10 War Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

2. DEFCON

Though inspired by the classic 1983 movie Wargames, DEFCON is less a fun game than it is a palm-sweatingly stressful one, an anxious exercise in gut-wrenching suspense as the player attempts to annihilate as much of the enemy's population as possible while reducing their own losses.

Despite its vector-styled visuals, DEFCON is far from a hardcore strategy game: in fact, it's really quite simple, to the point that just about anyone can dive in and feel the stress without needing to first absorb a phone book's worth of instructions.

There's a sure elegance to the simplicity of you and your opponents - whether human or AI - racing to make waste of one another while also crossing your fingers that you won't be completely wiped off the map yourself.

It's a brilliant distillation of the ludicrousness of the Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine, and totally unlike any other war game you're ever likely to play.