Tower Defense is a genre that’s been hashed and rehashed more times than Snoop Dogg. Amidst the sandstorm of games, a few names stand out like royalty. Defense Grid: The Awakening is one such name.
Defense Grid’s premise is that of most any other tower defense game: Bad mofos are trying to go somewhere you don’t want them. They walk in waves from an entry point to your cluster of power cores, which look like a bunch of Will-o-Wisps (not to be confused with Willow-Wisps, which are the same but smaller). If they pick up a power core, they head for the nearest exit. Sometimes they go out the same way they came in, sometimes not. Sometimes there are multiple entrances and exits. Sometimes they eschew all earthly protocols and take to the sky.
To combat these thieves, you have an array of 10 tower types at your disposal, some of which are unlocked as you play. Figuring out which towers work best against which enemies is as simple as pulling up the in-game encyclopedia, which provides details on all unlocked tower types and on all enemies encountered.
On some levels, you can even increase the length of the path the baddies must take with well-placed towers. As long as there is another way for them to go, they’ll take it.
To further sweeten the deal, you can hold down the Right Bumper to fast-forward the game. This is great for slow-moving enemies or for when you know you’ve got it in the bag. Also, the game has an automatic checkpoint save feature, which will save your progress every so often. If you get in trouble, just hit the Back button to jump back in time. Some people complain that it can auto-save right when you’re in big trouble, but so what? If the feature wasn’t there, you’d have to restart the whole map anyway, and often it is very useful. I dig it like I’m Grazing in the Grass.
Right from the get-go this game pulled me in. I think I played the demo for all of 3 minutes before unlocking the full version. The presentation is shiny, not unlike my forehead back in high school. The tutorial is drawn out over many levels, so it does not slow down the gameplay. The 16 levels that come with the game are all unique in layout and in background art. If you like tower defense, then for 800 points ($10), Defense Grid will be well-worth your dough.
Images Sources: Header | Mid I | Mid II | Score
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| Markham Asylum is a founding member of Delta Attack. His tier-1 favorite genres are role-playing, puzzle, and strategy. His tier-2 are adventure, shooter, and platformer. He strives to provide spoiler-free postings whenever possible. Markham Asylum has written 400 posts on Delta Attack. |
