Which one is better? Defense Grid 1 or 2?

[JoeVonFo]

Hi there :)
I'm looking for a good tower defense, and i wanna buy eighter defense grid 1 or 2..
Which one do you think are the best, and why?
(i know the obvious answer would be the sequal, but sometimes the first one is just better :) )

[FatIgor]

2 looks better, 1 plays better. The levels on 1 needed more thought I think. Although a lot of my fondness for 1 is due to the DLC, so I hope for some good stuff when it comes to DLC in 2.

So, at the moment, with all the DLC available, go for 1. But if you get 2, I think you will still like it. I've got 66 hours on 2 with no DLC, and about 250 on 1 with all the DLC. Good value on both.
But still, I enjoyed 1 more.

[frengky.st]

Hard to answer. For those who play DG 1 before, some of them will said if DG 1 better. But for future plan my suggestion is get DG 2. The game still fresh and there will be a lot update on the future....

[Tig Ol' Bitties]

Played both. The original has the edge but you won't be disappointed in either.

[Razguul]

Definitely the first. They had 5 years to make the second and in my opinion it's not as good.

[Spray & Pray]

Get DG1 + all the DLC. All of them. Play it to death, then get DG2 when it's back on sale.

[Nono54Fr]

DG 1 without a doubt and it's look like I won't change my opinion for a while (so frustrated with DG 2 !!!)

[Mani2]

They are both good, but in my opinion DG1 is better, it feels more challenging and balanced and with the addons u get more fun for ur money. i got every achievement in DG1 and i will get it for DG2 too, but only 2 the lack of good TD-Games, i can also recommend Kingdom Rush and Fieldrunners 2 /which is better then Fieldrunners 1)

[123 Casual Player]

DG1.

The randomness and the wildly varying power level for tower items kinna ruin DG2 for me. Get level 5 slow or target strongest for one tower type? Why bother using anything else?

Yes competitive mode exist, but then the balance is so off that some maps aren't even beatable on competitive elite.

[Bourbon Kid]

I ws sceptical, too.
Let me say, DG2 is worth it´s full price and a must go on a sale.

But i have to say, DG1 needed much more planing on building your towers and alien routes.
DG2 maps are a bit simplier and the various towers are more usefull than in DG1.

Sure, DG2 is a "no-brainer" on easy/normal/hard and not worth a challenge but elite has some kick-ass. I don´t know about the challenges right now but I´ll face them.

Don´t be irritaded by the low number of hours I play bcs I play many times offline while traveling to work.

[PlatinumDalek]

First I want to say I absolutely loved part 1 it opened up the whole world of tower defense to me.
Also I still would recommend part 1.

Now:
1) I disagree how multiple people above said that part one was more balanced. In my opinion its lack of balance was its biggest flaw.
a) The only tower you need is the gun tower, and in fact you are forced to use it. You need to use it because so many levels have several waves of enemies with shields. Guns are the most effective way to get through shields.
b) The gun tower is OP. I replayed levels I had previously done without gun towers and my scores where way higher with gun and temporals only. Infact on one level I was very close to the top of the leaderboards (like 15 or something). Look at videos on youtube where people show you how to get high scores on maps. You will notice that they always use gun towers only (with temporals).
c) Gun towers are very effective against flyers as well.
d) Part 1 now lacks depth because to win, with big scores, all you have to do is plop down lots of L3 gun towers. If you want to use variety, you have to lie to your self and not build guns when you should.

2) Part 2 has some nice new features that make part 1 seem so primitive compared to 2. For example:
* heat map
* The path indicator shown when about to place a tower.
* Not allowing you to place a tower that will block the aliens path. I had to reload so many saves in DG1 because I accidently placed a tower that hosed my route.
* the boost tower
* many save points (I think DG1 only saves 2 or3 while DG2 saves all of them), The sweet score graph during gameplay and at the end.

3) While there was a lot of backlash on the new scoring system. I actually think it is better. I still have the urge after wining a round in DG2 to frantically sell all of my towers to increase my score. DG1 required frantic tower selling (they even made a quick sell keystroke for this purpose) to get the big scores.

My dislikes about DG2:
1) The interface. Choosing a map to play is now such a chore. You can't see all of the options at once.
2) The leaderboard UI is horrendous.
3) Online match finding is terrible.
4) Lots of annoying bugs, like not seeing your item award at the end of the match but instead having to start a new match.
5) All of your tower item upgrade choices being wiped out because you chose to play competitive.

[PlatinumDalek]

Originally posted by Mani2:

They are both good, but in my opinion DG1 is better, it feels more challenging and balanced and with the addons u get more fun for ur money. i got every achievement in DG1 and i will get it for DG2 too, but only 2 the lack of good TD-Games, i can also recommend Kingdom Rush and Fieldrunners 2 /which is better then Fieldrunners 1)

Can you explain how DG1 is more balanced? The gun tower is OP not using it on any stage that has shielded enemies makes the level very hard. Replay a level you played before with nothing but guns and temporals and you will see every map is now easy. You can make longer paths, rip through shields, kill flying enemies, etc.
Or are you referring to the tower item upgrades? If so don't use them. it isn't hard to change your mode to competitive. If you play elite then you will have to change your idea of victory and be willing to sacrifice some cores.

[Twelvefield]

If you play 2 first, you'll go mad from Strawberry Fever, simple as that. Seriously. You'll all be like WTF strawberries...?!? And we'll all be like, didn't you play the first game? And you'll all be like, noooo, so? And we'll all be like, that's exactly how DG1 is more balanced than DG2: the strawberry factor. Too many strawberries in 2. Just the right amount in 1.

[Cougarific]

I think this whole comparison is flawed because unless you were an *original* purchaser of the *original* release of DG1, you shouldn't be commenting or comparing.

Sure, DG1 with all its DLC extras and Community Levels is better than DG2 right now.

But you really can't compare what's available for DG1 today with what's available for DG2 today because there's so much more, and varied, content in DG1 simply due to the fact that it's been out for 5 years.

In a nutshell I will say that I liked DG1's scoring system much, much, much better than what we have now. That edge-of-your-seat, wait until the last possible microsecond to place that tower to squeeze every last drop of interest out of your resources was IMHO what made DG1 so damn exciting on even your one-hundredth playthrough of the same map.

Originally posted by PlatinumDalek:

Guns are the most effective way to get through shields.

With all due respect Dalek you can't talk Balance if you're not up to speed on all aspects of the game. Tesla towers are the most effective way to get through shields in DG1.

[PlatinumDalek]

Originally posted by Cougarific:

Originally posted by PlatinumDalek:

Guns are the most effective way to get through shields.

With all due respect Dalek you can't talk Balance if you're not up to speed on all aspects of the game. Tesla towers are the most effective way to get through shields in DG1.

I am up to speed on this game, in fact I played it way too much. Which makes me think you aren't up to speed. You have not yet realized that all the tower types are effectively pointless when you can do soooo much better just plopping down L3 guns, temporals, and command towers.

Try this cougar, play a map with tesla's to get through shields, then play again with guns and see which one yields a higher score and makes play easier. Guns are cheaper, upgrade for cheaper, are effective against all enemy types, allow more advanced pathing (because they are cheap, there is no boost in DG1). Guns are so good that they honestly ruined DG1 for me.

In fact, I think the team over compensated for this in DG2. I never use guns in DG2 because they just seem too weak.

I don't know how *original* you want. But I played DG1 before they had any DLC, before they beefed up the tesla (they were completely useless when the game launched), etc.

Twelve field does bring up a point. The talk of raspberries in the second one is annoying in my opinion. Also I feel like the voice actors tried way too hard to sound emotional when they talk and sigh excessively. Also the in game commentary is so repetitive. It is constantly talking about my "laurels". DG1 story was better/less annoying.

As much as I loved part 1, I think I would recommend part 2, in hopes that the UI and glitches get better. Wait for a sale though. Actually, buy both, they are both really good games.

[123 Casual Player]

@Dalek

You are right, In DG1, between gun/cannon/temporal/command and maybe concussion, you can beat all the original and DLC story hard. But it's not like other towers are bad (besides tesla).

In DG2, the tower items are so powerful that what is good is solely based on random chance. Say you got level 5 slow on laser and nothing as good on other towers, then you are pretty much pigeon hole to laser spamming (which will beat everything in normal elite).