The game gets difficult quickly, providing much-needed checkpoints you can restart from if you lose all your power cores. The checkpoints are a nice option, but you often make strategic mistakes so early in the level that it is easier to start over from scratch. The set tower placement stations are a bit sparse at the start of the game, but quickly make up much more of the level than you can possibly fill, providing you with plenty of options on how to maneuver a level. The game has nice art design, with the game board retaining a sturdy industrial look throughout. The level backdrops change frequently, providing lush jungles and dusty desserts to play through to change things up. The towers and weapon effects look fantastic in the closest viewing angle, as do the nicely designed mech-inspired aliens, moving as if devilish toys marching along. Hitting 'B' over an enemy provides a small data card on them in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, revealing their strengths and weaknesses in addition to their current health.
The display is very clean and organized, with the ability to switch the tower range illumination and flying enemy paths on or off quickly. The recon bar at the top of the screen details the upcoming wave with color-coded icons, exposing the type and strength of each oncoming group. iPhone gamers are used to the speed and accuracy your fingers can provide on a touch screen, but the controls actually work quite well here. The left stick controls the on-screen cursor, and it is always easy to see which of the empty tower pods you are about to build on, or which tower you are selecting to upgrade. Either trigger or bumper fast-forwards the action, which is a definite plus for genre veterans on the early stages. The camera follows along well, with the ability to zoom in and out of the level three times with the right stick. The one slight issue with the camera is the inability to spin the camera angle around the map. It looks gorgeous, and you will be disappointed that you cannot see your tower layout from additional angles.
Still, the fixed forty-five degree angle works fine, and the three different zoom degrees help deliver a nice visual package. The great voice work is matched by a fantasy sci-fi blend that feels like the scores of The Terminator and a space opera had a baby. The two campaign modes may look shallow at first glance, with a twenty level 'Awakening' main story and four level 'Borderlands' unlockable expansion. Each level you defeat unlocks 'story challenge' mode for the map, providing a tougher set of enemies to clear. Most levels also unlock a several challenge modes, such as defeating the map with a set number of towers or no upgrades. The main campaign is worth the price of admission on its own, and there is more than enough here to keep you coming back to the game for weeks before seeing it all. Defense Grid: The Awakening is not overly original within the tower defense genre, but does everything so exceedingly well in an anemic XBLA genre that it is impossible to resist.
