Review: Defense Technica
Title: Defense Technica
Platform: PC/Mac (Reviewed on PC)
Developer: Kuno Interactive
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Release date: October 24, 2013
TL;DR: A very hit and miss tower defence game which provides more misses than hits.
Family Friendly: Click here for more information.
Defense Technica from Kuno Interactive is a “hardcore” tower defence strategy game that is available on Steam. It features a host of levels with 8 different towers and 9 different enemy types each with their own strengths and weaknesses along with dynamic levels. The aim of the game is simple. Protect your core at all costs! Multiple enemy paths over ground and air threaten you and it’s up to you to effectively place your towers to ensure safety and victory.
The year is 3012 and humans have ventured forth into the galaxy spreading it’s wings like a little butterfly, finding new planets and species. Together with two other alien races the Cluff and Hergus, Earth forms a powerful alliance that it expects to last forever. Years later, in a sudden but inevitable betrayal the Hergus attacks, causing widespread destruction. Messages to the Cluff for help are unanswered and we start the game in a desperate attempt to survive while escaping Earth in a plan named Project Noah.
I’m a big fan of tower defence games, so was very interested in checking out Defense Technica. The art style is very reminiscent of Defense Grid: The Awakening and Kuno seem to have used a very similar style for the game. It’s not quite as sharp visually nor as enjoyable though as Defense Grid and levels are a collection of love ‘em and loathe ‘em. The game has it’s moments where it’s challenging and fun, it’s got many more where it’s interactivity is comparable to watching a film. A quick note about the controls, I found it quite annoying with keyboard and mouse, so plugged in a controller, which despite poor invisible wall implementation made the game that bit much nicer to play.
The introductory levels teach you in game how to play, it’s very simple, you can toggle off and on the enemy path and hit points and can place towers in the white squares on the level. For the first two levels gameplay is dull, very basic and little challenge. The third level though is where the game begins to show how it could have been great. The challenge ramps up and the options are opened up to you. Your tower placement dramatically alters the enemy path, and you have to constantly change it because soon you will be overwhelmed. The difficulty stems from having to use your resources wisely to be most effective. Levels four and five continue this trend, ensuring I have to reload my save several times before progressing as my core explodes after becoming overwhelmed from enemy attacks.
Unfortunately, the sixth level returns to the hand holding in an anti air lesson which sees you place a few towers down and wait for all the waves to finish before you can progress. It’s a real emergency stop in terms of fun and challenge and isn’t really needed to be the length it is. From the sixth level onwards the option to customise and upgrade your towers by spending your earnt medals from previous levels begins. It’s nice to see that the upgraded towers are visually much more powerful as it is not always obvious in the game. From then on the game seems to open up again, somewhat in a crazy complicated style where levels are filled with various enemy paths to keep track of multiple areas where you can set up your defence.
I think one of the main problems the game has, is that there’s not enough character to it. It felt bland. You’re given a back story before you load the game and then that’s it. There are no introduction to enemies, or their types so it becomes a struggle to care about fighting them. Some levels have a larger stronger boss type as the last wave, but there’s no fanfare around it. I’d like the game to make me fear the last wave, to really ensure that throughout the level I’m not just holding on to survive this wave, but that I’m building up a defence that will withstand the finale. While looking through the settings there is a section that details all the enemies. I feel it would be better padded out and put into a separate encyclopedia option on the main menu or perhaps shown in the levels screen so you at least know the names of the aleins you’re fighting.
The dynamic pathing in play works quite well for the game, the later levels give you a sense that every tower placement needs to be perfect or you’ll be restarting the level. Adding the ability to add cheap barriers adds an extra option that some other TD games miss. This means you can correct mistakes made to rectify the pathing to a more attacking route.
I’m sounding very negative in this review, there were some genuine moments in the game I enjoyed, it’s just there were a lot of times of me sitting back twiddling my thumbs. Some waves of enemies can be very far apart and unlike other TD games, there is no option to fast forward or send the next wave. As the levels are quite large, you are sometimes left waiting for the mob to reach your carefully set up defence and this detracts from the moments where there are enough on screen to make you need to pay attention. So you go from one frantic high to ten seconds of nothing. It’s very stop start and not at all good at an attempt to build a tempo in the gameplay.
In terms of game options, Kuno have done a great job of offering a bevy of graphical options including several graphic quality settings and a variety of resolution options to suit all monitors. There are no options to rebind keys present though if you are playing with the keyboard which can cause issue for some players.
I want to be able to recommend Defense Technica, but with Defense Grid: The Awakening providing a much more overall enjoyable experience it’s difficult to justify spending your hard earned money on this. If you do love tower defence games though and want a strong challenging game then you might find some enjoyment from this title. For everyone else, look elsewhere.
SUPERMEGACANNON:
Can really provide an enjoyable challenge
A good soundtrack during play
Water Pistol:
Bland, stereotypical story
Unenjoyable at times, sitting, waiting, wishing
Family Focus I think the killing of aliens from giant mechanical weapon towers is pretty open to gamers of all ages. There’s no real blood or gore involved so it’s just the story of how the human race is nearly wiped out to consider before letting a young’un play.