chose from, with the remaining superpowers being given over to CPU control or even left out of the game completely, should players want an intimate war.

Once sides and players are chosen the game begins at DEFCON 5, which is basically the calm before the irradiated storm. Players are set to lay out defensive strategies and build up offensive forces until the ever-marching counter reaches DEFCON 3 – that’s where the electronic gloves come off.

Using a combination of air, sea and land-based (silos, mainly) players are pretty much immediately consumed with the dual tasks of protecting their own citizenry as much as is possible while determinedly working towards the complete elimination of anyone else. Luckily, thanks to smart tutorial missions, the commands needed to perform such maneuvers are easily accomplished. Coming up with the strategy with which to use those commands, though, is not so easy.