My God, but it's been awhile!

Defense Grid: The Awakening
Game Category: Action - Tower Defense
Developer / Distributor: Hidden Path Entertainment / Aspyr
Release Date: 8 Dec 2008 
Rating: ESRB - Everyone 10+

Introduction
Tower Defense games have been getting quite some exposure nowadays thanks to their simple game play and addictive strategy elements. In the right hands, a developer could theoretically design the next killer tower defense game that would win it legions of fan thanks to thoughtful map layouts, eye-catching defense emplacements, and interesting monster designs.

It looks like Hidden Path Entertainment have struck it rich with their very own version of a tower defense game. Defense Grid: The Awakening is a beautiful game that harnesses the power of the Gamebryo Engine and takes you on an incredible journey through 20 futuristic sci-fi maps. All the while, you will be defending a stash of power cores from 15 nasty alien types who are bent on stealing all of them away from under your very nose. Luckily, you have at your disposal 10 different types of weapon towers to defend your power cores.

Sounds easy, right? Well, thing is... it's easier said than done. And, after you get yourself utterly defeated and humbled, you'll constantly find yourself coming back again and again just so you can prove you are able to defend every single one of your power cores from those nasty aliens.

Now that my Staycation is over...

Game Play
When you start the main game, you get to pick from the 20 maps available in the game. You can play whichever map you want, but it's always good to play them in the prescribed sequence. The very first three maps, for example, are tutorials where you are explained the game basics and also get introduced to the AI who will be accompanying you on your journey.

Pick a map, any map...

From the tutorial, you get to learn the following important game mechanics:

• You can build weapon towers only on designated points.
• Weapon towers have an area of coverage, so make sure you place the correct type, otherwise it will not be able to fire at enemies because they are too far away. 
• Aliens come in waves and move along pre-determined paths. Aliens are also resistant to certain types of weapons.
• Any aliens you kill give you resources. Accumulate enough resources and you can then build or upgrade your weapon towers. All weapons towers can be upgraded twice.
• Your power cores provide power to your weapon towers, so try not to loose too many of them. If they get robbed by an alien, hopefully your weapons can take it down before they disappear off the map. Power cores will slowly float back to their start points unless picked up by other aliens.

Burn baby burn!

When selecting a level to play, you can usually choose a standard Story mode, or a more Challenging Story mode as well. There are also a handful other games modes (or variation of the standard mode) that you could play. For some strange reason, not all special game modes exist for every map. Some of these special modes include:

• Out of Bullets - Selecting this game play mode means you can't ever build a tower that shoots bullets. That simply translates to - you are not able to build a gun or cannon tower in the level.
• Poison Core - There only one power core in the entire game. If an alien is killed, this power core floats back as in the normal mode of play. However, any alien that touches the core will die immediately.
• Green Towers only - You cannot upgrade your towers. 
• X Tower Limit - You can only build a max of X weapon towers only. 
• Grinder - Endless waves of aliens greet you. 
• Story Reversed - The entry and exit point of alien waves have been reversed. 

This first map is an easy peasy tutorial...

Other game play surprises include:

• The fifteen kinds of aliens may surprise you. Look out for aliens with shields that can only be taken down by non-laser weapons. There are also aliens that can fly, these can only be destroyed by weapons that take out air targets.
• Certain maps may come with two pathways and two stashes of power cores that you must defend against.
• Some of the maps provide a grid of points where you could build weapon towers. In this instance, you may fancy building a maze to route the waves of enemies through your very own pathway. The further they have to travel, the more pain you can dish upon them.
• There are three levels of medals for each map - bronze, silver, and gold. Good luck trying to nab all the gold medals. They're tough!

Many ways to kill the aliens

Graphics
The graphics in Defense Grid: The Awakening is very good. The designs look varied and interesting, and the science fiction look really helps heighten the game play experience. The ten different towers (and their upgrades) are animated very smoothly. The aliens all look alright from afar, but when you zoom in to the closest level, some of them do look rather comical.

Flame throwers are great fun

Audio
There is some science fiction music playing in the background, but other than the main theme, I didn't pay attention to it much. That's probably because the game play music was drowned out by all the firepower sound effects. You will get to hear guns, lasers, missiles and many other interesting sound effects along the way.

The best part of the audio would be the voice narration of the AI by Jim Ward. Jim does the role of the AI very well, and the script for it is also rather good. His excellent voice will accompany you throughout the entire 20 map story, and it truly helps to breathe life into the game. Without Jim's work, I think the game will score slightly less.

"They're stealing the cores!"

Pros:

• Lots of maps to choose from with no restrictions whatsoever in the game modes you choose to play.
• It's going to take around 10 hours to complete the entire campaign story, and each map really tests you in different ways.
• There is great variety in the maps provided in the game. If you want to, you could even buy more maps (from Steam) to extend the life of the game. 
• You get to keep adding weapon towers to the map thanks to the resources you make when an alien is taken down. If you wanted to, you could also dismantle a tower and build a new one in its place. This sense of designing and implementing your own defense strategy makes for very addictive game play.
• The graphics is very good. 
• Replayability is the spice of life. 
• Achievements wait to be unlocked. 

Taking down this guy is going to be challenging 

Cons:

• The only glaring omission would be multiplayer co-op or competitive play. 

Learn how to play with the in-built help file

Conclusion
Defense Grid: The Awakening takes an incredibly simple premise - tower defense, and turns it into a highly addictive and equally strategic game. The maps provided in the game are all well designed and introduces new concepts and challenges along the way. The monsters and towers in the game are interesting and varied and you get to learn something new about them every step of the way.

And here we go...

I highly recommend this game to all out there. It deserves to belong in evrybody's collection of games, it's that good! Hopefully, you will be able to take out the waves of aliens without too much difficulty. Don't despair, try something different, and you will be surprised with the end result.

Daily PC Game Review Score: 8.5 / 10
Review Date: 12 Jul 2011