What makes Defense Grid a great game is the simplicity yet subtle nuance of its core game design. You are given the task of preventing an army of mechanized bugs from stealing your base’s energy cores. You do this by selectively placing a variety of towers and turrets along the path the bugs take. Sometimes even influencing the path they will take to maximize your towers’ destructive capabilities.
Each tower type has its strength and weakness and you will find that you must and will want to employ them all in the right situation, place and time. For example, the cannon turrets do high direct damage at long range, while the laser turrets do more damage overtime. Machine gun turrets require line of sight but are cheap and effective. This to just name a few of dozens of types and upgrades you will have at the ready to employ.
The pure fun of playing the game is doing just this. The challenge starts out fairly easy but progressively requires understanding the nuances of each tower type and the interplay between the position you place them and the order you place them since your tower building resources are tight at the start of each level. The more bugs you destroy the more resources to build with you attain.
The pure fun of playing the game is doing just this. The challenge starts out fairly easy but progressively requires understanding the nuances of each tower type and the interplay between the position you place them and the order you place them since your tower building resources are tight at the start of each level. The more bugs you destroy the more resources to build with you attain.
But take heart, the game utilizes a series of automatic check point save points as your progress through each level. So if you paint yourself into a corner, you can easily rollback a few minutes of progress and start anew at mid-level without having to restart from the beginning. This makes retrying different micro-strategies more fun than frustrating.
The invading bugs are also varied in their abilities and the patterns of waves they come at you. Some fly while others move quickly on the ground. Some are weak armored but attack in swarms. While still others generate shielding for large groups of their slow but well armored comrades.
The graphics are the best of any tower defense game I’ve seen. The battle effects and sounds are very satisfying. The environments are pristine and varied, from barren waste lands, to snowy mountainsides.
The verdict
Hits:
- Addictive game play
- Well balanced learning curve
- Solid environments and sound
- Inexpensive price: $10 or less via Steam or Xbox Live download
Misses:
- The invading bugs could be more varied
Nerdphilia rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Kul att det har kommit ett riktigt tower defense för en gångs skull :)
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