Defense Grid Rewrites the Book on Tower Defense
After Hidden Path Entertainment released their perennial tower defense title, Defense Grid: The Awakening for Xbox Live Arcade and playing it previously on Steam, I was anxious and more than a bit intrigued to see how the quality would translate on to the Xbox 360.
In regards to story, Defense Grid feels like your typical science fiction novella. The game begins as you are assumed to have stumbled upon ancient ruins of a civilization manned only by a millennia old Artificial Intelligence. Immediately notifying you that aliens are coming to steal power cores that run the planetary defenses, the AI conscripts you to stop them. While progressing through the campaign, the story does deepen slightly, but never to the point where it truly stands out. However, the impeccable voice acting of the Artificial Intelligence coupled with several other factors set DG: TA miles apart from other tower defense games.
When starting the first level, the player is equipped with a small amount of diversity in regards to towers for repulsing the invading aliens and protecting the power cores. However, if the player proves unable to protect the cores, the grid shuts down, and you are able to restart the level or simply go back to your last checkpoint. Simple gun and inferno towers will eventually give way to far more advanced towers as you strive to repel up to fifteen different types of aliens. When you destroy an alien, you will receive resources which will allow you to build additional towers. A new tower becomes available roughly every one or two levels eventually allowing the player to build ten tower types total. Additionally, each tower is capable of becoming more powerful by being upgraded, which can be done twice. Furthermore, various towers have different strengths and weaknesses in regards to the different types of aliens, calling for quick, creative solutions on the part of the player.
For the most part, the controls feel as good as a in my hands, if not better than a mouse on PC. Fast and concise, it seems like Hidden Path thought of everything about controlling the game when bringing it to XBLA. Mapping the ‘select’ command to the A button makes it feel smoother than the left-click ever did along with the ability to speed up time convenient linked to the right bumper. Also, the right stick allows the player to move the cursor, while the left stick enables the player to quickly pan the map. Conversely, the back button conveniently allows players to go back as the game regularly saves checkpoints throughout each level in the event a tower is misplaced or not upgraded when it probably should have been. Despite relatively simple controls that give way perfectly to engrossingly addictive gameplay, Defense Grid doesn’t even come close to ending when the campaign credits roll.
Upon completing each level, you are allowed to go back for a multitude of new challenges. Grinder, which is only available on certain levels, allows the player to see how long they can survive against a seemingly endless horde of aliens. Up to 99 waves will continue to try and steal your power cores. Ever challenging, players can also try a more beefed up version of the story mode level in which the aliens will be stronger than their campaign counterparts. But for those who simply want to go for gold medals, practice mode will allow you to do just that until you think you finally have it nailed down to perfect. Conversely, there are more unusual modes. There is a mode only allowing for level 1 towers to be built as well as a type that sets a limit on how many towers the player is allowed to construct. Last but not least, there are leaderboard capabilities so you can see how well you stand up to the rest on Xbox Live.
I confess that prior to playing Defense Grid via Steam, I wasn’t even aware of the tower defense genre. The title has proved to be a black hole for my spare time as I’ve caught myself going back to it continuously since completing it. Thus, I can only pay complements as to the replay value of DG: TA. Sickeningly smooth controls make the title an exceedingly enjoyable experience while being enough of a challenge that I was left feeling satisfied after overcoming each level. Curiously, the game is still going for $20 on Steam when you can pick it up on XBLA for a paltry 800 Microsoft points or $10 dollars. Therefore, while the Steam version made me fall in love with tower defense, Defense Grid: The Awakening has filled a void on Xbox Live Arcade and it’ll be awfully difficult for any other title to squeeze in.
