By Kimari Rennis

Adventurers! Role-players! Even those who can resist the urge to collect loot! You can come together as knights, wizards, and dark lords in the free to play 3D tower defense game, Dungeon Defenders 2. Trendy Entertainment has released a new game to add to its the small and growing Dungeon Defenders franchise. This time, the game has a more comfortable third person view — along with a softer look, new color choice and character design. It all makes the game visually very pleasing. But keep your eyes peeled for enemies slipping through your defenses while you utilize your powerful, unique abilities. Your enemies use both brains and brawn to give you a quick defeat.

In Dungeon Defenders 2 your job is to protect the Eternia Crystals from dark forces commanded by the Harbinger. This nasty enemy seeks great power from the destruction of these crystals. If the Eternia crystals break, the Harbinger will release the menacing Dark Ones Army imprisoned within the shiny shards to do his bidding. The campaign can be simply described as peaceful with minor diversions until disaster finally strikes.

I’m sure that many veterans and new players in the Dungeon Defenders scene are dying for more stories or at least a continuation. As of now, players are left with a cliffhanger while the Harbinger, a dark lord, slips away from our grasp as ancient statues glow in the far distance. What’s more to come? All eyes are on Trendy Entertainment because their creation is a gold mine. If you’re the buying extra stuff kind of person, there is much more to do and accomplish away from the campaign.

Players unlock Chaos levels where enemies become harsher, obtain buffs that make them immune to certain abilities and damage, and even become tricked out with an armor to plow through enemy defenses once and for all. Chaos levels are meant to test mettle and your progress in-game. You’ll feel the sting of defeat as your objectives are destroyed and you’ll feel your pride return when you’re rewarded with powerful loot after a hard earned victory. But don’t get your hopes up: there are multiple levels of chaos ready to test and taunt you, driving you to get better and gain ascension levels until your defenses gain stats that you never thought were possible.

As addicting and entertaining as this widely multiplayer game is, there are various issues frequently encountered throughout gameplay, specifically in the PlayStation 4 scene. These issues may occur in other versions of the game as well. Fixes could greatly improve Dungeon Defenders 2 and aid the game on its road to popularity. Right off the bat, one of the biggest problems in this game is the audio. The sound effects from both the hordes of enemies and from your defenses overlap. They make a devastating explosion of noise when you encounter both together. It happens all the time. On the console versions of “The Dead Road” map in the campaign, the bubbling green acid lake is guaranteed to blow out your headset when you approach it — before you even start the build phase. Intended textures for some defenses don’t even show onscreen at times, especially on the Lavamancer hero. The Lavamancer’s Fissure of Embermount aura does not show its area of effect texture on the ground, which is a little disappointing for such a powerful hero.

I’d like to see more legendary equipment and specific weapons for characters other than the starting four. As the game is now, exclusive items earned are mainly for the Squire, Monk, Apprentice, and Huntress. For example, the guaranteed Legendary Weapon dropped from the Mother of all Wyverns boss is only focused on those starting four characters no matter whom you play. When I found this out during my session with the Abyss Lord, it made me think that all my effort fighting her again on hard was a waste.

Thankfully, Trendy Entertainment has been doing frequent maintenance on Dungeon Defenders 2 to get rid of issues similar to these, like increasing the server capacity and removing the “busy servers” error that restricted people from playing for hours until a place in the server opened.

Dungeon Defenders was built in a way which allows new players to easily enter and understand the lore of the story and history without playing the original; therefore, I was easily placed within the game without confusion.  I’ve spent countless hours, day in and day out playing. Horrible memories of the infamous Nimbus Reach campaign level still haunt me to this day. I’ve never seen so many screens of defeat flash before my eyes repeatedly as waves of pesky Kobolds came in and demolished my defenses and shattered my Ancient Lens — just as they shattered my dreams. I deserved the Legendary Chest I eventually earned after 43 failed attempts. I dedicated a lot of time getting to max level and ascending 13 times. My next goals within Dungeon Defenders 2 is to ascend even higher, beat some Chaos Trials, and get my hands on the Terraria-themed weapons from the crossover.

With just a few changes, Dungeon Defenders 2 will become even more successful and addicting than it already is. For now we must go forth and defend, collect loot and desired gear, and earn our titles as the Defenders of Dragonfall – despite the issues.