Dungeon Defenders – An Eternia of Fun

Had Albert Einstein been an avid video game player, his classic E=mc² may just have been written as Dungeon Defenders = Tower Defense x Gears of War^RPG, because this is the formula of the game Dungeon Defenders, it’s also the formula for greatness.

Dungeon Defenders starts out by explaining to you what happened and who you are in the game. You play as one of four young apprentice warriors being trained to defend the world from evil doers, especially those trying to attack the Eternia Crystal – the crystal of which all evils are after to awaken the great darkness it holds. When the apprentices trainers fall it’s up to the four apprentices to defend the crystal from the ogre’s, warriors, and dragons that will try ever so hard to get their hands on and destroy it.

You’ll start out by picking your character from one of the four apprentices as well as designing their clothes and the design of your Eternia Crystal; from there you’ll be thrown head first into the first level, which also serves as the tutorial. You’ll learn how to place towers that shoot anything from ice shards, to fire balls, all the way up to missiles and dark magic, all depending on what character you choose. Along with the towers Dungeon Defenders is also built upon the staple of all RPG’s – loot. Throughout your escapade to defend the world you’ll find swords, magical staffs, and every type of article under the sun. The higher the difficulty, the better the loot you’ll find.

Dungeon Defenders has around 20 levels as well as a great deal of challenge modes to play through. Game play ranges from Easy to “INSANE” and has 60 character levels for you to progress through. Once you defeat an enemy it’ll drop some mana in the form of jewels, this will be what you use to purchase, repair, and upgrade your towers. After you finish a level you’ll grab whatever mana is left lying around and then activate the Eternia Crystal to move onto the next level. In between missions you’ll take a visit to your own tavern, here you’ll purchase and sell loot, meet up with your friends to devise battle plans and check your weapons damage per second, and even link up with up to 3 other players for what would have to be called some of the best co-op on the Xbox Live marketplace, even rivaling that of Castle Crashers.

While game play may be the cornerstone of a good game, presentation is important as well. Dungeon Defenders has a very unique art style that really makes things pop. The cut scenes are brilliantly drawn in a story book style with an old mage narrating. In game graphics are beautiful while staying realistic yet maintaining that ‘ye’ olde timey’ feel, but not trying to be something it shouldn’t. While playing I was left in awe by the amazing look as the lava bubbles, the fire sizzles, the giant green ogre’s stomp on by. From my little eleven inch LCD TV to my giant fifty-two inch SD TV, it always maintained the amazing look and never failed to impress.

Dungeon Defenders is truly an amazing game, it’ll keep you occupied for hours on end, especially if you can gather some friends for the awesome four player co-op. With everything Dungeon Defenders has to offer, I would definitely recommend this game to anyone looking to spice up their Xbox Live Arcade experience.