Defense Technica Review (PC)

I'm a big fan of tower defense games, and once I begin a game session I usually find myself spending way too many hours planning my defenses, building towers and trying to complete each stage with a minimum loss.

In the last few days, I had the chance to test Defense Technica, the new tower defense title from Kuno Interactive, a game that promises to be the next evolution for all the fans of the tower defense genre.

Story

The story behind the game takes us 1,000 years into the future, in a time when humanity has expanded its influence beyond our own solar system. After making contact with several advanced alien civilizations, the Earth’s leaders managed to form an alliance with the closest alien neighbors, the Cluff and Hergus races, in an attempt to protect themselves from the rest of the universe.

After a few years, the Hardliners took over the Hergus leadership and decided to break the alliance with the humans and the Cluff race, and conquer Earth along with its many resources. Taken by surprise and decimated by the Hergus invasion, the last members of the human race launched a desperate mission to escape from Earth and get in touch with their allies.

Starting from this premise, Defense Technica takes you on a journey that will surely put your strategic skills to the test. The campaign spans across multiple missions where your task is simple: destroy the incoming enemy forces and prevent the destruction of your Energy Core.

Gameplay

The challenging part starts right from the beginning of the game and you will soon find out that placing turrets randomly on the map doesn’t bring home a medal. Instead, you will have to study and learn each enemy's strengths and weaknesses in order to choose the best solution for your defense.

The enemies are divided in two distinct classes (light and heavy), each with three types of units: Bio, Mechanic and Air. Occasionally, you will be warned about a strange energy signature that signals a boss' arrival. These bosses require a lot more resources to take them down and here is where your tower placement skills come into action.

The towers come in eight different flavors, each with four upgrade levels that will further expand your defense possibilities. From the basic machine guns and flamethrowers to long-range missile launchers, mortars and lasers, you will have to find the perfect combination suited for each level.

Build a solid defense...

...and protect your Core from enemies

Every tower can be upgraded to a maximum level of four, while on the third level the skill tree splits into two different categories. Before unlocking all the available upgrades, I suggest you carefully analyze every one of them and choose only the ones that suit your play style.

Completing levels will award you medals that can be used to unlock the available upgrades right away. Surviving every level with the least amount of Core damage, the amount of resources gathered, as well as the remaining Ether value will bring you more medals to spend on upgrades.

Ether is a mass energy revolving around the Core and a valuable asset that can be used to launch a powerful bomb, inflicting massive damage on your enemies. Ether can also be used to recover your Core HP, but keep in mind that this is a limited resource and can be used only 5 times per level.

Play Video

The battlefields are varied, ranging from a massive capital ship to floating islands, alien castles and futuristic underground cities. On some of the maps, the terrain will transform due to various events, leading to a change in enemy paths that will make you rethink your strategy. This approach keeps things fresh and adds new layers to each challenge.

To make things even harder, some of the maps feature dynamic weather events that will affect the way your towers are working. Clouds, rain or electrical storms will put a penalty on some of your towers, making your task a bit more difficult.

The game packs quite a challenge for casual gamers and sometimes you will feel the need for a Pause button to stop the action for a while and rethink your strategy. Unfortunately, such an option doesn’t exist at the moment, making the mastering of each level more difficult.

Video and Audio

When it comes to graphics, Defense Technica features full 3D backgrounds and a few lighting effects that add depth and personality to the levels. During gameplay, I felt the need of a wider camera angle with more zoom levels to better assess the battlefield and plan my strategy.

The camera could also benefit from a tilt and rotation options that might give you a different perspective of the map. Sound-wise, the game packs 11 tracks that complement the background action quite nicely.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion