At first, there are a lot of negative reviews about Dungeon Defenders Eternity which are incorrect. Although I'll end up with a negative review I think this is a more justified review. The final decision to not recommended Eternity reflects my personal experience about the original Dungeon Defenders.

Let's talk about the most false and improper negative reviews I've read. They include one or more of following statements:

• This game is advertised as 'definitive' but it is an 'Early Access'
  A lot of people use the word 'definitive' in a wrong context. Eternity is just the definitive version of Dungeon Defenders 1. It is the final product they made based on DD1 and there will be no other version anymore which is based on DD1 (so close). Nor it implies that all content known from DD1 is included in Eternity neither everything is accessible right now.
  
  
• The store page of Eternity is incorrect
  That's simply wrong. Anyone who has read the store page carefully will agree here. Every single statement came true. Trendy has even tweaked the store page to describe things in-depth for whose who were confused for any particular reason. We could only debate if they did their job well.
  
  
• This game is 'Pay2Win' since micro-transactions are implemented
  Meanwhile micro-transactions are implemented the shop only provides cosmetic items. Cosmetic items doesn't affect the gameplay in any way.
  
  
• This game is a mobile port
  No, it isn't. They designed the game for multiple platforms (mainly PC) with the focus to keep the GUI (Graphical User Interface) for all platforms equally. Not a bad move at all. Though there is a lot room for improvements.

Now, let's talk about my reason.
It was clear to me that Eternity will have bugs, glitches and exploits like every other PC game but I never mocked about it like others because it was obvious that Trendy will work on fixes. A lot of users were complaining about the broken stat progression after Trendy has fixed an exploit which has given way overpowered gear. I appreciated the fix since I was still able to reach 2k and higher stats in order to beat the game easily. People were just too lazy to invest time to build a set and to upgrade their stuff. The game was still fine and I liked it a lot.

Then they released Content Update #1 and 'Nightmare' difficulty. I still was able to beat most content with gear which I've collected during the 'broken stat progression' but even on Deepers Well on Nightmare difficulty (the easiest - first map) were dropping stuff with stats way better than mine.

The hardest part of the game now is to reach the required Hero Level to be able to equip this stuff in order to get 4k+ points in multiple stats. Makes the whole game pointless - DD was about grinding - take it away and there are no goals anymore. You are able to reach up to 10k points in a very short time to cover huge maps with a single aura stack and a Buff Beam and you still beat the map without any further defenses. (In the meanwhile they have added enemies which are immune to elemental damage regardless of using a Strength Drain Aura, so you have to put up some more defenses now.) 'Nightmare' turns into 'Laughable easy'.

Screenshots of fresh farmed armor sets: #1, #2, #3, #4

Screenshots of broken gear of the second exploit: #1, #2, #3 (in the meanwhile this exploit got fixed, so instead of 50k points we are back at 10k points)

Sad, that Trendy had to nerf stats on a previous update to (quoting) 'not letting stats out-of-control'. Even more sad they haven't fixed this ridiculous inflation with Content Update #2. [sarcasm]At least they made the new Hardcore mode easier with ♥♥#2.[/sarcasm]

So the question is; Are you a casual player? If so then Eternity is definitely entertaining you. For all other players, who are not scared to invest a bit more time (not like me several thousand hours but still an enjoyable amount ^^) , I strongly advise to play the original Dungeon Defenders (preferably on a windows machine). It's also frequently on sale.

I hope this review was more helpful and informative than others.

TL;DR:
DDE is made for casual players.
DD1 is made for players who like this genre.

Edits:
October 6th - typos
October 14th - added screenshots of broken gear
October 26th - the exploit which caused up to 50k points got fixed
December 9th - added screenshots of fresh farmed NM gear

((Instead of reading my rant, just head over to this amazing guide http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=290092757http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=290092757 to see a good comparison of DD1 and this.))

No single player, no cards, no workshop, no split screen, in game real money store, and ten other loads of all ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Don't buy or you'll regret it.

Edit: Ohhh, looks like they're trying to back themselves out, finally removed "Single-player" tag from the game.

MORE edits: Now they're adding single player and private games, I mean I thought this was a finished product, not an early-access, shouldn't it just have been in the game to begin with? May as well mark my review as "constantly in development".

More editsv2: Private games are in, just from a few minutes into it, I'm already displeased, what with a huge latency issue in the game, makes it dramatically worse when you're just moving around, and then suddenly get shoved back half a second later. They seem crazy about keeping the game "secure", but at woof cost? Though the new equipment system is fun to play around with, but I had trouble paying attention to it, what with hundreds of other new things going on, it's just too much too quickly. Still siding with DD1 over this currently.

This game is absolute garbage, its an insult and offensive. Its a mobile version of Dungeon Defenders that is ported to pc. It should have a disclaimer on the page saying so, but instead it misleads with info about new features, but doesnt tell you what it really is. . . a mobile app. It also has a cash shop, which just pisses me off even more. I own the original and a bit of the dlc, and i never minded most of the dlc or prices on it, but this is misleading and offensive. TERRIBLE play by trendy.

Time to review this with a Pros and Cons list...

CONS:

1. Public Tavern = People everywhere whining and asking things like, "How do you play?" and "Why does this game suck so much?" And there is always a hoard around the forge and tavern-keep that makes walking around hard.

2. Requires constant internet connection = All file are on their servers, not your computer. This means if your internet goes out, you can't do a thing. And it means long wait screens while it downloads the map you just tried to enter. If you have slow internet or frequent outages, this game is not for you.

3. Summoner = The Summoner no longer uses his own pool of Defense Unit points (Minion Units). Instead, he draws from the same DU as everyone else. This makes him a character that is now a builder like any other except that he can't attack. Two pets doesn't really make up for this and minions are not good at being the only thing on the field. He is most pointless now that he costs other builders their points.

4. Costumes = Completely pointless. Armor is visible and that cannot be turned off. So what you look like under all the cool little helmets and masks and shields seems almost pointless by the end of even the first level.

5. Eternia Crystals = The crystal is now no longer customizable. Only look it has is the default look. Sad. Really, really sad.

6. In Game Store = Yes, there is a store in the game that costs real money. Yes, it is just for cosmetic items when you are playing on Steam. Yes, it still stinks. In-game stores that use real money on a game you already paid real money to buy is dumb. It's tied on annoying level with Release-Day DLCs for me. I already gave you money to buy the game and now it's "Oh, wait, you wanted the entire game? That'll be an extra $20."

7. Perma-Death = Perma-Death in Hardcore??? Why? Just why? Never playing that mode.

8. Two friend systems = o.O If you play on Steam, please note that there are two social systems in the game: Steam and Playverse. This gets confusing fast... "Wait, I just added that person, how do I have a friend request from them. Oh, this is Steam that is Playverse." "Why aren't they showing up in my friends or this group?..." Etc.

9. Tooltips = There are none. Happy button-guessing folks!

10. Tutorial = My sister had not a clue what to do as a first time player and I had to show her everything. A tutorial to do that would have been really nice...

11. No Split-screen = I used this all the time on the old game and I have actually already missed it. Please patch it in.

12. Box System = They made it worse. I didn't know that was even possible. It's like an apps touchsreen now with a bad PC overlay on it.

PROS:

1. Single or Multiplayer Missions = I can play with random people or just my friends. A welcome early patch that was really, really needed. Works great now.

2. Visible Armor = This is awesome. Sure, for most of the game you will look like you covered yourself in hotglue and rolled around in a junkyard... But once you hit max and get a real set of armor that all matches: You will look awesome.

3. Dyes = They now sell dyes of different colors at the Tavern-keep's place. And most items have 5 to 6 dye slots for colors on it you can change. Yes, for people who like micromanaging every little detail of your character (aka: people like me), this is awesome. They are low in price so you can change colors a lot. :)

4. Pet hatching = You get eggs and weight for them to hatch as you run around and do things. AKA: Pokemon eggs. It is actually quite fun to see what will pop out of each egg. Awesome system.

5. Coins = MANA IS NO LONGER MONEY!!! You no longer have to try and use Mana for everything and worry about lost Mana all over the map. Gold coins enemies drop last longer than Mana and you don't have to feel bad burning through thousands of Mana a battle in the later stages with you skills.

6. All DLCs built in = ...need I even say why this is nice and awesome?

7. Dashing = You can dash! ...four times... ...than your meter needs to recharge over-time...

8. Two weapon slots = Switch out to a different weapon quickly when they are resistant to your main one. Very, very nice.

9. Graphics = Slow to load, but once they do, they are awesome!

10. Fun = The first Dungeon Defender was fun, this one is fun. They are the same game though.

11. Co-Op Awesomeness = Grab a few friends and go to town. Just plain more fun with more friends.

12. Loot system = Fewer drops of better quality? Individual loot? Both very nice.

OVERALL:

This really just seems to be you paying money to help them test PlayVerse...

Not seeing enough new content here to warrant a re-release of the same game. I guess the balancing issues and hacking are reasons they are saying that this came out, but I see no real reason to buy this if you own the original with all DLCs. Dungeon Defenders (Original version) was and is a great game... Stick to it if you own it. Though if you don't own it, this might be a great one to pick up.

Only reason I like this game over the original? You can put shiny armor on and dye it a bunch of different ways.

I'm sorry but this really wasn't necessary. I can't even play a game by my self if I wanted to. I don't see steam achievements. The new UI isn't really better. Not impressed.

I'll try to give you an indepth review of what to expect from Dungeon Defenders Eternity, as for those who are too lazy to read it all...
TL;DR version: Not worth the pricetag for those of us who already played the original with a bunch of DLC, somewhat steep for new players.


{Startup} The first change you'll notice is a new launcher that can get you playing with only 25% of the game downloaded, this will however cause the game to stream textures while you play and on a slow connection that will take quite some time. The whole reason it exists is because there were complaints that the original DD had so many small updates that required big downloads too often, instead of breaking the resource packs down into smaller chunks and only releasing substantial updates the devs somehow thought this system would be better but if anything it has so far caused far more problems than it solved.
{Accounts} You'll need to make a new account on an external service to go with this game, while this is understandable it initially had a lot of ridiculous restrictions on names, most of these have been lifted and profiles can thankfully be renamed but don't expect to be able to use any interesting characters.
{Joining the Tavern} Forget about privacy, this tavern is packed with people so if you're the social type it's great but if you wanted a peaceful tavern that didn't choke your internet connection with useless data and annoying goofballs then you're out of luck. First time players will spawn as a random placeholder character, figuring out how to create your own (like you should have been able to do before joining) takes a bit of poking around if you're unfamiliar with the game but just talk to the only adult in sight.
{Starting a game} The default way to play is with random strangers that hit the wrong button when they wanted to play solo, just like you most likely did, don't worry they'll usually disconnect as soon as they see you. To play solo you need to hit the button to the right, you'll remember it next time. If you downloaded the textures everything will look exactly like the old DD did, if not then you'll haveto wait for some time and then it looks exactly like the old DD did.
{Content} Almost every item you see is recycled and old news but some functions are very different and quite good: Items are far more random so even if you play an "Easy" round of "Survival" on the first map you have a shot at some reasonable loot from all across the old game, good stuff is just uncommon. Higher grade stuff still requires you to take on real challenges but now you have a fair way of getting powerful enough to get to that point. Leveling up your gear now requires a different currency, not mana as in the old DD but instead Gold will drop randomly from slain enemies.
{Gameplay} Since the game is "always online" as an anti cheat measure you need a very good internet connection to play reliably once you get to high enemy spawning, less than 100mbit is probably not going to be a good experience. The biggest other change I've seen so far is how "Survival" works, instead of waves it now has a one hour timer that starts counting down once you activate the crystal. Beware that once the timer reaches zero you have a new timer that will shove you back into the cramped tavern so be ready to loot fast or you could miss out on some nice gear!

{Summary} All in all the game is nicely rebalanced in almost all aspects compared to the original, the main drawback for old players however still remain that almost everything is the same old junk you've seen a thousand times. The anti cheat measures and external downloader for textures are honestly not even close to good solutions, players who had too slow internet connection to keep the old game up to date will just feel the new pains of streaming and online play. All in all this game should at most cost about half of what it does, it's a moneygrab while DD2 is lurking in the shadows soon ready to strike.

Additional edit: Had trouble playing on my main PC because the game does not support setting Anti Aliasing manually using Nvidias control panel, this info was released moments after I checked "known issues" and as such I was unaware of it for a long time. Since I've meanwhile used my laptop to play I have absolutely confirmed that less than 100mbit is not good for any situation with a high enemy count (my laptop is only on 50mbit wireless) so that further proves the external downloader for textures is a very unwise solution since the game is completely unenjoyable for anyone who doesn't have a good enough internet conection to get almost instantly downloaded updates using Steams own service. Summoners have been altered to have their minions counted purely as defence units and compared to a Countess I'd say a Summoner is now mostly dead weight. I'll probably continue to play a bit to see if any significant changes occur and find out if summoners can become useful at high levels, though it does not look good so far. Oh and armor is visible now, did you notice? I barely did. Still barely do except for the helmets.

As someone who's put hundreds of hours into the base DD game, all of the negative reviews of this one were very concerning to me. I decided to go for it anyway, and I've been pleasantly surprised. I've put several more hours into the game since my first review, and I figured I'd update it a bit with what I've observed now that I've made it to 60 on a few characters. I've come across a few annoyances, and there's definitely a few more cons, however my final verdict is still a 'recommend.'

Aside from the general pros, this review assumes you're familiar with the first DD game. If not, watch a few let's plays on Youtube to get a feel for the gameplay; it's a combination of tower defense and action game, and it's hard to describe in words what is way easier to show on video.

General Pros:
+ Very fun mix of strategic and action based gameplay.

+ Good character/gameplay variety (8 classes, multiple character build options in each class)

+ Great to play with friends

+ Leveling up and finding new gear is very satisfying. Finally perfecting a map build is insanely satisfying.

Pros vs. the Original Dungeon Defenders game:
+ The game is VERY MUCH Dungeon Defenders 1.9, lots of little things that make the game more enjoyable.

+ Everyone gets their own drops. No more people running around stealing all of the drops while you keep the defenses running!

+ The four slot amulet/consumable system where you can add four extra abilities to your character- instantly heal a tower, amplify elemental damage, heal other players, curse enemies, summon a giant storm, etc... It definitely makes you feel like you have more options and allows for some cool new character builds (like a 4 tower repair amulet + hero speed + hero health to quickly run around the map healing defenses).

+Pets now have uniqe abilities and drop as eggs that you equip in your amulet slots to hatch over time. You can see the stats before you hatch them

+There are consumable items that let you boost exp, loot quantity, loot quality, and loot rarity. Especially useful on survival runs to get some great gear

+ Items, Maps, and Hero are balanced much better

+ Item value is tied to the rarity, not the stats; crazy weapons don't sell for an insane amount any more

+ Currency and Mana are separated. It's very satisfying to run around picking up huge amounts of gold.

+ All of the DLC Maps, Characters, and Costumes are unlocked for free. There's some new maps that aren't in the original game



--
Cons:

-Rollbacks. This is almost enough to not recommend the game. Three times now I've completed a survival game only to return to the tavern and find all of my items/exp/money reset. Extremely frustrating and totally unacceptable. It happend twice after Trendy claimed it was fixed, but it HASN'T happened since the latest patch. I'll take this one off the list if I go a few more days without another rollback.

-Game UI: The UI is awful. When I say awful, I mean really, really, really bad. The item box is clunky and other than the ability to filter by rarity and item type, there's no sorting or ability to rearrange items at all. Folders are clunky. The only way to check an item's stats is to hover over it (why not a table view that shows each item on a row along with its stats?). There are random numbers and symbols everywhere with no explanation. Crafting is incomprehensible until you actually start finding blueprints and realize that it takes blueprints.

- Playverse UI: Stupid Javascript/Twitter Bootstrap overlay that's used to make parties and... I guess stream to twitch? There's a buch of useless buttons on that thing, and it feels totally out of place. Definitely needs to be replaced with ingame menus that acutally fit with the rest of the game. Right now if feels like they just copy+pasted a web page as an overlay and called it a day.

- Server Lag/Always Online: I understand why they went to server-side only, and I'm mostly happy about it. However there is occasional lag and rubberbanding. I'd rather than then hacked items, though, so it's not a huge deal for me. If you have an unstable internet connection, DON'T BUY THIS GAME.

- Bugs: Summoners are broken, some towers are broken, Dark Elf Warrior Ninja ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s are broken. This stuff can all be fixed with patches, but it's still a pain in the butt. The Dark Elf Warriors will oneshot you on insane, then turn around and wreck your defenses. I refuse to believe that the insanity of the DEWs on endless spires on insane during the last wave are NOT bugged.

- UI: I know I said this one already, but seriously, the UI really sucks.

Misconceptions:
Cash shop: Now that I've played more, I realized that the cash shop is literally JUST emotes (at the moment.) It's not even outfits, it's just an animation that you can buy for a dollar. The concerning thing is that the infrastructure exists if they decide to sell more than just cosmetics, but they promised to keep the cash items cosmetic only.

'Mobile Game Port': Yeah, there's a dungeon defenders game for Android that's very close to the PC version, but I'd call that an exceptionally good Android game, not an exceptionally bad PC game. Controls are fine, video options are fine, gameplay is fine. I'm never in a place where I say "Wow, if this wasn't a mobile game port, X would be easier/better." If I never played the android version, I wouldn't beleive the game could even be ported to android and still work the way it does on PC.

In the end, I'd contine to state that if you like DD, you'll like DDE, especially if/when they fix the remaining bugs.


---
Original Review: 20Hrs in
---
As someone who's put hundreds of hours into the base DD game, all of the negative reviews of this one were very concerning to me. Even then, I got enough enjoyment out of the base game that I didn't mind supporting the devs a bit more.

I don't know if I'm playing the same game as the people who played for .2 hours before downvoting it, but I'm beginning to think I'm not. From what I've played so far, it looks like they took major steps towards fixing a lot of little annoyances from the base game- mana is no longer currency, everyone gets their own chests and gear drop, and hardcore mode is actually scary (when you die you lose all of your levels and gear!) They added consumables, new pet abilities, two weapon slots, and it looks like all of the paid map DLC from the base game is unlocked for everyone.

A big problem with the first game was hacked in items, a problem that appears, for the moment, to be solved.

I'm going to address a few concerns I've seen brought up.

In App Purchases: From what I'm seeing, the ONLY thing bought with real money is costumes which are purely cosmetic. I have no problem with that model, and usually nobody else does either.

Blurry Textures: If the reviewer played for more than a few minutes or read the on screen tips, he would have seen that the game downloads super low res textures to get you playing, and then continues the download of the rest of the assets in the background.

Mobile game port: I'm not sure if the game started out as a port from a mobile device, but it feels like a full featured PC game: tons of remappable keyboard shortcuts, graphics options, and controls that work well.

UI: This is the only place where I see problems. Creating a private match was simple enough, but the friends system took a little while to get used to. It appears to be a (Twitter Bootstrap Based) Javascript/HTML overlay that you get at by hovering over the top right corner. It feels really disjointed from the rest of the game's menus.

The bottom line is that if you like the original Dungeon Defenders PC game, you'll like this too. I feel like a ton of the negative reviews are by people that haven't put any time into actually playing the game.

Summary

Dungeon Defenders Eternity is a tower defense game made by Nom Nom Games. It is essentially a remake of the first game with a few additional maps and polished content. With a attempt at fixing the balances issues the original had and adding new features.

Pro’s and Con’s - in comparison to first game

Playverse

+ No hackers
+ Persistant Party System
+ Private Taverns

- Always Online (DRM)
- Cannot import characters from DD1

You will have to add friends to playverse in order to party with them. When a player attempts to start a map it gives everyone in the party the option to accept or reject following them. This allows players to avoid being interrupted if they are in the middle of looting, crafting, equipping, or simply changing heroes.

A party on playverse is persistant unless you leave it, meaning that if you disconnect for whatever reason, you can rejoin and get back to your friends unless the room becomes full.

Some of my friends have reported that the service was slow for them, now that they are able to download the whole game it redeems this problem though it still takes them a few hours to download the 1.6 GB.

Visuals

+ Improved visual variety (Gear is noticeable, and items look sharper)
+ Better Shop UI (Shop has categories)

- Downgraded Character UI (No Categories to separate the icons)
- No Splitscreen co-op

Visual Fix Update: They have added the ability for you to download the whole game if you wait on the update screen. This will stop textures from having to be streamed to you, which results in enjoying a blur-free experience without having to wait to constantly download a map.

Icons for skills Missing? Answer here: Been missing my icons all day and realized that you could just drag and drop the icons onto the hotbar on the bottom left back.

Mechanics

+ Crafter (Find Blueprints, components to craft superior gear)
+ Relics (Give Permanent stat boosts that is not a grind)
+ Amulets(Spend mana to cast different quality spells)
+ Pickups are independent( Everyone gets their own drops,chests, and pets)
+ Chests matter (Ingredients and gems can be gained)
+ Micro-Transactions(Only cosmetics, currently emotions)
+ Steam Workshop

- Minons use defense points(Minons got buffed, but use DU instead of their own points)
- Minon AI(Currently Glitches, the ogres seem to move on their own sometimes)

Amulets are a great addition, it allows players to have various additional useful abilities for any class they like. Amulets are set at lower levels than other gear, which allows players to equip them on their alternate characters, to give them that extra edge they need. Tower heals amulets are efficient at repairing multiple buildings at once which becomes more potent with defense power. Characters have their skills changed to defense and offense power in order to be applied to both the character personal skills, and their amulets.

Monk's tower damage skill gets stronger from defense power just like tower heals which results him not just increasing the damage of towers by more but also being able to heal for a higher % of the tower hp. Curse runs on offense power just like how your DPS skills, which means not only can you slow down ogres, make them weaker and increase your damage but you also have increased your own skill damage. The summoner can use amulets in astral form, allowing him to actually cast storm spells that damage an area of enemies.

You can hatch pets, by equipping them in a amulet slot while fighting against enemies. I am not sure why they added a entire extra step to using pets though its easy enough to not be an issue. They also added pet active skills, turning orcs into cakes is always a good time.

Relics can be found on challenges or bosses. There is 5 relics since each difficulty gives you 1. If you do nightmare and beat it you get all 5. Since getting the relics under it are automatic. This is a nice way to increase your stats in general.

Boosters can be found during waves and are common expect for the exp booster, that you can use increase quality,quantity,rarity and magic items you find. The icing on the cake is that only one person in the party needs to apply it! Every time you apply a booster it will last 5 more waves, however since survival counts as one big wave for an hour its most efficent to use it for that.

The ogres sometimes suddenly move about and is currently a glitch, though i suspect this will be patched soon. This AI glitch alongside the fact minon points got removed really nerfed the summoner, now I see some summoners use them with DPS pets or other methods to try to make him viable.

Game Changes

+ Survival Feels Endless (1 Hour timed, instead of waves)
+ Hardcore Mode (Perma Death & Better Rewards)
+ Total Package (Contains most DLC of original game, it has all characters)
+ 4 Campaign Maps

- Lowered Level Cap 100 to 60 (Not sure how stats will suffer in comparison to first game)
- Dungeon Defenders 2 Across corner not sure if this was wise timing to allocate resources to make this.

Survival is fun but there is an issue, the developers need to add a level display to the session playlist. When people look for a session to play and see only map, game mode, and difficulty they are not aware that the game mode of survival pumps up the difficulty greatly even on normal to the point where I could not possibly survive without better gear.

Survival has been patched, now you are able to switch heroes any time during the hour at the forge. Gold also will not replace items anymore, and items will not disappear in your face quickly as a result.

I recommend those who are curious about it wait at least till your around level 20.

The Backlash

When the game first released on steam, it did not have single player, achivements and other things as promised by the store page. Hence why many were angered by the broken promises and when those promises were removed from the page it did not help their case.

The other part of the backlash stems from them going full DRM, which resulted in people always having to be online to play. Some people just want the ability to play without having to worry about the service disconnecting or other issues that comes from playing online. Since they went for a system that streams the content to your computer it takes a while for the textures to fully load and get the graphics that you were expecting coming in. I admit the graphics are simply darker than DD 1 but I would by no means call them inferior

The Likes

Most people who gave this game a chance saw many nice additions to a game they liked with better balancing. While they acknowledged that there is flaws they should address, they think it has potential to be a better game if you give them enough time to patch it up a bit. Most of them see the blacklash while warranted a bit too overboard.

DO NOT BUY THIS RUBBISH!!!
Its DD1 for tablets/mobile devices (with micropayments??).
You cant import characters.
There is NO single-player.
It has a new UI and 3x the post-processing and a new mode called Vaseline that makes everything blurry for 5 minutes.
Skins must be unlocked (for money?).

EDIT2: It seems the devs are working towards fixing some of the things i mentioned such as being able to change characters during survival. The game might become better after all these updates, but they have already lost my interest. There is a big chance that this review will be outdated soon, and i wont be updating it anymore. I reccomend taking some time to do some research before you buy this game.

EDIT: For older players who dont have a team and used to play a lot of survival: They changed survival to be one endless wave that lasts an hour. This sounds like a good change, until you realise you cant swich classes once you begin, making late game solo survival play almost impossible. and the fact that you cant "host" an instance anymore and cant kick people will make public survival runs a pain.
prepare for trolls who sell all the towers at the 5 minutes remaining mark!

(Wall of text review incoming)

This game is great for:
-People that want more of the same, the new additions and dont really care about UI or bugginess.
-People that play with a 4 man team of friends, online. (no more splitscreen)


This game could be annoying/frustrating for:
-Most of the old dungeon defenders players
-People that played for the trophies
-People that havent played the original dungeon defenders.

I reccomend the original dungeon defenders for new players.

What i have written down below is mostly my opinions and problems with this game.

I honestly feel like this remake is unfinished and has some really poor design choices.
The game still has a lot of glitches and bugs, i feel like im playing a beta sometimes.
So far the game has been more of the same with some little differences.
But its the little things that bother me the most, such as:

-Forced online taverns: I liked being able to relax in my own tavern, managing my gear, chatting with the other people i might have just played with, looking through my trophies, being able to change the music playing in the tavern ect, ect.

The new taverns are just chaotic and laggy, filled with usually 20 people in a small space.
I dont mind the option of public taverns, but i think the 4 man personally hosted taverns should still be available.

-Playverse: I know playverse isnt done yet, but it can be really buggy at times. There have been plenty of times the matchmaking servers havent been working or offline. And you need the matchmaking servers to be placed in a tavern. Which you need to be in to play solo.

-Glitchy: This game is advertised as a full finished game on steam, yet there are so many bugs and glitches and the general feeling of unfinishedness that the original didnt suffer from. If you are remaking a game you'd better make sure it works better then the original. Mostly the movement in multiplayer can glitch out pretty badly, the general collision between players and mobs feel wrong, not even talking about how much you can glitch the game when you start jumping.

-UI: Tower stats are now shown much better. Other than that most of the UI feels clunky and unclear. At least the original had a small tutorial explaining things. This one doesnt.
The moment you click play in the menu you are thrown into a tavern with no explaination whatsoever.
I had a lot of trouble finding out how the new dye system and crafting works, i cant imagine how confusing it will be for new players.

-small stuff i dislike: The 2 minute timer at the end of a map. I like staying a bit to collect mana/coins and chat a bit with people. But now you are brutely ripped away from it. You wont even end up in the same tavern as the people you were playing with. Also hardcore mode has changed to the degree where noone will risk it late game (if you die your character is deleted, rather then if you die you just dont respawn for the duration of the wave). Survival has also changed in such a way that it becomes a pain in the butt without a solid premade team.

But this rant has been long enough. I appologize for possibly butchering the english language, its my second laguage and thank you for letting me get this off my chest.

TL;DR Man, I had hope for this game being a considerably better version of Dungeon Defenders 1, especially considering the large amount of changes done, but it ended up being a huge disappointment. I invested a reasonable amount of hours, and even persuaded my friends that were playing the game that things would get better because Trendy was listening. Things didn't get better, but Trendy kept listening. In short, I'd advise against getting the game, at least for now. While I've sort of relinquished my affection for the game, I do still look at updates and hope things get better.


So this is Dungeon Defenders 1.5. Basically, it serves to help be the middle ground between Dungeon Defenders 2 and Dungeon Defenders 1 (I think). If you've played Dungeon Defenders, then you know what this game is about. Dungeon Defenders is a game where you pick a champion (or all of them, because that's an option) and your goal is to defend the Etheria crystals from the mobs trying to break them. I think them breaking means the end of the world or something. Let's go with that.

While Dungeon Defenders 1 had 4 heroes by default and the other 3 were DLC-only, Dungeon Defenders Eternity has all heroes available at the start. Also, much like the heroes, it has many of the previous maps also available at the start. Some maps haven't transitioned into Dungeon Defenders Eternity, but there is still potential for them to be added in the future as Trendy has decided that they intend to update the game with a content update MONTHLY. Currently, they've gone through 3 content updates. (The game came ou in July, so they're on pace) Each update has so far come with a new map. Also, to go along with the monthly "big update," they also do smaller weekly updates to the game.

Gameplay is identical to the first with few exceptions. Some towers have had some tweaking and, perhaps the most controversial change, Minion Units from Dungeon Defenders 1 has been replaced by adding on Defense Units to maps that warranted it. Also, the game comes with 4 additional maps to the campaign, 3 inside of the missions leading to Eternia Shards maps, and 1 after Crystalline Dimension.

The way items upgrade has also been reworked. Previously they costed mana which was all but abundant in the game, and only an exceptional few items took one's entire inventory's worth of mana to fully upgrade, but now they function on the new Gold resource that has replaced Mana. Mana now only interacts with towers and doesn't influence anything outside of a given map. Gold though, as you might imagine, is noticably harder to come by. Whereas in the past it wasn't too difficult to find a 2000 mana Mana Token, now you'd be hard pressed to find even a 50 gold Gold Coin. Fortunately, items cost an almost proportionally amount less gold to upgrade and this seems to serve as to limit a player's ability to just upgrade their gear to obscene levels early on and just rush through the game with that gear. Maybe.

So, I'm going to level with you. I spent 800 hours in Dungeon Defenders 1 and I only played for about 4 months. The game got really solved and that made me kind of furstrated, so I gave away what I had and just left the game. Games like these are intended to encourage you to farm for gear that gives you beetter stats so you have an easier time with the endgame, right? Well, that's fine and you can get to that level hilariously easy in Dungeon Defenders 1 by means of Tinkerer's Lab Assault NMHC. At around 3000 stats in Dungeon Defenders 1 (fully upgraded), you are pretty comfortable with every map. Eternity, on the other hand, while it doesn't have Tinkerer's Lab Assault, it does have something far worse.

Something to note is that in Dungeon Defenders 1, it was pretty difficult to find an item with 400 in a stat. There was even a cap on the more obscene Obsidian Weapons at 999 in a stat. That was basically the highest you'd see at all in the game and it was tremendously rare to find anything not a Clava with those stats.

Unfortunately, Eternity decided numbers get players or something, so you can find as high as 600 base stats on an item. Remember how I mentioned items upgrade differently? Well not only do they use gold, but they upgrade 10% of the base. Imagine you found an elusive 600 stat weapon in the game and it came with 16 upgrades (highest from the past. I'm not sure if it was implemented to have items with 16 upgrades anymore). Well, that would mean that you could get 60 stats per upgrade, 15 more times giving you 900 extra stats. That would mean 1500 stats on, potentially, one stat from an item. I mean, all of the stats could have rolled with 600, so you could have something obscene like 600/1050/1050/600 on an item or something. Or ytou could have a waller with just 1500 in tower Health because that's a thing. Sure, the formulas scale a bit differently from Dungeon Defenders 1, but it just doesn't make sense.

That said, you don't need anywhere close to the maximum theoretical stats achieveable to clear maps. I've had friends that broke into nightmare, clearing Tavern Defense with meager 800s in a stat. Not even in the thousands. Sure, you might suggest that some other maps require higher stats, but those stats are pretty easily achievable. I mean, it's not like you'd be spending hours and hours trying to clear The Deeper Well (first map in the game) on Nightmare (current highest difficulty in the game) with the Hardcore modifier (makes the mobs harder and you get better drops) or anything. That really detracts from how fun the game is.

With games like these with the amoutn of diversity in characters, there's also much to be said about balance. If you've played Dungeon Defenders 1, you know that there were really only 4 builders in that game (at least in end-game): Huntress, Monk(Initiate), Summoner(Demoness) and Series EV. What of that changed in Dungeon Defenders Eternity? Well, the Huntress is nearly not even a class. Changes that were made to her include having all towers default to 15s recharge time, making her gas trap nearly unusable. Also, inferno trap doesn't scale with rate as one might hope. Instead, it will tick every second for forever. Rate just affects the recharge of the trap. Fortunately, her Darkness trap has an added feature that will also give mobs a chance to "miss" a target, effectively acting as a secondary Strength Drain within a limited area.

Monk's Enrage Aura also is/was brokenly overpowered. It's still an AoE mind control tower ('cause those are always balanced in Tower Defense games), but it also debuffs mobs so that they die faster too. In previous patches it was even more brokenly overpowered by being able to tick faster and harder.

Summoner, because Minion Units stripped from the game, was given an unwarranted buff to its units. Mages, for example, can now heal all towers within range, not just minions. Because, in case you were worried about having to play the game, the game has to be put back in gaminess.

Series EV's utility towers are just as potent as before, but Buff Beam has seen a considerable buff to it scaling. No longer does it "soft-cap" at ~3000 stats, but it goes on forever. Because every Tower Defense game needs an AoE buff tower that can reach absurd levels, right?

Ugh. Ok, so I know my tone hasn't been the best, but this game is frustrating. Not because of the game per-se, but beacuse of the game... Yeah, ok, words are hard. The gameplay itself ultimately isn't any different from Dungeon Defenders 1. Ultimately, I guess that's my fault for being a challenge I thought I'd have to overcome. I mean, Dungeon Defenders 1 was just so stale after a point, so I was hoping Eternity would breathe new life into the game. I honestly was defending the game to my friends because I was certain the game would get better and be a better experience. It's almost embarassing to me.

Anyway, character cap. This game is a huge let-down

I like many, was hyped to see a new Dungeon Defenders release. However, after trying to install and messing around a little, I cannot possibly recommend this. To me, it seems like a expensive patch and if it is indeed an expansion to the first game, then it should be linked to the first game and not its own application.

Also, the lack of solo capability and the online DRM is just not worth it. Sure its pretty. Yes, some of the animations do look cool. But this release was not necessary and to be honest I feel the first game is good enough.

I cant wait for DD2 to come out but am disappointed with this unnecessary release.

EDIT: Single Player is now available. This makes up for some of the disappointment but I still feel that the original DD is better and that this is a step down. There are still no private taverns.

SECOND EDIT: So I gave the game a chance and played all the way to the crystaline dimension level . The reward for beating it was absolutely nothing except for being able to play the new map. While many say this is DD remastered, its a step back because so much is missing from the original DD that I loved. You have all the skins unlocked (some are missing from DD1). No customizable crystal. There is no unique weapon rewards from challenges. Many challenges are not in the game anymore like lab assault. Tavern defense no longer has its 3 bosses and many of the holiday maps are gone. While we gain cool features with armor and a new map, the loss outweighs the gain and thus I recommend sticking with DD1 and waiting for DD2 instead of buying this game.

Everything i used to like about this game, seems to have been redone and come out even worse then before. The controls are clunky, you are forced into mulplayer taverns making it hard to try and party with just 1 or 2 of your friends without being forced to play with random people. The solo game is not longer there anymore and it has 2 interfaces, the Steam one (shift + tab) and another one (F11) but for something thats on steam, ud expect to be able to handle everything via the steam interface, but no, everything from making a party to accepting each indiviudal dungeon entering has to be done via this new interface.

And it gets worse, no longer do i feel like the tavern has interesting items for sale, instead emotes cost $1 each. No longer can i unlock my usless items to sell to get more gold, and i have no reason to play DD anymore. This is an insult to anyone who purchased the original game and any of the DLC attached with it. STAY AWAY!!

EDIT after update 1: Still no private taverns but being able to just play with a friend or two is finally in. However i havent seen any sign of the crafting system. Dyes can be found but good luck finally finding the colours you want but its still long from what the original game was for me.

This is what you get in this game compared to the previous Dungeon Defenders:

.Always online DRM
.GFWL style client + extra logins (Playverse)
.Bad UI
.Worse gamepad support
.Forced on public lobbies (STILL NOT STABLE)
.Unstable matchmaking
.No Steam workshop support
.Worse graphics than on UE3 with poor streaming technology.



This is basically a paid alpha/beta test for DD2 and they have the cheek to call this the "definative edition" even though it lacks a huge amount of features from DD1.

Words can not describe how dissapointed I am with this.
in short, this is a complete cashgrab
It advertises itself as a new improved version, in reality everything is 10 times more clunky, the UI is absolutely horrible and everything feels clunky. Not to mention you can't play alone and you can't make private games, you need to buy dyes to change your characters colour, removing customisation options and armour shows, which in theory sounds good but it just makes your character look really dang dumb if you just mix and match the best armour you find together.

It feels like i'm playing the alpha of DD1, not a remastered version. Complete cashgrab, skip it

[Reviewed a few hours after release, some things may have changed since then]

This was an uneccessary surprise.

Even if you own the original game and every DLC, you still have to pay for Dungeon Defenders Eternity (which already has the DLC unlocked and usable whether you own all the DLC for the original or not.) I highly recommend NOT buying this game if you weren't deeply into the first Dungeon Defenders game.

Dungeon Defenders Eternity has a lot of new added content, but the game is in a pretty bad position. You can not start your own private sessions with friends or play solo, no splitscreen or local multiplayer, you have to create an account on PlayVerse in order to play, you need to stay online to play, it now has a pretty piss-poor UI, Microtransactions. Trendy, wake the ♥♥♥♥ up.

Also, "Secure Online Play - No more hacking! Eternity runs on playverse's secure dedicated servers, so other Defenders can’t cheat their way to the top."

The Leaderboards beg to differ.



Losing hope for Dungeon Defenders 2...

As of its current state, do not purchase Dungeon Defenders Eternity.

First real review so be gentle :3 If I made any errors in this review please feel free to add me or comment on it and I will make the changes needed.

After playing a little bit of DDE and from what friends have told me, I CANNOT recommend Dungeon Defenders Eternity. Long review so if you want to skip to the results then click READ MORE and scroll all the way to the bottom.

First of all DDE was made by Nom Nom Games. NOT by Trendy Entertainment. I'm not going to go beyond the line and say Nom Nom ruined Dungeon Defenders but in my honest opinion they did more bad than good. Someone said that Nom Nom Games is apart of Trendy but I don't know. All I know is that the main team that worked on DD1 did not work on DDE. Lets start out what DDE brought to the table.

Secure Dedicated Servers for anti-hacking protection: This means always online play, even in singleplayer. No more hosting games from your computer. Everyone has to connect to the servers and that means DELAY. if you log on to DD1 and do a map and switch to DDE and do the same map you will feel a major difference. In DD1 I barely saw any hackers and if i did I would kick them immediately.

Character Dye's: You could change the color of your character in the first game. Probably not on the level of DDE but it was still in there. This also ties into new Visible Armor.

Crafting System: While leveling I barely used the crafting system. Crafted items are slightly better than drops but it doesn't really add anything to the game. Really not that different from drops except you need random drops from mana chests in order to craft the item. If you get a good recipe you could probably craft and sell it to other players.

Pet Hatching/Growth System/active abilities: I really didn't care less about the Hatching/growth system. The active abilities seemed neat at first then I forgot about them and never used them. *shrug*

Dashing and mantling systems for better mobility: Dashing was a cool concept that i'm 50/50 on. More mobility but with the laggy servers its hard to use it. Also i didn't even know there was a mantling system... Never used it.

Weapon Swapping between two weapon sets: Didn't use this one either, i'm guessing it works just like how Series E.V. works where she has 2 weapons and you click your button and it switches to another weapon. The old DD UI was fine with swapping gear/weapons. Maybe its a little bit more convenient but I didn't use it.

Community Tavern: Forcing players to be social isn't always the greatest thing. I would much rather have my own tavern that showcases all my trophy's and items that I want to drop on the floor than have a big community tavern with random people that i've never met before and barely talk in chat.

Quickmatch: I never used this in DD1 and never used it in here. I play DD with people on my friends list and so I never had a use for it. I dont know why this is a "new feature" because DD1 had it as well.

New currency, Gold coins. Instead of using mana to upgrade and buy gear from other players and the innkeeper, it is now gold.

Yatta yatta yatta Cross platform play, *shrug* One DD account and that means you keep your progression on your android devices so that can be kinda cool if you have an Android device and you play DDE on there. 34 new equipable emotes that you have to purchase for REAL MONEY.

They seem to take away a lot more content from the first DD and then put in less content. I didn't get a chance to try the new content so I don't have anything to say on the new maps. New Rebalanced missions, I actually failed on Alchemical Laboratory on Normal with my countess but I played again and comepleted the mission.

Rebalanced stat system for a greater effect on late game, didn't get a chance to see this one either.

Survival Mode was revised and its shorter play times, constantly running around looking at loot drops because they disappear more frequently than DD1 and that can get you killed easily which means if you are playing on Hardcore, good luck. The shorter play times can be a bonus to some players but i loved going for long gaming sessions with friends, seeing how far we can get on a certain map.

Hardcore mode has better rewards but has Perma-Death. I can see it being fun but for a game like DD where you need to try different builds and see what works and what doesn't, i'm a bit iffy on that. I think they're reworking Hardcore so take this part with a grain of salt.

You do get all 12 Heroes, (Squire,Huntress,Apprentice,Monk,Countess,Hunter,Adept,Initiate,Barbarian,Series E.V.,Jester,Summoner. the original campaign including Lost Eternity Shards and 7 challenge missions, 5 bonus missions (Glitterhelm, Karathiki, Tavern Siege, City In The Cliffs, Tinkerer’s Lab) and Akatit Jungle, Palantir. and then the original DD costumes.

UI feels clunky and difficult to learn. DD1 had a much better UI and it felt more responsive and it was very easy to get the hang of it. Playverse, I just hate. Its just like Uplay. I don't need another thing between me and my game. I have steam and I love steam and I don't want anyone to get in the way of something that already works really well. You bring up Playverse by clicking F11 so it just feels disconnected from everything. Its difficult to invite friends and to join them and even talk to them. It feels clunky and id much rather use the steam overlay.

-------Results-------

I give Dungeon Defenders Eternity a 6/10. DDE wasn't needed at all in the first place and I bought it because it had Dungeon Defenders in the title, after playing and realising that it wasn't developed by Trendy, I felt cheated. Some of the new features are nice but there are more bad than good. For $15 you are getting a lot more content then if you bought Dungeon Defenders for the same price. However, if you are willing to spend a little extra for DLC please consider buying Dungeon Defenders, you will get a better gaming experience than if you would if you bought DDE.

Hopefully you found my review helpful and if you need more information feel free to add me and I will do the best I can to answer your question.

Stay Away at least for now. The always online function is not working very well, constantly goign down and preventing play. Net code is bad causing rubber banding and warping as well.

It may mature into a good game when they fix these MAJOR issues but i advise waiting to see.

Just to note, that when it doesn't lag, lets you actually play and doesnt fail it is fun to play but it does need a lot of work.

This joke of a 'definitive version' made me lose all hope in the future of Dungeon Defenders.

Don't bother with this till it actually works would be my recommendation.


You can't make or join game sessions. I'll revisit my review when I actually get to try to join a map.

Revisit 1: what a difference a day makes, a tiny patch and we get:

Games can be launched so you can actually play
Solo hosting of dungeons

As it's all streamed running in and hitting stuff seems a bit hit and miss especially if your trying to dodge their attacks back at you hopefully that'll improve.

The rest seems like classic Dungeon Defenders. After a bit more play maybe it'll grow on me more for now I'd say wait as it may just need some tweaks to make bring it up to being something I'd recommend.