Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin by developer Level Up Labs, LLC and publisher Armor Games Studios—PC Review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimate reading time: 4 minutes
Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin is a really solid if unspectacular tower defense title, that plays it safe by not really taking a lot of chances, and seldom strays from the original game’s formula. By and large, given how great the original game was in its time, that might seem like the smart play. That being said, I have to admit that I wanted just a bit something more after all of these years since the original. Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin was still a good deal of fun, but it lacks the spark of the original.
When it came out over a decade ago, there was something fresh and addicting to Defender’s Quest: Valley of the Forgotten. The presentation was simple enough, but there was some quality RPG depth to how characters gained experience and you tweaked their abilities to your liking. There was a fun D&D-like fantasy vibe to the story as well, which was quite trope-heavy, but still enjoyable. I have picked the original up on multiple formats over the years, and you can see exactly why in my original review on PC back in 2014.
For those unfamiliar with the tower defense genre, the basics are pretty simple. You have streams of enemies that funnel onto the map from one or more points of entry. Over the span of stages, they tend to take on different attributes such as more hit points or armor, but faster or slower, some attack back and so on. They march towards a destination and if too many of them get through, they destroy that destination and the stage ends. What you do to fend them off is play a variety of different characters along the way that attempt to kill the attackers as you try to figure out the best combinations of characters along the best paths. It’s an addicting, strategic genre that I’ve greatly enjoyed over the last decade or so.
Much of this basic framework is alive and well, with some DNA shared by both titles. The gained experience, the ability to level up and pump points into ability upgrades, the different classes actually feel unique from one another – all good things that kind of drizzle some RPG elements onto what is a fundamentally sound tower defense game. There are some other fun things that give the characters a bit more of an RPG feel besides their levels and upgrades, as you can buy and equip more powerful items on them as well.
At first, things started simply enough in Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin. While the visuals and storyline were different, the gameplay was quite similar. Almost too similar to the original, really. The more sci-fi-y spin on things didn’t appeal to me as much as the more fantasy-based nature of the first. In fact, there’s really nothing story-wise to connect these two titles, and I admit I had a harder time getting invested in the storyline and characters this time around. But essentially, the characters played out very much like the original game.
Thankfully, things improved when a second crew was introduced that had characters with more unique attributes. In particular was an overlarge and powerful character who takes up more spaces than the rest of the cast, and a character who teleports between two anchor locations. These wrinkles were much appreciated and gave Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin an injection of originality it had been lacking up to that point. Additionally, since two ships and crews were involved, there were times where Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin mixed things up further by having you defend two units instead of one.
In terms of presentation, despite roughly ten years between the games, not much has advanced on that front. Sound and music are fine, and the same simplistic art style – mostly shown in still images – do a good enough job of representing the characters and story. It’s a very different art style from the first; I’m not sure if I like it more or less to be honest. It’s just different. It’s worth noting that the maps and characters on the map look better than the original game, and aside from a couple of pre-release day crashes that hadn’t happened to me since, stability has been solid from a technical standpoint as well.
While the content in Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin is pretty good, I just struggled to engage with it quite as much as its predecessor. The story and characters weren’t as interesting to me personally, and I think there was opportunity to take more chances with the gameplay mechanics. That being said, most of those innovations taken were good ones, even if I had been left wanting to see a few more. It’s worth noting that it seems faster and easier to get through Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin than the original. Maybe it’s just way I approached it this time, maybe it’s because the two games are so similar that I had a pretty good idea how to approach it, but it sure seemed like I cruised through the sequel here a good deal faster.
Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin is a solid entry into the
tower defense genre, and by and large I expect fans of the genre or the original
game will find enough here to enjoy. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that
with a decade having passed since the last one, there could have been ‘more’
from Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin. More content, more unique classes, or
even more of a tie to the original game’s characters and story. Still, the
gameplay loop is a satisfying one, as is leveling up characters and putting
points into your preferred skills. Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin might not
stand out as much from the crowd as its predecessor did, but this latest
iteration holds its own.
Score: 7 / 10
