The tower defense genre barely existed two years ago, but now it is a hugely popular casual game format, in large part due to Desktop Tower Defense. Defense Grid: The Awakening provides the production value and professional touch most tower defense games are lacking, though its game play follows the same basic format. Defense Grid uses the popular game play on a wide variety of interesting layouts that all work differently and keep the player interested in what will happen in the next level.
There isn't an awful lot different about Defense Grid's game play from any other tower defense game. The different types of towers you can choose (normal gun, flamethrower, flame cannon, etc.) are all easily recognizable from tower defense Web games, and the enemies follow the same guidlines as well (swarms, shielded, flying, fast). What really makes Defense Grid's gameplay stand out are the layouts of each level. The opening levels force enemies into a strict path that you can't determine, with your tower spots limited, in more of a Pixeljunk Monsters style. Later levels give you much more ability for creativity with tower positions, as you create a maze for your enemies a la Desktop Tower Defense. These layout changes keep the game fresh for all of its "story" levels, which puts it a notch above other tower defense games.
The presentation is another way Defense Grid differentiates itself from its competitors. The graphics are plenty good enough, though your camera angle is basically limited to an isometric view of the action. The sound effects are unobtrusive, which is always a plus. Unfortunately, the tower and enemy types aren't always distinguishable from one another, which means I often have to right-click on everything to see just what it is, which wastes a bit of time.
In the story mode, you are accompanied by a sort of Robo-proper voice who acts as your assistant. The voice acting for this is fine, very similar to the voices of the robot butlers in Fallout 3. The assistant doesn't really have a lot of lines, which means you hear several things over and over, but it never really reaches the point of being irritating, probably because he doesn't talk all that much during the levels.
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