Dungeon Defenders

The best LIVE arcade title nobody will be playing.

First the reason I say nobody will b playing this is because of the massive influx of “AAA” titles such as Battlefield 3, Modern Warefare 3, Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, and others all coming down the pipeline during the same time. This game is not little, and it’s not what you’d expect from a LIVE ARCADE title in the least. By saying it’s not little is an understatement when you consider the hours I’ve already invested into this game, and I’ve only played through just under half of the 13 available levels that come with the download. There is rumor of DLC at some point for this title, but I can’t see myself needing that for a good long while because there is just so much for a game that only cost 1200 MS points it’s the best investment I’ve made in games for some time. I could go a number of directions with this review, but I think it’s best to separate the game into sections based on how you’re playing it.

Now first off this game was on I was not fully interested in when I first heard about it, and I even skipped over the free version(s) that are available on the Android and Amazon marketplace for Android based phones and tablets. I would have never given this game a second look had I not been talked into playing “Trenched” with a few friends early this summer when there was very little available to burn my gaming dollar and time. I found a great deal of fun and depth in that game, but it pales in comparison to the depth that is involved in Dungeon Defenders. You begin by creating a character that is based on one of four classes that are “Squire, Apprentice, Monk, and  Huntress”. A quick look at the character images tells you what you need to know about each class, but don’t let the generalization of the classes fool you. There is depth where there normally is none with these classes.

Squire – This is the tried and true knight class that is built to swing big (and little) swords and other weapons in a CQC style. His towers are some of the most well rounded as he works with some strong barriers that are great for slowing down the hordes as well as other towers such as the harpoon that not only do massive damage, but they will pierce everything in that straight line that is in it’s way. So if you have a line of 10 meat targets of ogres, archers, and other baddies coming at you these harpoons when they fire will not only hit the front enemy, but it will continue on through everything in it’s path until its momentum dies or it hits a wall. Flat out this character is a fun character, and he has been one of the more fun characters for me to play when going solo and in co-op.

Apprentice – Having the look of “Orko” from He-Man you will be correct if you see the wizard that sits back and casts spells, but you will also be wrong when you imagine that this character has week melee combat. His is the best balanced character across the board based on his ability to use towers for blocking, attacking, and with the right weapon in hand he’s good in a fight. Good.. not great, but good enough to do some damage as you let his towers to the main heavy lifting. His Magic Missile tower isn’t anything special, but it’s cheap, uses few units, and overall with a couple upgrades will do some big damage, and you ad to that the fact that the enemies will not be able to be resistant to those attacks like they are at times against Fireball Towers and Lightning Towers it’s worth investing some mana in those when using the Apprentice.

Huntress – She is the vision of the overdone elf class that will stay back away from the fray to pelt the enemies with rapid fire from her bows and other projectile weapons that also include some of the craziest looking versions of gattling guns I’ve ever seen. At first play she is awkward, and in solo you are hard pressed to really get far because she has little in the way of slowing the enemies. Where the other classes have walls, big towers and items that plain and simple “get in the way” she doesn’t have those. Instead she has a focus on traps that are basically like a diverse collection of land mines that can do a number of things from exploding to choke the enemies with toxic gas to the Inferno Trap that when triggered explodes to light an area f the ground on fire and it will continue to do damage on all enemies within the area for a period of time. So while not the perfect attacker nor defender here AoE (Area of Effect) attacks don’t just do damage, but they are like a gift that keeps on giving.. death. However there is one GLARING issue when playing the Huntress that you need to be aware of, and that’s the need to reload her weapon when you run out of ammo. So basically you are playing an archer that is using a clip that needs to be replaced. If your weapon has a number of 22 rounds at a time you can shoot that thing ill it’s dry and then it will re-load on it’s own or you can choose to re-load on your own as you near the end of your ammo. The more ammo you have remaining the faster the re-load, but that only makes sense because there’s less to replace.

• Monk –Now this character class is the one I’ve spent some time with, but can honestly say I never got a real feel for it yet. The list of what the character can do is decent with ranged attacks being one of two attacks available to the player with the other being his weapon. His skills on the tower end are focused on “auras” that can harm, heal, and limit the abilities of the enemy. The aura’s that are employed by the monk will have effects like draining the energy from them, slowing them down, lightning effect, and an enrage that is really fun when placed in the right intersections where multiple enemies will gather as they are aiming to get to the crystal you are defending. Once they enter the enrage aura there is a percentage chance that they will turn on the other enemies, and attack them instead of you. The one strength of these auras is that they can be overlapped, and can also overlap the areas or other towers being used to make for some very effective defenses.

SINGLE PLAYER

You can play this straight up, and solo through the game, but getting through some of the levels that I’ve been on by yourself with just one character isn’t going to happen, and more to the point if you ramp up the difficulty beyond medium when you are solo(ing) this game it will be a challenge. What I have done up to this point when running solo has been to farm for xp and mana to build up my characters to ready them for the tests that lie ahead. So with multiple runs through the first level “Deeper Wall” I have learned a pretty effective defense that has allowed me to bring the difficulty up to hard when running this level solo with at least the Squire and Apprentice. However this does not mean that you shouldn’t use the other characters in any form of play that you wish because one area that stands out with this game is the ability during “build phases” to swap in and out between different characters that you have created. So for example when I begin a run on deeper wall with my level 3 monk that I’m trying to build up I have little to no ability to use his auras at this time, and so I’ll swap in my Squire pick up some mana around the level, put up a few barriers in the spots I know will be work, and then after these are placed I go swap back to my monk so that I can continue playing the level with him. You can do this as much as you want after/before any level, but just not during an attack phase.

Another fun way to play this game is something that you might like if you are looking for a more true to tower defense styles, and that’s the “Strategy” mode. In this mode you perform your set-ups just like you do in any other mode, but when you hit the crystal to start the battle s where it gets different. You g from being an active member of the battle to an observer.. or in my case a mana vacuum. The one aspect that is very fun about that mode is after setting up your defense and starting the battle you still have the ability to create or repair more defenses. So as they are attacking and getting beat on by your fire tower feel free to upgrade that same tower to make it even more devastating.

Co-op Mode

Now this is what this game is built around and made for without a question. The fun factor goes up a great deal the more friends you have in a room and with being able to run 4 players it’s a great deal of fun as you try to work together to make it through each level finding the best tools in each arsenal to attack/defend each wave of enemies. In the co-op mode you are also not limited to having just one character from each class, but in fact you can mix and match them as you feel fit to what you feel is best to help you get through each level. So what that means is that if you want to have a four player room of all squires hacking and slashing the enemies as you build defenses you are free to do just that. The key to making it through some levels is teamwork, and there’s no denying that at some point it’s not just about working together, but having one person who tends to take the lead doesn’t hurt so that everyone isn’t just running around planting towers to help their score because if that happens you are doomed to get over-run fast and also running out of units that you can use to build things can make for a mess when you realize you left a lane open that the enemies are not flowing through like water in a drainpipe. Trial and error will also be a good friend as you push the difficulty up to the hard and insane levels. The difficulty not only comes in the form of enemies that get stronger and have more hit points, but also by just plain throwing an entire goon squad at you until you are sick of seeing the green, stinky, ugly things anymore. I haven’t gotten as deep into this as a couple other friends of mine, but that’s fine by me because they are the guru’s of these sort of games while I’m just a learner who is having a blast looting and trying to find that WMD that will let my character whoop some ass without reservations.

The overall play experience of Dungeon Defenders has made me try and test out a few other tower defense games on the mobile side, but it’s not the same, and speaking of the mobile side just beware that going out to grab the mobile version from either the android market or the Amazon marketplace will see you sitting with two different versions that will fight for being the “highlander” on your phone because there can be only one. It’s a little tough to get the controls down at first on such a small screen, but after a little bit it’s not too bad. For the price it’s a heck of good deal. The only unknown right now for me is the IOS and if it’s free, how it plays etc… but my guess is that it’s not free as even a dead Mr. Jobs wants your money.

http://dungeondefenders.com/

http://dungeondefenders.wikia.com/wiki/Dungeon_Defenders_Wiki



Gamestop & Customer Satisfaction

I know.. the title could have been misleading, and in some cases you might have thought I was joking around. Big business rarely gives a pinch for the little guy, and unless you are at their door screaming for something to be done it rarely happens. however I actually can state that in my case it is the full truth.
Last Tuesday I had stopped in at the Gamestop closest to me with the intent to move my pre-order off of BF3 and Saints the Third over to MW3 Hardened Edition.
Everything was going fine, the guy took the other pre-orders down, moved the credit to MW3, and as I thought I was about done he stops me before having me sign to inform me that the cost had gone up $10 from $99.99 to $109.99. So while not a huge increase it was shocking and a bit weird to me since I had heard nothing of the sort from anyone or anyplace prior to this. His excuse was that it was because they had gone through all of their pre-order copies they were expecting to get, and this was to cover the cost of getting more. It didn't seem right, but this guy was the manager, and also a person I had dealt with in this store a dozen times over the summer. He was always helpful, and never pushy with buying extras or stuff that normally happens in retail settings.
So I gave the OK for the extra $10 since it still would be saving me money in the long run with the DLC etc.. that would be part of having this version of the game.

Later that afternoon as I'm at home checking my email I get an email from Gamestop with the weekly ad, and right on the main page of it is the ad for pre-ordering MW3 for $99.99 for the hardened edition. being a bit surprised, and starting to re-think what happened at the store I hit the main Gamestop site, same price as the advertisement I received in email form. So I decided to call the Gamestop customer service to get to the bottom of things. I talked to very pleasant lady that checked with her manager as well as all recent updates on MW3 and there was nothing stating a price change at any locations. She asked my information, and the information of who helped me etc.. at the store. She then informed me that she would escalate the issue to the regional manager of the store I had gone to, and that he would be contacting me in the next couple of days.
I figured that was a bunch of company B.S. but figured I'd see if he did. In the meantime later that evening a senior sales associate (not management) called to ask what happened, and when he heard the situation offered me a $10 gift card for my trouble and to at least make up for that difference in price. I refused the card, thanked him for going out of his way to do something management should have, and explained I'd wait to deal with the regional manager.
Well Come Friday afternoon as I'm sitting playing a game my phone rings, a number our of the Twin Cities and I'm thinking bill collector from a clinic or something when I had hurt my back. Nope it was the regional manager calling to find out the story from me. I explained it all, told him who it was that had tried pulling this on me, and also asked that his senior sales associate be rewarded or recognized for going above his position to help a customer when a manger should have.
The regional manager apologized numerous times, said he had no idea why this would have been done, and then he also offered me a gift card for my troubles. Now I accepted his offer since he was doing his job the best he could.
Overall I did get some satisfaction from seeing things get taken care of, and made me actually miss working in a retail setting (management that is) since it's been almost 10 years since I was working in management.
I also found out that Gamestop has plans to open a location in my town (finally) and got information that might help me get  in early for a position if the store opens. In the back of my mind I’m thinking if the money is close to what I do now I'm all over shooting this job and going for management in the store.
Two final points are that first I have no idea if it's a $10, $50, %2 gift card, but the difference of $10 while important wasn't the point for me. I wanted a person held accountable for doing wrong by a customer.
Second I have no idea what my current pre-order amount is on my MW3 copy since I just realized my receipt is with my sister and the copy of a game she bought under my power rewards card that day. :D LOL