an MMO, an FPS, and an ARPG walk into a Tower....

So recently, there were 2 more tower defenses were released, to add to the growing list of FPStower defense games: Orcs Must Die! and Dungeon Defenders. However, I feel both these games fall short of Sanctum, one of the first FPS tower defense games released. Why's that? Well let's begin.

First let's talk about beginning set up of each game. Sanctum and Orcs Must Die both have you choose a loadout in the beginning, showing what weapons/towers/traps you may build, (and for Orcs Must Die!, also a talent specialization) whereas Dungeon Defenders has you create a character from four classes, complete with color customizations. You end up leveling your Dungeon Defender characters, which increases their power, and unlocks new spells, abilities etc.

From the getgo, you can start to see what each game is going for. Dungeon Defenders wants you to think its an MMO, Orcs Must Die! an action RPG, and Sanctum as a shooter in the vein of Battlefield/Modern Warfare. As a result gameplay for each will evoke the feeling of their respective genres, while sometimes also showing their weaknesses.

For Dungeon Defenders, its the "trash mobs". Spawning waves and waves of trash mobs, and with little thought to your shooting/hacking other than "keep up the pew pew", the only break in the action is when a piece of gear drops and you or your allies rush to pick it up. Nor does it help that your money for each level spawns at 4 separate corners of the map during the build phase, which ends up with you or your allies making a mad dash towards the closest spawn to prevent other players from taking your money. To make matters worse, the money gained to create towers for each level, can also be sent directly to your "mana bank" to be used as upgrades for yourself, and others. Due to the leveling and gearing system, this practically encourages players to sneak as much money to their own bank, instead of trying to finish the level. While players are under no obligation to play in this manner, it is still what the mechanics of the game encourage. There is a point where lower level players are no longer able to upgrade towers (due to a cap on how much money he hold at Y level) and unable to create new towers (due to a shared tower cap) so they become essentially dead weight. You can hardly blame them if they begin hoarding their money here, as they have nothing else to do.

Orcs Must Die! is probably the most action packed of the group, for better or worse. With limited time between waves, it forces you to quickly decide what traps and where, or which upgrades and when. There's a few untimed sections, but few and far between, and nonexistent in nightmare mode. The traps are interesting, and so are the various talent specs. The problem is a lot of the stages are designed to be beaten a certain way, instead of offering a wide variety of options. The upgrade system is also nice, although you rarely know which upgrades to purchase, due to each stage forcing a certain strategy revolved around a specific trap. It's also probably the hardest among the three games, requiring the most concentration. Which may be a good thing for those interested in a challenge. The orcs actively try to kill you, which enables you to buy time by distracting the orcs, and also makes the combat a lot more dynamic. The biggest issue holding it back, is the lack of a co-op mode, which makes the overall experience lacking after beating the campaign. Still, its undoubtely the strongest single player game of the bunch, and quite rewarding.

And finally, we come to Sanctum, which in my opinion is the strongest title. It is closest to being a casual shooter, similar to TF2 (minus hats and drops), with a mix of Modern Warfare and Battlefield. Many weapons are easy to use at close to maximum effectiveness, and the predictability of the enemies (and the invincibility of the player) creates almost a skeet shooting experience. The weapons have a great feel to them; the sniper is accurate to a dot, explosive and freezing grenades arc lazily to a target, the shotgun has a meating recoil which can sometimes throw you backwards. Also, this game has rocket jumping (well, grenade jumping) and bunny hopping. However, in keeping things simple, the variety of towers is limited, and only a small (but diverse) selection of levels to play. The lack of unlocks (except for singleplayer levels) is also notable, though it further cements its focus on casual play.

Now that I think about it, I've come to understand what each game is going for, and why I liked Sanctum over the others. Dungeon Defenders is meant for Diablo 2 fans, who wanted more tower defense, Orcs Must Die! is designed to appeal to the Devil May Cry/ 3rd person action gamer, and Sanctum is designed for those lovers of shooters. In any case, we've been blessed with a splurge of high quality tower defense games, infused with elements from a diverse list of genres. And if you hurry, you might still be able to get Sanctum at half price today!