Dungeon Defenders Eternity Reviews

EDIT2: It seems the devs are working towards fixing some of the things i mentioned such as being able to change characters during survival. The game might become better after all these updates, but they have already lost my interest. There is a big chance that this review will be outdated soon, and i wont be updating it anymore. I reccomend taking some time to do some research before you buy this game. EDIT: For older players who dont have a team and used to play a lot of survival: They changed survival to be one endless wave that lasts an hour. This sounds like a good change, until you realise you cant swich classes once you begin, making late game solo survival play almost impossible. and the fact that you cant "host" an instance anymore and cant kick people will make public survival runs a pain. prepare for trolls who sell all the towers at the 5 minutes remaining mark! (Wall of text review incoming) This game is great for: -People that want more of the same, the new additions and dont really care about UI or bugginess. -People that play with a 4 man team of friends, online. (no more splitscreen) This game could be annoying/frustrating for: -Most of the old dungeon defenders players -People that played for the trophies -People that havent played the original dungeon defenders. I reccomend the original dungeon defenders for new players. What i have written down below is mostly my opinions and problems with this game. I honestly feel like this remake is unfinished and has some really poor design choices. The game still has a lot of glitches and bugs, i feel like im playing a beta sometimes. So far the game has been more of the same with some little differences. But its the little things that bother me the most, such as: -Forced online taverns: I liked being able to relax in my own tavern, managing my gear, chatting with the other people i might have just played with, looking through my trophies, being able to change the music playing in the tavern ect, ect. The new taverns are just chaotic and laggy, filled with usually 20 people in a small space. I dont mind the option of public taverns, but i think the 4 man personally hosted taverns should still be available. -Playverse: I know playverse isnt done yet, but it can be really buggy at times. There have been plenty of times the matchmaking servers havent been working or offline. And you need the matchmaking servers to be placed in a tavern. Which you need to be in to play solo. -Glitchy: This game is advertised as a full finished game on steam, yet there are so many bugs and glitches and the general feeling of unfinishedness that the original didnt suffer from. If you are remaking a game you'd better make sure it works better then the original. Mostly the movement in multiplayer can glitch out pretty badly, the general collision between players and mobs feel wrong, not even talking about how much you can glitch the game when you start jumping. -UI: Tower stats are now shown much better. Other than that most of the UI feels clunky and unclear. At least the original had a small tutorial explaining things. This one doesnt. The moment you click play in the menu you are thrown into a tavern with no explaination whatsoever. I had a lot of trouble finding out how the new dye system and crafting works, i cant imagine how confusing it will be for new players. -small stuff i dislike: The 2 minute timer at the end of a map. I like staying a bit to collect mana/coins and chat a bit with people. But now you are brutely ripped away from it. You wont even end up in the same tavern as the people you were playing with. Also hardcore mode has changed to the degree where noone will risk it late game (if you die your character is deleted, rather then if you die you just dont respawn for the duration of the wave). Survival has also changed in such a way that it becomes a pain in the butt without a solid premade team. But this rant has been long enough. I appologize for possibly butchering the english language, its my second laguage and thank you for letting me get this off my chest.

As someone who's put hundreds of hours into the base DD game, all of the negative reviews of this one were very concerning to me. I decided to go for it anyway, and I've been pleasantly surprised. I've put several more hours into the game since my first review, and I figured I'd update it a bit with what I've observed now that I've made it to 60 on a few characters. I've come across a few annoyances, and there's definitely a few more cons, however my final verdict is still a 'recommend.' Aside from the general pros, this review assumes you're familiar with the first DD game. If not, watch a few let's plays on Youtube to get a feel for the gameplay; it's a combination of tower defense and action game, and it's hard to describe in words what is way easier to show on video. General Pros: + Very fun mix of strategic and action based gameplay. + Good character/gameplay variety (8 classes, multiple character build options in each class) + Great to play with friends + Leveling up and finding new gear is very satisfying. Finally perfecting a map build is insanely satisfying. Pros vs. the Original Dungeon Defenders game: + The game is VERY MUCH Dungeon Defenders 1.9, lots of little things that make the game more enjoyable. + Everyone gets their own drops. No more people running around stealing all of the drops while you keep the defenses running! + The four slot amulet/consumable system where you can add four extra abilities to your character- instantly heal a tower, amplify elemental damage, heal other players, curse enemies, summon a giant storm, etc... It definitely makes you feel like you have more options and allows for some cool new character builds (like a 4 tower repair amulet + hero speed + hero health to quickly run around the map healing defenses). +Pets now have uniqe abilities and drop as eggs that you equip in your amulet slots to hatch over time. You can see the stats before you hatch them +There are consumable items that let you boost exp, loot quantity, loot quality, and loot rarity. Especially useful on survival runs to get some great gear + Items, Maps, and Hero are balanced much better + Item value is tied to the rarity, not the stats; crazy weapons don't sell for an insane amount any more + Currency and Mana are separated. It's very satisfying to run around picking up huge amounts of gold. + All of the DLC Maps, Characters, and Costumes are unlocked for free. There's some new maps that aren't in the original game -- Cons: -Rollbacks. This is almost enough to not recommend the game. Three times now I've completed a survival game only to return to the tavern and find all of my items/exp/money reset. Extremely frustrating and totally unacceptable. It happend twice after Trendy claimed it was fixed, but it HASN'T happened since the latest patch. I'll take this one off the list if I go a few more days without another rollback. -Game UI: The UI is awful. When I say awful, I mean really, really, really bad. The item box is clunky and other than the ability to filter by rarity and item type, there's no sorting or ability to rearrange items at all. Folders are clunky. The only way to check an item's stats is to hover over it (why not a table view that shows each item on a row along with its stats?). There are random numbers and symbols everywhere with no explanation. Crafting is incomprehensible until you actually start finding blueprints and realize that it takes blueprints. - Playverse UI: Stupid Javascript/Twitter Bootstrap overlay that's used to make parties and... I guess stream to twitch? There's a buch of useless buttons on that thing, and it feels totally out of place. Definitely needs to be replaced with ingame menus that acutally fit with the rest of the game. Right now if feels like they just copy+pasted a web page as an overlay and called it a day. - Server Lag/Always Online: I understand why they went to server-side only, and I'm mostly happy about it. However there is occasional lag and rubberbanding. I'd rather than then hacked items, though, so it's not a huge deal for me. If you have an unstable internet connection, DON'T BUY THIS GAME. - Bugs: Summoners are broken, some towers are broken, Dark Elf Warrior Ninja Douchebags are broken. This stuff can all be fixed with patches, but it's still a pain in the butt. The Dark Elf Warriors will oneshot you on insane, then turn around and wreck your defenses. I refuse to believe that the insanity of the DEWs on endless spires on insane during the last wave are NOT bugged. - UI: I know I said this one already, but seriously, the UI really sucks. Misconceptions: Cash shop: Now that I've played more, I realized that the cash shop is literally JUST emotes (at the moment.) It's not even outfits, it's just an animation that you can buy for a dollar. The concerning thing is that the infrastructure exists if they decide to sell more than just cosmetics, but they promised to keep the cash items cosmetic only. 'Mobile Game Port': Yeah, there's a dungeon defenders game for Android that's very close to the PC version, but I'd call that an exceptionally good Android game, not an exceptionally bad PC game. Controls are fine, video options are fine, gameplay is fine. I'm never in a place where I say "Wow, if this wasn't a mobile game port, X would be easier/better." If I never played the android version, I wouldn't beleive the game could even be ported to android and still work the way it does on PC. In the end, I'd contine to state that if you like DD, you'll like DDE, especially if/when they fix the remaining bugs. --- Original Review: 20Hrs in --- As someone who's put hundreds of hours into the base DD game, all of the negative reviews of this one were very concerning to me. Even then, I got enough enjoyment out of the base game that I didn't mind supporting the devs a bit more. I don't know if I'm playing the same game as the people who played for .2 hours before downvoting it, but I'm beginning to think I'm not. From what I've played so far, it looks like they took major steps towards fixing a lot of little annoyances from the base game- mana is no longer currency, everyone gets their own chests and gear drop, and hardcore mode is actually scary (when you die you lose all of your levels and gear!) They added consumables, new pet abilities, two weapon slots, and it looks like all of the paid map DLC from the base game is unlocked for everyone. A big problem with the first game was hacked in items, a problem that appears, for the moment, to be solved. I'm going to address a few concerns I've seen brought up. In App Purchases: From what I'm seeing, the ONLY thing bought with real money is costumes which are purely cosmetic. I have no problem with that model, and usually nobody else does either. Blurry Textures: If the reviewer played for more than a few minutes or read the on screen tips, he would have seen that the game downloads super low res textures to get you playing, and then continues the download of the rest of the assets in the background. Mobile game port: I'm not sure if the game started out as a port from a mobile device, but it feels like a full featured PC game: tons of remappable keyboard shortcuts, graphics options, and controls that work well. UI: This is the only place where I see problems. Creating a private match was simple enough, but the friends system took a little while to get used to. It appears to be a (Twitter Bootstrap Based) Javascript/HTML overlay that you get at by hovering over the top right corner. It feels really disjointed from the rest of the game's menus. The bottom line is that if you like the original Dungeon Defenders PC game, you'll like this too. I feel like a ton of the negative reviews are by people that haven't put any time into actually playing the game.

Imagine a really good game, with a new re-release coming out, and it looks promising! Then once it came out, really sucked, and it wasn't fun. Thats what this game is. If you wanna get Dungeon Defenders, get the first one. Not this.

This game is a version of Dungeon Defenders where everything has been nerfed, taking away a lot of the fun.

Time to review this with a Pros and Cons list... CONS: 1. Public Tavern = People everywhere whining and asking things like, "How do you play?" and "Why does this game suck so much?" And there is always a hoard around the forge and tavern-keep that makes walking around hard. 2. Requires constant internet connection = All file are on their servers, not your computer. This means if your internet goes out, you can't do a thing. And it means long wait screens while it downloads the map you just tried to enter. If you have slow internet or frequent outages, this game is not for you. 3. Summoner = The Summoner no longer uses his own pool of Defense Unit points (Minion Units). Instead, he draws from the same DU as everyone else. This makes him a character that is now a builder like any other except that he can't attack. Two pets doesn't really make up for this and minions are not good at being the only thing on the field. He is most pointless now that he costs other builders their points. 4. Costumes = Completely pointless. Armor is visible and that cannot be turned off. So what you look like under all the cool little helmets and masks and shields seems almost pointless by the end of even the first level. 5. Eternia Crystals = The crystal is now no longer customizable. Only look it has is the default look. Sad. Really, really sad. 6. In Game Store = Yes, there is a store in the game that costs real money. Yes, it is just for cosmetic items when you are playing on Steam. Yes, it still stinks. In-game stores that use real money on a game you already paid real money to buy is dumb. It's tied on annoying level with Release-Day DLCs for me. I already gave you money to buy the game and now it's "Oh, wait, you wanted the entire game? That'll be an extra $20." 7. Perma-Death = Perma-Death in Hardcore??? Why? Just why? Never playing that mode. 8. Two friend systems = o.O If you play on Steam, please note that there are two social systems in the game: Steam and Playverse. This gets confusing fast... "Wait, I just added that person, how do I have a friend request from them. Oh, this is Steam that is Playverse." "Why aren't they showing up in my friends or this group?..." Etc. 9. Tooltips = There are none. Happy button-guessing folks! 10. Tutorial = My sister had not a clue what to do as a first time player and I had to show her everything. A tutorial to do that would have been really nice... 11. No Split-screen = I used this all the time on the old game and I have actually already missed it. Please patch it in. 12. Box System = They made it worse. I didn't know that was even possible. It's like an apps touchsreen now with a bad PC overlay on it. PROS: 1. Single or Multiplayer Missions = I can play with random people or just my friends. A welcome early patch that was really, really needed. Works great now. 2. Visible Armor = This is awesome. Sure, for most of the game you will look like you covered yourself in hotglue and rolled around in a junkyard... But once you hit max and get a real set of armor that all matches: You will look awesome. 3. Dyes = They now sell dyes of different colors at the Tavern-keep's place. And most items have 5 to 6 dye slots for colors on it you can change. Yes, for people who like micromanaging every little detail of your character (aka: people like me), this is awesome. They are low in price so you can change colors a lot. :) 4. Pet hatching = You get eggs and weight for them to hatch as you run around and do things. AKA: Pokemon eggs. It is actually quite fun to see what will pop out of each egg. Awesome system. 5. Coins = MANA IS NO LONGER MONEY!!! You no longer have to try and use Mana for everything and worry about lost Mana all over the map. Gold coins enemies drop last longer than Mana and you don't have to feel bad burning through thousands of Mana a battle in the later stages with you skills. 6. All DLCs built in = ...need I even say why this is nice and awesome? 7. Dashing = You can dash! ...four times... ...than your meter needs to recharge over-time... 8. Two weapon slots = Switch out to a different weapon quickly when they are resistant to your main one. Very, very nice. 9. Graphics = Slow to load, but once they do, they are awesome! 10. Fun = The first Dungeon Defender was fun, this one is fun. They are the same game though. 11. Co-Op Awesomeness = Grab a few friends and go to town. Just plain more fun with more friends. 12. Loot system = Fewer drops of better quality? Individual loot? Both very nice. OVERALL: This really just seems to be you paying money to help them test PlayVerse... Not seeing enough new content here to warrant a re-release of the same game. I guess the balancing issues and hacking are reasons they are saying that this came out, but I see no real reason to buy this if you own the original with all DLCs. Dungeon Defenders (Original version) was and is a great game... Stick to it if you own it. Though if you don't own it, this might be a great one to pick up. Only reason I like this game over the original? You can put shiny armor on and dye it a bunch of different ways.

Sounds like as of this week, the developer is giving up on Eternity, pushing a few more updates to the original game, and then leaving it in the hands of the players to work on. Seems the community moved back to the original anyway for the most part, as Eternity was just a pointless rebuild of a game that was fine to begin with. If you're going to play, I'd bet on the original game being the one with staying power. Don't invest in this one. You can read this to understand the difference between the games, besides just the UI: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=290092757 Yes, it does seem like Eternity has more content overall. Maybe someday someone can port some of it down to the original. Until then, it seems like people are willing to live without it. I just checked the player counts right now. The original has 825 and Eternity has 53. It will only become more lopsided in the future.

Devs just gave out free Dungeon Defenders Collection gifts to all people who own Dungeon Defenders Eternity. This means the devs are abandoning support for this game and want you to go back to Dungeon Defenders 1. If you want Dungeon Defenders, get the first game instead. DDE was a failed attempt to re-release DD1 with some upgrades.

[h1]Summary[/h1] Dungeon Defenders Eternity is a tower defense game made by Nom Nom Games. It is essentially a remake of the first game with a few additional maps and polished content. With a attempt at fixing the balances issues the original had and adding new features. [b]Pro’s and Con’s - in comparison to first game[/b] [h1]Playverse[/h1] + No hackers + Persistant Party System + Private Taverns - Always Online (DRM) - Cannot import characters from DD1 You will have to add friends to playverse in order to party with them. When a player attempts to start a map it gives everyone in the party the option to accept or reject following them. This allows players to avoid being interrupted if they are in the middle of looting, crafting, equipping, or simply changing heroes. A party on playverse is persistant unless you leave it, meaning that if you disconnect for whatever reason, you can rejoin and get back to your friends unless the room becomes full. Some of my friends have reported that the service was slow for them, now that they are able to download the whole game it redeems this problem though it still takes them a few hours to download the 1.6 GB. [h1]Visuals[/h1] + Improved visual variety (Gear is noticeable, and items look sharper) + Better Shop UI (Shop has categories) - Downgraded Character UI (No Categories to separate the icons) - No Splitscreen co-op Visual Fix Update: They have added the ability for you to download the whole game if you wait on the update screen. This will stop textures from having to be streamed to you, which results in enjoying a blur-free experience without having to wait to constantly download a map. Icons for skills Missing? Answer here: Been missing my icons all day and realized that you could just drag and drop the icons onto the hotbar on the bottom left back. [h1]Mechanics[/h1] + Crafter (Find Blueprints, components to craft superior gear) + Relics (Give Permanent stat boosts that is not a grind) + Amulets(Spend mana to cast different quality spells) + Pickups are independent( Everyone gets their own drops,chests, and pets) + Chests matter (Ingredients and gems can be gained) + Micro-Transactions(Only cosmetics, currently emotions) + Steam Workshop - Minons use defense points(Minons got buffed, but use DU instead of their own points) - Minon AI(Currently Glitches, the ogres seem to move on their own sometimes) Amulets are a great addition, it allows players to have various additional useful abilities for any class they like. Amulets are set at lower levels than other gear, which allows players to equip them on their alternate characters, to give them that extra edge they need. Tower heals amulets are efficient at repairing multiple buildings at once which becomes more potent with defense power. Characters have their skills changed to defense and offense power in order to be applied to both the character personal skills, and their amulets. Monk's tower damage skill gets stronger from defense power just like tower heals which results him not just increasing the damage of towers by more but also being able to heal for a higher % of the tower hp. Curse runs on offense power just like how your DPS skills, which means not only can you slow down ogres, make them weaker and increase your damage but you also have increased your own skill damage. The summoner can use amulets in astral form, allowing him to actually cast storm spells that damage an area of enemies. You can hatch pets, by equipping them in a amulet slot while fighting against enemies. I am not sure why they added a entire extra step to using pets though its easy enough to not be an issue. They also added pet active skills, turning orcs into cakes is always a good time. Relics can be found on challenges or bosses. There is 5 relics since each difficulty gives you 1. If you do nightmare and beat it you get all 5. Since getting the relics under it are automatic. This is a nice way to increase your stats in general. Boosters can be found during waves and are common expect for the exp booster, that you can use increase quality,quantity,rarity and magic items you find. The icing on the cake is that only one person in the party needs to apply it! Every time you apply a booster it will last 5 more waves, however since survival counts as one big wave for an hour its most efficent to use it for that. The ogres sometimes suddenly move about and is currently a glitch, though i suspect this will be patched soon. This AI glitch alongside the fact minon points got removed really nerfed the summoner, now I see some summoners use them with DPS pets or other methods to try to make him viable. [h1]Game Changes[/h1] + Survival Feels Endless (1 Hour timed, instead of waves) + Hardcore Mode (Perma Death & Better Rewards) + Total Package (Contains most DLC of original game, it has all characters) + 4 Campaign Maps - Lowered Level Cap 100 to 60 (Not sure how stats will suffer in comparison to first game) - Dungeon Defenders 2 Across corner not sure if this was wise timing to allocate resources to make this. Survival is fun but there is an issue, the developers need to add a level display to the session playlist. When people look for a session to play and see only map, game mode, and difficulty they are not aware that the game mode of survival pumps up the difficulty greatly even on normal to the point where I could not possibly survive without better gear. Survival has been patched, now you are able to switch heroes any time during the hour at the forge. Gold also will not replace items anymore, and items will not disappear in your face quickly as a result. I recommend those who are curious about it wait at least till your around level 20. [h1]The Backlash[/h1] When the game first released on steam, it did not have single player, achivements and other things as promised by the store page. Hence why many were angered by the broken promises and when those promises were removed from the page it did not help their case. The other part of the backlash stems from them going full DRM, which resulted in people always having to be online to play. Some people just want the ability to play without having to worry about the service disconnecting or other issues that comes from playing online. Since they went for a system that streams the content to your computer it takes a while for the textures to fully load and get the graphics that you were expecting coming in. I admit the graphics are simply darker than DD 1 but I would by no means call them inferior [h1]The Likes[/h1] Most people who gave this game a chance saw many nice additions to a game they liked with better balancing. While they acknowledged that there is flaws they should address, they think it has potential to be a better game if you give them enough time to patch it up a bit. Most of them see the blacklash while warranted a bit too overboard.

[h1]Important Note[/h1] The final decision to not recommended Eternity reflects my personal experience about the original Dungeon Defenders and my personal preference of gaming. [h1]Incorrect Reviews[/h1] There are a lot of negative reviews about Dungeon Defenders Eternity which are incorrect. Let's talk about the most false and improper negative reviews I've read. They include one or more of following statements: [list][*][i]This game is advertised as 'definitive' but it is an 'Early Access'[/i] A lot of people use the word 'definitive' in a wrong context. Eternity is just the definitive version of Dungeon Defenders 1. It is the final product they made based on DD1 and there will be no other version anymore which is based on DD1 (so close). Nor it implies that all content known from DD1 is included in Eternity neither everything is accessible right now. [*][i]The store page of Eternity is incorrect[/i] That's simply wrong. Anyone who has read the store page carefully will agree here. Every single statement came true. Trendy has even tweaked the store page to describe things in-depth for whose who were confused for any particular reason. We could only debate if they did their job well. [*][i]This game is 'Pay2Win' since micro-transactions are implemented[/i] Meanwhile micro-transactions are implemented the shop only provides cosmetic items. Cosmetic items doesn't affect the gameplay in any way. [*][i]This game is a mobile port[/i] No, it isn't. They designed the game for multiple platforms (mainly PC) with the focus to keep the GUI (Graphical User Interface) for all platforms equally. Not a bad move at all. Though there is a lot room for improvements. [/list] [h1]My Review[/h1] It was clear to me that Eternity will have bugs, glitches and exploits like every other PC game but I never mocked about it like others because it was obvious that Trendy will work on fixes. A lot of users were complaining about the broken stat progression after Trendy has fixed an exploit which has given way overpowered gear. I appreciated the fix since I was still able to reach 2k and higher stats in order to beat the game easily. People were just too lazy to invest time to build a set and to upgrade their stuff. The game was still fine and I liked it a lot. Then they released Content Update #1 and 'Nightmare' difficulty. I still was able to beat most content with gear which I've collected during the 'broken stat progression' but even on Deepers Well on Nightmare difficulty (the easiest - first map) were dropping stuff with stats way better than mine. The hardest part of the game now is to reach the required Hero Level to be able to equip this stuff in order to get 4k+ points in multiple stats. Makes the whole game pointless - DD was about grinding - take it away and there are no goals anymore. You are able to reach up to 10k points in a [b]very[/b] short time to cover huge maps with a single aura stack and a Buff Beam and you still beat the map without any further defenses. [i](In the meanwhile they have added enemies which are immune to elemental damage regardless of using a Strength Drain Aura, so you have to put up some more defenses now.)[/i] 'Nightmare' turns into 'Laughable easy'. [h1]Recommend or not?[/h1] This depends on two questions. If you answer both with yes then go ahead and buy this game. Do you like to play solo as in the community is extremely small? Do you play more casually as in grinding XP and gold will be your only issue? I hope this review was more helpful and informative than others.

[i]Disclaimer: This is not a review; it’s a pro-consumer heads up instead[/i] If you have [b]Dungeon Defenders Eternity[/b] in your wishlist, don’t buy it – the servers are closed and the game is no longer supported. Since this iteration of Dungeon Defenders doesn’t have a true single player mode (offline), the game is [b]useless[/b] now, since it can’t be played by any means. The remaining players listed on Steam Charts are people idling it for trading cards. All this mess happened because Eternity was developed by [b]Nom Nom Games[/b], which aren’t the original Dungeon Defenders devs. Both companies broke relationships some time ago, as you can see [url=https://dungeondefenders.com/eternity/blog/119522/an-update-on-dde]in this thread.[/url] If you want to experience the original Dungeon Defenders game, you can buy the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/65800/Dungeon_Defenders/]original version[/url], which is still being supported, and just [url=https://steamcommunity.com/games/DungeonDefenders/announcements/detail/1706183879311962658]received a content update recently[/url]. By the way, the original has a true single player mode (and local co-op), so it’s a safe buy, since when the time comes for the servers to shut down, you will still be able to play it. Alert your friends about Eternity and don’t let them waste money on a game they can’t play.