Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten (DX edition)

Decent tower defense that I'm surprised i missed when it was newer. Unfortunately it crashes way too much for an unqualified recommendation. 3 hours in and probably 10 crashes to desktop already. 3/5 for that. 4.5/5 if not.

Defenders hold the line Heroes guard forgotten lands Waves break against walls

very good replay value. can be a bit tedtious but good

The party-as-towers idea works better than it has any right to, and the writing is genuinely funny in places while still telling a real story about Azra and the Pit. The grind is real though, especially late in New Game+, and I'd tell anyone starting out to just bump the XP slider up in the options instead of stubbornly slogging through like I did. It also crashed on me a couple of times, which stings on a longer level, and the visuals definitely show their age. Still, the amount of control you get over speed, targeting and skill trees makes it feel like the devs actually respected my time, and I'd recommend it to anyone even mildly curious about tower defense.

I didn't think the game was particularly good or bad. Steam doesn't allow neutral reviews, so I decided to not recommend the game because there wasn't really anything memorable or impactful about the game. I consider feeling indifferent about a game to be a negative thing. Nothing unique or different. I didn't care for the writing. I don't really care for custom-created NPCs in RPGs. Perhaps bland is the best word to describe my feelings about the game.

Addictive and challenging but fair throughout. I got this on sale and wasn't expecting much but it ended up being a blast. Highly recommended.