Recent reviews by Pink

A nice bit of retro FPS. Very much enjoyed what I've seen of the new campaign so far and I'll probably enjoy going back and playing the original campaign and addon packs as it's been quite some time since I last played them. The graphical updates and the update/fix to the AI are also appreciated.

DTF is, in my opinion, a well paced tower defense game. Its focus is on classic tower defense gameplay and there's a lot of replayability in there as you push yourself to getting to higher and higher waves on levels you've already conquered. It reminds me of several other TD games I've played but is also different enough that it doesn't feel like a copy of anything I've played. It seems a little expensive, but I think I'm going to get value for money.

The basic mechanic of the game is collection of resources (energy) and using those resources to defend your energy harvesting equipment. Each of the five levels is comprised of four areas and each of those areas can access multiple blueprints for layouts to mount your defensive strategy with. You start with access to one area, and a few blueprints unlocked; though you may have to pay to research them. As you progress through the game, various aspects -- XP level, research, exploration, wave completion -- allow you to unlock more blueprints, equipment, and more areas.

On each blueprint there are a set of designated spots where you can build platforms. On these platforms you can then place towers. Each blueprint gives you differing challenges and benefits. The cheaper blueprints give you a simple path to utilise, the more expensive blueprints give you more options for paths but also cost more to effectively defend them.

The benefit of the more expensive blueprints is that you recover more energy with them. Because of this, part of your strategy needs to be choosing the right blueprint for your current tower capabilities. If you choose an expensive blueprint without having unlocked effective towers to defend it then you're possibly going to take a hit on your resources, you might still get suitable XP from doing so to progress other aspects of the game, but this will lead to a lot of grinding.

DTF uses a research tech tree for gaining access to tower upgrades. The research tree allows you to upgrade to higher level towers (harder, better, faster, stronger), unlock new towers, and eventually give towers further tower specific upgrades. You also have the ability to research upgrades for your energy harvesting equipment to make it more efficient or better at defending itself.

As you progress through upgrades your strategy on each blueprint may change, this is where a lot of the replayability comes from. Going back to earlier levels and using newly unlocked towers and upgrades to fix a weakness you had previously can return significant dividends. I found myself pushing up from 40-50 waves completed to 60, 70, 80, and then 99 on the same level.

The back story is a little inconsistent, but it's still nice to watch the intro and the plot holes are no worse than those in Quake. It reminds me a lot of Unreal Tournament's (99) intro. The intro is skippable...
The game utilises procedural techniques for deciding on the enemy waves, so no two play-throughs are exactly identical, but they do seem to be weighted towards having about the same level of damage required to overcome the enemy horde waves.

The game menus/navigation are sufficient for need. The navigation through the main menu can feel a little excessive at first but you soon get used to the process needed when entering a new level for the first time. There are a few ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ such as you can't scroll the blueprints window with the mouse wheel, but the interface all works. One great thing that ChillX did was adding the ability to replay your current chosen configuration of level, area, and blueprint; saving having to navigate back through all the menus just to replay a level you knew you could do better on. Hopefully this means that ChillX will be able to find time to clean up a few of these things.

The in-game controls are logical and fairly clean. Standard fare for a game of this type, they do the job they are supposed to do without being overcomplicated. A few things have been missed in the final QA when it comes to some of the edges. For example, the tutorial videos still use an earlier version of the game. This doesn't have any effect on the gameplay of course but it's a sign of a small team working hard to actually release. A few elements are a little confusing until you've played the game for a bit. One such thing would be the upgrade button, which looks like it should do something even when you haven't yet researched upgrades.

The included encyclopedia is well worth a quick flick through. The effects of tower types on enemy types is worth knowing.

The graphics are well presented both in the interface and in-game, and zooming right down to the level of the platforms and enemies is possible and recommended.

The music and sound effects are well done, the music score particularly lines up well with the empiric conquest element of the background story (Hey let's invade and take their natural resources because we've used all of ours).

Initial load times, if you're running off of a spinning disk, are quite long but it's only the initial load that takes time for me. Once I'm in the game it's pretty nippy.

Overall I love playing the game as both a casual game where I just grind a level for energy and when playing a specific strategy towards trying to advance my abilities and wave level.

Hopefully, as a potential purchaser, you've found this review useful.

As for me... I will be buying this game. Even if ChillX are gracious enough to gift me a copy for my feedback in the beta I'll still be purchasing it for a friend.

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For full disclosure, I backed this game when it was a kickstarter and was massively disappointed when they didn't secure funding. ChillX kept in contact though and said they were going ahead anyway. A few weeks later I was lucky enough to be given a closed beta key for Defense Task Force.

I bought a new graphics card just so I could play this game in all its glory. I wasn't disappointed.

I've seen the development team take feedback from people such as myself and improve the game and polish it up over the course of the last couple of months. I'm hopeful they will continue to do this on those edges where it's still a little scuffed.