Put on your robe and wizard hat!
Dungeon Defenders, developed by Trendy Entertainment, is a game that I’ve been wanting for quite a while. It’s an action RPG, tower-defense behemoth wrapped in a cooperative package for the PS3, 360, PC, Android, and iOS.
Dungeon Defenders also features cross-platform play between PS3, PC, Android and iOS. That’s got to be an achievement of some sort. After watching the game for the better part of a year and then finally playing it, I can safely say that it does indeed deliver. Dungeon Defenders will keep the most obsessive of personalities occupied for a long time.
Story
The catch-all story of Dungeon Defenders revolves around four young warrior students (the apprentice, hunter, squire, and monk) who must safeguard the Eternia Crystal from harm lest a horrible evil seep forth into the land. Basically, you lose if the crystal is shattered. This fits the traditional mechanic of a tower defense game where you must defend a base or set point on the map.
Dungeon Defenders isn’t as much story-heavy as it is concept-heavy.
Enemies pour in from predetermined gates on the map and you must deal with them in order to level up, find new equipment and ultimately conquer every level in the game. It’s an easy to follow premise that mixes Diablo-style looting mechanics, tower defense and traditional RPG tropes.
The story picks up with your newly created character, either solo or joined by friends (online or locally), wading through hordes of enemies just for the fun of it.
Art and Sound
Dungeon Defenders doesn’t look sharp but it does look vivid and colorful. This is a game that doesn’t rely too much on the same colors, as expressed by the amount of color customization you can put into your characters and Eternia Crystal.
There isn’t a huge amount of detail put into each unit, probably because you’ll eventually encounter waves of 1,000 enemies or more. The levels get hectic and become an explosion of color as combat ensues.
The various levels are quite different in design. There are various themes including classic dungeon, grassy areas and snow. They are conceived well and aren’t just cookie-cutter implementations of the same base area as in typical TD games.
I’m happy with the production value of the assets. I’m especially thankful for the lack of lag that one would expect playing a game with this much going on. Even with four player splitscreen, everything was fairly smooth on my PS3.
I liked the sound effects for the most part but it’s plain to see that the music is a little lacking. My verdict is to listen to your own tunes when playing this game.
I found the UI passable in quality but cluttered overall. Trendy Entertainment opted with a UI system that is bound to confuse newcomers for perhaps an hour or so. Tasks such as dropping equipment, selling equipment and navigating which level to conquer next do not altogether make sense at first. It helps that face buttons are labelled for each menu page. Still, it’s not a pleasant experience to learn how to upgrade your pet or buy new weapons.
Splitscreen players will probably strain their eyes trying to read anything in the UI. Be sure to tweak the UI scale before playing your first splitscreen game. You may end up with a health bar that hangs off the screen. Here, the bigger the TV, the better.
Gameplay
Games are meant to be fun. They can be decent in any other respect but fun trumps all.
Rest assured, Dungeon Defenders is massively fun. The RPG mechanics, randomized loot and strategy present in this tower defense experience mesh together in nigh-perfect harmony.
The gameplay, though simple, is frantic and exciting. I’m tempted to call the game repetitive (that fits the scope of the TD genre) but each class plays differently enough where I didn’t get bored as long as I switched characters once in a while. You can even switch characters during a level by just walking up to your Forge and activating it. There are several modes present including one where you enlist an Ogre ally and defend him instead of an Eternia Crystal.
Clearing hordes of monsters is fun. In Dynasty Warriors fashion, you don’t ever really run out of enemies to murder. Just hack and slash until they are all gone but be sure to keep your towers healed and your chokepoints defended. It’s difficult to rely on towers or avatar strength alone, especially when fighting elite enemies with expanded health bars.
Not only that; the cooperative play in Dungeon Defenders beats any other co-op games in my recent library. I am especially pleased to say that you don’t have to choose between local and online co-op. I was able to host a splitscreen game with my brothers and have my girlfriend join in from miles away on her PS3. Drop-in/drop-out play is also available alongside instant character creation. Good news for those of us with shortsighted friends.
This implementation is exactly what I want in a co-op game.
Loot drops are plentiful. If a weapon isn’t good for you, it might be good for one of your alternate characters. That or you could sell your items for Mana, the monetary and building resource necessary for level progression and upgrades.
Now, it’s not all rosy. I do have a problem with the game.
The characters’ animations are robotic. The Squire in particular has very boring attack animations that you have to get use to. Animations are important to modern games. You’ll be watching the same ones over and over throughout the game.
I’m not looking for the animation awesomesauce that’s in Rocksteady’s Batman games (though, that would have been much appreciated). I just want my characters to feel alive and perhaps have a bit more heft in their blows. Dungeon Defenders doesn’t quite cut it here.
Final Thoughts
The co-op gameplay is fantastic. Dungeon Defenders has become the go-to game in my house purely because of its multiplayer fun factor.
As for its deficiencies, the music is lacking and detracts a bit from my enjoyment. Also, as I said before, I want more flourish in the animations. Some spice to go with the big damage numbers I put out.
There’s one final thing. Dungeon Defenders is a grindfest. If you don’t want to spend hours working through a game with (mostly) unchanged mechanics and overall strategy then you might want to hold off on this one.
As for me, I love grinding (mm, girl) and I will likely be playing Dungeon Defenders for a long time. I can’t wait to see what other games this new developer has in store for us.
