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| SEPTEMBER 9, 2008 |
| 09.08.08 Last Night on Earth Boardgame : PAX 08 / Monster Valley High 09.05.08 Hands on : Sushi Bar Samurai 09.04.08 Schizoid hands on |
| VOTING COMING DECEMBER 2008 |
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Gritskrieg sits down with John Daud and Dacey
Willoughby of Hidden Path Entertainment and gets
the skinny on this new real time shooter.
Gritskrieg sits down with John Daud and Dacey
Willoughby of Hidden Path Entertainment and gets
the skinny on this new real time shooter.
Away from the press of the horde that had
descended on PAX, Hidden Path had set up a
much more personal and, thankfully, crowd
free demonstration of their game Defense
Grid: The Awakening around the corner in the
Sheraton.
descended on PAX, Hidden Path had set up a
much more personal and, thankfully, crowd
free demonstration of their game Defense
Grid: The Awakening around the corner in the
Sheraton.
Free of the crushing mob, I was treated to a hands on play session while John Daud and
Dacey Willoughby explained the different aspects of the game.
The concept behind Defense Grid: The Awakening is base defense, combining elements of
the RTS genre with those of puzzle games. Creatures attack your base in waves, pushing
toward your base’s power cores which they then try to steal. The creatures are varied in their
size and speed with some of the creatures serving as “bosses”, tougher and more
determined then their counterparts.
In order to defend your base, you have access to a variety of defensive towers, each with its
own strengths and weaknesses, which are purchased with resources that are generated in a
unique manner. I’ll cover the resources in more detail momentarily. The towers are fixed and
so their placement is key to your victory. In the first map we played, the creatures had to make
their way up a winding path, allowing us to build towers along the way to hammer them down
as they made their way towards the power cells. Initially attacked by waves of lesser
creatures, I stacked my towers near the entrance which almost proved to be a mistake.
The mistake I made was in spending all of the resources I had available to me at the
beginning of the level. Additional resources are generated by killing the creatures with the
towers and Hidden Path has added “interest” to the generation meaning the more resources
you have, the more you will generate as the level progresses. By stacking my towers near
the entrance to the level and spending the majority of my initial allotment, I was hampered by
resource generation early on. Fortunately my towers mowed down the weaker attackers and
allowed me to get enough cash to fortify my defenses further in.
You might wonder why this was a big deal. The towers tend to focus on the first thing to come
into firing range, and continue to focus on it until it either dies or gets out of range. This
means if something tough steps up to your towers, they’ll focus their fire on it allowing
smaller, more vulnerable creatures to slip by while they try to take down the “big bad”. If I
hadn’t shored up my defenses further in, I wouldn’t have gotten very far in the first level… And
my friends probably would have made fun of me.
Placement of towers becomes even more important as the levels change. The second level
available in the demo was a bit more free form, allowing the creatures to choose the shortest
path to my power cores. [read more]
Dacey Willoughby explained the different aspects of the game.
The concept behind Defense Grid: The Awakening is base defense, combining elements of
the RTS genre with those of puzzle games. Creatures attack your base in waves, pushing
toward your base’s power cores which they then try to steal. The creatures are varied in their
size and speed with some of the creatures serving as “bosses”, tougher and more
determined then their counterparts.
In order to defend your base, you have access to a variety of defensive towers, each with its
own strengths and weaknesses, which are purchased with resources that are generated in a
unique manner. I’ll cover the resources in more detail momentarily. The towers are fixed and
so their placement is key to your victory. In the first map we played, the creatures had to make
their way up a winding path, allowing us to build towers along the way to hammer them down
as they made their way towards the power cells. Initially attacked by waves of lesser
creatures, I stacked my towers near the entrance which almost proved to be a mistake.
The mistake I made was in spending all of the resources I had available to me at the
beginning of the level. Additional resources are generated by killing the creatures with the
towers and Hidden Path has added “interest” to the generation meaning the more resources
you have, the more you will generate as the level progresses. By stacking my towers near
the entrance to the level and spending the majority of my initial allotment, I was hampered by
resource generation early on. Fortunately my towers mowed down the weaker attackers and
allowed me to get enough cash to fortify my defenses further in.
You might wonder why this was a big deal. The towers tend to focus on the first thing to come
into firing range, and continue to focus on it until it either dies or gets out of range. This
means if something tough steps up to your towers, they’ll focus their fire on it allowing
smaller, more vulnerable creatures to slip by while they try to take down the “big bad”. If I
hadn’t shored up my defenses further in, I wouldn’t have gotten very far in the first level… And
my friends probably would have made fun of me.
Placement of towers becomes even more important as the levels change. The second level
available in the demo was a bit more free form, allowing the creatures to choose the shortest
path to my power cores. [read more]