Game On: Defense Grid: Awakening

Today's Game is Defense Grid: Awakening. Why? Because I just beat it, that's why! 'Course, since this is a downloadable title, and a rather old one, this review will be a bit shorter than my others.

In a Nutshell

Assisted by an AI, you must stave off waves of aliens by placing defense towers to prevent the aliens from stealing power cores. 

 

Story

Surprisingly, this game is not just a series of maps with spots to put down towers and impede an alien horde, there is a story that is told while you play, and it is surprisingly good, considering the type of game. Basically,your AI partner was a person whose consciousness was put in a computer to help people defend the planet from aliens. The characterization is solid and likeable enough and the story itself never detracts from the gameplay and, in fact, adds a lot of character to this game.

Gameplay

Well, it's a tower defense game. You have spots where you can build towers, an entry point and an exit point, a place with your power cores and enemies walk through the map, using the shortest route possible and try to grab the cores before exiting the map. It's fairly simple. What's nice is that there is a good mix of maps, ranging from simple maps with one exit from which enemies come and go from, tower spots on both sides of the road and your power cores at the other end to more complex maps where you must build towers to create a maze to prevent the enemies from getting to the power core straight away.

As far as challenge goes, this game has a nice learning curve, starting with simpler levels and adding in new towers and features every level until you're given the full set and then adding complexity to the maps with several sub-areas of free tower placement linked by bridges, multi-level maps or maps with two streams of enemies simultaneously. Around the end, it ends up being quite challenging and every map has several challenges to be complete. For example, completing a map without using certain towers or with a limited budget or even with completely different rule sets. Add in leaderboards and there's a lot of incentive to play through again, if only to beat your friends' scores.

Presentation

The game's graphics are nice. There's definitely a nice stylization with each tower looking distinctly different, enemies looking like the role they're filling up, etc. The maps themselves also look very nice and they each have their own background, which really helps set the mood of the game and map. From giant dams to frozen facilities to the heart of the alien invasion, there really is a nice variety for the visuals. The music is okay, it's not particularly memorable, but it's not bad either. I can't say I really ever paid attention to it, it's not very loud or a very big part of the game, it's just there for mood.

Verdict

This is a very entertaining title that might not reinvent tower defense games but certainly puts its own spin to it. If you like tower defense games or are just looking for a nice strategy title for $10, you might want to look at Defense Grid. I give it a Quite fun rating. It's a must buy if you love Tower Defense games 9though, you probably already have it if you love them.)