Defense Grid 2

I've played Defense Grid 1 for at least 10 years and it's my favorite game of all time.
Defense Grid 2 is PHENOMENAL. I wish I had known about it earlier.

I miss you defence grid please come back

Follow co-op suckers for more co-op games!
Let me start right off by saying this sequel does not live up to the first game. So let's check out the negatives:
- It doesn't look any prettier to me. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it looks more dated to me but that's a subjective opinion.
- The view seem to be closer to the towers, although I speak from memory so that might be wrong. I just feel like we had a better overview of the battlefield in DG1.
- The UI is bad. Like, Skyrim levels of bad. This was made with controllers in mind and what do you know, it's unpractical for both controllers and kb+m.
- Similarily, the online co-op is quite counter-intuitive. After a match end, both players have to select "play again" to be put back to the lobby. If you or your partners exit you'll be automatically queued with some random dude, forcing you to cancel everything or quit and restart. Now in local, that's obviously not an issue, but the play modes are limited and since you obviously share the same screen, you'll have to fight the camera with your friend, forcing them to move their cursor in the direction you need to go to.
- They monetized the Steam Workshop. You literally can't use any user-made maps unless they are first whitelisted, and you pay about 1$ per map.
- The devs have completely deserted the game. No updates are coming.
So what exactly are the positives, you may ask?
+ Despite the kick in the nuts it is to get it working, the game IS co-op. You can play the story, against each other, or collaborate while racing for maximum points.
+ Despite the fact Defense Grid 1 had way more content, Defense Grid 2 content and custom made rules are nothing to scoff at. Said custom rules are enough to outweight anything DG1 has to offer (not saying it does, but that makes it a strong contender). Having the choice between sharing the same pool of cash, or rather splitting it, or even doing some PVP (enemies you kill respawn in your friend's zone) is just great.
+ The towers are all pretty balanced, allowing one to make their own strategy based on their preferences.
+ The item drops are fantastic. They range from score boost, to more AoE, slowing enemy movement and so on. They're basically mods you can add to your towers.
So yeah, all in all and despite quite a few negative points, Defense Grid 2 is most definitely a good game and I can recommend it without an ounce of hesitation. That being said, I just wish it was better. Because after the fantastic first game, you'd obviously expect more. Not less.

DG2 is better than DG1
1. More maps to play when free maps included
2. Much difficult and challenging to get Gold medal in comptetive-elite missons
and DG2 has over 4000 leaderboards on steam version while DG1 has 321 leaderboards.
It is actually & practically impossible to get All gold medals in all missions.
At present nobody defeated all story-competitive-elite missions on PC & XBOX.
3. Juggling maps and non-Juggling maps are balanced
(DG1 has much more Juggling maps share.)
I still have over 25 #1 leaderbords in DG1. But frankly speeking, Juggling is a dull & stupid job.
4. Much less cheaters in leaderboards.

I can go back to it years later and it is just a much fun.. Not just years.. but there are so many options that a single stage can be made into a challenge.

I am not impressed with this sequel. Still, I can recommend it because even though it doesn't match DG1's level, with how good DG1 was even a lesser version of it is good. The game is good enough to satisfy any cravings for more DG you might have after beating DG1 and all its DLC. They stuck with DG1's formula for the most part so can't go wrong there. Some new innovations are good, some not so.
But by far the worst thing has to be the audio; this game turns into a white noise simulator real fast. While this is to be expected considering the amount of action going on, I don't remember this being a thing in DG1. There's also issues with some sounds just not playing because of there being so many already. Plenty'a time I zoomed in on a turret point blank and still couldn't hear it. Even if there isn't chaos going on, the sound of turrets just isn't impressive. Cannons don't sound like they pack a punch, and many of the sounds are very wooshy and not really pleasant. The yellow tesla tower sounds super satisfying, but then the red one is just poofy.
The scoring system leaves me conflicted. On one hand DG1's system had a lot of cheeseable things to it that are not really in the spirit of the game I'd say, but it did make for some fun metagaming. DG2's resource system is just bland. The scoring is also unclear how it works. There's a breakdown at the end but it's not very helpful. Definitely prefer DG1 here, but I understand why they made the change.
Coop mode is cool! Been a while since I tried it though, so no further comment. But the fact that it exists is great and from what I remember it was well done too. Big kudos.
I'm going to bed now. Overall: Yes, I can recommend DG2 if, and only if, you played DG1 and all its DLC and are craving for more. If not, I would recommend DG1 instead, followed by its DLC. Only exception to skipping it and going straight to DG2 that I can think of is for the coop experience with a friend.
Disclaimer: Steam asks me to check a box if I received this product for free. I don't fucking know man, this game has been in my library for a decade. I'm going to tick it just to be on the safe side.

GREAT game! It's several years old now, but I broke it out again a couple weeks back and really am enjoying it all over again. Best Tower Defense game I've ever seen.