Games like DEFCON
Closest overall match: Darwinia (★ 2.7). Highest rated: Sid Meier's Civilization IV at ★ 4.1. Quickest to finish: Darwinia at about 1 hours.
We compared DEFCON against every game in our catalog on shared tags, genre, rating, playtime and release era, and these 12 came closest. The strongest common threads are Singleplayer, RTS and Great Soundtrack. Updated Oct 15, 2026.
-
67%
1. Darwinia
Shares RTS and Singleplayer; same developer; rated 0.3 lower; released within 1 year.
- Year
- 2005
- Rating
- ★ 2.7
- Metacritic
- 84
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 34%
- Shared genres
- 10, Indie
-
55%
2. Eador. Masters of the Broken World
Shares Tactical and Singleplayer; rated 0.3 lower.
- Year
- 2013
- Rating
- ★ 2.8
- Metacritic
- 74
- Playtime
- 4h
- Finish rate
- 24%
- Shared genres
- 10, Indie
-
55%
3. 100% Orange Juice
Shares Great Soundtrack and Singleplayer.
- Year
- 2013
- Rating
- ★ 3.0
- Playtime
- 4h
- Finish rate
- 19%
- Shared genres
- 10, Indie
-
55%
4. Uplink
Shares Real-Time with Pause, Great Soundtrack, 2D and Singleplayer; same developer.
- Year
- 2001
- Rating
- ★ 3.3
- Metacritic
- 75
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 32%
- Shared genres
- 10, Indie
-
52%
5. DEADLOCK
Shares 2D and Singleplayer; rated 0.8 lower.
- Year
- 2016
- Rating
- ★ 2.3
- Playtime
- 3h
- Shared genres
- 10, Indie
-
51%
6. Company of Heroes 2
Shares Real-Time with Pause, RTS, War, Tactical and Great Soundtrack and 1 more tags.
- Year
- 2013
- Rating
- ★ 3.1
- Metacritic
- 80
- Playtime
- 4h
- Finish rate
- 40%
- Shared genres
- 10
-
51%
7. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising
Shares RTS, War and Singleplayer; rated 0.5 higher.
- Year
- 2009
- Rating
- ★ 3.6
- Metacritic
- 64
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 67%
- Shared genres
- 10
-
51%
8. Cortex Command
Shares RTS, Great Soundtrack, 2D and Singleplayer; rated 0.5 lower.
- Year
- 2012
- Rating
- ★ 2.6
- Metacritic
- 44
- Playtime
- 2h
- Finish rate
- 29%
- Shared genres
- 10, Indie
-
51%
9. Natural Selection 2
Shares RTS and Tactical.
- Year
- 2012
- Rating
- ★ 3.3
- Metacritic
- 80
- Playtime
- 3h
- Finish rate
- 24%
- Shared genres
- 10, Indie
-
50%
10. Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Shares War, Tactical, Great Soundtrack and Singleplayer; rated 1.0 higher; released within 1 year.
- Year
- 2005
- Rating
- ★ 4.1
- Metacritic
- 94
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 65%
- Shared genres
- 10
-
50%
11. Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition
Shares Diplomacy and Singleplayer; rated 0.4 lower.
- Year
- 2011
- Rating
- ★ 2.7
- Metacritic
- 92
- Playtime
- 1h
- Finish rate
- 30%
- Shared genres
- 10
-
50%
12. Empire: Total War
Shares RTS, War, Tactical, Great Soundtrack and Singleplayer; rated 0.7 higher.
- Year
- 2009
- Rating
- ★ 3.8
- Metacritic
- 90
- Playtime
- 4h
- Finish rate
- 55%
- Shared genres
- 10
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Questions people ask
What is the best game like DEFCON?
On our similarity model, Darwinia is the closest match to DEFCON — shares RTS and Singleplayer; same developer; rated 0.3 lower; released within 1 year.
Which game like DEFCON is rated highest?
Sid Meier's Civilization IV holds the highest player rating in this list at 4.1/5 from 375 players.
How this list is built
Every game in our catalog is scored against DEFCON on five signals: weighted tag overlap (rare tags count more), genre overlap, platform family overlap, rating and playtime proximity, and release era. The list is recomputed nightly as ratings and new releases change.
Base game data via RAWG.