Defender

"A great, if not short, third-person shooter."

When I first heard that a Defender remake was coming out, I was skeptical. Usually I'm not too big a fan of 3D remakes of old 2D games. I was very pleased with house this turned out, to say the least.

Graphics: I for one was very pleased with how the game looked. Some people might not think it's flashy enough, or smooth enough or whatnot, but I liked it. The ships were rather detailed, and so were the ''bugs''. The colonists weren't very flashy, but hey, they didn't need to be, in my opinion. One of the things I liked best is that when you get to full speed in your fastest ship, you can see the air ''tearing'' at the tips of the wings. Very nice indeed.

Challenge: The first few levels and scattered later levels are really easy, but the first ones are there to, obviously, teach you how to play the game. A simple ''rescue the colonists'' to ''Kill the bugs''. Those are really easy. Once they introduce the ''widows'' though, things get much harder. In some levels, your commanding officer will expect you to do everything at once. Rescue colonists, kill the bugs, protect your base, and defend dropships. Those missions can be a pain sometimes.

Gameplay: I found the controls to be easy to get the hang of. The first time you play, it may take a bit for you to figure out that pressing the accelerator down all the way won't make you go anywhere. After the first few hitches though, the controls will be down and memorized. No problems here.

Sound: Decent voice acting, a different sound for every, or at least most, weapons, and of course, chittering green and orange monsters. Every now and then, you'll hear your CO barking orders, or your computer tell you that you're critically damaged. Flying into the fray of monsters will greet you with the chitter of bugs. Some of the larger monsters will growl or whatnot at you. The music was okay. It was usually a low techno beat of some sort. I don't listen to that kind of music, but it didn't bother me at all. Actually, I kinda liked it. One level where you are fighting on the moon, it actually did a techno remix of the ''moon landing'' music, or whatever you want to call it.

Re-playability: By the time you end up beating the game, you'll want to go back through the game for the sheer prospect of rocking those levels that gave you trouble with your now suped-up ships. Also it will allow you to finally max out whatever ships you never got around to using, just for us completists. I guess it could get old though, after running through the game a few times.

Buy or Rent: Rent it first and see if you like the way it is. Always do that with a game. I suggest buying it though. A solid 3D ''space'' shooter.

Overall: All in all, I loved this game. Two particular levels got me frustrated enough to stop playing it for a month or two...but then I came back and utterly rocked them. Anyhow, it's a great game, and I would not miss an opportunity to play it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/03