Fin or Bin: Defender's Quest 2
Despite an atrociously generic title, the first Defender's Quest game was bloody fantastic. The story was interesting and the music was great, but the gameplay was second-to-none. It is ostensibly one of those interminable tower defence games we all got sick of after playing seven thousand of them on Newgrounds instead of doing our college work (just me?), but something about the recipe was Just Right. Marrying RPG progression and multiple difficulties for each mission, there was always something else to do whenever you got roadblocked by a particularly hard stage which would power your army up in some way to help you overcome it.
What made it special was the characters, who performed double-duty as your towers in game. Each one had unique skills to bring to the table that suited their character- barbarian Slak had a big meaty sword and could take a lot of hits, while archer Ketta could cover multiple enemy routes but couldn't do anything close up. Each class of character could be recruited up to six times, though only the first one would show up in the story, and to highlight their special status the game also featured 'Hero Mode' which forbade recruiting anyone who didn't have cutscene privileges. With only one of each 'tower' available, Hero Mode was in my opinion THE way to play DQ1, and set it apart from anything Newgrounds had to offer.
The devs clearly agreed with me, as DQ2 goes all-in on Hero Mode, which is now the only available means by which to play; there's only one Ketter Star. The stages become more like individual puzzles this way, as you can't simply spam your way out of a bind- if you didn't place your pieces optimally, it's back to the map screen with you.
I realise I am guilty of this, but by far DQ2's biggest failing is that it is presented as a sequel; I have been comparing it to its predecessor since line one of this review, which is a great disservice to the game. Being a sequel, it is inevitably going to invite the question: "is it better than the first game?". And... no, it isn't.
Fin or Bin:
There's a pervasive expectation to constantly be making something bigger and better and stronger and shinier and more fragrant than what came before, and I really think that's a shame. DQ2 is excellent, but the only reception it's getting in reviews is negative because it isn't as excellent as the first game. If it had been released without any ties to what came before I'm certain it would only be getting good press. It had a challenging development cycle and in some ways it's a miracle it came out at all, so for it to be the second-best tower defence game I've ever played is certainly worthy of praise. Story-wise it's entirely separate from DQ1, so there's no danger of spoilers if you want to play them in reverse order; whichever way you go about it, I strongly suggest anyone with a lapsed interest in TD games to cast a weary eye over their way and see if your passion might yet be relit.
