Dungeon Defenders Review

[Christopher]

I figured I have played this game enough this weekend to give it a little bit of an overview.

Dungeon Defenders is an amazing combination of a Hack and Slash, an RPG, and a Tower Defense. The game starts you off with choosing between 4 characters, The Monk, The Huntress, The Squire, and The Apprentice, each with different strengths and weaknesses.

While the story mode for the game is short, and can be completed in a just a few hours, it is extremely likely you will not have hit level 70, and to add on, there are four different difficulty levels, varying from easy, to test new strategies, to INSANE!, to prove absolute mastery of a map with your friends. On top of this, each map has a unique challenge available, each needing a different strategy due to the extremely different styles of gameplay they exhibit. Some challenges are as simple as not building towers, while others make enemies spawn from different place on the map, and even some crazy ones in which you take the role of the monsters and must lead an assault towards their crystals.

While the single player is quite a blast to do, you'll find that levels, while still possible, become very hard to do with a singular character. On the later stages of the game, it is necessary to play with atleast two heroes (the game allows you to switch in between waves), or to play with friends. Luckily the multiplayer is very easy to find matches in, and even has extensive filters to help you find the right lobbies.

As for character leveling, it's pretty standard. While your first character will likely be the hardest to grind to level 70 with, the rest of your crew will come along much quicker due to the ability to switch characters in between waves, making it very easy to solo boost. Equipment you find and mana (currency) you earn is shared between all characters, making later made characters easier to build.

One of the best parts about the game is the replayability. While surely you can get any character to level 70, if you want the best armor and weapons, you'll find yourself replaying levels alone or with a squad to pull it together. Without paying attention to your armor and weapons, your character will likely not even have half his potential, like some other high levels you will see. Along with finding the best equipment, much of it can be upgraded by "investing" mana into it, allowing you to upgrade individual stats and buffs of the equipment.

The big downside of playing this game is the over powered equipment available and the excessive amount of the jerks online. While over powered equipment sounds a little goofy as a concern, it can often remove the challenge from some of the later levels, and some players (like me) can find it to become boring if it is too easy. The jerks is something unfortunate thrown upon the game, and therefore does not give this game any worse of a score. Often when joining public lobbies, you can get booted at any time, which can be frustrating if you spent the last hour working on a challenge with a crew, or if you join a game half full and get kicked for no apparent reason. The jerk aspect also is shown from the tower defense aspect. Any player can sell anyones buildings, and often, even if you're defenses have better stats, a lower level can and will come in to sell your towers and build his own weaker defenses.

Oh yeah, for those of you that care about those "trophy" thingies. Dungeon Defenders has in game awards for achieving certain trophies, and also shows which trophies you have earned in your tavern (the mission hub). As for difficulty, the trophies vary between time consuming and difficult. While some missions may just take an insanely long time to complete with friends, others may require the most tactical knowledge of the game from both you and your team mates. The platinum is possible but very time consuming, as it requires you to play through each level at least twice (although you will likely play them 5-10 times each in the end for various accomplishments on various difficulties.)

Overall, the game is a blast and I would highly recommend it. The replay value is excellent, and once you jump in, you find yourself wanting to get that one more upgrade or needing to find the slightly better weapon.

This game gets 8 obscure rating points out of 10!

As you can tell, this is a slightly rambling review, so if you want to ask specific questions, feel free to ask away!

[PSXtreme_]

The sentence structure needs some work, but the quality of the game information is high. Like you stated, it's a bit rambling. Try cutting out the run on sentences with the multiple commas and you're golden. With everything, practice makes perfect. As you do more of these, you'll be able to focus your statements more.

I liked what I saw and would like to see more!

[merciful84]

I've played this a few times recently. So far, its a decent time killer but feels a bit overrated. I still plan to play it a little more to see if it'll grow on me.

[Helyx]

On 4/15/2014 at 9:46 AM, merciful84 said:

I've played this a few times recently. So far, its a decent time killer but feels a bit overrated. I still plan to play it a little more to see if it'll grow on me.

 

Old post, I know, but I'd just like to say Dungeon Defenders is one of the most underrated PS3 gems I've ever played and quite possibly the best tower defense game. Period.

[YChoon]

Just going back memory lane here. 
 

I love this game so much i pushed to be within top 10 of first platinum achievers and wrote the trophy guide over at another site. 
 

Had a blast playing with friends and while it looks simple at the beginning, a lot of effort is needed to master the higher difficulties and challenges plus it has the nice mix of a diablo-like grind for better gear though not as complicated as that. 
 

I wished DD2 had a plat or was better released on the PS. (Bought the steam version but couldn’t bring myself to it). 
 

memories.