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Dungeon Defenders (DD1) is a hybrid cooperative multiplayer video game that combines aspects from both the action role-playing game and tower defense genres.

Players can choose from many hero classes, each with their own defenses and combat attributes, as they defend Eternia Crystals from hordes of goblins, orcs, dark elves and other creatures. Besides building static defenses, players can fight with a massive arsenal of weapons and pets.

Synopsis

See Main Article: The Story

Long Ago, Etheria was once a land of living legends… Throughout the ages, brave warriors across the realm stood together against the forces of evil, led by immortal beings known as the Old Ones… After a titanic struggle, these champions locked away the power of the Old Ones, inside Eternia Crystals.

These legendary heroes have recently left their younger kin in charge of the common castle chores… Bored with their dreary duties, the inexperienced pupils decide to play… And accidentally unleash an ancient force that has long been dormant!

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Gameplay

In Dungeon Defenders, the player controls a character in 3D space to build defenses/towers to defend one or more Eternia Crystals against waves of enemies. They can also fight the enemy directly on-foot. If the enemy destroys any core, it is game over.

There are 4-12 "hero" classes to choose from, each with their own set of defenses (except for the Barbarian outside of DD1 Redux) and combat attributes. The player can create up to 40 of any number of characters of any class and switch between them before/after a wave. Whoever they use in combat gains experience points and eventually levels-up. A plethora of loot consisting of weapons, armor, pets and accessories can be equipped to heroes and upgraded. The amount of EXP and overall quality of items earned depends on the mission, difficulty level and game modes selected.

Up to four (4) players (six (6) for certain maps) can play together locally or online. The "Ranked" online mode is the pinnacle of Dungeon Defenders; every game mode is available and many of the limited-time events are only playable online. Ranked data is stored on TrendyNet servers and is required to unlock Steam achievements, while "Open" data is stored on the user's computer and offers access to downloadable mods from the Steam Workshop. The former data can be exported to the latter, but not the other way around.

Heroes

DD1 first launched with four original heroes: the Apprentice, Squire, Huntress and Monk. Nine additional heroes were later added to the game as DLC: the Barbarian, Series EV, Summoner, Jester and Hermit, and the cousins or gender counterparts to the originals: Adept, Countess, Ranger and Initiate.

Some heroes perform better at certain jobs/roles than others. The Squire and Countess are great at tanking, while the Apprentice and Adept excel as tower builders.

Release

Initially developed as Dungeon Defenders: First Wave for mobile devices, DD1 was released on October 18, 2011 for PlayStation 3. Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 versions followed the next day, through Steam and the Xbox Live Arcade respectively. Mac OS and Linux ports were released in 2012.

Numerous paid downloadable content packs for Dungeon Defenders were released from November 2012 through 2013. A community development team (CDT) later worked with Trendy Entertainment (now Chromatic Games) to further update the PC version, adding content free-of-charge, re-balancing the game, etc. The final community-developed update and the last update to (Vanilla) DD1 overall was released in November 2019.

Reception

Dungeon Defenders Reception
Aggregator PC PS3 X360
GameRankings 83.15% 80.85% 78.40%
Metacritic 81/100 80/100 77/100
Publication PC PS3 X360
Gamespot 6.5/10
GameSpy 4/5
GamesRadar 7/10 7/10 7/10
IGN 8.5/10 8.5/10 8.5/10
Official Xbox Magazine 9/10
TeamXbox 6.5/10

Upon its initial release, Dungeon Defenders received favorable reviews from critics.

Sales

By February 6, 2012, the game sold over one million copies between Steam, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

Legacy

Dungeon Defenders was re-released in July 2014 with updated content as Dungeon Defenders Eternity. However, its severely negative reception led Trendy to abandon and stop selling the game permanently. Maps and enemies from Eternity were later ported to the PC version of DD1 by the Community Development Team.

A proper sequel titled: Dungeon Defenders II, was released in June 2017, followed by Dungeon Defenders: Awakened in May 2020.

Though Dungeon Defenders 1 will no longer receive 'official' updates, former CDT members "IHDC" and "Mischief" released an expansive conversion mod for the PC game via Steam on August 3, 2020: Dungeon Defenders Redux. Chromatic Games later gave it official Steam branch support in December. Redux is now accessible to Microsoft Windows users under the "Betas" tab in DD1's properties; no access code is required. MacOS and Linux versions might be possible in the future, according to IHDC.

Gallery

References

One Million: https://web.archive.org/web/20121112143412/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/06/dungeon-defenders-hits-a-million-paid-downloads/

DD Eternity: https://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=302270&enddate=1420099200&appgroupname=Dungeon+Defenders+Eternity

Final (Vanilla) Update: https://steamcommunity.com/app/65800/allnews/

DD1 Redux: https://forums.dungeondefenders.com/forums/topic/168465-totalconversion-dd1-redux/

External Links

Article on Wikipedia

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