Dungeon Defenders

Dungeon Defenders is a multiplayer video game developed by Trendy Entertainment that combines the genres of tower defense and action role-playing game. It is based on a showcase of Unreal Engine 3 named Dungeon Defense.[4] The game takes place in a fantasy setting where players control the young apprentices of wizards and warriors and defend against hordes of monsters.[5] The sequel Dungeon Defenders II was released in 2015.

Dungeon Defenders
Xbox Live Arcade cover art
Developer(s)Trendy Entertainment
Publisher(s)Reverb Triple XP
EngineUnreal Engine 3
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iOS, Mac OS X, Linux, Android
ReleaseiOS
  • NA: December 15, 2010
Android
  • NA: December 23, 2010
Windows, XBLA
  • WW: October 19, 2011[1]
PS3
  • NA: October 18, 2011[2]
  • EU: December 21, 2011
Mac OS X
  • NA: March 15, 2012
Linux
Genre(s)Tower defense, action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

Dungeon Defenders is a mix of tower defense, role-playing, and action-adventure where one to four players work together to protect one or more Eternia Crystals from being destroyed by waves of enemies which include goblins, orcs, kobolds, ogres, and wyverns. The game features a number of levels, consisting of around five total waves, through its campaign mode, or other levels as part of challenges; some of these levels may feature a final wave that includes a boss battle against a unique foe. The player characters defend crystals by either magically creating, maintaining, and upgrading towers or other defensive elements that damage or divert the enemy monsters, or by using melee and ranged attacks to defeat enemies directly. On easier difficulties, players have an indefinite amount of time prior to a wave to study the level's map to see where monsters will come from and the type or number of monsters, to place traps and defenses, and to manage the characters' equipment. Traps and defenses are limited by the available mana that the character has - more mana can be obtained by defeating monsters or opening chests that appear between waves - as well as a total "defense value" for the level, limiting the number of traps that can be placed. The characters can be damaged by enemy attacks, and can be killed in battle but will respawn after a few seconds, unless hardcore mode is selected. If an Eternia Crystal has taken too much damage, it will be destroyed and the players will lose that level. Successfully defending a wave will earn the characters experience points based on the difficulty plus additional bonuses, namely preventing any damage to the crystals, preventing damage to your character, and only using weapons to kill monsters; successfully completing all waves of a level will earn the players a large banked mana boost. Monsters will also drop items that can be sold for additional banked mana.

The difficulty of the level is set by the hosting player after choosing a level; the strength, number, and types of monsters that are faced are influenced by this selection and the number of players in the match, as well as the quality of the equipment that may be generated as rewards. The player has additional options, such as removing the indefinite time between waves, instead forcing players to prepare for an upcoming wave on a countdown timer. For the campaign levels, players must work through each level before unlocking the next, but may return to earlier levels to try to improve their performance, challenge the level at a higher difficulty, or simply to grind for better rewards.

Characters are persistent for a player. The player can manage any number of characters, though characters are kept separate between Trendy's ranked servers and for unranked play. Characters are selected from the available character classes: four were shipped with the game, while additional classes have been added in the form of downloadable content on the Microsoft Windows version.[6] Each class has a unique set of traps or defenses, a specific set of weapons that they can equip, and two special abilities they can use in combat. As the character levels up with banked mana experience, the player can allocate points among a range of characteristics affecting the character or the traps or defenses they lay out. Additional bonuses to these characteristics can come from the equipment the character is equipped with. New equipment can be purchased using banked mana either in the game's store or in other player's auctions, dropped by killing monsters, or collected as rewards after defeating waves of enemies. Banked mana can be spent to upgrade equipment, allowing the player to improve the bonuses that the equipment provides to the characters. The player maintains separate inventories of equipment across the ranked and unranked servers, but this inventory will be common for all of the player's characters in that mode.

Release

Dungeon Defenders was announced on August 25, 2010, and has been released on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC.[7] Support for the Move accessory is planned for inclusion in the PlayStation Network version.[8] Epic Games' Mark Rein has stated that there will be cross platform play between the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita.[9] The game was released on October 19, 2011 through Steam.[10] In November there was a "development kit" released as free DLC which included the game's source code.[11]

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic(First Wave) iOS: 66/100[12]
PC: 81/100[13]
PS3: 80/100[14]
X360: 77/100[15]
Review scores
PublicationScore
GameSpotX360: 6.5/10[16]
GameSpyPC: [17]
GamesRadar+PC/PS3/X360: 7/10[18]
IGNPC/PS3/X360: 8.5/10[19][20][21]
OXM (US)X360: 9.0/10[22]
TeamXboxX360: 6.5/10[23]
TouchArcade(First Wave) iOS: [24]

Critical reception

Dungeon Defenders received generally favourable reviews. At review aggregator website Metacritic, the game attained overall scores of 81, 80 and 77 out of 100 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively.[13][14][15]

Sales

Dungeon Defenders sold over 250,000 copies in first two weeks of release[25] and over 600,000 copies by the end of 2011.[26] By February 2012, the game's publisher reported over one million sales across Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam.[27]

Dungeon Defenders: First/Second Wave

First Wave is the mobile version of Dungeon Defenders, and was one of the first Unreal Engine 3 games available for iOS and the first available on Android, with a recent patch allowing cross-platform multiplayer gaming between the two mobile operating systems via GameSpy.

Second Wave was a mobile version of Dungeon Defenders. It was free on the Google Play Market, but paid on the App Store. It featured a revamped menu system and improved controls.

As of December 2012 it is no longer available from the Google Play Market.

Dungeon Defenders Eternity

Dungeon Defenders Eternity was released on 22 July 2014. It rebalanced the heroes and enemies of Dungeon Defenders and redesigned the loot system of the original game. It includes an early version of Playverse, the server system designed for Dungeon Defenders 2 to improve cross-platform support and discourage hacking.[28] The game received predominantly negative reviews from customers from Steam due to the lack of a single player game and inclusion of micro-transactions on the first day of release.

Sequels

Dungeon Defenders II was announced for PC and PlayStation 4, prior to the 2013 PAX East convention, to be playable there and starting a beta period.[29] The sequel features similar gameplay. The game is free-to-play with microtransactions to unlock certain heroes that are otherwise earnable through play. Dungeon Defenders 2 was released on Steam early access on December 5, 2014, and became available on PlayStation 4 on September 19, 2015.[30] The game was released out of Early Access as a fully launched product and was also released for the Xbox One on June 20, 2017.[31]

Dungeon Defenders: Awakened was announced in March 2019 by Chromatic Games, the new name for Trendy after some corporate rearrangement. It was initially backed by a successful Kickstarter that same month. The game, while narratively set after Dungeon Defenders II, will return to the graphics and playstyle established by the first game, but with several additional gameplay updates.[32] The game is expected to launch on Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch in the first quarter of 2020, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions to come out the following quarter. Players that pre-ordered the game for any platform gained access to the beta version of the title, which launched November 22, 2019 on Microsoft Windows.[33] The game will launch in Steam's early access on February 21, 2020.[34]

References
  1. Phillip M. Asher (3 June 2011). "Dungeon Defenders Takes Over PSN October 18th With Move, 3D Support". PlayStation Blog. PlayStation.com. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  2. IGN Staff (August 23, 2011). "Dungeon Defenders Enters the Combat Phase With an Official Release Date". IGN. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  3. "Official Dungeon Defenders Homepage | Trendy Entertainment". Dungeondefenders.com. 2012-12-19. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
  4. Dungeon Defense on Unreal Development Kit. Retrieved April 4, 2012.
  5. Keast, Matthew (October 11, 2010). "Dungeon Defenders – hands-on". GamesRadar. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
  6. Steam (November 23, 2011). "Dungeon Defenders New Heroes DLC". Steam. Retrieved 2011-11-25.
  7. Mitchell, Richard (August 25, 2010). "Dungeon Defenders headed to PSN, XBLA, PC this fall". GamesRadar. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
  8. PerLee, Ben (September 28, 2010). "Hands-on: Dungeon Defenders". Destructoid. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
  9. "Epic: NGP perfect for Gears-style game". Eurogamer. Eurogamer. January 29, 2011. Retrieved January 29, 2011.
  10. "Today's New Releases: Deus Ex: Human Revolution DLC & Dungeon Defenders". RPGfan. 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
  11. Trendy Entertainment Offers Complete Dungeon Defenders Dev Kit And Source Code As Free DLC by Indie-Game-Freak (November 12, 2011)
  12. "Dungeon Defenders: First Wave for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  13. "Dungeon Defenders for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  14. "Dungeon Defenders for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  15. "Dungeon Defenders for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  16. McGee, Maxwell (2011-11-04). "Dungeon Defenders Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2013-04-18. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  17. Nelson, Mike (2011-10-27). "Dungeon Defenders Review". GameSpy. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  18. Veloria, Lorenzo (2011-10-31). "Dungeon Defenders review". GamesRadar. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  19. Gallegos, Anthony (2011-11-01). "Dungeon Defenders Review - PC". IGN. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  20. Gallegos, Anthony (2011-10-31). "Dungeon Defenders Review - PS3". IGN. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  21. Gallegos, Anthony (2011-10-31). "Dungeon Defenders Review - Xbox 360". IGN. Archived from the original on 2013-04-18. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  22. Lewis, Cameron (2011-10-17). "Dungeon Defenders review". Official Xbox Magazine. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  23. "Dungeon Defenders Review". TeamXbox. 2011-10-26. Archived from the original on 2013-04-18. Retrieved 2012-05-03.
  24. Nicholson, Brad (2010-12-20). "'Dungeon Defenders: First Wave' Review – You'll Want A Controller". TouchArcade. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  25. Andrews, Jason. "Dungeon Defenders Exceeds More than a Quarter of a Million in Sales". Internal News. ThisIsxBox.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  26. Sliwinski, Alexander (2011-12-22). "Dungeon Defenders picks up gold from 600K sales". Joystiq. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  27. Sliwinski, Alexander (2012-02-06). "Dungeon Defenders hits a million paid downloads". Joystiq. Archived from the original on November 12, 2012. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
  28. "Dungeon Defenders Eternity Out Now". Dungeon Defenders 2 Blog. July 22, 2014. Archived from the original on October 14, 2014.
  29. Sayed, Rashid (2014-12-06). "Dungeon Defenders 2 Is A PS4 Console Exclusive". GamingBolt. Retrieved 2014-12-06.
  30. "Dungeon Defenders 2 official website". Trendy Entertainment. 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  31. iamisom (May 31, 2017). "Launching on Xbox One, PS4 & PC on June 20th!". Dungeon Defenders. Trendy Entertainment. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  32. Marks, Tom (March 27, 2019). "Dungeon Defenders: Awakened Hits Funding Goal on Kickstarter". IGN. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  33. Romano, Sal (November 20, 2019). "Dungeon Defenders: Awakened launches in Q1 2020 for Switch and PC, Q2 2020 for PS4 and Xbox One". Gematsu. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  34. Romano, Sal (January 29, 2020). "Dungeon Defenders: Awakened launches for PC via Steam Early Access on February 21". Gematsu. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
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