[u][b]Dwarf Defense[/b][/u] is a lackluster and amateur tower defense game that heaavily prioritizes style over substance and the substance that it does offer is meager and cosmetic. Additionally, the game has been abandoned in Early Access since its last update in May 2019 up until its recent "official" release on 10 February 2024; however, this release was not accompanied by an update of any kind which means that, for all intents and purposes, it still remains an abandoned game.
Overall, I don't recommend it because the gameplay is simply a boring slog and the rest of the game has very few redeeming qualities (if any at all). It feels as if more effort was put into the presentation of the game rather than the gameplay, the interface and playability of the game, and content in general, and no amount of a shiny veneer can make up for a flawed core.
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[quote][b]S U M M A R Y[/b][/quote]
- The gameplay is extremely basic as far as the tower defence genre goes and it does nothing to innovate or improve the formula while the controls feel clunky;
- The replay value is almost non-existent as there is only one game mode and one map and the only incentives you have to play the game are to get the achievements and see the different towers;
- The graphics are both good and bad as the map and character models look superb while the tower models and visual effects look horrendous;
- The soundtrack is composed of one dungeon synth song, the sound effects are monotonous, and the voice acting is nonsensical at best;
- The story is devoid of any meaning and feels like it was added simply for the sake of having something; and
- The game is missing plenty of quality-of-life features and has a number of annoying and game-breaking bugs.
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[quote][b]A C H I E V E M E N T S[/b][/quote]
The game has 10 achievements which are easy to acquire and should take four or less hours once you learn which towers, spells, and upgrades are the most optimal. That being said, all achievements can realistically be achieved in a single one-hour run if you know what you're doing beforehand.
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[quote][b]R E V I E W[/b][/quote]
[h3]Gameplay[/h3]
The gameplay is pretty generic for the genre -- you play the role of Bork the Builder and fend off hordes of enemies that meander down a set path towards your tavern by infusing towers with magic and casting spells. Although the help menu states that Bork is able to fly, in practice he just walks around on an invisible plane above the map which frankly looks silly and shows the amateurish lack of polish that the game has. Even worse, Bork's model can get in the way of your targeting cursor which can result in spells careening off in completely random directions to somewhere off-screen and wasting mana.
The game only has one mode (endless), one map, and 16 unique enemies, but it does have multiplayer, two difficulties, and an interesting "element" system which dictates what kind of towers that you can build. There are six elements available to you and combining towers of different elements gives you access to a total of 21 unique towers. Unfortunately, the game is simply lacking in content and replay value since the only thing that incentivizes you to keep playing is to see all of the tower types and their three upgrade levels (which is how the developer insidiously claims that there are 63 towers). There were no active players so I couldn't judge the multiplayer aspect of the game but I suspect that you might have more fun laughing at this game with a friend for an hour or two than you would playing solo.
The controls are cumbersome because it is unintuitive to select towers (which is done by selecting their base, not their model) but their overlapping models make it impossible to see their bases due to the low-angle isometric view, inputs can be cancelled very easily since new inputs override any previous ones which can be frustrating especially when building new towers since the game barely gives you a break between waves, and the upgrade menu has the annoying tendency of popping up without warning so if you happen to be casting a spell then you can accidentally select an upgrade instead.
[h3]Graphics[/h3]
The graphics are a mixed bag: on the one hand, many of the tower models look absolutely atrocious and the visual effects for their attacks and your spells look flat and are uninspiring but, on the other hand, the map's dwarven aesthetic looks fantastic and its design is reminiscent of a tabletop miniature set while the character and enemy models look quite good due to their high level of detail. Speaking of visual effects, the Strong and Superior Ice Tower flash a blinding white light on the entire screen each time they attack which is painful to look at and warrants a seizure warning.
[h3]Sound[/h3]
The soundtrack is composed of a single mediocre dungeon synth song which can barely be heard over the bland and extremely repetitive sound effects. Surprisingly, the game has voice acting and the developer claims that there are "hundreds of different lines of dialogue" but you'd be hard-pressed to make out most of them over the ceaseless sound effects while the most prominent ones that you do hear (as well as the enemies' flavor text) are ridiculous and barely make sense within the context of the game because they reference real-world jokes or memes.
[h3]Story[/h3]
The story is vacuous and revolves around defending a tavern from hordes of mindless enemies and you can only view this synopsis through the help menu which further exemplifies the lack of effort that was put into the game -- at a minimum, I would expect there to be a text screen prior to the title screen or a cutscene to set the stage for the story.
[h3]Miscellaneous[/h3]
The game is missing a number of quality-of-life features such as a tower radius display (instead you are forced to manually place down towers to see if they attack or not), the inability to change controls, a lack of a compendium for towers (and enemies) which means that you have to unlock a tower each time you want to see what it even does, and a hotkey display when building towers or casting spells. There are also a number of bugs such as skill points randomly not being assigned to you when they should (every third wave) and the upgrade menu staying up forever if you have no more options left to choose which essentially makes the game nearly unplayable past a certain point.
[h3]Conclusion[/h3]
Overall, I don't recommend this game because it exudes a feeling of having more style over substance and, while (some of) the visuals are delightful to look at, the rest of the game suffers tremendously as a result which makes it feel as if the developers put in the bare minimum to make a playable game. Between the laughable premise, the absurd voice lines, the flavor text on enemies which feel like inside jokes, the lack of effort put into many facets of the game, and its host of other issues, it just feels like an incoherent meme of a game which isn't executed well.
