Ahhhh Dungeon Defenders. I remember me and my brother played the original game all the time. We beat it using all the character classes, found the QR code in the locker, and were always yelling and fighting over whose fault it was that we died. When the game came out for PC, we always wondered when it was going to come out for console players. So, a few years ago when we heard that 'Dungeon Defenders II' was coming to console on June 20th that year, we were so hyped. We hopped on Xbox, downloaded the game, but when we tried to play…. (Insert the error 2002 joke here).
'Dungeon Defenders II' is a role-playing, tower-defense and action game with a lot of depth to it. Unlike the first 'Dungeon Defenders', this one is a free-to-play title, which means there are microtransactions, which we will talk about later. The objective of the game is to defend or protect certain objects against waves of enemies. The game consists of 10 maps at the moment which has the difficulty of easy, medium, or hard. The higher the difficulty, the better the loot.
The loot system in Dungeon Defenders is the main reason why I love the series in the first place. Any game that allows you to collect loot is always a plus in my book. The loot you receive is based on the class you go into battle with. The loot you receive also has its own certain stats and rarity which you can upgrade using medals or coins.
Coins are the primary currency in the game which you can use to do basic things like buy gear from the black smith or level up your gear. Medals are the secondary source of currency. With medals, you can buy characters, pets, shards, and almost everything else in the game. To earn medals, you must complete quests and daily missions. To me, it doesn't seem that unfair even though some of the medal prices for certain things are a little bit ridiculous.
Then we have the wallet eater: gems. As far as I know, throughout the game you only start out with 200 gems which can get you nothing. The only way to earn gems is to bring out the old wallet and spend, spend, spend. Gems give you characters a lot quicker than medals, though, and they also allow you to buy costumes for your character class.
There are currently seven classes on the game to choose from. The free classes in the game are the Apprentice, Huntress, Monk, and the Squire. The classes that you must pay using gems or medals are the Abyss Lord, Series EV2, Gun Witch, Lavamancer, Dryad, and the Apprentice. Each class has their own unique set of skills and their own defenses for battle.
Now the game did have a rocky launch, because I kept seeing ERROR 2002 every time I logged in. This made the game nearly unplayable. Even when you were lucky enough to get in, you would get kicked out for server issues. Without a doubt this truly made me want to hate the game.
A few days later, I tried to log in and eventually it worked. Looking past all the server issues and the little bugs, the game is a blast to play. It's very exciting to see all hell break loose as swarms of enemies come from around all sides and to see everybody scrambling to try and help each other out. The game is playable with up to 4 people online and I would be lying if I said that I didn't have a blast.
Nothing in this world is perfect, and with that in mind, 'Dungeon Defenders II' is a work in progress. I would like to imagine what this game could have been if Trendy had held onto it a little longer. But don't worry, with a patch here and a bug fix there, I believe that 'Dungeon Defenders II' will be the game that its fans want it to be: perfect.
