Immortal Defense is a game I was fully prepared to dislike. It's a tower defense game, something you can tell without knowing anything about it because tower defense games are EVERYWHERE these days and it seems that most of the time they have the words "tower" or "defense" in their title. The media for the game on its website didn't help, either. The screenshots show a very stylized type of graphics consisting mostly of bright colors and polygon shapes (like from an old Atari game) all on a black background. But beyond that simple look, the screenshots were almost entirely incomprehensible blurs of shape and color.

To say the least, I was skeptical.

Playing the game, though, was another matter entirely. This was a case where first impressions were about as wrong as they can be. Immortal Defense is a gripping variant of tower defense gaming and is really worth a look.

The game follows the story of a man who, to save his family and his world from destruction, gives his body up to become a being of pure energy. In this new form, he can traverse and control pathspace, a sort of hyperspace realm that ships wishing to travel the vast distances through space must travel though. Inside pathspace, he is able to assault the waves of enemy ships that are coursing towards his homeworld.

Bonus points for working the reason why enemies all travel along a neatly defined path (pathspace) aside, the storyline in Immortal Defense is really a pretty impressive piece of work. There are 96 levels, broken across six campaigns, and each level advances the epic tale of your role as a pathspace defender. The storyline covers the ground of standard sci-fi, but starts to bring into deeper themes about the true effects of one's actions and what it really means to be an immortal being, freed from the physical body. I found myself playing as much for the challenge of the game as I was for the bits of story the game metes out as you advance.

The music for the game heightens the sort philosophical and esoteric mood of the game as well, with some really eclectic track choices, which always seemed to me to highlight and enhance the mood of the game, rather than play alongside it.

As this is a tower defense game, it works in basic principle like all other tower defense games. Monsters originate from Point A and move steadily to Point B. The gamer places "towers" or attack points in strategic points along the path the monsters travel which will attack the creatures. Using "money", the towers can be upgraded to increase effectiveness. The level ends when too many monsters have passed safely past the end point for the level.

Immortal Defense follows this formula pretty much to the tee, so the real variety, as with most of these titles, lies in the behaviors of the towers you can place down. In Immortal Defense, the idea is that the towers you place down are not towers, but elements of your willpower. They are parts of your psyche that control what happens in pathspace. There is the Fear point, which slows enemies. The Courage point, which blasts through enemies. The Ortho point, which only fires at right angles from itself. The Cut point creates mines that block the path of enemies and so on. There are 13 in total and the difference in behaviors and interaction between those behaviors is critical in the game. While the types of points you can use in the game are interesting, the game wouldn't be very interesting if the paths themselves were boring, but in Immortal Defense they are anything but.

The level paths are always intricate and change with surprising variety across levels. They start out simple, but are quickly convoluted, requiring focus for precise placement on the field. In later levels elements of the level will obstruct what you can place where and where your bullets will be effective and later still the path itself will develop behaviors, delegating when enemies can move and how fast they can do so.

All together, Immortal Defense is a fun, interesting tower defense game that is made that much more memorable by a storyline with surprising depth. I was very pleasantly surprised by this game.

Graphics:
The graphics are an iffy spot in the game. They are very bare, which should allow the game to run on a variety of machines, but the nature of the hollow polygon shapes can make the action exceptionally hard to follow at times. As each level ends, the colors and actions begin to blur the scene; a cool effect until you realize how hard it can make it to see what's happening. It's a very stylized look and feel, but is also likely to turn some off to the game.

Sound:
The music was more enjoyable for me in Immortal Defense that I expect. It's a quirky soundtrack, but it always seems to enhance the game experience, whereas typically music in games seems to just be something playing along with it.

Gameplay:
Immortal Defense is at once very easy and very difficult to control. Placing defense points along the path is simplicity itself. Click and hold to create and upgrade points. The mouse itself fires at enemy units, and right clicking can charge your attack for various effects. However, the graphics can obscure the gameplay a bit, making it hard to see what's happening and what is affecting what. It didn't stop me from playing through the game, but I was aware of it the entire time.

Concept:
Tower defense games are very typical these days. Free versions are all over the net. Immortal Defense steps apart from the crowd with a game that is thoughtfully tied in in every way to its storyline. The game has a theme and it sticks to it admirably.

Value:
At $23, Immortal Defense is not expensive, per se. However, the look of the game will lead many to think that it is. For a lot of gamers simple graphics equal lower price. It's not fair, but that's the way it goes. However, Immortal Defense is a rich game that will take hours to complete and the developers are planning added features like an editor and a medals system, which will be free to game-owners.

Overall:
I really liked this little gem. It's long and involved and you really start to feel like you're achieving some impressive feats as you get to master the point defenses. Check it out.