This game is an example of something that should be a success, but it was made to be a failure. Trendy has almost done everything wrong with this title. It was supposed to be a legendary tower defense sequel to Dungeon Defenders, however they made a controversial decision to go to a free to play system. This should be fine if the company knew how to run a free to play game, however Trendy proves incapable so far in almost all aspects of this game.


Trendy refuses to listen to their player base. I don't know whether the problem is with their company infrastructure or they're just ignorant, nor do I care. They continue to ignore the playerbase about what should be added and instead keep trying to extend the late game to keep their big buyers spending as much time and money as possible as they binge their way to the top.

It is almost impressive how much they have managed to ignore any feedback reguarding their game. The shriveling player base should be a huge warning sign as well as the decline of reviews, however they still show no sign of acknowledging their wrongdoings. To be honest the decision to release the game was questionable in its current state because even then the playerbase was pleading them to change certain central aspects to their game.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/230189453124173824/436673586850299905/unknown.png
A picture of the top forum posts I saw when I wrote this review

And this has been going on for three years ever since the game was shown off to youtubers in preview builds and their open and closed Beta.


This game feels more like Dungeon Defenders' failed predecessor than its acclaimed sequel. In Dungeon Defenders it felt amazing to move around and jump around the map killing the horde of goblins and ogres at your doorstep. They added carefully placed platforms for you to jump on, pits to punish you if you mess up, and large sprawling map design to allow the game to feel more fast paced and to make the player feel more involved. The weapons of Dungeon Defenders were also well done. The end game weapons that your gameplay experience culminated into made you feel all powerful and strong. You got a real sense of progression as you moved up the difficulty chain. And each class had a variety of towers that served its distinct identity. This allowed you to focus on one class and gave more opportunity to play if you wanted to level up another as it felt like an entirely different experience each time.

Dungeon Defenders 2 takes all of these lessons they already knew and throws them in the dump. In Dungeon Defenders 2 the movement is limited. Your character feels like he is taking up 90% of your screen and you move at half the top speed you could achieve in the original game. The maps are small and boring to accompany this. The towers are less intuitive and ultimately less engaging while the characters have less character and feel like more of the same. The attackers yield little satisfaction in death and the bosses are ultimately just enlarged enemies. The end game weapons, while unique, feel unrewarding in use due to the design of them and the extra classes, while enjoyable sometimes, can add little extra playtime to your overall lackluster experience due to the lack of towers, character identity, and map design.

And the last thing that they hit was character progression, the culmination of any tower defense game. In a tower defense game you want ramping customizable character progression and difficulty ramp. In this game they took a ♥♥♥♥ on that and decided to make it entirely based off of item drop RNG, which they also significantly reduced, forcing your hand towards whatever you get and reducing variety in playstyle among characters. This is arguably Trendy's biggest mistake.


I believe they still are somewhat updating Dungeon Defenders 1, so go play that game instead, it is way more worth your time. Or you can play Orcs Must Die!, another acclaimed Tower Defense legend, just know that unless you have no other games you can play or buy, than this game is a waste of your time.


I would love to see these three things:

1. Increase in Build Diversity and Customization. The game really makes you feel pinholed into one option. Personally I would appreciate the creation of more diverse choices for the build pathways of the characters in the game, that way you don't feel coerced into buying more characters at every given point. This would allow for more enjoyable play based off of favored playstyle rather than the incessant need to grind, and would also create more character identity so people feel that each character has their own unique strengths and strategies. You strayed from Dungeon Defenders 1 system, which is fine, the game just really need something to replace that rather than loot drops that remove decision making to the game.

2. Map Improvement. I really feel like the maps in Dungeon Defenders 1 are far superior in terms of map design and flow of movement. Most of the maps in Dungeon Defenders 2 feel rather cramped and also feel like they are pinholing you into placing towers in specific places resulting in a slow and grindy theme overall, I would love to see that changed to allow for a more intellectually appealing experience. This would make Dungeon Defenders 2 worthy of its strategy game title.

3. Weapon Refinement and Tower Improvement. I expected some really cool things out of the weapons of this game, it didn't happen however. Sure you have weapons that do special effects with their alt fire, however with only 4 towers to place it really feels more like a replacement than an improvement. Maybe special enchantments that can create very powerful effects that characters can apply to weapons or towers (That aren't randomly dropped, or if so, have some degree of order to them so people have a goal)? You need some form of customization here so people feel like their character and build is unique, and can constantly be improved and revised. This is the bread and butter of multiplayer PvE games: Warframe has mods, WoW has talents and a diverse loot table that has a degree of consistancy on drop location so you can pursue your goal for your character, and, Elder Scrolls Online allows you to adapt skills in strange and unique ways, and Destiny throws in a bunch of unique powerful armor pieces and weapons to give people customization around how they want to play. This is the most important thing that needs to be revised, but also the most difficult, in my opinion.

Thank you for asking me about my input, I loved Dungeon Defenders 1, and I want Dungeon Defenders 2 to be an even better game worthy of appraisal, but its not there yet.


I've reread this review and came back to check upon how the game has come along to improve across the last year and a half. I still find that this review holds up strong as a valid testimony and criticism of the gameplay of this game. I also feel like the games trash net encoding makes it so that more mobile characters are unplayable in combat (eg. Lavamancer, I feel like I Maglev glide teleport and clip into the floor whenever I use his punch dash).

I also feel that it is worth mentioning that Dungeon Defenders Awakening is a game to watch for in the future, because it could very well be the next big co-op tower defense successor to Dungeon Defenders 1 that we've all been looking for. It seems to be taking a closer approach to that game anyways, and honestly, I'd be happy to just have a new game with all the same mechanics as Dungeon Defenders 1, but with upgraded graphics, modernized systems, and more maps and gear.