Defense Task Force - Sci Fi Tower Defense Reviews

It's ok for a TD game, It's just very repetitive (same maps in every sector) as enemies get slightly harder in the next sector. It' really feels like your playing the same map over and over after a while and gets kinda boring. I think it could have been much better with more unique maps.

I was never really a tower defense gamer. I saw this on youTube and figured what the hell. I have now beaten the game three times on insane. I enjoy playing it then taking a break for a couple months. That allows me to forget the exact formula and I have to relearn how I won. The only real problem is i want a DLC some new maps or backgrounds. New weapons or upgrades. I want more!

I've got just under 200 hours in this game to date and have played the campaign through to it's conclusion on medium, hard and insane difficulties. So was it worth it? Pros: It has a very nice intro cinematic that sets the scene and gives the game context. The tower graphics and animations are very detailed and pleasing to the eye. There are lots of tower types. all with their own upgrade trees. Plenty of different monsters with adequate graphics and animations. Cons: The story is limited to just the intro cinematic and does not continue throughout the game. There isn't even an end game screen when you complete all the levels. Every level looks the same because it's a water world with each map set in the sea with a few randomly generated islands around the edges. All the maps are very similar, the majority of them iterations of earlier maps. Limited number of maps, only a handful of which are worth playing. It's too easy, even on insane difficulty level. Seasoned TD players will find no real challenge here. So basically playing the game goes like this: You get only one map unlocked at the start of the game and you have to repeatedly play this map grinding for resources until you have upgraded some towers enough to be able to beat it in order to unlock the next map. You beat a map by surviving a set number of waves. You can continue playing the map after you've beat it for as long as you can survive. There is no limit to how many waves you can take on and I have played up to about 1500 waves on medium difficulty but it takes so long you eventually just give up and allow the monsters through. By the way, you can research tower upgrades with resources collected from killing monsters and these upgrades are then always available in the next map you play so as you upgrade your towers the game gets easier. You keep beating and unlocking maps and upgrading your towers until you reach the last map and that's it. There are no other game modes or achievements or challenges to keep you coming back. I get the strong impression that the game is unfinished, which is a shame, as it has lots of unfulfilled potential. I can see that the devs were going for a DG vibe with this game and it shows strongly in the tower design and gameplay but it falls far short of the mark. DG (1 and 2) is still the pinnacle of TD as far as I'm concerned. So to my question at the beginning of this review: was it worth it? Not really. There's not enough variety and it's too easy. I can't honestly recommend this game in it's current state and given that there have not been any updates since sometime in 2018 I guess the devs have given up on it.

A bit of strategy, nothing interactive (no weapons for player), towers only. Can research, but still need to pay for all level 3 abilities on each map. I'm only 8 hours in, but playing same maps over and over again. Decent graphics, but so much variety of enemies that you just need to throw in every tower type.

game used to be awesome....than it started having significant issues with being way too slow. waited for months for whatever the problem was to be fixed thru the Steam app...no such luck, now I'm no longer waiting...what a shame.

Great game overall and I highly recommend it. Little tedious at first untill you build up and upgrade your skills and maps. I enjoy going 2,000 plus levels on a map. Great concept of having to build up each weapons so high...at frst i was dissapointed in having to put so much into it to build it up but it gave me reason, motivation for doing so and had fun doing it to, I am still surprised that the balance on easy is so hard. I am a very experieced TD gamer and this is one of the hardest game i have ever played on easy. I should try it on the next difficutly level up,,,maybe it is better balanced than easy??? Just needs a minor tweek though, like giveing 2.5% more resources rewards for enemys killed. I am greatly looking forward to the next game with more ttraining options. bigger and more complex maps and of course no limit on levels in EASY MODE

Very buggy. Sloppy code, uses a TON of resources, GPU use is through the roof on a 1080ti, slow load times, random freezes before/after levels, program crashes with error dumps. Not ready for prime time.

[u]06/30/2018 build 01.07.22[/u] I thought the tower defense genre was dead which was very sad because I'm a huge fan of TD games but then Defense Task Force was available on steam and I bought it. At first it was marked as not interested because the videos on steam didn't tell much about the core game mechanics. It was just the usual bling bling stuff which I'm not a fan of but a video of Xterminator on Youtube changed my feelings about Defense Task Force completely and I'm happy to have the game now. [h1]The basics of this tower defense game[/h1] You play on a map where you have to defeat creeps with different weaknesses. If too many creeps reach the extractor on the map it is over and you have to start again. You're getting energy for defeated creeps to build different towers like... [list] [*]machine gun [*]cannon [*]missile [*]proton pulse [*]plasma beam [*]fire (flame thrower) [*]space-time (slows down creeps) [*]tesla [*]toxic [*]sniper [/list] [h1]Research[/h1] After collecting enough energy it is time to unlock higher tiers of every tower that I've mentioned in the list before, upgrades to improve player stats and perks for towers. These perks are only available when a tower is fully upgraded to tier 3! [h1]Perks[/h1] I'll pick two of my favourite towers. Just to get an idea how much everything costs. (1) perk's name, how many points to spend and what the perk does (2) upgrade cost for each point (3) boost (how much more bang for your buck do you get for one upgrade) [list] [h1]machine gun[/h1] [*](1) rotation speed 0/10 (boosts the rotation speed of the tower) [*](2) 50 [*](3) +20% [/list] [list] [*](1) damage 0/100 (damage boost) [*](2) 59 [*](3) +10% [/list] [list] [*](1) range 0/5 (range boost) [*](2) 150 [*](3) +10% [/list] [*][h1]tesla[/h1] [*](1) extra chain jumps 0/5 (boosts the rotation speed of the tower) [*](2) 100 [*](3) +20% [/list] [list] [*](1) range 0/5 (damage boost) [*](2) 50 [*](3) +10% [/list] [list] [*](1) range 0/100 (range boost) [*](2) 50 [*](3) +10% [/list] [list] [*](1) chain quality 0/5 (improves the chain effect and grow faster to another enemy) [*](2) 50 [*](3) +20% [/list] It is also possible to improve the global player stats a bit to get more energy and higher defense for the extractor... that thing that we have to protect. [*][h1]global skills[/h1] [*](1) initial mission energy 0/10 [*](2) 101 (no typo) [*](3) +1% [/list] [list] [*](1) extractor hp 0/10 (damage boost) [*](2) 100 [*](3) +10% [/list] [list] [*](1) extractor auto-defense system 0/10 (increases the mirror damage inflicted by the extractor to attackers) [*](2) 100 [*](3) +20% [/list] [list] [*](1) extractor capacity 0/5 [*](2) 50 [*](3) +20% [/list] [h1]Maps[/h1] At the beginning there is one map for free on every planet that cost no energy. If you want to play other maps you have to unlock them first and everytime you have to pay a specific amount of energy to be able to play them again. The moment when you've spent too much energy for research stuff and not able anymore to play the favourite map which cost 200 energy... priceless. :D [h1]Ranks[/h1] Sometimes a specific rank is needed to unlock higher tiers for some towers or bigger maps. Starting as a cadet to general takes quite some time. I don't really know how this works exactly but I just play maps over and over again to reach the rank that's needed. [h1][b]What do I think about Defense Task Force[/b][/h1] All in all... I really like it because I've finally found a new tower defense game that I enjoy. It is a bit hard, especially around wave 20. If you upgrade stuff just a bit too late you're toast just a few waves later. You have to be well prepared to reach higher number of waves. My highest wave was 128 so far but I have absolutely no idea how to reach more than 500 pretty easy like other players did but I don't give up to find my own recipe to get it done one fine day. Yes, 500 and more waves is correct. After reaching the goal of let's say 30 waves you will be asked if you want to continue or not. If yes... the game is endless until you're not in mood anymore to watch endless hordes of monsters trying to chew on the extractor. 07/01/2018 edit: I'm still struggling to get the key how to make it to higher numbers of waves after 25 hours of playtime pretty easy even after getting some help from the steam forum. I've played most games of the tower defense genre and enjoyed all of them. (Defense Grid, Kingdom Rush, Defender's Quest, GemCraft, Alien Robot Monsters) During the last 25 hours I noticed that all of these games were very forgiving when you made some mistakes... upgrading a bit too late, using the wrong towers. It was still possible to rearrange some things and winning the map. As much as I'm happy to play Defense Task Force I have to say that this game is very frustrating for me as well. If you miss the point to upgrade towers on time it's over. You might survive few more waves but it's just a matter of time when more and more creeps getting through the defenses and make their way to the extractor. There's always this feeling that I don't have enough money to build my defenses strong enough to say that I'm safe for a while. I really don't like that. This is why Defense Task Force won't be my favourite TD game. I'm enjoying it but too frustrating for me. [b]Special thanks to the devs for the sound of Defense Task Force[/b], especially for the tower soundfiles. The tesla tower, plasma beam, proton pulse and space-time tower have awesome sounds. I really love to hear them. Best of luck for you guys and huge success for Defense Task Force. You guys deserve it. [*][h1]Ripoff[/h1] Some may say that Defense Task Force is a ripoff or it looks too similar to Defense Grid. I really don't mind if that's the case because it doesn't matter as long as I enjoy playing the game. I don't get it why people complain about it over and over again. Just play the game and have fun. There are so many awful TD games available on steam. Feel free to be happy that Defense Task Force made it to steam and have fun with it... like me. [*][h1]Hardware[/h1] Some players mentioned that this game eats hardware like nothing... even high end machines do have problems with it and other comments. Let me tell you something: Speedy (my pc's name) is 12 years old and I'm still able to play the game! I bought him back in 2006 and this reliable thing might be ancient but is still in good shape with no surgery needed so far. :) Many people would have bought a new PC at some point, even the Borg queen would say... nah, I don't assimilate that ancient thing of technology. I played many games with Speedy and had just no reason to buy Speedy 2.0 so far but I will in the near future. Just don't tell Speedy. He's very sensitive. ;) No error, game freeze or crash has occurred during the whole playtime. Well, loading the game takes some time but that's ok. Speedy is not the fastest anymore. I cuddle with my cat during loading process... my kind of workaround. :D Lilly (my cat) likes it when I play Defense Task Force... snuggles guaranteed. :D [*][h1]Pricetag[/h1] Yep, this game, made by a small indie studio with only two people, cost round about 20 bucks. It might be very expensive at first sight but keep that in mind when you guys out there who complain about the huge pricetag want to buy the next so called AAA game like Call of Duty for 60 bucks. I remember playing these games. You pay 60 bucks for a game that you play only for the campaign and dump it afterwards... after almost eight hours and never touching it again. So many indie studios offer so much more replayability and fun for just 20 bucks that I usually don't buy these so called AAA games made by big studios. I don't really care about the pricetag as long as I have fun with it... and don't let the 14 hours fool you. There will be a lot more in the future. I'm just too busy to play it more.

You only need one word to describe this game: uninspired. It's basically a Defense Grid ripoff where you play the same couple of maps over and over against the same enemies. If you're looking for a TD, pick up something good like Kingdom Rush. Also, notice how the glowing reviews are free review copies?

I like the game, but since it's not possible to save your progress I can't recommend it. If the developers implement a rewind system (like Defense Grid, for instance), I will be glad to change this review, but just now if you want to progress in the game you need a good memory to remember where your towers were an then place them again and use the speed up button, or a lot of time to play 50 or more waves.