Dungeon Defenders: Awakened
Tower defense focuses on teamwork, is beginner-friendly.
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Dungeon Defenders: Awakened
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is a downloadable tower-defense style RPG (role-playing game) for Windows, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Players enter the world of Eternia and must defend the land from goblin-like monsters who wish to take it over using several different character classes, defenses, and weapons. Players can approach this task alone or with up to three friends in a cooperative play mode. Gameplay consists of three stages -- a "warm-up" phase, a "build" phase, and a "combat" phase, giving players the opportunity to strategize and rebuild their defenses between waves of monsters. As for potentially inappropriate content, there's fantasy violence including the use of laser guns, swords, and other weapons, which characters are encouraged to use in addition to their defensive devices. Also, the team's in-game headquarters is located in a tavern, complete with a bartender and barrels that are presumably filled with alcohol. But no characters drink alcohol onscreen and only a very short portion of play time is spent in this location.
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What’s It About?
DUNGEON DEFENDERS: AWAKENED is a story about a team of four heroes -- a Huntress, an Apprentice, a Monk, and a Squire -- who must continuously defend their homeland, Etheria, from invasion by monsters known as the Old Ones. At the beginning of the story, the team's strong and has much experience fighting these battles, but one day they are faced with a mysterious time rift that sends them back into the past. Suspecting that the time rift is somehow caused by the Old Ones as they seek revenge, the four must regain their powers and learn how to return back to the present day, all while keeping the Old Ones away from Etheria's energetic cores, called "Etheria Crystals" in-game. Along with the four heroes mentioned, all of which can be switched between during the "warm-up" phase at every level, players can also take on a Rogue, Warden, or Cyborg character to help the main cast with their campaign. Each level is broken up into three stages: the warm-up phase, where players can change their characters, weapons, and gear, the "build" phase, where characters use in-game currency to build defense structures like walls, laser beams, and tree-like roots, and finally the "combat" phase, where five waves of enemies attack the defense structures with hopes of reaching the level's Eternia crystal or crystals.
Is It Any Good?
This game is going to be fun for pretty much everyone. Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is an entertaining mashup of two popular genres (action-RPG and tower defense) and offers enough character classes and collectible loot to keep players invested in moving onto the next level. Though the level designs themselves can start to feel repetitive, it's up to the player to take that as a sign to switch up their defense strategy or crank up the difficulty level. It's not the end of the world to have to alter a game to make it work for you as long as there are built-in alteration options, which Dungeon Defenders: Awakened does have. Sure, experienced players may be able to get through the campaign fairly easily on the medium gameplay setting, but that's why there are multiple difficulties and so many game modes, including a survival mode and various challenge modes. Also, though some players may prefer the challenge of being forced to face more or stronger enemies as waves continue, other players may find more joy in experimenting with all of the defense devices provided to each of the seven character classes. Overall, there's a way that almost every type of player can enjoy Dungeon Defenders: Awakened in an authentic, well-paced way, and that accessibility is worth applauding.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about fantasy violence in video games. Is the impact of the violence in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened affected by the kind of fantasy violence included in the title? Would the impact be more intense if the violence was more realistic? How can your family compare and contrast the violence you may see in the game versus violent news events you may hear about in real life?
How can your family make decisions about which titles they feel are worth buying and which they might want to skip over, especially if a game's re-released for a new system?
Game Details
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid ($29.99)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Chromatic Games
- Release date: May 3, 2022
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Adventures, Friendship
- ESRB rating: E10+ for Fantasy Violence, Alcohol Reference
- Last updated: June 25, 2022
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