Will this retro arcade remake inspire a new generation to save up their quarters, or would gamers be better off just sticking to the original?
It takes a game with a great concept and execution to defy the odds and truly prove itself stronger than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, Defender, if anything, proves to go in the opposite direction. Despite some fine production values coming from its pretty graphics, retro yet generally solid sound, and certainly its heritage, the new Defender utterly fails to excite.
To be fair, let’s start with the elements of the game that work. First, graphically, the game really does carry a strong look with it. Granted, enemies and structures can tend to look a bit angular but they still work well, moving fluidly and without any noticeable hitches. Now, realistically, this isn’t a game that will win awards for its graphics, but in general the look of the game is a good deal stronger than some of the other pieces deserved.
Moving on to sound, we have another area where the game got better than it deserved. In between missions, there is a good deal of voice in the short briefings that are all that could pass as a story, and the voice work is also pretty decent when it is peppered into the game itself. In a nice touch, there are also some sounds included from the original game, which do help to bridge the gap a little more between past and present.
When it comes to control, while the game is responsive, it is hard to say it is without flaws. Probably the best feature of the game’s control is in the area of responsiveness. Once you’ve become accustomed to the controls, you’ll be able to use the C-Stick to perform flips and rolls like a pro. Of course, the fact that for the most part such maneuvers often seem to be more for show than their effectiveness should be noted. One point of interest for some is that it is impossible to crash your ship into the ground. Granted, casual gamers probably would prefer the arcade-like feel this gives the game, but this decision will probably make more hardcore fans reconsider whether it gives them the challenge they’re looking for.
Now that the preliminaries have been gone through, we can get to the core of why the game doesn’t work very well: It isn’t compelling, and at times it doesn’t work. The worst offense that the game commits is that missions can flake out on you through some combination of events. One minute you’re working toward eliminating the enemy threat and completing your goals, the next you’ll find yourself flying through a deserted landscape with no way to end the mission short of a reset. This doesn’t happen often, but it did occur more than once during the short span of time it took to complete the game, so it wasn’t a total fluke. Coming in at a close second in terms of gameplay flaws is that the game is horribly repetitive. It may be a remake of sorts, so some may find this excusable. Mix in a little more than a handful of objective types, throw in a few new ships and weapons upgrades as you move along, keep throwing in more and slightly tougher/smarter enemies, and repeat ad nauseam. Sure, for the most part, that keeps it true to its roots, but still… if you’re making a modern game it would be a good idea to raise the bar just a little bit.
Now, true, the space shooter genre doesn’t tend to be terribly varied in general when it comes to overall gameplay. There have been examples, though, of games in the past that have found ways to still keep the game compelling. The most notable of these would be any of the games from the Wing Commander series. What made those games work while this one generally suffers, though they essentially share very similar gameplay, all comes down to the story. With Wing Commander and some other games, you were given something in between missions aside from some generic and tired, “You’re pretty good after all kid,” fare. You were in a world populated by people you ended up being interested in, so escort missions and objectives seemed to be a bit more compelling. Being told to protect a ship or rescue some people works a little better when it isn’t an entirely sterile experience. Adding a stab at this could have helped Defender at least a little bit. It could have certainly made the game seem less woefully without any purpose other than just advancing to the next all-too-similar mission with a slightly different ship or a modestly improved weapon.
In the end, Defender isn’t entirely without merit but it is a game that keeps itself from being easy to recommend for anything more than a rental, if even that. Even fans of the original, unless they really want to go back to the one-dimensional “shoot things and repeat play” of the original, will probably find it hard to be compelled to play through the game with enthusiasm. Defender, in the end, just comes off as a reasonably well-made game that desperately needs a soul.