dooDlefense Review

A bit more hands-on than most tower defense games, dooDlefense doesn’t entirely work but there’s a nice idea in there amongst some misfiring.

Each level has you fighting against waves of attacks, just like in any regular tower defense game. The difference here is that you can shoot at them rather than simply place units and watch the game do the rest. You have some troops already placed as a kind of last stand type of defense. They can’t fire projectiles but they can give everything their best shot if the enemies get near enough. You need to place archers to back them up, then tap on the enemies to fire arrows at them.

Other projectiles will soon unlock, like cannonballs that enable you to take out large areas of foes at once. There are also upgrade paths to pursue, both during a game and afterwards, thanks to a talents system. Campfires can also be placed to restore your power at regular points.

Strategy plays an important role too, as such power is limited and stronger attacks use more power. Soon you find yourself needing to temporarily rest units, so that you can focus your power on what you need at that given moment. That’s around when dooDlefense turns much trickier.

It’s still quite fun but it does highlight a major issue: dooDlefense is a little unbalanced. It requires you to follow reasonably defined paths to really succeed. If you deviate, you’ve got little chance of winning. A three star system often helps you figure out what the game wants you to do but there’s a certain amount of trial and error here, which doesn’t help in making dooDlefense more exciting. A related issue is that you need to use the gold you’ve earned in-game to play a new stage and multiple failed attempts soon uses everything up, leaving you to return to earlier completed stages to grind things out.

Stick with dooDlefense and it’s a fairly enjoyable take on a familiar genre, but it does have its issues. Being rough around the edges and in need of some tweaks means it probably won’t be one of your favorites, but that won’t stop you from enjoying it when everything works out.