This post is a part of my Top 10 Games I played in 2020 list that I said I was breaking up into smaller parts to avoid having a single huge post all at once. Note that the games in this list weren’t necessarily new releases in 2020. To qualify for this list, it just had to be a game that I played in 2020. This post features games I rank as the #8 and #7 games I enjoyed playing most in 2020.
#8 Defense Grid 2
The original Defense Grid: The Awakening released in 2008 and was one of my favorite Tower Defense games. So why, when the sequel was released in 2014, did it take me until 2020 before I really played it?
I’m not sure I know the answer to that question. I mean, I had launched it and played the first couple of missions before 2020, but it wasn’t until last year that I finally went through and completed the full campaign.
Okay then, so what did I think of it?
It was okay. It was perfectly competent. It was good. But somehow it just didn’t appeal to me like the first one did. And what does it say about the game, or my enthusiasm about it, that I couldn’t actually remember whether or not I had completed the campaign when I started to write this? I had to launch the game again and check.
I think that, like many aging games, Defense Grid 2 was a product of its time. It was probably a very enjoyable game when it was new and Tower Defense games were still fairly relevant and closer to being wildly popular. But I think the appeal has worn off for me and Defense Grid 2 doesn’t seem to bring anything new enough to the formula to make it stand out in my mind.
While this review may come across as negative, my feelings on the game are more of a neutral-positive. I spent almost 20 hours in the game, and I generally enjoyed my time with it. But just a few months have passed since I completed it and I had already forgotten. Give it a try if you think you’d like it, but don’t go out of your way to get it and play it if you don’t think it looks very appealing.
#7 Cat Quest
Cat Quest is a pretty simple hack ‘n’ slash RPG. It’s cute. It’s fun. It’s not too complicated. It’s kind of mindless, and has no real penalties if your character dies. I completed the campaign in about 6 hours of gameplay. It has a “mew game plus” mode or something so you can keep playing it after you’ve finished the main storyline, but I didn’t bother with that.
I mostly enjoyed my relatively short time with the game. And I have the sequel on my wish list, with the intent to grab it once it is steeply discounted in a sale. The sequel has cooperative gameplay, which might add some extra fun to the mix. Without that, I think I’d pass on the sequel entirely.
It’s definitely not for everyone, and you can tell by how simple the game is that it was designed to be a mobile game. But it works for what it is. And it looks good in the process, too.
