
	Platform PC Genre Tower Defense Publisher Paradox Developer Most Wanted Entertainment ESRB T (Teen) Released March 14, 2012

- The fantasy setting can be neat to look at

- Mad dash for land or you’ve lost the battle - Multiplayer is completely broken - Clunky interface - Tutorial that doesn’t actually do a very good job equipping the player with everything they need to know - Not fun

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Defenders of Ardania

Score: 4.0 / 10

When a game that lives on Steam, the premium online service for PC gamers, and the multiplayer is absolutely broken, there’s the anticipation that if such a basic thing could be so badly fumbled, that the rest of the game will be a dog’s breakfast of half-chewed ideas and rotten gameplay and interface features. Well, pretty much.

Most of the maps are all about making an early rush to get specific squares occupied so that choke points can be created and map “resources” can be secured. If there’s any hesitation or thought of securing a perimeter around the castle then expanding from there, the outcome is the same: a loss.

Strategy must remain aggressive. Consolidation is a waste of time. If the player doesn’t create early choke points well away from the castle and send out a

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continual stream of various fantasy units on their one-route paths to the opposing castle (or castles), there’s very little chance of winning. And if there’s a win to be had, it could be an hour away.

It’s all about securing the “magic” arrangement of specific tiles that will secure victory, made all the more easy if the player can work out the build/upgrade/attack

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succession for their (essentially) uncontrollable units.

In fact, the only direct control the player may have on the action in the game is a magic ability that has a long period of regen. And possibly rally points that I never felt had any actual use to me.

There’s no micromanagement or even route selection for your attacking units to run, which is fine but simply reinforces the idea that only one solution is available for each map and if the player can get to it before the opposition, then the game is basically over.

This writer didn’t have fun with Defenders of Ardania. The interface is clunky, the tutorials are poor, the “story” adds nothing, and the game itself was so forgettable I didn’t recall that it was on my “Review” list until a few hours ago.

With plenty of other tower defense titles and strategy games out there, Defenders of Ardania is a poor choice on which to spend your money.

- Aaron Simmer

(April 27, 2012)