The strategy behind tower defense games like Defense Grid involves choosing not only where, but what types of towers to place to destroy the invading enemies
I bought this game last week since it went on sale for $5 on Steam and with it being on sale for this same price until tomorrow, I felt it would be good if I could share some impressions on it today in case any of you were still on the fence. I’ll say right now: definitely buy it if your computer can run it, as it’s easily worth the $5 sale price.
What is Defense Grid: The Awakening?
Defense Grid: The Awakening is in the real-time strategy game sub-genre of “tower defense”. I believe tower defense games seem to rise strongly in popularity after the free Warcraft III mod took off. Since then, several variations of tower defense standalone games have been released on many systems, such as PixelJunk Monsters on the PS3, Lock’s Quest and Ninjatown on the DS, and now Defense Grid on the PC (and eventually the 360).
How Do You Play This Type of Game?
The goal in tower defense games is generally managing a base of some sort where you choose locations and types of defensive towers to build in order to destroy enemies that generally walk along a set path to your base. Destroying enemies allows you to earn money to create more towers or upgrade existing ones, with the overall goal as eradicating all of the enemies. The strategy behind these types of games lies in deciding which types of towers to use, where to place them, and when to upgrade them. There can be all sorts of varying enemy types like fast weaker ones and really strong slow ones, and certain defensive towers are better against one type of enemy than another so if you build the wrong ones, you will have trouble.
What Makes Defense Grid: The Awakening Special?
First of all, the gameplay is remarkably solid. The simplest I can put it is that it’s a tower defense game done right. I’ve played Pixeljunk Monsters, Lock’s Quest, and Ninjatown DS, but I prefer Defense Grid over all of them. I’m still on the fence about whether I enjoy Defense Grid or Plants vs Zombies more, but that will be for another day since Plants vs Zombies is more of a “tower defense lite” type game. In any case, if I were to rank the tower games I’ve played so far, I’d probably pick: Defense Grid, Pixeljunk Monsters, Ninjatown DS, and finally Lock’s Quest. I didn’t really have much fun playing either Lock’s Quest or Ninjatown DS – most likely because of their general layout and how the gameplay felt. Pixeljunk Monsters was good, but the best way i can say it is that Defense Grid is even better.
I like Defense Grid the most because it seems to offer the most satisfaction: it looks the best of any tower defense games out there (most likely because it runs on the same engine as Oblivion & Fallout 3), it has a fitting and “less played out” sci-fi setting with alien attackers, the audio feedback feels the most solid, and it has several competitive/OCD elements that can have you playing for an infinite number of hours. These reasons, among many others, sum it up to be quite the tower defense package.
More Specifics Behind Defense Grid
The premise for Defense Grid is that aliens are trying to steal the power cores of his base, so along with the “aid” of the AI behind the base, the player has to build defensive towers throughout the base in designated spots to destroy the alien invaders before they leave with the power cores. The first few levels have the aliens following a preset path like a board game, but in later ones the level is more open and you have to choose where to place turrets in order to force the aliens to walk along the longest path. There are a total of 20 levels, and each level takes about half an hour or so but there are variations of each level and if you’re trying to perfect the levels and score highest on the Leaderboards, you could very well be spending hours on just one level.
At your disposal are ten different tower types, such as a flamethrower tower, which is effective against large groups of weaker enemies but not against strong ones, a cannon tower that is long range and effective against strong enemies, and even “slow towers” that slow enemies down when they walk by it. You’ll never have enough money to both fill towers on all the tower spots on the board and fully upgrade them all (increasing their damage), so if you put the wrong type of towers down or in the wrong places, you could potentially lose the level when you do not have enough firepower to prevent all of the enemies from walking off with your power cores.
There are fifteen enemy types, varying from masses of weaker enemies to hulking bosses and flying enemies. There’s honestly a tower type that is strong against any enemy, so the trick is knowing what to use. For me, so far things have been pretty effective when I’ve been “diversifying my tower portfolio”, but I’m guessing maybe later on it might not be as simple.
Parting Thoughts
The game is the best example I’ve seen of taking a gaming concept and making it better. I honestly have nothing that I would have asked for more from this game besides making it cheaper than its $20 retail price, and with it now on sale for $5, I snapped it up without even considering it. I strongly suggest anyone that is wondering about this game to do the same, but if you need more information, check out the demo, as it’s also freely available on Steam. This is the best Tower Defense game I’ve played, and at $5, one of the better deals I’ve gotten in on from Steam.
i bought it for $5. pretty good imo, now if it only were multiplayer on the pc
cool glad you liked it! now…add me to your steam friends list =P