I'm so impressed with this tower defense game and now that it can be purchased from steam for around $5, I had to write a short review. IMO, this is a must have game. If you like tower defense, this is pobably the ultimate one to play. :)
A millennium of peace has lulled a distant planet into a false sense of security. Fortunately, when the alien invasion began, it was just barely possible to reawaken an ancient defense grid, capable of constructing defensive weaponry emplacements guided by the digitized personality of a long-dead operator. The defense grid needs only one thing to save the planet from a deadly onslaught – an operator capable of balancing the available resources against the planet's defensive needs
Reference: http://www.frictionlessinsight.com/archives/2008/12/defense-grid-th-1.html accessed 7th May 09
The Game
Defense Grid is set in a distant future where you have to protect the last remnants of a mighty civilization from an alien menace. The main thrust of the game is to keep a number of power cores out of the aliens' hands. On each level, the aliens enter the map and travel the shortest path to the power cores, and then they make the way to the exit. If they escape with a core, that core is lost. If the aliens escape with all the cores, you lose and must try again.
To stop the aliens, of which there are several types, all with different attributes such as shields and speed as well as the ability to carry more than one core. (The most powerful alien can carry up to three cores), you must build and upgrade defensive towers that include guns, lasers, and cannon towers, plus concussion towers that rain cluster munitions; missile towers for aerial units; meteor towers that serve like artillery; inferno towers that send out flames much like a flamethrower. There’s also Tesla towers that electrocute the aliens, and a temporal tower that slows them down. Some of the more powerful defense towers are very expensive and to upgrade them is even more so. You start the game with enough resources to build three or four defensive towers. These must be placed to make the best possible use of position to maximize their killing potential. Every alien you kill earns you more resources that enable you to purchase more defense towers, and ultimately to upgrade them. Each successive level becomes harder and harder to create the best defensive grid.
The Aliens:
Juggernauts and shielded juggernauts:
Huge, lumbering behemoths who are very difficult to destroy.
Decoys:
These are whipping boys that are designed to absorb an insane amount of damage so that the aliens following it remain relatively unscathed.
Alien boss:
These shield any other aliens that make contact with him.
Speedy aliens:
These can race through your defenses, making it difficult to inflict a lot of damage on them.
Flying aliens:
These can bypass all your ground defenses.
Horde aliens:
These come in hugh packs that easily overwhelm defensive towers that target single aliens. The use of the Inferno, temporal and concussion towers are the best defense against these hordes. that can overwhelm defenses designed to target single aliens.
Turtle aliens:
When you destroy a turtle alien it unleashes many more alien units.
Each level will throw anywhere between three or thirty waves at you, and each successive wave is designed to push you to the limit. The first few levels are very linear, but then you start to get branching paths, multiple entrances and exits and then open spaces that make it very difficult to decide where to place your first defensive towers. There’s a warning system situated to the top right of the playing arena lets you know what each wave will comprise of in advance so you can try to prepare for it with whatever resources you have managed to amass from previous alien attacks. Once you get used to the different types of alien, it’s strengths and weaknesses, you’ll be better placed to choose the correct towers. I find placing a temporal tower on a corner, especially a 180 degree corner slows down any enemy hoard for longer periods, thus giving the surrounding defense towers a lot more time to do their job. Though before you place temporal towers, ensure you already have a good mix of other more aggressive defense towers placed. If you see a wave of racers coming in, you know you need to build and upgrade laser towers, as they do the most damage against them. It's very difficult to stop some of the more advanced waves without losing some cores. If you lose most of your cores with several waves yet to come you can always revert back to a previous save using the back space key (they are actually called checkpoints in this game.
The graphics are excellent for such an arcade game. To be honest, I’ve not seen a better tower defense game yet. It may not be the latest in graphics, but it’s come along way from the numerous flash games that are common on the internet. The audio is also pretty good compared to may arcade games, especially the guide whose resonant voice helps you along the way with snippets of advice as well as some no so useful commentaries.
System Specifications:
1.8 GHz Processor
512 MB RAM
DirectX 9.0c
Shader 2 compatible video card,
1 GB HD space
Windows XP or more recent operating systems
Problems:
If you play with certain surround-sound configurations, the game runs into a conflict and turns into a slideshow, ultimately freezing. Hidden Path Entertainment claims that this only affects a small portion of users. For those of you that do encounter this problem, just set your sound to stereo and the problem should stop.
Conclusion:
The re-playability, the excellent graphics, and the basic game play make this a worthwhile addition to anyone’s games library. The progression form easy first level to almost impossible last level with every level of difficulty in between makes for a very exciting challenge. You can even post your scores online and compare them with others. I’d love to see a level editor added to this game as 20 levels seemed too few, though believe me it’ll take you a good few days of almost constant play to get through those; especially if you want to get onto the leader boards. :) Now that it’s being offered at a knock down price, it’s got to be a must have.
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resources
Other reviews worth reading
http://news.bigdownload.com/2008/12/11/review-defense-grid-the-awakening/
http://www.gamingheaven.net/gamingreviews.php?reviewid=683
Images:
Video:
First Level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZIvBFkubek
Lockdown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43a0krSqlug
Last Level: