With all of the tower defense titles to come and go over the last five years, Defense Grid: The Awakening is still commonly regarded as one of the best in the genre. Featuring a lengthy and memorable campaign starring a talkative AI, two add-ons, and several map packs, it’s as good an introduction to the genre as ever. But developers Hidden Path Entertainment are not resting on their laurels: after a successful kickstarter campaign last year, Defense Grid 2 has been in production since early 2013. At Gamescom, CEO Jeff Pobst showed me an early build of the game.
So what will Defense Grid 2 do differently than its predecessor? Well, first of all there will be an all-new engine with graphical updates galore. New aliens and more detailed models for the towers, as well as stuff like ambient occlusion, updated lighting, and bloom effects will improve on the visuals. Hidden Path are striving for a Syd Mead futuristic look. But this is much more than just a cosmetic update of the first game. The developers aim to completely rework some of the tower types and introduce an important addition – the boost tower. It is an inexpensive tower that allows you to shape the invader’s path for little money. Furthermore, you can build another tower on top of it. Not only does this give you more flexibility for early-level pathing, the boost tower also adds some extra abilities for whatever you build upon it. We’re talking EMP, detecting hidden units, overcharging, or increasing your overall score.
Speaking of score, the race for the leaderboard’s top spot is handled differently this time. In the first game, whatever resources you still had at the end of a level became your score. Now those two will be separated, with a fixed amount of resources handed to you during the game, which should lead to a more balanced experience for players of all skill levels. You’ll also be able to compare your score to people on your friend list while you play – it’s directly integrated into the updated user interface. After finishing a level, a very detailed graph will show you exactly what you did and where you could have done better.
Don’t think the fixed resource drops make every playthrough the same. There will be mini item drops that change the behavior of your towers. According to Pobst, hundreds of items will be available for you to customize the game to your preferred style of play. On top of that, you’ll also be able to choose a trusty team of sidekicks that grant global effects, such as increasing tower damage by 10% across the board, or abilities like orbital lasers.
Another feature Jeff pointed out was the addition of different multiplayer modes. Besides several ways of playing cooperatively there will also be a competitive game mode which is currently dubbed “Defense Grid Fighter”. Just like its obvious inspiration, Capcom’s Puzzle Fighter series, it pits two players against each other and whatever they do in their playing field affects their adversary. So if you kill an alien on your level, it will appear stronger in your opponent’s level.
The last big feature worth talking about is the Steam Workshop integration. The game’s modular design allows to create content relatively quickly and an built-in level editor will let the player base do just that. Steam’s marketplace will be used for level submissions; allowing the best map makers to sell their levels. All in all, Defense Grid 2 is looking to be a very community-centric game. While it’s too early to make any statement about the build quality, Hidden Path Entertainment has a good track record, so I’m very confident we have another tower defense hit on our hands soon. You should probably be watching this one. The game will be released in the first half of 2014, closed beta testing will commence in November.
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Happeh
