The Less Exploitable Defender?

With a rating of 4.7 on Android Play Store, the second and better part of Defender is out from developer Droid Hen as tower defense addicts around the world battle against horned devils, catapults and dragon-riding mages that wish to destroy your precious castle.

Gameplay

Defender 2 is the sequel of a tower defense game that returns with new upgrades, new crossbows and new research rooster that throws players in a fight against waves of monsters.

Also a new Battle mode was added, where players must outlast (out survive) their opponent as increasingly tougher monsters are attacking. This player versus player mode could be improved as it is easily hackable. Players may find themselves pitted against competitors with true godly powers, maxed upgrades and immediate replenishing mana pool.Another downside of this battle mode is that the matchmaking system is not accurate. Often the difference between levels is significant and makes the gameplay frustrating.

The newly added magic tower will swiftly eat your crystals away, the damage output being far lower than expected. On the other hand the slow from lava moat is much more useful while the burn effect can be ignored at higher levels.The abundance of new crossbows bring  many possibilities of upgrading your main death-dealing weapon either by spending money or hard earned crystals.

The game can be played without purchasing additional crystals, but you cannot hope of upgrading your spells to their full potential or to use the almighty Final Fantasy crossbow (valued at 250 crystals.. Ouch!). In the first Defender, with a little patience, the 250 crystals can be gathered but it will render the game boring as it is way too overpowered. 

A selection of spells that can freeze, burn or slow the assaulters, are available but the low mana pool requires  strategy and perfect timing. The spells are especially useful during the boss battles that take place every 10 levels rewarding those skilled enough with increased gold and crystal rewards.

Graphics and performance

On the tested device (Asus Transformer TF101 with ICS) the game runs very smoothly without hangs or unexpected program terminations. Graphics and animations are pleasing to the eye but can definitely be improved to a higher level of detail that can take advance of the high end devices’ full capabilities.

What’s next?

All in all this sequel has turned out to be a very popular one, Droid Hen proving once more it can release addictive and  challenging games that can raise the bar for the free-to-play section from the Play Store.Based on this success do we dare to expect a Defender 3? Will this tower defense with a twist get a new sequel?