Defense Grid: The Awakening Review Page 2

11 Sep 2009 at 11:11:05 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (360, PC)

Most given levels can be beaten – with difficulty – using only a few tower types, which certainly proves their versatility. I have a love of the basic Gun tower, which does pretty much what it says on the tin: it shoots things. It's cheap, it's effective against most enemy types, and when sufficient quantities are upgraded to full there isn't much that you can't stop. Then someone tells you they beat a particular level using six Cannon towers (slow-firing but powerful) and two Temporal towers (slows every enemy within range) and you wonder how the hell they did it.

So how did they do it? Well, placement is key, but so too is timing. Plonking down an extra tower rather than upgrading one you already have can cost you big time, as can choosing to upgrade as enemies approach, since upgrading takes the tower offline momentarily. As such, while you can get through the game using a minimal amount of towers, learning the optimal positions for each tower, what they're best at killing, and when you can safely place them are the tools you need for the really high scores and for the minimal tower runs.

And the scores are where it's at. The Xbox 360 release contains the original 20 levels in addition to a free Borderlands expansion, adding in another four, and while all 24 are extremely varied you'll still be able to get through them all in a couple of days concerted play. Bonus modes extend replayability, challenging you to beat a level with a maximum of ten towers at any given time, or surviving 99 waves of enemies, or winning without the ability to upgrade towers, but the real meat is in finding ways to improve on your last run which largely comes through working out a better tower layout, which you will do. Repeatedly. Hell, you'll find yourself sketching out ideas on paper when you've got five minutes to daydream.

Speaking of the 360 version specifically, the idea of controlling a tower defence game by pad filled me with fear, which is why I'm thrilled to report that the game is a natural fit for the 360 controller. The cursor is bound to the camera, and individual spaces and towers are large enough that selecting a particular one is no hassle at all. If anything I'm willing to argue it controls just as well as the PC version, if not better, and I can honestly say I never thought I'd say that about a real-time strategy game, subgenres be damned.

There are two final things I can say to recommend this wonderful, wonderful game. Firstly, I bought the PC version a few weeks back, and I not only raced through that but then spent an inordinate amount of time on the bonus modes. Naturally, I played through the 360 version to review it, which means I've probably finished the game proper three times in the last couple of weeks. How many other games do you go back to that regularly, post-ending – particularly ones that cost 800 Microsoft Points?

Secondly, Defense Grid: The Awakening deserves credit for making me start quoting System Shock on a regular basis. Welcome to my death machine, interloper.

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