Game Reviewed: Defenders of Ardania
Release Date: March 14th
Developer: Most Wanted Games
Publisher: Paradox Entertainment
Platform: [Reviewed: Xbox Live Arcade], PlayStation Network, PC
Genre: Tower Defense, Strategy
Rated: E for Everyone
Defenders of Ardania is a tower defense game set in the Majesty universe and has a fantasy setting. There is one twist that you don’t normally see in other tower defense games; In Defenders of Ardania, you have units to send at your opponent. Being the only change to occur in Defenders of Ardania it gets boring rather quickly.
The game starts out with a tutorial that gets you acquainted with the controls which works nicely, but goes on much longer than you would hope and does a bad job at telling you about the items on the HUD. It took me three missions to figure out where my resource level, base health and unit levels were. Without this information I did not know if I was making any progress within the level. First thought was that the tutorial level was taking too long in order to teach me all of the things one needed to know. However, this was wrong on both parts. There were lacking things they could have teached me and the tutorial level felt to be one of the shortest experiences.
When they finally get you the option to upgrade items you can upgrade things like the amount of units or the amount of money you can have in your stash at one time. Other than that, you can upgrade your tower 24 towers. To help you stop your enemy you can use any of the 24 unit types which increase in price as you get higher up on the food chain. Personally, the starting warrior was the best choice for units as they are pretty cheap and can be pumped out pretty quickly.
Between each mission there is a voiced sequence telling you a small backstory, but it really only applies to the upcoming mission and it is not really that important. The voice work is pretty good for a XBLA, PSN title and it fits the setting of the Majesty universe. The art style is similar to Warcraft and it fits with the universe as well.
Defenders of Ardania is a solid tower defense game, but it does not really do anything different to make it worth playing. With tower defense games like Trenched Iron Brigade and Plants vs. Zombies, both on Xbox Live Arcade, it is hard to choose a tower defense game like Defenders of Ardiana when those games are just a click away. If you are invested in the Majesty universe this is the only tower defense game on the market that fits with that theme and may be worth picking up. If not, I’d think twice about Defenders of Ardania.
The Scores
Gameplay: 3/5
Visuals: 3/5
Audio: 3/5
Controls: 3/5
Value: 2/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
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