Dungeon Defenders: First Wave is an ambitious game for an app. It has serious depth as a tower defense/strategy RPG, allowing players a multitude of options to customize their defense systems before the actual battle portion of each “level.” But with this customization added alongside traditional RPG leveling up, at times Dungeon Defenders feels too big for the iPhone.
Even after watching the brief tutorial video, it’s easy to get crossed up wondering where on the screen you need to tap to make certain actions take place. About the only thing that’s executed easily is the attack system, which is as easy as tapping one button on the screen repeatedly in the path of your enemies.
Despite the control confusion, it’s not difficult to see that Dungeon Defenders does a lot right as a game. The missions are organized in such a way as to not overwhelm novice players. The difficulty before each battle can even be customized so that if you find you bit off more than you can chew, you can tell the game to ease up a bit. For such a densely packed game, that feels like a smart move.
Even with customizable difficulty, Dungeon Defenders will attract a very specific type of gamer. If you’re unfamiliar with tower defense games or not a huge RPG player, playing Dungeon Defenders First Wave can be somewhat akin to going to France without a grasp of the language. You might get along all right, but you’ll be missing quite a bit. There’s not a lot of hand-holding to be found here, so this game is best experienced by people with more than a passing familiarity with the genre.
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