Desktop Defender

game has massive (yet easily fixable) issues in regards to game UI. also some achievements are broken or pretty skinner-boxy. I felt like i'd done almost everything 45 hours in, and there's an achievement for playing the game for 100 hours? at least have enough content so that can be reached organically Alas, instead of patching bugs in this game and preserving quality, the developer went on to make two more games with very similar premises to cash out. this is the kind of attitude we expect not to get with indie developers :/

This is a good, cheap little idle game. You don't control the shooting, you are mainly deciding what upgrades to buy and when. The game automatically shoots and earns the currencies, then you spend it to upgrade, so that it earns more and faster. You also buy better weapons and unlock perks. I like it. The transparency effect for your desktop works, this doesn't always work in every desktop always-on-top game for me but it does with this game.

For those who can't focus without multitasking, and to just relax and run in the background of work and ♥♥♥♥

[h1]Short Review[/h1] Desktop Defender is an addictive idle auto-battler with a gameplay loop that consistently hits you with dopamine, whether it's incremental upgrades or ascensions layered with more buffs on top. You can feel yourself getting stronger run over run, and the weapon and equipment variety gives you real freedom in how you go about clearing everything on screen. Performance chugs a bit in the later levels, and the achievement grind at the very end is a bit ridiculous, but overall this is a very solid pickup for fans of the genre. Recommended. [h1]Full Review[/h1] Desktop Defender has you defending a lone bullet shooty guy against endless waves of enemies while it sits quietly in the corner of your screen, leveling up, collecting loot, and ascending for permanent buffs as you go. I've played a good number of these desktop idler auto-battlers at this point, and this one ended up being one of the more addictive entries I've spent time with. [b]The gameplay loop.[/b] This is pretty addictive. The game respects your time and consistently hits you with those dopamine spikes of incremental upgrades layered on top of ascensions that hand you even more buffs. You can gradually feel yourself becoming stronger and stronger over time, and that's a good feeling to chase. Ascending also feels worthwhile here, unlike some idle and incremental games where prestige might as well be a placebo. The stat boosts also make the next run faster and smoother, so you can tell your previous suffering wasn't entirely in vain. And I don't know if this was intended or not, but items you leave on the floor transfer across each ascension, which make them easy things to sell for gold to get the new run rolling a lot faster. [b]The upgrades and equipment.[/b] The upgrades, equipment, and weapons deserve some praise too. Most of the time when you unlock something new, you can actually feel the difference. Your numbers go up, enemies disappear faster, and there's a solid amount of variety in what you can collect that synergizes in interesting ways. You'll always have the same core goal of killing everything in sight, but how you get there can vary a lot, whether that's a railgun piercing straight through enemies or shooting out massive stars instead. [b]The performance.[/b] Even though my computer isn't bad by any means, the game gets pretty laggy in the later levels once you've got a ton of effects, bullets, and enemies filling the screen at once. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's noticeable enough to mention. [b]The ascension system.[/b] One downside here is that in later levels, after ascending, there's no way to automatically set an ability to a certain level. Your only option is to hold your mouse down and wait for the number to climb manually. That might not sound too bad on paper, but I legitimately spent around ten minutes just holding my mouse button to upgrade a single stat because I had so much money coming in that I wasn't running low while upgrading. I really wish there was some kind of autolevel option for stats, like plenty of other idlers and incremental games already have. It would've saved a lot of headache and finger strain. [b]The achievements.[/b] It's honestly pretty ridiculous that I essentially finished the game around the 36 hour mark (would've likely been 72hrs or less if I didn't enable the speedier progression mode), but I still needed to AFK it for roughly 64 more hours just to hit 100% completion, all because one achievement requires 100 total hours in the game. That felt unnecessary and didn't respect my playtime in the slightest. It doesn't ruin the experience I had leading up to functionally completing the game, but it left a bad taste, and it's hard not to be a little bothered by it. Overall, Desktop Defender delivers a genuinely addictive core loop with satisfying progression, meaningful ascension buffs, and a good variety of weapons and equipment to build around. The lack of an autolevel option and the later game performance dips are annoying, and that 100 hour achievement requirement feels like padding for padding's sake. Still, the core experience up until that point was strong enough that I'd recommend giving this one a shot. [code]If you liked this review, then feel free to check out my [url=https://www.youtube.com/@VinroyIsViral]YouTube Channel[/url] for more reviews. I also have a curator group called [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43774503-The-Completionist-Crusaders/]"The Completionist Crusaders"[/url] that focuses more toward completionists. Thank you, and happy gaming![/code]

1.2/10 pew pew pew 1 screen shot tells you everything you need to know about this game

For a desktop companion, this one was fairly enjoyable. Finished the majority of achievements around the 50 hour mark, then afk'd for another 50 to get the last one to pop. I'm keen for Desktop Detective, and I will be buying it on release. 8/10.

8.5/10: I really enjoyed this game. I kinda played it like a mobile game, I was RDPing into my PC and just tapping on my phone screen to control everything. Surprisingly, it worked well. Watching everything go pew pew pew~~~~~ while trying out different loot and weapons was hella fun! B) My only complaint is that a few UI elements could be better. For example, upgrading crit chance can be confusing because it sometimes just sits at 42% even after you level it up multiple times, which looks like a bug. Turns out it’s just missing the decimal point in the display.