Defense Grid: The Awakening
Available for Xbox 360, PC
Game Developer: Hidden Path Entertainment LLC
Game Publisher: Hidden Path Entertainment LLC (XBLA), Aspyr (PC)
Release Date: September 2, 2009
Official Website: defensegrid.hiddenpath.com

Game summary from Xbox.com:
"The definitive tower defense game for Xbox LIVE, Defense Grid: The Awakening is easy to pick up, engrossing to play, and hard to set down. Strategically place your towers on the map to prevent alien enemies from stealing your power cores. Play for just fifteen minutes or several hours! This award-winning game includes 10 hours of story play with 20 unique maps in the Awakening campaign, four bonus Borderlands maps, a wide variety of tower and enemy types, an interactive soundtrack, plus over 100 unlockable challenge modes adding dozens of hours of additional fun."

Review Summary:
Defense Grid: The Awakening is a must play game, whether you know about tower defense games or not. It's a well paced game that unfolds with many challenges and unique sci-fi environments, aliens and weaponry. Hidden Path Entertainment delivers hours of escape and challenge in Defense Grid: The Awakening.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Read the full review below.

Defense Grid: The Awakening Review

Defense Grid: The Awakening is a tower defense game where your goal is to fend off waves of aliens, without letting them scurry away with your power cores. The opening level eases you into how to play and lay down your fortification at a good pace. So whether you are new to tower defense games or a seasoned commander on the field, the pace goes along great without overwhelming you.

You have a few seconds to start a level and assess the route of the aliens, from entry, to your cores and their getaway path. A cue of where you can place towers are indicated by tower doors on the ground. The towers are available for purchase, depending on how many resources you've accumulated over time. The longer you hold back on spending, the bigger rewards you reap on your resources, so it's not just about putting your turrets up as soon as you can afford them. You start with only a couple of turrets, which vary in price, attack force, range, rate of fire, and upgrade levels. Gun Turrets, Inferno Cannons, Missiles and more are available. There are 10 tower types which add to the variety of strategy in the game. Some are more effective against the aliens than others. All of the towers are nicely animated and it's fun to watch them unload on the marching aliens. There will be times you want to sit back and watch your towers unload on the helpless aliens. But later on in the game, there won't be much time for that. Aliens come in 15 varities, which challenge you by their speed, shields, and how many cores they can store and make off with. Add various waves and combinations of alien types and you have a many strategic variables to consider.

There are two main campaigns included in Defense Grid: The Awakening. The Awakening and Borderlands (and noticeably room for more, likely to come as downloadable content). You'll have to play through The Awakening campaign first to unlock Borderlands. There are 20 missions in The Awakening. Each mission begins with a Story Mode. Once you beat a mission, you can move to the next, or even replay the mission with various gameplay modes. That requires you to change up your strategy to beat the level and once again adds to the replay value of the game. Further adding to the challenge is a Bronze, Silver and Gold medal for each level, and a leaderboard to see how you're doing against friends or the rest of the world on Xbox LIVE.

The graphic detail in Defense Grid is probably among the best I've seen in a tower defense game. There are 3 ranges of zoom in Defense Grid. A close-up view is great for enjoying the HD detail on aliens and tower fireworks. A mid-level view shows you a bit more of the area, and the furthest zoom out shows you a bird's eye view of nearly the whole map. Not sure why a free zoom wasn't done like RTS games, but maybe that was for easier management of getting around the grid. Each level has a little story behind it and looks unique from the previous level. One of my favorite levels was "Out of Fuel," which featured a downed alien ship. The different, detailed environments and unique backstory, as told by the narrator, will keep you pushing forward for more. There's a high-definition detail to the aliens and towers, and it all plays out smoothly, without a hiccup.

As for gameplay, some levels can be beat quicker than others, obviously the further you go in the campaign the more waves and longer the battles will play out. Thankfully, there are checkpoints where it saves throughout the mission. This also allows you to skip back if you are defeated, rather than start building from scratch. Another time saver that works out great is the time speed up, which you can do by holding the RB button. Those options take frustration out of the game, while keeping it challenging.

Game developer Hidden Path Entertainment didn't skimp on the soundtrack either. The backdrop, weapon effects, and voice acting by the narrator all are a great accompaniment to the package. As a matter of fact, Composer Duane Decker and Hidden Path Entertainment have made the tracks available for download here, so you can check them out for yourself.

Defense Grid: The Awakening is a great deal at its debut 800 Microsoft Points ($10) when you consider all the gameplay options and the graphic quality put into it. It's half the price of the PC release and includes the extra Borderlands campaign. Defense Grid: The Awakening is a great addition to the Xbox LIVE Arcade and worth the purchase and playthrough. Definitely plug your tactical game brain into Defense Grid: The Awakening for hours of enjoyment.

Defense Grid: The Awakening trailer: