Gamertell

As you might know, I am here at the Penny Arcade Expo here in Seattle, WA. I am quite excited to see the lineup and I have had a chance to preview a brand-new, unreleased game before the Expo has even begun. Independent gaming company Hidden Path invited me to a sneak peek at their newest game: Defense Grid: The Awakening. 

What I played, I liked. Defense Grid: The Awakening is a game that is best described as “tower defense”. The basic premise is that you are at an abandoned base that is being invaded by hordes of aliens, and the only way to stop them is to raise up weapon towers to exterminate them. 

The game requires a lot of thought as you must strategically place your weapon towers in key positions to eliminate aliens before they take your power cores. Early levels of the game have a choice of weapons including a gun, laser, and inferno (a cool flamethrower weapon), and later levels include cannons and Tesla (a sweet lightning-shooting weapon). These were just the levels that I played, but I am told that there are 10 types of towers with 3 available upgrades to induce maximum damage on multiple targets. 

A key strategy in the game is keeping track of your military budget. It costs money to make towers and you will only get more resources when enemies are killed. The game is a precarious juggling act of keeping your resources up and the enemies down. 

I can honestly say that I fully enjoyed playing this game and would not be surprised if it wound up in my shopping cart in November. 

Read [Kotaku] Site [PAX] Site [Hidden Path]