When I first picked up Defense Grid, I had no idea what I was in for. Although I enjoy RTS (my main strategy being overwhelm in big numbers), I had never played a tower defense genre. Apparently, it has its roots in a strategy arcade game called Rampart, back in 1990 (holy crap that’s almost 20 years ago!). Anyhoo, as I began to progress through the Campaign mode, I was hooked. I didn’t want to stop. I actually played it about 5 hours straight until I had trouble focusing on the screen. It’s addicting, to say the least.

For those of you who may not know much about this genre, the basic premise is this: you have a map, and you are defending that map from enemies via the construction of different types of towers. In our case, we are protecting “Energy Cores” from “Aliens”. And seriously, that’s about as deep as the story goes. HOWEVER, the gameplay more than makes up for it in depth and strategy.

When you first begin Campaign mode, you only have one type of tower to choose from. But as you progress through the various missions, you are given more and more options for towers; ten in total, each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. You begin each map with a limited amount of resources with which to build your towers. As you destroy aliens, you gain more resources, which can then be used either to build more towers, or to upgrade the ones you already have. The mechanics are simple enough.

But you can’t just haphazardly put up towers everywhere. The strategy in this game comes in many different layers. As I mentioned, each tower has its unique advantages and disadvantages. For example, the Cannon Tower is powerful and has great range, but it’s fire rate is slow and can’t attack enemies close by. Another factor to consider is the placement of your towers based on range and line of sight. Even if the enemy maybe in a particular tower’s range, if another tower blocks that towers line of sight, it can’t attack. Yet another factor to consider is whether to invest in upgrades or in the number of towers; quality vs. quantity. I tell you, these decisions will keep you entertained for hours.

But its not only the gameplay that gives this title such a high replay value. First of all, there are leaderboards and in-game medals, which automatically boost any game’s replay value. But there’s definitely more to it. Defense Grid comes packed with 20 unique maps, as well as 4 bonus Borderlands Maps, and 3 new challenge mode types, which are 360 exclusive. After beating each mission within the Campaign mode, it unlocks a series of challenge modes on that map. For example, after beating the Focal Point mission, you have access to such challenge modes as Grinder; where you fend off 99 waves of enemies, or 10 Tower Limit; where you must complete the mission with only ten towers on the map.

The presentation of the game as a whole is pretty sweet as well. As expected on a next gen console, the game looks pretty nice. These towers and aliens aren’t just moving blobs. The game allows the player to zoom in and out via the Right Stick, and you can get a nice close-up of the action. Each map has a unique design, each providing its own set of strategic decisions to make. The soundtrack is also pretty nice. It’s not the best soundtrack I’ve heard, but it definitely compliments the game, and in no way detracts from your gameplay.

Overall, I think Defense Grid, priced at only 800 Microsoft Points, is a solid Xbox360 Arcade title and a great purchase. Although I’d never played a tower defense game before, I’m definitely hooked now.

Our Score: 8.5 /10

Ready up your towers and defend away!