Overview: Defense Grid: The Awakening is a traditional tower defense game. With the help of a computer, set up towers and protect your power core from being stolen by enemy aliens.
Recommendation:
Defense Grid is a fun tower defense game, has great visuals, and has an approachable learning curve (mechanics are introduced to the player one at a time, level by level).
In addition to story mode, each level has several challenges to accomplish which adds a lot of replayability.
If you enjoy tower defense games, then this is one to check out.
(A sequel was released in September 2014, but I do not own it.)
20120101:
Steam Achievements Earned:
3:46am First Blood
3:47am Hey! That's mine!
3:47am Happy Returns
3:49am Field Promotion
3:50am Leadhead
3:57am Eradicator
3:58am I Spy
3:58am Surplus
4:00am Burn Baby Burn
4:04am Confident
4:05am Flawless Victory
4:20am Yellow Beats Green
4:23am Salvage Rights
4:24am Arsenal
4:27am Penny Pincher
4:27am Boot Camp
4:38am Pew Pew
4:39am Head Trauma
4:46am What IS that?
4:48am Exterminator
5:00am Close Call
5:00am Filthy Rich
5:03am Great Ball of Fire
5:32am High Voltage
5:38am Overseer
5:40am Not So Fast
5:44am Kaboom!
Apparently, no Steam achievements were obtained between 20120101 and 20140105.
[20150215]
20140105:
Steam Achievements Earned:
7:16pm Liquidator
7:52pm No Sale
Story Mode:
- In the first level, "The Awakening," the player only gets to build the Gun tower.
- In the second level, "Assessing the Threat," the player also gets to build the Inferno tower. In this level, a player is told that enemies may have different weaknesses and that its important to pay attention to each tower's range.
- In the third level, "Ancient Research," the player gets to build the powerful Laser tower. Also learned is the ability to upgrade a tower.
- In the fourth level, "The Long Descent," the player acquires the ability to build the Temporal tower. It slows enemies down.
: I made the mistake of building a Temporal tower too early. I would have had better chances if I had built two or three offensive towers first.
- In the fifth level, "Out of Fuel," the player gets the Meteor tower, which has low accuracy, but extraordinary range and power. About halfway into the level, the player also gets to make secondary upgrades.
: I thought the enemies come from the bottom, but they actually come from the top and leave through the bottom.
: Also, it turns out the range of the Meteor tower is much larger than that of the indicator.
20240201 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 7.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 7h 22m (Playnite)
Last Played: 20140105
20240204:
Today I played through the first six levels. While I had already completed the first four or so levels, I found it helpful to go through the first few levels to relearn mechanics. And, in fact, the game does slowly ease the player into gameplay by slowly revealing more pieces of the game with each level (e.g., new towers, ability to upgrade towers, ability to see upcoming waves, fast forwarding time, etc.).
In any case, I find it interesting that I passed my previous progress in the game, and yet I previously logged 7.4 hours with the game. I suspect, like with other games I've played focused on getting high scores, e.g., Gratuitious Space Battles or The Adventures of Shuggy or Bridge Constructor Playground, I was more sidetracked by trying to get a better score on a single level than simply trying to beat the campaign. Reflecting, I now find it better to go through a campaign and build up general strategies before trying to get better at one level before moving on. With that being said, I'm still improving on this.*
Note that in order to get the gold medal, the player typically has to retain all 24 cores and use as few resources as possible. However, if my observation is correct, the player also passively gains resources at a rate corresponding to the number of cores. That is, if some cores are stolen, the rate of passive resource gain is reduced until the cores are returned. Thus, early investment into towers to prevent cores being taken is good, but ultimately only spending enough resources to just get by on not having any cores taken. As an example, if the scores target is 55000, since 48000 comes from the 24 cores, the target in resource gain plus tower value is 7000.
Remark: with respect to mission 6, red cannon is strong. The power of a red tower is probably something I underestimated
Steam Game Time: 9.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.5 hours (session game time)
*The game which I've spent a lot of time with and that has helped with recognizing this skill is Path of Exile. In Path of Exile, there are many distractions which I get caught up with. And as I repeatedly watch streamers play and give their tips, I slowly try and break those distractions, but
20240205:
Continuing with the story, I completed the next five levels. Taking advantage of checkpoints, I also manage to get the gold medal for each of these five levels.
Steam Game Time: 14.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 4.3 hours (session game time)
20240207:
Played the next three levels ("Guardian's Fall," "Center of Power," and "Standing Order"). I had also started the next level (the fifteenth level) but after getting a feel for it I decided it was better to end playing for the night.
Steam Game Time: 16.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.6 hours (session game time)
20240208:
Today I knocked out two more levels (the fifteenth and sixteeth level). At the current rate, I would beat the story mode in 4 more hours, and I would need another hour or so to get Gold medal on some of the earlier levels.
Steam Game Time: 18.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.0 hours (session game time)
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ main game has twenty levels with many challenges
+ I like the narration / voiceovers
+ solid tower defense mechanics and options
+ decent graphics; can zoom in on action
+ gradual introduction to new mechancis (via the story mode)
Neutral:
~ there's something of a story, mainly in the form of short sentences at the start of each level
Minor Con:
- two of the towers have a deadzone inside their radius, but this deadzone is not indicated by the range indicator
Rating: 4.2 out of 5
20240210:
Gameplay Log:
Today I finished the last four levels of the story mode. 24.0 hours (cumulative game time). The third, fourth, sixth, and seventeenth levels are missing Gold Medals.
Tried to get a Gold Medal for the third level and I couldn't. I tried several tiems.
I got the Gold Medal for the fourth level.
Steam Game Time: 25.3 hours (cumulative game time) / 6.5 hours (session game time)
20240223:
I went into the game thinking I would give the third level a short try and move on but I couldn't get it and kept trying. After many unsuccessful iterations, I decided to call it a night. And in my frustration, I had decided to watch a guide. Without any spoilers here, the main difference between my current strategy and the video solution is that I was being too conservative (not letting cores be taken), but the amount of resources generated by allowing cores to be taken but using less resources is apparently a much better strategy.
Steam Game Time: 27.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.1 hours (session game time)
20240224:
Gameplay Log:
Having watched a solution, I was able to get a Gold Medal for the third level (without having to copy the solution I had saw exactly; but definitely heavily inspired by what I had seen)
Got Gold Medal for the sixth medal
Got Gold Medal for the seventeenth level. First I refined a setup in the Practice mission. This was convenient to have basically unlimited resources to test a theoretical setup. I tried to execute this in the Story mode and it evolved into a solution that made use of some juggling. Theoretically with juggling then I wouldn't even have to upgrade various towers, but that's kind of boring and more for shooting for top ranks. In any case, with this that completes all the Gold Medals for the story mode (which is an achievement; I also simultaneously unlocked the Silver Medal achievement).
Started knocking out some challenge missions
Steam Game Time: 33.7 hours (cumulative game time) / 6.3 hours (session game time)
Defense Grid: The Awakening (PC) (2008)
Relevant Links:
Defense Grid: The Awakening Webpage (Hidden Path Entertainment)
Defense Grid: The Awakening (WIkipedia.org)
Defense Grid: The Awakening (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
 |
| Zoom out for a broad overview. |
Recommendation:
Defense Grid is a fun tower defense game, has great visuals, and has an approachable learning curve (mechanics are introduced to the player one at a time, level by level).
In addition to story mode, each level has several challenges to accomplish which adds a lot of replayability.
If you enjoy tower defense games, then this is one to check out.
(A sequel was released in September 2014, but I do not own it.)
 |
| Click on enemies for detailed statistics. |
20120101:
Steam Achievements Earned:
3:46am First Blood
3:47am Hey! That's mine!
3:47am Happy Returns
3:49am Field Promotion
3:50am Leadhead
3:57am Eradicator
3:58am I Spy
3:58am Surplus
 |
| Keep the aliens from stealing your cores! |
4:00am Burn Baby Burn
4:04am Confident
4:05am Flawless Victory
4:20am Yellow Beats Green
4:23am Salvage Rights
4:24am Arsenal
4:27am Penny Pincher
4:27am Boot Camp
4:38am Pew Pew
4:39am Head Trauma
 |
| This Crasher is "slow, but very tough" and he's stolen three of my cores! |
4:46am What IS that?
4:48am Exterminator
5:00am Close Call
5:00am Filthy Rich
5:03am Great Ball of Fire
5:32am High Voltage
5:38am Overseer
5:40am Not So Fast
5:44am Kaboom!
Apparently, no Steam achievements were obtained between 20120101 and 20140105.
 |
| Several aliens will have successfully left with some of my cores. |
[20150215]
20140105:
Steam Achievements Earned:
7:16pm Liquidator
7:52pm No Sale
Story Mode:
- In the first level, "The Awakening," the player only gets to build the Gun tower.
- In the second level, "Assessing the Threat," the player also gets to build the Inferno tower. In this level, a player is told that enemies may have different weaknesses and that its important to pay attention to each tower's range.
 |
| I don't think I'm gonna make it! |
- In the third level, "Ancient Research," the player gets to build the powerful Laser tower. Also learned is the ability to upgrade a tower.
- In the fourth level, "The Long Descent," the player acquires the ability to build the Temporal tower. It slows enemies down.
: I made the mistake of building a Temporal tower too early. I would have had better chances if I had built two or three offensive towers first.
 |
| They have shields? No fair! |
- In the fifth level, "Out of Fuel," the player gets the Meteor tower, which has low accuracy, but extraordinary range and power. About halfway into the level, the player also gets to make secondary upgrades.
: I thought the enemies come from the bottom, but they actually come from the top and leave through the bottom.
: Also, it turns out the range of the Meteor tower is much larger than that of the indicator.
20240201 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 7.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 7h 22m (Playnite)
Last Played: 20140105
20240204:
Today I played through the first six levels. While I had already completed the first four or so levels, I found it helpful to go through the first few levels to relearn mechanics. And, in fact, the game does slowly ease the player into gameplay by slowly revealing more pieces of the game with each level (e.g., new towers, ability to upgrade towers, ability to see upcoming waves, fast forwarding time, etc.).
In any case, I find it interesting that I passed my previous progress in the game, and yet I previously logged 7.4 hours with the game. I suspect, like with other games I've played focused on getting high scores, e.g., Gratuitious Space Battles or The Adventures of Shuggy or Bridge Constructor Playground, I was more sidetracked by trying to get a better score on a single level than simply trying to beat the campaign. Reflecting, I now find it better to go through a campaign and build up general strategies before trying to get better at one level before moving on. With that being said, I'm still improving on this.*
Note that in order to get the gold medal, the player typically has to retain all 24 cores and use as few resources as possible. However, if my observation is correct, the player also passively gains resources at a rate corresponding to the number of cores. That is, if some cores are stolen, the rate of passive resource gain is reduced until the cores are returned. Thus, early investment into towers to prevent cores being taken is good, but ultimately only spending enough resources to just get by on not having any cores taken. As an example, if the scores target is 55000, since 48000 comes from the 24 cores, the target in resource gain plus tower value is 7000.
Remark: with respect to mission 6, red cannon is strong. The power of a red tower is probably something I underestimated
Steam Game Time: 9.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.5 hours (session game time)
*The game which I've spent a lot of time with and that has helped with recognizing this skill is Path of Exile. In Path of Exile, there are many distractions which I get caught up with. And as I repeatedly watch streamers play and give their tips, I slowly try and break those distractions, but
20240205:
Continuing with the story, I completed the next five levels. Taking advantage of checkpoints, I also manage to get the gold medal for each of these five levels.
Steam Game Time: 14.2 hours (cumulative game time) / 4.3 hours (session game time)
20240207:
Played the next three levels ("Guardian's Fall," "Center of Power," and "Standing Order"). I had also started the next level (the fifteenth level) but after getting a feel for it I decided it was better to end playing for the night.
Steam Game Time: 16.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.6 hours (session game time)
20240208:
Today I knocked out two more levels (the fifteenth and sixteeth level). At the current rate, I would beat the story mode in 4 more hours, and I would need another hour or so to get Gold medal on some of the earlier levels.
Steam Game Time: 18.8 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.0 hours (session game time)
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ main game has twenty levels with many challenges
+ I like the narration / voiceovers
+ solid tower defense mechanics and options
+ decent graphics; can zoom in on action
+ gradual introduction to new mechancis (via the story mode)
Neutral:
~ there's something of a story, mainly in the form of short sentences at the start of each level
Minor Con:
- two of the towers have a deadzone inside their radius, but this deadzone is not indicated by the range indicator
Rating: 4.2 out of 5
20240210:
Gameplay Log:
Today I finished the last four levels of the story mode. 24.0 hours (cumulative game time). The third, fourth, sixth, and seventeenth levels are missing Gold Medals.
Tried to get a Gold Medal for the third level and I couldn't. I tried several tiems.
I got the Gold Medal for the fourth level.
Steam Game Time: 25.3 hours (cumulative game time) / 6.5 hours (session game time)
20240223:
I went into the game thinking I would give the third level a short try and move on but I couldn't get it and kept trying. After many unsuccessful iterations, I decided to call it a night. And in my frustration, I had decided to watch a guide. Without any spoilers here, the main difference between my current strategy and the video solution is that I was being too conservative (not letting cores be taken), but the amount of resources generated by allowing cores to be taken but using less resources is apparently a much better strategy.
Steam Game Time: 27.4 hours (cumulative game time) / 2.1 hours (session game time)
20240224:
Gameplay Log:
Having watched a solution, I was able to get a Gold Medal for the third level (without having to copy the solution I had saw exactly; but definitely heavily inspired by what I had seen)
Got Gold Medal for the sixth medal
Got Gold Medal for the seventeenth level. First I refined a setup in the Practice mission. This was convenient to have basically unlimited resources to test a theoretical setup. I tried to execute this in the Story mode and it evolved into a solution that made use of some juggling. Theoretically with juggling then I wouldn't even have to upgrade various towers, but that's kind of boring and more for shooting for top ranks. In any case, with this that completes all the Gold Medals for the story mode (which is an achievement; I also simultaneously unlocked the Silver Medal achievement).
Started knocking out some challenge missions
Steam Game Time: 33.7 hours (cumulative game time) / 6.3 hours (session game time)
Defense Grid: The Awakening (PC) (2008)
 |
| Zoom in on the action. |
Relevant Links:
Defense Grid: The Awakening Webpage (Hidden Path Entertainment)
Defense Grid: The Awakening (WIkipedia.org)
Defense Grid: The Awakening (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
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