Defense Grid: The Awakening is a
tower defense video game developed by
Hidden Path Entertainment for
Windows and
Xbox Live Arcade on the
Xbox 360. The game was one of the titles promoted by
Microsoft during their
Game Developers Conference keynote speech on February 20, 2008.
The game was released for PC on December 8, 2008 and for Xbox 360 on September 2, 2009.
The Mac OS X version of
Defense Grid: The Awakening shipped from
Virtual Programming on July 7, 2010.
Players must defend military bases from waves of attacking aliens by positioning a range of tower-based weaponry. New levels provided as downloadable content have been developed in the two years since the game's initial release. All reviewers praised the game, with many noting that the quality of the game was high for a budget title.
From July 1 to July 16. 2013, Microsoft made the game available free to Xbox 360 Gold members. This giveaway was part of Microsoft's "Games With Gold" Program
Plot
The story is based on alien invasion of a planet that has a dormant defense grid.
As the player is re-activating the defense system with the assistance of a computer to control the machinery and with only limited resources, the aliens attempt to steal power cores. Power cores are "tiny floating orbs" that provide vital power to the defense grid.
Cores are carried by aliens, and when the aliens carrying them die, the cores are dropped, and will slowly float back to their central holder. Once all power cores have been taken from the level, the game is over. Only one power core needs to remain when the last wave of aliens are defeated to complete a level.
Defense Grid is set in the distant future. Most levels feature ancient ruins with defensive military bases built amongst the decaying structures. The game was originally planned to be set amongst an urban environment which has been ravaged by war but that was changed to something more original.
The main character in the game, which is called Fletcher, is a computer with human-like qualities that wants to protect his homeworld from destruction.
Gameplay
A grinder challenge on the Veil of Ice level with health indicators on.
The player must defend power cores, which are usually located at a power station, from the invading enemy using ten different tower types. Tower construction is limited to specific platforms.
Towers cannot be destroyed by the enemies.
Good tower placement is the key strategic object of the game.
Each tower has unique trade-offs that affect ideal placement, such as line-of-sight or ballistic trajectory fire; a large area of effect or damage over time; and minimum and maximum ranges.
The "insectoid" enemies arrive in waves and travel along elevated pathways which connect various structures found at the bases. Killing enemies earns resources, which can be used to build more towers and upgrade towers toward two stronger levels.
Depending on the tower type an upgrade will provide a more powerful attack, an increased rate of fire and increased range.
Tower strength is denoted by the colours green, yellow and red.
Towers may be sold (removed) if resources are needed or a player wants to alter pathways.
Resources earn interest with the rate increasing the more resources are obtained.
The tower defenses are supplemented by the use of an orbital
laser which completely destroys all aliens in its blast zone in one strike. The laser is not available in early missions and takes time to recharge. No resources are earned from enemies destroyed by the orbital laser.
During the game, the player battles fifteen types of enemies,
each with unique capabilities and strategies.
Some aliens are protected by shields which have to be destroyed first before the alien's
health will decrease. The aliens will always take the shortest route and some of the aliens fly, requiring towers with aerial weapons for defense. The invaders are able to carry between one and three power cores.
If an alien is killed while carrying a core, the orb will slowly float back to the power station.
While returning the power core can be grabbed by an alien which will then head for the exit without reaching the power station.
A ticker at the top of the screen advises players of the approaching alien wave's formation.
Players have the ability to speed up a game,
along with being able to see weapons' range and aerial aliens path, and can also revert to a previously, automatically saved checkpoint.
Defense Grid can be viewed at three different levels of zoom.
When a level is successfully completed a set of challenges using the same map become available. Players earn medals depending on how well they complete a level.
A
Steam leaderboard that provides a comparative ranking of player's game scores and other statistics is available.
Development
During development, which started in late 2007, the game was known as
Last Stand.
The development team were aiming to create a standard tower defense game but in 3D, downloadable and with high production values.
The game was created by Mark Terrano, the lead designer of
Age of Empires II, and uses the
Gamebryo engine, as used in
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,
Civilization IV, and
Fallout 3. Defense Grid also uses the
Scaleform GFx user interface engine. The lead designer for the game was Michael Austin.
Lex Story contributed heavily to the design of the 30 different towers which appear in the game.
In July 2012, a
Kickstarter project was created by Hidden Path Entertainment to help fund a sequel game titled
Defense Grid 2. In August 2012, the Kickstarter project failed to reach its ultimate funding goal of US$1,000,000 for
Defense Grid 2's development. However, the project did succeed in fully funding development of a new 8 level expansion to the original game which will be named
Defense Grid: Containment.
Hidden Path continues to talk to potential investors in an attempt to secure the funding to develop the aforementioned sequel.
Downloadable content
Defense Grid: Borderlands was the first set of new levels provided as
downloadable content.
Defense Grid: Resurgence was announced on 29 May 2010 by Hidden Path Entertainment. The downloadable content is made up of eight new maps, released in installments of two maps each week throughout June 2010. Each map includes a campaign mode and four challenge modes. The content is available for PC and Xbox 360.
In December 2011,
Defense Grid: You Monster was released for PC and Xbox 360. Featuring the
GLaDOS character from
Portal, the add-on pack offers a new story mode of eight levels and 35 challenges. In preparation for the release, Hidden Path updated the core game with user interface enhancements, new game modes and challenge missions.
In December 2012, Hidden Path released four free maps called the Community Levels DLC. These levels were selected from designs submitted by Kickstarter community members using the level visualizer tool given to all backers that pledged $20 or more. The DLC was originally released exclusively to Kickstarter backers in conjunction with the
Defense Grid: Containment beta. These levels were later made available to the public for free in exchange for registering to the Hidden Path newsletter.
In January 2013,
Defense Grid: Containment
was released for PC. It contained 8 maps and a story that bridged the gap between the original Awakening story line and the planned sequel
. Kickstarter backers who pledged $50 or more were allowed to test the Beta version and were granted pre-release access to the completed DLC.
Part 1 Link of game to download :
http://adf.ly/a7U6GSize of game to download :
59.65 MBPart 2 Link of game to download :
http://sh.st/qz978Size of game to download :
300 MBPart 3 Link of game to download :
http://sh.st/qz98KSize of game to download :
300 MB 
1. download all parts
2. extract it to deskop or any folder you like
3. click on setup and install game
4. game tested and works on win 7 any others operating system are not tested
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# ATI Radeon 9600 or newer (9600-9800, X300-X1950, HD 2400-HD 4870)
# NVIDIA GeForce 6100 or newer (6100-6800, 7100-7950, 8300-8800, 9600-9800, or GTX 216-280) |
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| | VGA: | DirectX 9.0c or higher, June 2008 version or later
Video Card: DirectX 9 video card with shader 3 support and 256MB VRAM such as the following:
ATI Radeon X700 or newer (X700-X1950, HD 2400-HD 4870)
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or newer (7600-7950, 8300-8800, 9600-9800, or GTX 216-280) |
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| DX: | DirectX 9.0c or higher |
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| | DX: | DirectX 9.0c or higher |
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