Defense Grid 2
By Chad Sapieha,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Terrific strategic tower defense game has mild violence.
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Defense Grid 2
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What’s It About?
Players jump into the role of a veteran commander in DEFENSE GRID 2, a tower defense game with a sci-fi theme set in the far future. Assisted by a group of artificial intelligences that provide tutorials, counsel, and strategy, the commander discovers alien activity on every planet he visits, and it's your job to help him eradicate the threats. Missions are set in complex, three-dimensional environments. Some have set paths through which aliens swarm, forcing players to build defensive towers in specific locations. Others are much more open, allowing players to guide the aliens' routes by creating corridors of towers. There are 10 towers to choose from, each with its own range, ammunition, and damage statistics. Additional strategizing comes in the form of boost towers -- pedestals that can be built on foundations prior to the building of a defensive tower -- which augment turrets by increasing damage or de-cloaking enemies. Outside the campaign, a multiplayer mode with three game types allows pairs of players either to face off or cooperate with each other to defeat the swarms.
Is It Any Good?
With terrific depth, impressive longevity, and richness of play, Defense Grid 2 occupies the top tier of the tower defense genre. It eschews the genre's standard two-dimensional, cartoonish presentation and offers lush, detailed 3-D environments that do a terrific job of establishing the sci-fi setting. Terrific voice work throughout each mission provides a sense of purpose for the player's activities. The defensive action is well-balanced and demanding of strategy without being unfair or overwhelming.
Veteran strategists will have their hands full on the game's hardest settings, but rookies will be able to advance without too much frustration playing on easier difficulties. What's more, each of the 20 story levels has half a dozen or more variations that impose building limitations or confer various benefits, creating terrific replay value. The multiplayer modes, meanwhile, add a layer of competitiveness (or cooperation) on top of the wonderfully designed tactical action. If your family plays only one tower defense game, Defense Grid 2 deserves to be a top contender.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the tactics found in Defense Grid 2. We tend to think of strategy as the purview of military commanders, but all of us strategize to one degree or another every day. What sorts of strategies do you use on a day-to-day basis?
Discuss online safety. What are some of the risks involved in communicating with potential strangers online while playing games? Have you ever encountered an online bully?
Talk about violence in games such as Defense Grid 2. Is the violence against aliens and robots OK because they're not human, or is it hard to justify violence in any game regardless of the enemy?
Game Details
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: strategy, Collaboration: cooperation, teamwork
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: 505 Games
- Release date: September 24, 2014
- Genre: Strategy
- Topics: Space and Aliens
- ESRB rating: E10+ for Fantasy Violence, Mild Language
- Last updated: August 25, 2016
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