DEFENDER’S QUEST: VALLEY OF THE FORGOTTEN (PC, Mac, Linux)
Thanks to the digital age, I am rarely happy with consuming only one kind of entertainment at a time. If I’m reading a book, I want to be listening to music, too. If I’m watching TV, I’m also gonna be playing a video game. Browsing websites, I have a movie on. If one kind of media is not entertaining me enough, I demand more flashing lights and loud noises to distract me from my hollow American consumerized lifestyle. If there’s sufficient distraction I don’t notice the empty part in my soul, and I can pretend that I feel a fleeting shadow of contentment and happiness.
That came out a bit darker than I intended.
The point is Defender’s Quest: Valley of the Forgotten is the perfect kind of distractionary game for multitasking your entertainment. A hybrid of story-driven RPG and tower defense game, it offers challenging tactical gameplay and a better than average sense of humor in its story. Understand this: there is nothing revolutionary in this game. The graphics are passable, sound is decent, and the story is familiar territory. But that can all be excused by the excellent gameplay and challenge modes to be found in Defender’s Quest.
Like all tower defense games, players place towers (or in this case, characters) on the playing field to stop oncoming enemies from reaching their goal. Between missions, players can upgrade characters when they gain experience through battle, or through equipment purchased or won in challenge modes. Challenge modes themselves range from replaying earlier maps with more difficult enemies, to unique challenge maps, as well as a New Game+ mode that unlocks harder areas and better equipment. These add significant playtime to the game. According to the in-game clock I’m up to 90 hours played and have not completed all available modes.
The bottom line is that if you enjoy tower defense games or are looking for something more casual to play as a distraction, Defender’s Quest is well worth the $15 asking price. (Level Up Labs) by Matthew Snider