After a long meeting with the PopChiX founders on Saturday, I was convinced to download Defense Grid: The Awakening on Xbox Live Arcade. I admit, I had been holding out for Plants vs. Zombies but from the mere suggestion that I should try this game, I downloaded the trial and started hammering some poor, unsuspecting aliens who were trying to steal my power cores.
I was skeptical about how the controls would work since tower defense games seem so geared for PC but I was pleasantly surprised. By making use of scrolling selections, choosing the right tower for the job was completely painless.
After playing three levels in the trial, I decided to support Hidden Path by giving them my hard earned cashola. I wasn't disappointed. I immediately unlocked an achievement that I guess I earned from the trial. OOOOHHHH GOODY! ACHIEVEMENTS! The achievements are what you would expect from a game like this - score a certain amount, get certain medals for levels, and so forth.. Although, I can already tell a couple of them are going to suck - They're straightforward but the levels are hard!
The pace of the game is like any other tower defense game. The further you progress, the harder the enemies are to defeat but the better your defenses are to, "squash like grape." You can click on any given alien to not only see what their life meter is at but also to see what their weaknesses and strengths are. This allows you to pick appropriate towers to deal with their sorry asses.
For an 800pt XBLA game, the graphics are beautiful - definitely not what I was expecting in this world of 1600 pt games. In fact, they're quite stunning for any game. You can either move the camera way above the puzzle area for an aerial view or you can zoom in closely to watch the carnage unfold.
I would highly recommend this game to those of you who enjoy the logic of tower defense games. As well as making you exercise those logic parts of your brain, it's pure fun. At least give the demo a try!
It's also available to PC, if that's your poison.