Defense Grid & Verdun Are Free On Epic

Monday, I spoke about a union suing Ubisoft over harassment, and Alexx wrote about a very nice-looking puzzle game. Tuesday, Alexx discussed Eldest Souls getting a new trailer, while I dragged Ubisoft’s newest free-to-play Tom Clancy game over the coals, and Alexx spoke of Road 96‘s release date. Wednesday, David spoke about the Steam Deck details, and I chatted about Dying Light on Switch. Then on Thursday, we had a funeral for an old friend, Alexx spoke of The Garden Path‘s Kickstarter, and when Alexx mentioned Trigger Witch is getting a release date, I realized how wrong that title is in my accent.

On to one of the weak weeks for the Epic Games Store as we plod through the trenches of the grey tasteless paste of gaming. So much so that when I realized what next week’s games are, I was excited about one of the dullest things you could get excited by. Look, I have nothing against Defense Grid: The Awakening or those that enjoy it. I’ve just always found tower defense a bit too dull for my liking. In a sense, Zuma was a twist on match-three puzzling and tower defense, with you being the capture point and the tower defending yourself. In fact, the only one I can think of that I enjoy is X-Morph: Defense.

However, going back to the days of 2008 and XBLA, Defense Grid: The Awakening has you waking up a once dormant defense grid on an alien world as the locals bang on the door. So you know, I guess they get points for naming it properly. The only thing that isn’t getting me excited beyond my boredom with tower defense games in the first place, is the color palette which is very 2008. I’ve seen the color brown before, but brown on grey on more brown? That’s an achievement.

Onto the second game, a game I am not pleased about one bit, perhaps because I feel like i’m trudging my way through Kurt Vonnegut’s The Slaughterhouse-Five. Yes, it is a different war, but World War 1 (Yes, but what do you mean one?) isn’t the fun, “let’s make a fun multiplayer out of this!” war. It was a war with no clear heroes or villains, it was the neverending crusade of young men sent into an unwinnable situation only hoping they can get home to their mums, dads, and girlfriends (or boyfriends). I mean, I’m not a fan of Battlefield doing it either, but Verdun actually wants to stick to the authenticity, including White Phosphorus attacks.

In a battle that injured about 70,000 people a month and about 700,000 in total over nearly ten months, it seems odd to make that a fun shooty-bang game. I don’t blame anyone for playing it, that would be stupid. I am just not excited by the idea of another game putting a gun in my hands and tell me to kill the other side. Ultimately, I’m not excited about either game this week, either for the displeasure of the genre or the depressing nature of the game’s setting possibly being lost on some for some fun shooty-bangs. I am just at the point where neither are setting fires in my underpants.

All this week, you can pick up Defense Grid: The Awakening and Verdun for free until the morning of the 29th. Looking ahead to next week, it once again is a gun-heavy game, but one that isn’t set in the very serious situation of war. Well, not serious until your tumble dryer has a pop about overloading it for the umpteenth time. Mothergunship is a first-person bullet hell that puts you up against robot aliens. I was interested in it until I read that you craft your own guns. What I am more interested in, as I watch all of Jago Hazzard’s videos, is Train Sim World 2, because I am the world’s most boring human being.