Hermit Update! They added a new hero!

2023: True Labor Of Love, devs+communty = best. (6,942.0 hours played says a lot.)

2022 Review Update:
The game is definitely worth the money. Up to a certain point, you can play the game just about any way you want. Once you start getting into the end game, you can start to feel the squeeze. You need certain combinations of heros, defenses, etc. to make the most of all the bonus effects. Like Monk Tower Boost, you may never use it or feel like it's not terribly useful, or Monk Auras, or EV tower buff beams. Once you get to a certain point, those are super useful for helping your build survive and/or do enough dmg. Also, unfortunately, the Apprentice towers are so much more overpowered than Squire towers. Squire towers are very rarely used. About the only thing they're used for nowadays are for the Spring Valley challenge map. Where they're not even really necessary. Summoner is a super great co-op partner to have and/or to get and use, because it doubles your available defenses as Minions have their own set of points to use. Highly recommend joining the Dungeon Defenders Runs and Giveaways Discord as well. It's a bit nutty and somewhat not-child friendly, but the help-chat channel is the best place to get help. Though, the wiki may be getting updated slowly and is still pretty useful for figuring out achievements. Which generally unlock more item space in your forge.

2021 Update:
So, I guess that the last event and what not at the end of 2020 was the last official anything. Dungeon Defenders Runs and Giveaways Discord channel is the active community for Dungeon Defenders. It's where the community development team (The team that released all of "The Lost Quests".) hangs out. Plane has always been the most active, but also seems to be the only one still somewhat active. Still, lots of giveaways and stuff. It's also the best place to learn anything about the game. The game has updated so much, the only thing the wiki is really good for is what's required for all the achievements. This is a super awesome game! Highly recommend it, if you've never played. In the event that you've not played in a while. It's worth getting back into it! There's so much content that's been released, it's awesome.

2020 Update:
So, they've released a new Modded branch of the game. Accessible via the Steam Beta feature. It seems interesting, but I would say it's a good addition for those that have already played Dungeon Defenders to death. xD I may eventually get around to playing it, but from the sound of it, it's pretty nice. It also has separate saves from your normal Dungeon Defenders, but it has a one time import from the Official Multiplayer Server version of Dungeon Defenders. So, likely best to finish DD, then move on to the new modded thing.

The 2019 update was awesome. :-) Seriously, this game is a total blast from start to finish. There are some serious speed bumps along the way, but you can continually get better EQ (to a certain point). It's a great game. I had tons of fun at the very beginning with the slow enemies and intense battles (Which shortly become super easy for you, but still lots of other challenges.), to the hectic pace of Nightmare maps and End Game maps. Great thing about this game is that those "End Game" maps, have kept on getting pushed back. All the way to 2019, with the final community patch.

You owe it to yourself to play this game with a friend, if you can find one that enjoys it as well.

2019 Update:
I've yet to play the new update, but a new free community map was released in February of 2019. Complete with new added rewards and a rebalancing of the new Crystalline Dimension Bosses. Hopefully, they're actually doable now. First boss was easy enough, 2nd and 3rd, still haven't beaten on Nightmare Hardcore difficulty.

Dungeon Defenders is in it's own right a classic RPG/FPS/Tower Defense game now. Games will be trying to live up to the awesomeness that is Dungeon Defenders for a long, long time. This game is only surpassed by Terraria. Possibly the best update for Terraria was the new Ethernian Crystal Event. :-) Stupendously awesome game + Stupendously awesome mini-game == 1000% Awesome.

===============
Original Review:
Very good Tower Defense game. :-) Fun by yourself, but best played with a Friend.

-------------------------------------
Updated 4 year old review.
-------------------------------------

The game is still just as awesome as when I reviewed it 4 years ago. The devs have switched their focus to making the new Dungeon Defenders 2 a good game, but there's even more content coming!

There has already been one or two free community updates that have added 3 new maps. There's also another community update that's currently in beta testing. Should be out in January 2018! (Or close to it.)

Dungeon Defenders is still well worth the money. It is a great cross between Fantasy RPG and Tower Defense. This is one of my favorite games of all time.

You can start out in easy, medium, or hard mode. Any of those three should be doable at the start. Insane and Nightmare are meant for more established characters and are completely unplayable by a random starter character.

There is a campaign mode that gives you some interesting story cut scenes. I would say they are pretty good quality. Maybe not stellar, but it really fits the style of the game.

There are dozens of challenge maps in addition to the campaign maps, bonus campaign maps, Lost Eternia Shard pack, new (free community update) Lost Quests pack, and the (free community update) new release in probably Jan. 2018.

Each character has their own set of towers and / or abilities. The barbarian is the only character that can't build any towers and has to join others in order to progress. The other characters could be your own characters as you can have one or multiple builders and swap between characters at will during wave breaks. Be warned that the EV and Huntress towers / traps can't protect against flyers. You don't encounter them in the first couple of maps, but flyers are introduced fairly quickly. Really, it's quite fun to play any of the characters, but I've recently been having a blast with the Jester. The Jester is quicker than most (quickest?), has 2 base towers and random present towers that can be one tower from any other character class. The presents are tiered and Can Spawn an Ogre. This can really screw you up when you're relatively new. So, be careful when placing the presents.

Armor can be worn by any character, but has multiple tiers that require a certain level to use. Max character level is 100.

Accessories can be worn by any character and have the same tier system as armor.

Weapons are character class specific and have the same tier system. Some classes can use multiple types of weapons. If memory serves, EV uses Huntress and Apprentice weapons. Jester can use Any Weapon, which is pretty cool. Though, the Jester doesn't have any of the special combat skills that the other classes have.

"Pets" can be used by any class, but again have the same tier system as all the rest of items / equipment. There are attack, Defense, Combat, Healing, and "builder" pets. They all have thier uses and are quite fun to play with.

Bosses -- Some Bosses will be perferred to have at least one hero boost monk in the party. Hero boost on a monk, makes everyone uber awesome. Like 2 to 4x awesome. xD Though, a Monk isn't necessary as the DPS hero, it's a good choice to make as a DPS hero.

There is so much in this game, strategy, action and story. You can focus on strategy, because well this is a Tower Defense game, but you aren't forced to. You can treat it like a casual hack and slash, just don't get in the way of people building. They will love you, if you help plug holes in their defense, tank a boss, etc. The game can be as hard or as easy as you want. (With a few exceptions, easy isn't easy in some cases, but those are much newer maps.)

Hermit Update! They added a new hero! 2023: True Labor Of Love, devs+communty = best. (6,942.0 hours played says a lot.) 2022 Review Update: The game is definitely worth the money. Up to a certain point, you can play the game just about any way you want. Once you start getting into the end game, you can start to feel the squeeze. You need certain combinations of heros, defenses, etc. to make the most of all the bonus effects. Like Monk Tower Boost, you may never use it or feel like it's not terribly useful, or Monk Auras, or EV tower buff beams. Once you get to a certain point, those are super useful for helping your build survive and/or do enough dmg. Also, unfortunately, the Apprentice towers are so much more overpowered than Squire towers. Squire towers are very rarely used. About the only thing they're used for nowadays are for the Spring Valley challenge map. Where they're not even really necessary. Summoner is a super great co-op partner to have and/or to get and use, because it doubles your available defenses as Minions have their own set of points to use. Highly recommend joining the Dungeon Defenders Runs and Giveaways Discord as well. It's a bit nutty and somewhat not-child friendly, but the help-chat channel is the best place to get help. Though, the wiki may be getting updated slowly and is still pretty useful for figuring out achievements. Which generally unlock more item space in your forge. 2021 Update: So, I guess that the last event and what not at the end of 2020 was the last official anything. Dungeon Defenders Runs and Giveaways Discord channel is the active community for Dungeon Defenders. It's where the community development team (The team that released all of "The Lost Quests".) hangs out. Plane has always been the most active, but also seems to be the only one still somewhat active. Still, lots of giveaways and stuff. It's also the best place to learn anything about the game. The game has updated so much, the only thing the wiki is really good for is what's required for all the achievements. This is a super awesome game! Highly recommend it, if you've never played. In the event that you've not played in a while. It's worth getting back into it! There's so much content that's been released, it's awesome. 2020 Update: So, they've released a new Modded branch of the game. Accessible via the Steam Beta feature. It seems interesting, but I would say it's a good addition for those that have already played Dungeon Defenders to death. xD I may eventually get around to playing it, but from the sound of it, it's pretty nice. It also has separate saves from your normal Dungeon Defenders, but it has a one time import from the Official Multiplayer Server version of Dungeon Defenders. So, likely best to finish DD, then move on to the new modded thing. The 2019 update was awesome. :-) Seriously, this game is a total blast from start to finish. There are some serious speed bumps along the way, but you can continually get better EQ (to a certain point). It's a great game. I had tons of fun at the very beginning with the slow enemies and intense battles (Which shortly become super easy for you, but still lots of other challenges.), to the hectic pace of Nightmare maps and End Game maps. Great thing about this game is that those "End Game" maps, have kept on getting pushed back. All the way to 2019, with the final community patch. You owe it to yourself to play this game with a friend, if you can find one that enjoys it as well. 2019 Update: I've yet to play the new update, but a new free community map was released in February of 2019. Complete with new added rewards and a rebalancing of the new Crystalline Dimension Bosses. Hopefully, they're actually doable now. First boss was easy enough, 2nd and 3rd, still haven't beaten on Nightmare Hardcore difficulty. Dungeon Defenders is in it's own right a classic RPG/FPS/Tower Defense game now. Games will be trying to live up to the awesomeness that is Dungeon Defenders for a long, long time. This game is only surpassed by Terraria. Possibly the best update for Terraria was the new Ethernian Crystal Event. :-) Stupendously awesome game + Stupendously awesome mini-game == 1000% Awesome. =============== Original Review: Very good Tower Defense game. :-) Fun by yourself, but best played with a Friend. ------------------------------------- Updated 4 year old review. ------------------------------------- The game is still just as awesome as when I reviewed it 4 years ago. The devs have switched their focus to making the new Dungeon Defenders 2 a good game, but there's even more content coming! There has already been one or two free community updates that have added 3 new maps. There's also another community update that's currently in beta testing. Should be out in January 2018! (Or close to it.) Dungeon Defenders is still well worth the money. It is a great cross between Fantasy RPG and Tower Defense. This is one of my favorite games of all time. You can start out in easy, medium, or hard mode. Any of those three should be doable at the start. Insane and Nightmare are meant for more established characters and are completely unplayable by a random starter character. There is a campaign mode that gives you some interesting story cut scenes. I would say they are pretty good quality. Maybe not stellar, but it really fits the style of the game. There are dozens of challenge maps in addition to the campaign maps, bonus campaign maps, Lost Eternia Shard pack, new (free community update) Lost Quests pack, and the (free community update) new release in probably Jan. 2018. Each character has their own set of towers and / or abilities. The barbarian is the only character that can't build any towers and has to join others in order to progress. The other characters could be your own characters as you can have one or multiple builders and swap between characters at will during wave breaks. Be warned that the EV and Huntress towers / traps can't protect against flyers. You don't encounter them in the first couple of maps, but flyers are introduced fairly quickly. Really, it's quite fun to play any of the characters, but I've recently been having a blast with the Jester. The Jester is quicker than most (quickest?), has 2 base towers and random present towers that can be one tower from any other character class. The presents are tiered and Can Spawn an Ogre. This can really screw you up when you're relatively new. So, be careful when placing the presents. Armor can be worn by any character, but has multiple tiers that require a certain level to use. Max character level is 100. Accessories can be worn by any character and have the same tier system as armor. Weapons are character class specific and have the same tier system. Some classes can use multiple types of weapons. If memory serves, EV uses Huntress and Apprentice weapons. Jester can use Any Weapon, which is pretty cool. Though, the Jester doesn't have any of the special combat skills that the other classes have. "Pets" can be used by any class, but again have the same tier system as all the rest of items / equipment. There are attack, Defense, Combat, Healing, and "builder" pets. They all have thier uses and are quite fun to play with. Bosses -- Some Bosses will be perferred to have at least one hero boost monk in the party. Hero boost on a monk, makes everyone uber awesome. Like 2 to 4x awesome. xD Though, a Monk isn't necessary as the DPS hero, it's a good choice to make as a DPS hero. There is so much in this game, strategy, action and story. You can focus on strategy, because well this is a Tower Defense game, but you aren't forced to. You can treat it like a casual hack and slash, just don't get in the way of people building. They will love you, if you help plug holes in their defense, tank a boss, etc. The game can be as hard or as easy as you want. (With a few exceptions, easy isn't easy in some cases, but those are much newer maps.)