Never in my iOS gaming career have I come across a game that combines elements from tower defense and online cooperative Action-RPG's as perfectly as Dungeon Defenders.


Dungeon Defenders: First Wave is the newest game from Trendy Entertainment, and is being released across several platforms including Android, and the PC. What's greater is that it has already been released for iOS. Dungeon Defenders takes elements from online cooperative Action-RPG's and tower defense games and combines them into one of the most engaging experiences on the iDevices. Taking all of that into consideration it has been my pleasure to say that DD:FW is one of the most deep gaming experiences on the iDevices, and provides endless hours of fun WoW inspired gaming. The premise is such that you level up characters, while trying to gear those characters as best as possible. To do this you can either play locally (offline) or online (via Game Center). There are a plethora of maps, and an equal amount of challenges. Selecting either or is as simple as tapping the corresponding button. Due to the large amount of content the game houses I will break it down into several sections.

The Story:

Long Ago, Etheria was once a land of living legends… Throughout the ages, brave warriors across the realm stood together against the forces of evil, led by immortal beings known as the Old Ones… After a titanic struggle, these champions locked away the power of the Old Ones, inside Eternia Crystals…These legendary heroes have recently left their younger kin in charge of the common castle chores… Bored with their dreary duties, the inexperienced pupils decide to play… And accidentally unleash an ancient force that has long been dormant!

The Maps:

Included in the mobile version are 8 maps: The Deeper Well, Foundries and Forge, Magus Quarters, Alchemical Laboratory, Servants Quarters, Castle Armory, Hall of Court, and The Throne Room.
The Battles:

While in battle you have a set number of waves that you must defend your "Eternia Crystals" against. If any of your Eternia Crystals is destroyed its game over. However, to aid you in your quest you are granted with an arsenal of weapons and "towers". This is where the strategy comes into play. Setting your "towers" in the right place can make or break you during a wave, so formulating a strategy is imperative to your success. Each battle can have 1 of four difficulties, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Insane. The higher the difficulty the better the gear that will drop.
There are four distinctive hero types to which there are 5 specific towers; the Squire, the Apprentice, the Huntress, and the Monk. Each character has there own special abilities on top of their specific towers. Choosing the right hero is difficult as each one is beneficial to the success of your team. In between each wave, you enter the Build Phase. During the build phase you can setup your towers without the threat of enemies trying to attack the Eternia Crystals. You can also access the Forge. Which houses all the weapons you have accumulated thus far, as well as your stats and banked mana (banked mana being the extra mana that you wish to deposit into a bank of sorts. You can then use the banked mana to upgrade weapons.), and allows you to switch characters. Once the build phase ends you can no longer access the Forge, however you can still build towers, but enemies will be trying to attack you and the crystals so it becomes a bit more difficult.

The Weapons:

Weapons are a man's best friend, or is that dogs? Eh who cares, weapons are definitely cooler. There are a large variety of weapons available which can be broken down into subsections. You have your axes, your bows, your clubs, your guns, your hammers, your spears, your staffs, and your swords. Each of which belong to a specific hero. The swords, hammers, and axes are the Squires choice weapons, the staffs are the Apprentices, the guns and bows are specific to the Huntress, and the spears belong to the Monk. Each weapon has a specific value to it, as the value increases the weapon gains more strength. The following values are the ones you will encounter, keep in mind that the increased value increases the rarity; Worn, Torn, Solid, Sturdy, Polished, Powerful, Shining, Amazing, Legendary, Epic, Godly. There are also 3 elemental properties, 1 of which is attached to a weapon (which occurs at random); Electric, Poisonous, and Flaming. PIcking the right weapon also makes a huge difference as certain enemies are immune to certain elements, which drastically reduces the damage you can inflict.
The Cons:

Now this game is not all sprinkles and rainbows, as there are a small amount of issues that create large problems. The first thing I want to cover is the online component. The game uses Game Center as it's method of connection, however trying to find a game is a pain in the butt, and once you finally connect 8/10 times you will either time-out or be disconnected from the host (We tested on several networks and our latency was better than perfect and we still were disconnected mid-battle). If you happen to find a match that allows you to play for longer than 5 seconds you are hit with substantial lag, no matter what your latency. The lag makes things quite unbearable at times and can really put a damper on the match. Trendy has submitted an update that should address the online issues as well as the consistant crashing of the application. Speaking of the update, Trendy has also told us that a PvP mode will make it's way into the game, alongside the inclusion of weapon-level specifics. Currently you can use godly weapons at level 1, and basically decimate any and all beasties in the easy difficulty. Well, after the update you will have to level up inorder to use higher valued weapons (The inclusion of which I find to be a great idea).

The other issues are the horrible controls and horribly designed UI. The amount of clutter is astounding and makes it near to impossible to keep focused on the current task. The controls don't make things any easier. The camera controls are horrid, and the virtual joystick is absolutely useless. Hopefully the update does something to reduce the size of the buttons, the size of the map (which block your entire view when activated), the camera controls, and the movement controls.

Oh and did we mention it requires 4.2? Well it does, and thats a disappointment to many.

These issues alone have deterred many gamers from purchasing and take away from the splendor the game has the potential to create. However, the developers have opened up a thread asking gamers what they would like to have fixed or added, showing that Trendy does indeed care about the people who play.
Final Words:

The best way to describe DD:FW is "Diablo meets Plants vs. Zombies meets WoW". The potential is oozing through the cracks so to speak, and many future updates will allow that potential to reach amazing heights. At this point in time I whole heartedly put my vote behind DD:FW. The bugs are few but the problems they create are major, but that is not enough to deter me from playing. The $2.99 pricetag is a small price to pay for such an engaging experience and its in your best interest to pick it up.

Dungeon Defenders: First Wave on the AppStore