Dungeon Defenders Review

Dungeon Defenders, developed by Trendy Entertainment dropped onto the Playstation and XBOX Live networks this week. Surprising no one it's yet another, Tower Defence game. But does it do enough to set itself apart from the rest? In short, yes! Read on to find out why.

Dungeon Defenders starts up with a story we've all heard before. 4 Heroes, some crystals. Something about defending them. The stories thin on the ground, and loosely strings together the games stages. You start off having to create a character of your own, one of the four hero's, Mage, Squire, Huntress and Monk. These are essentially 'classes', they each have different roles on the battlefield, the mage and squire are your basic tower defence characters. They place down towers and blockades to kill the oncoming orcs. They each have unique towers and abilities of course but they're a pretty standard affair. The huntress and the monk are a little more interesting, the monk is a supportive class using his auras to slow and damage enemies over time, as well as healing allies, whilst the huntress is able to place devastating traps.

Once you've chosen your character you're thrown into the first level. Depending on whether you selected local or online you'll be with up to 3 other online, or local players (split screen). Together you must defend the crystal, and slay the oncoming orcs, elves, and other evil things that come out of the purple doors. Sounds familiar I suppose? but their are several elements that set Dungeon Defender apart.

For one, instead of just placing towers. You as your character, can go around wailing on enemies. On many tower defence games you're stuck watching your towers decimate enemies. The 'build' phase is the only significant phase and the combat phase is just a matter of watching your tower building strategy play out. Not on Dungeon Defenders however, this game is fast paced and forces you to get stuck in yourself. Towers are effective but your character can also decimate enemies on the battlefield. Depending on the character you picked you have a range of close quarters and long range attacks and special abilities. In higher waves, when there's over 100 enemies on screen at a time. It can get really intense. The combat itself is pretty mindless. I mean there's no block button, no real technicality to it - but it's fun to slay 10s of enemies at a time, and watch the chaos play out on screen.

The tower placement itself is a pretty standard affair. You have a limited number of defence units, and collect mana from killed enemies to both upgrade and create new, towers. The towers have limited range and AOE's that you must efficiently place across the battlefields chokepoints in an effort to defend the crystal. It isn't easy, and identifying the primary locations to defend and distributing your defences appropriately is as challenging as any other tower defence game.

Another differentiating factor is the character progression. As you play Dungeon Defenders the character you chose will level up. You can then distribute stat points and create a character build. If you want more damage from your towers, want more health yourself, want more damage for your hero, want more impacting special abilities, want towers with a faster rate of fire, and so forth, you can do all that - and the manner in which you distribute your stat points will have you playing in a very different way.

My monk for instance, low health, with a focus on DPS from his auras, has to play in an extremely supportive manner. Dies quickly in close quarter combat (but I engage anyway), and focuses on assisting teammates with their defences. Slowing enemies down as they travel through crossbow turrets, for instance. It's satisfying to create a character build to fit your own playstyle.

Beyond leveling up, you also have equipment. Enemies drop it, you can pick it up and equip it. There's also a tavern (hub) where you can sell and buy equipment and pets. As well as upgrade them and test out your character on one of the DPS dummies. The only downfall to these mechanics is that perhaps, at times the game can feel a little bit of a grind. For instance I started on normal, and I simply had no means of winning with the character level that I was, at stage 2... so it's important to move the difficult around (there's 4 difficulties for each map as well as variants like 'survival' and challenge modes like 'no towers') in order to have a less frustrating experience. Unlike other tower defence games it's not entirely strategy that comes into play. If you're character sucks, you might have a hard time on the normal and higher difficulty stages.

Speaking of stages, there's around 10 of them. Each featuring unique 3D worlds, and usually introducing new enemies. Orcs, Skeletons, Mages, Dragons, Demons, Elves and so on are common to see coming from the purple doors. Each require different strategies. Mages for instance need to be dealt with first, as they can heal their allies a great deal if you leave them be. Trolls on the other hand act as tanks, and Orcs, grunt enemies. Skeletons seem to come back to life if they have a mage in proximity. The enemy variety helps keep things enjoyable and adapting to different enemies should keep you on your toes. Having solid defences then seeing a dragon come and fly right over them can really throw you off.

As for sound and visuals. For a PSN game, both are top notch. It doesn't have the highest polycount, or texture resolution but it looks smooth, as it should, and sound is pretty much as you'd expect. Sword slashes, mages fireballs, and so on, sound like you'd imagine they would.

There's not really much more to say, for a tower defence game Dungeon Defenders gets almost everything right, and introduces elements (character progression and combat) that keep the game fresh, and fun. It's fun to play, it's satisfyingly difficult, and it keeps you coming back with the various modes, options, classes, enemies and character progression.


Loved 

• Character progression - it's fun and adds lifespan to the game
• Diverse classes with different playstyles
• Visuals, it's cartoony, but it looks great
• Gameplay, tower defence and mindless hack and slash combine into something glorious
• 4 Player online co-op / 4 player split screen. (drop in/out)

Needs Improving

• The menus were clearly built for PC. You can change the 'interface scale' in the options screen but it's still a little clunky at times. Fortunately the games not that technical in what you need to use the menus for that this gets frustrating. 

Verdict

Like tower defence? like action-rpgs? buy this game. You won't regret it. Especially if you have friends either locally or online to play with. (8.9)

Little Big Planet 2 Delayed - Sad Panda is sad

Straight from the mouth of Media molecule.

"LittleBigPlanet 2 is a crazy dream, a dream to allow players to make whatever kind of game they want, but also to play though a great adventure of drama and excitement, power-ups, and cinematics. But like all of the most ambitious ideas, it can be a considerable challenge to turn these dreams in to fun games. We’ve all been working like powered-up space ninjas and we’re almost there, but because we love what we’ve made, and we love our little sack-friends, and most of all we love all our fans out there, we couldn’t let you all get together until we knew we were giving you the best experience imaginable. Which is why we’ve taken the hard decision to delay the worldwide release of LittleBigPlanet 2, originally slated for later this year to January 2011."

http://www.mediamolecule.com/blog/article/important_news_regarding_the_release_date_of_littlebigplanet_2/

That's pretty unfortunate. Still Sony do have GT5 releasing over the Christmas period (fingers crossed) so hopefully that can tide at least some of you Little Big Planet fans over, until the slightly later release of Little Big Planet 2. Credit to Media Molecule for being open about the release date, and apologizing to fans.

10 of this generations most definitive titles

Alright this is a pretty simple list, in my opinion these are the top 10 games, you really 'must' play before the end of this generation. Well - if you can at least, not suggesting you buy hardware specifically to play individual titles. I'm going to be avoiding games that I feel hit there stide, within the last generation and rather focus on innovative, and unique experiences that define this one - so I hope you'll understand why some of your favourites may not be on here. 

This list is comprised of the games that have made genuine advances, in there respective context (genres) and games which I feel will be the influential titles that other developers will be looking to, to produce there own games. They're not the best in every aspect, but each of these has at least one definitive trait which I think anyone can say has been unparalleled within it's context, within the industry, this generation. This is just my list though of course, based on my own opinion - let me know what you think of it, and what your own 'must play' games have been this generation. 

Note: Listed in no particular order, and the bracketed games under each list item, are just 'honourable mentions' who offer similar to the game that was mentioned, so came close to being mentioned in that games place. 

Batman Arkham Asylum (PS3, PC, 360) 

Batman Arkham Asylum, is undoutably the very best superhero game ever created. Hell, it's within the top 5 action adventure games I've ever played. This game shows how stealth-action should be done, whilst engaging you with a great story, and believable world. I felt their was very little that Arkham Asylum could have done better - but I'm sure Arkham City will prove me wrong.

Braid (PSN, XBLA, PC) 


Braid is kind of hot topic, specifically as generally used as the 'video games as art' example, on top of that some people consider the game pretencious, or perhaps a little too hard. However, underneath of the 'pretencious' artsy side of Braid, there's an amazing Puzzle platformer. However 'deep' you want to go into Braid, it should be an undoubtably enjoyable experience, the best of it's kind even. (Flower, Limbo) 

Geometry Wars 2 (XBLA)


Geometry Wars 2 shows how retro should evolve (another good example would be the more recent Space Invaders Infinity gene). Geometry Wars 2 abides by the typical mechanics of a dual analogue shooter, whilst amping up the intensity with absolutely beautiful, ever changing gameplay. Geometry Wars 2 is probably the most addictive, downloadable game I've played this gen. It's stunning how something so amazin can be built on mechanics so simple. Thank you Bizzare Creations. (Rif Everyday Shooter) 

Demon's Souls (PS3)


Demon's Souls, shows gamers how risk = reward. The harder the challenge is, the more rewarding it is to succeed. It's not neccesarily for everyone, true! If you don't have the patience, you'll only get to expeince the risk, and then in turn frustration... but if you can stick at it, there's very few games that offer a sense of forfillment like Demons Souls. Not that difficulty is all this game has on offer though, the atmosphere of this game is thick, it's definitely a 'believable' and in turn, immersive experience. (Mega Man 9, 10) 

Little Big Planet (PS3) 


Hell, anything that let's you experess your own imagination, through a new medium is cool, but when that medium just happens to be an awesome, physics based platformer. You have a great game coupled with ridiculous amounts of depth. Creation mode itself however is kind of similar to Demon's Souls however... except less probable to result in frustration. The feeling when you create a 'good' level is really great. (Halo Reach, Modnation Racers, Garrys Mod) 

Red Faction Guerilla (PS3, PC, 360) 


If you've played the game, you know what I'm talking about here. It has never been more satisfying to drive a vehicle into a house. The destruction mechanics are amazing! A great game for messing around, on top of that - the multiplayer just so happens to be one of the best this generation. (Battlefield: Bad Company) 

Mass Effect (360)


Mass Effect, the first game where I've really felt that my choices had consequence. Kill entire races, change the entire galaxy, it's amazing what you're actions can do, and how much depth the selections lend to the game. Of course, on top of that Mass Effects depth is multiplied endlessly, with it's diverse character development mechanics. Perhaps most importantly, the game manages to break away from the cookie cutter sub-real time battle systems with its real time Third person shooter mechanics, making it an absolutely amazing blend of two genres, and a truly inovative series. (Dragon Age Origins, Oblivion) 

Heavy Rain (PS3) 


Another, amazing title. Often not considered a video game - considering it often presents itself as an interactive movie, over a game... but who cares what it is? really. It has a great story, and if it is a film, considering the amount of content - it's definitely one worth paying $60 for. Another game where you really feel the impact of your own _decisions - unlike Mass Effec though, in Heavy Rain almost every potential action holds consequence. A truly gripping 'game'. 

Uncharted 2 (PS3) 


Nothing needs to be said aside this game is the definitive, pinacle of technical excellence. If there is any big budget title you could truly call 'flawless', it's Uncharted. Gameplay, story, presentation, audio this game has everything. (Killzonee 2, Halo: Reach) 

Halo: Reach (360) 


I was a little reluctant to put this on the list, but I've decided to anyway. So why is this on the list? is the gameplay groundbreaking? hell, is anything about this game, groundbreaking? From a technical standpoint there are definitely better around, so where do I believe Halo Reach shines? Presentation. Due to the initiative of Bungie, or the lack of initiative of other developers, Halo Reach has an unparralled feature set, campaign co-op, map editor, co-op, singleplayer split screen, online slit screen, replay and record functionality, expansive online stat tracking. I'm not saying each individual feature isn't something that is perhaps done better elsewhere - but in terms of it's presentation alone, Halo does everything right. Of course that's not to say the gameplay itself isn't decidely enjoyable. (Uncharted 2, Killzone 2) 

So that it, this is my list. How does it compare to your own? Before I close, I apologize for titles I'm not knowledgable enough of, to assess and consider for the list, I don't play many PC games, for example.