More than just a "Return Fire" clone.
In the game you complete missions ranging from destroying an enemy base, to infiltration, to rescue, and other objectives. Whatever your objective is you also have to keep an eye on the "Defcon" meter- this game's little twist- and keep it from getting to Defcon 1, in which case a bunch of warheads target your base and will eventually annihilate you wherever you are most likely, with a couple exceptions though towards the end (hint hint). The interface it uses is very stylish for a PS1 game and actually has this retro-fake email system in it as well (it came out back in the day when email was the newest craze and made for movies like "You've got mail"). You can "check email", cycle between mission intel and objectives and available unit information all while the game is loading the mission itself. Kudos to the game developers for being so creative instead of sticking the gamer with a generic "loading" screen.
The gameplay itself is quite action-oriented and more-or-less resembles Return Fire in its action elements. Unlike Return Fire though you can command multiple units at once by calling all or some units to follow you. This is nice for the most part but sometimes your units will get caught on some sort of piece of landscape and you will have to "hotswap" (i.e. cycle through control of your units) your way to that unit to get it unstuck. Also your units will follow your call signal until they get attacked or attack an enemy, in which case they will engage the enemy until either they or the enemy is dead or gone. So you basically can't always just order them to follow you and expect instant results. Still, if you handle the system right you can still organize coordinated assaults while commanding a unit yourself.
And in that is really this game's strength. At it's best moments of coordinated vehicular assault it could perhaps be seen as the PS1s version of Battlefield 1942. What makes it difficult though is putting your units in the hands of the AI in the game. It's not bad per se but it doesn't fight with any particular strategy or maneuvering. It basically just finds the enemy and uses the unit's generic attack to try to destroy it. Will the AI pull out when it is low on health? Nope. Fortunately you can hotswap to it or order it back to base (very nice) but sometimes in the fray it's just too much to handle and you will lose a unit due to the AI. I would find it frustrating when I had coordinated a multi-unit assault on an enemy base only to lose one of my strongest units to the AI's poor decision making.
There is also some nice multiplayer in Wargames that makes it stand out. You can play the entire game (either campaign) cooperatively which, I'm told and believe, makes up for some of the inadequacies of the AI. You can also duke it out in some versus modes. The only downside to split-screen play is how the game splits the screen, imho. It's a little more than just splitting the screen and reduces a the playing screens ratio down more than necessary. I know they are trying to be stylish by doing it differently but it just comes across to me as a bit of a hindrance.
That being said this game still deserves a 8.5/10 for being as ambitious as it is and succeeding where it does. To date, I still don't know of a game that plays quite the same as Wargames: Defcon 1 does. Its unique blend of action and strategy makes it a lot of fun. I highly recommended it for any old-school PS1 action or strategy game fan.