Ballista towers can launch fiery bombardments from a significant distance.Something unholy stirs in Ardania. Suddenly soldiers, angry animals, and shambling undead are lining up to bash your castles to bits. Time to drop some gold on auto-firing towers.
Unlike most tower-defense games of this sort, Defenders of Ardania features two-way streets. Establishing and upgrading your defenses are the top priorities, and you can still force incoming enemy troops to take detours that bristle with different kinds of firepower. But survival isn’t enough: you must also recruit and dispatch waves of your own forces to take down the enemy’s towers and headquarters. Sometimes you’ll even face three rivals at once during the campaign’s 18 missions.
Some of the Underworld’s purple goons can be pretty tough to kill.Strangely, most warring units simply stroll right past each other, but every step a lumbering warrior, sprinting rogue, or any other goon takes earns experience for its entire class. Because most units perish en route, encounters often become humdrum time-killing wars of attrition; dedication pays off somewhat, though, as hitting level limits unlocks powerful hero units. Sadly, the only true challenges they’ll face involve overpowered juggernaut bosses who’ll saunter toward your fortress and, if you don’t stop them first, will destroy even an untouched fortress with a single blow.
Online multiplayer lets you play as the humanoid army you command during the campaign, a collection of animals (Nature), or an array of supernatural monsters (Underworld), but the differences are almost entirely skin-deep. Nature can erect towers that heal nearby structures, and the Underworld build outposts that boost other buildings’ defenses, but otherwise there’s little strategic distinction between sides. Unless multiplayer’s a must, stick with one of XBLA’s older (and better) tower-defense games, like Defense Grid or Orcs Must Die.
The pyrotechnics can be pretty, but they can sometimes make it hardto tell what’s happening on the ground.PUBLISHER: Deep Silver/Paradox Interactive • DEVELOPER: Most Wanted Entertainment • ESRB: Teen • MULTIPLAYER: 4 on Xbox Live • ACHIEVEMENTS: Average • COST: 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15)
+ Intriguing mix of tower defense, real-time-strategy offense, and light RPG elements.
- Painstakingly whittling down enemy defenses requires more patience than planning.
- Cheesy bosses; three online factions that differ in appearance and little else.
? Why are tower health bars so tiny?
