Defender

"Saving the Human Race...one world at a time."

Way back in the early days of the arcade gaming scene, there was a game that set all of the precedence of what was to be an awesome action game. With the score of action games that we have now that have come a long way from the days of the original Defender, we have a new entry into the scene that gives us just a little more. Including massive stages of alien blasting action as well as some excellent speed and heavy duty weapons, what more could you want from a high-flying game? Fans of the original Defender from twenty years ago have plenty of things to rejoice for, but those in the gaming community who have played the game extensively might find little to be excited about.

The Story

The story that you find in Defender is essentially the same type of plot that you would find in any good science fiction movie with the amount of aliens and world domination plans. You pilot a Defender ship for Human Race after the hostile take over of the planet Earth by the Manti, a race of oversized bugs that are both vicious and unrelenting. The Earth Force is dedicated to the eradication of these oversized bugs, and it is up to you and your team of pilots to waste any signs of the bug menace. For the most part, you’re playing a game that has the same general plot line of a recent movie called Starship Troopers and you’ll find references to it in more portions of the game than you may realize.

The Game Play

The game play itself is pretty self-explanatory in which you take control of one of six different ships, each with its own pros and cons through several worlds and branching missions. You’ll be able to collect money so that you can buy newer upgrades for your ships and the ships that you receive during your missions will reflect the amount of skill that you use within the missions. The missions themselves range from simple seek and destroy to escort and rescue missions with the difficulty on them all ranging from easy to extremely difficult in a simple selection. You’ll also find that the enemies tend to swarm and there is a pattern to go along with the madness that you’ll have to discover in order to be successful.

As you play through the stages, there are colonists that litter some of the battlegrounds and it is your duty to save them from the Manti when they are captured. If you happen to wait too long to rescue them, then you’ll have to deal with the mutation that takes place, resulting in a much more difficult enemy. The enemies themselves are diverse and require a certain amount of skill and thought to defeat, so be prepared to have some frustrating times in the later stages. Your score is dependant on the rescue of these colonists and you might want to play attention to them as much as possible. Another reward to saving the colonists is the introduction of new and more powerful weapons and ships, both of which are essential for the later missions.

The weapons that you find are general upgrades and the ships that you acquire are essential to the completion of some missions. You might find that the more speedy ships are good for rescuing, while the slower, more powerful ships are good for escorting and seek and destroy. This is not to say that you’re all alone in your quest, because another part of the game play in some stages is the tactful deploy of cannons and tanks, which will really change the tide of the game play in certain areas. Mission goals and otherwise are easily located on your radar screen, so there shouldn’t be a problem in getting lost in the huge and expansive environments.

Control is something of an issue though and it might take a little time to get used to all of the buttons on the interface to really get a handle on the action. You have to use the analog sticks in conjunction with one another to not only move your ship, but also change the direction and the pitch of the ship. You’ll see that the game takes on a more player intensive handling when you have to us the shoulder buttons to move the ship forward or back and side to side in a strafe. Then you have the facial buttons which all control another function of the ship such as weapons and targeting lock. The key to mastering the ship controls is not to think too hard about what you have to do, but simply remember where everything is and let it flow naturally.

The Visuals

Visually, this upgraded version of Defender has plenty going for it in the way that the worlds and the ships as well as the enemies are all designed. Huge and expansive worlds give way to some pretty intense battles over rocky terrains and you’ll find that the action on the ground at times is just as intense as the action in the air. However, you might also find that the only real difference between the way the ships look is the way that the rockets are lined up in the back and the enemies have a tendency to look alike until you get really close to them. Purists to the shooter genre might have a problem with it, but fans of the original Defender will more than likely go nuts when they watch the different cut-scenes that are sparely located throughout the highlight the action.

The Audio

The audio in Defender is top notch and includes some game music done by some influential alternative groups such as KMFDM. You’ll find that the rock tracks coupled with the new wave beats are not only impressive, but keep the action going to the maximum. Each stages gives way to something that fits the overall theme of the world and the sound effects that you have littered throughout the game really give it a science fiction feel. The computer tells you where to go at certain points and the barking orders of your commander in the mission briefing gives it that Starship Troopers feel that most science fiction fans will really enjoy. When you put all of this together, you have a sound track that makes for a wonderful addition to the Defender line.

The Verdict

Gamers will either love this game or not care to play it at all simply based on the difficulty that you find throughout all of the stages. From start to finish, the branching missions and even the way that you tackle them is dependant on your style of playing in both stealth and in straightforward action. Fans of the original Defender will probably find this game to be something well worth getting based on the fact that it is a high upgrade over the original game and is still full of action. Shooter genre fans will find things to nitpick about here, mainly in the way that the game is unfixed in the range of motion and otherwise, but action fans will find the free-roaming environments to be refreshing and rather fun to play through. Either way you look at it, Defender is a great idea for a gift, a rental or a purchase, but nothing extremely special that will make die-hard gamers simply flock to buy this title.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/03, Updated 01/01/03