Tower defense games are all the rage now, just like those furry Ugg boots and the Tap Out clothing line. With the flood of TD titles on the market, a lot of them are going to look similar to the one sitting next to them. Unfortunately Defense Grid: The Awakening doesn’t do anything to stand out from the rest.

The premise of Defense Grid is simple: build defensive towers to hold back endless waves of aliens who are hell bent on taking all your shiny energy blocks. The game makes a meager attempt to spice up its story by adding a cliché British-voiced computer AI that serves as the narrator for what’s happening on screen. As the game continues players are told about the computer’s past life as a human a millennia ago. Players will soon bear witness to the computer’s emotional train wreck as he recounts how the aliens destroyed his world. I’m guessing this is the awakening part of Defense Grid: The Awakening.

Admittedly, it is nice to see a developer try and pump a story into a game that doesn’t necessarily need one. But any goodwill the story generates is erased by the game’s plot holes, like the nameless aliens you’re slaughtering, and the dry attempts at humor.

It may make a terrible attempt at a story, but Defense Grid is a solid Live Arcade game and a solid example of the tower defense subgenre. The game is takes place over 24 levels and two campaigns, which is a lot for a Live Arcade game. Each level comes with different modes, like endless waves with basic towers that add to the replay value of the game. Levels vary from one-track paths that the aliens follow and the bread-and-butter style maze levels where players will build paths the aliens follow as they’re slowly slaughtered. The different modes and levels also come with online leader boards so gamers can see how the rest of the Xbox Live community compares.

Visually the game is mediocre. The game is presented using a traditional god’s-eye-view that gives players a good perspective of the attacking horde. The downside of this is that the level of detail in the aliens, even when zoomed in on the action, is lackluster. To be honest though, this is more a failing of the tower-defense genre of games than Defense Grid’s specifically. More times than not, the aliens resemble bugs scurrying along a colorful background, as opposed to anything remotely sci-fi.

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Gene Wilson said:

	... Good review! I had fun with the game for a while, but got bored with it also. It just doesn't have enough variety to hold my interest.
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September 22, 2009

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