Chaotic “one-screen” RTS game D.O.T Defence pushes fast-paced action and auto-battler vibes into a usually more tactical genre to great effect. I just wish I wanted to actually carry on playing it. But there’s something that every game has to do, no matter how inspired the core idea: Respect the player’s time.
Within minutes of starting D.O.T Defence you know what you’re in for: Fast decision making, automated battlelines that to-and-fro as you micromanage constructing buildings, using command abilities and sending turrets out on train tracks to assault enemy bases. It’s madness, but it’s immediately fun.
It’s a shame, then, that according to steam achievement rates the game is currently set to lose the majority of its players before they even finish the first of the four different faction campaigns. Where does it all go wrong?
“One-Screen RTS” is an inspired concept
It definitely doesn’t go wrong at the conceptual stage, because on paper this game slaps. Many missions are confined to just one screen, you don’t need to zoom in or out or pan the camera around, you just manipulate units, build bases and activate abilities while having the entire map visible. Seeing the enemy commander’s cursor is a nice touch, and really makes it feel like a board game or tabletop wargame rather than actual warfare. That vibe fits perfectly with the overly-macho, tongue-in-cheek depiction of your first commander, making the satire clear and the vibes immaculate.
In terms of gameplay you’re on a map with roads and bases. Units will walk along roads to a nearby base and try to capture it. If you control a base then it vividly showcases your team colour, and likewise for the enemy. It’s a dramatic game of paint-by-numbers where sometimes using an entire base’s Stock (Its building capacity) to make a single tank factory can be a decision that turns the tide of the game.
There’s only minor control over actual units, with most of your input being limited to which buildings and turrets you spend each base’s Stock on. These decisions make-or-break attempts, and it can be a steep learning curve as to what strategies will really work out for you. This is where the cracks start to form…
If at first you don’t succeed, repeat mundane content
Any wrong move or accident will either force you to wait for new units and ability cooldowns, or fail the mission and force a restart.
No checkpoints, no quick-saves, no rewind system.
While trial and error might be a valid learning method for the missions that take place on one screen when you typically only need to defend one base (in a sort of tower-defence style match) or capture an enemy stronghold (encouraging you to capture bases, build an army and then blitz them), it’s far less suitable for the longer-form campaign missions.
The two that spring to mind, and that I suspect are the reason the Steam achievement rate for completing Campaign 1 is so low, are a mission involving specialist Scout units and a mission involving a Super Tank.
The scouting mission puts you in an underdog situation — vastly outnumbered and outgunned. Your new building type can make exclusive units based on the space you place it though, and these happen to be Scouts. Scouts can sneak past automated defences like turrets, but still have to fight and capture bases like usual. This meant careful pathfinding was vital, but also that the second they resumed their automated behaviour you could easily lose a squad of Scouts and have to wait for more (who’ll hopefully be more obedient).
Losing such vital units and progress wouldn’t feel so bad in a quick one-screen game that lasts two minutes, but these longer-form missions can be up to 10 minutes. In missions with multiple stages and time limits, the lack of any autosave or rewind mechanic is overly harsh. It’s not like the first five minutes of that mission will be fun to replay, it’s just a grinding process back to the pivotal decision or moment.
D.O.T Defence feels like it was built specifically for the defence and takeover game modes, and the longer campaign missions are completely devoid of the QoL they’d need to really shine. The mission concepts aren’t bad, and that sort of variety is needed in an RTS campaign, but the infrastructure isn’t there to support missions of this nature.
Huge amounts of unit and turret variety…that is hard to care about
Outside that one Scouts mission, the game does a poor job at making the new unit types and synergies actually interesting. The idea of placing unit production or turret buildings on specific tiles to change how they behave is fantastic, but the actual payoff is lost in the mess of the battle. I’d quite often be able to distinguish between the firepower of my tanks, turrets and infantry, but I’d have no idea the effectiveness of specific special infantry like Snipers or Scouts.
On some level the game is designed to be an auto-battler that you, as commander, need to keep supplied with units and munitions. But, then the unit variety and the ability to create paths for your army implies a deeper level of control and more traditional RTS values. This dichotomy leaves the game feeling great at times and completely pointless at others. I can imagine caring about what specials I make, and where on the map they are positioned, but the reality is the game doesn’t give me the tools or data I’d need to actually do that.
Every game devolves into a simple battle of attrition, and you hope your side pumps out enough units and destroys enough enemies that you win.
Stick to Skirmish and Defence for a great little time-killer
Annoyingly, new Skirmish and Defence maps are locked behind campaign progress. But, if you get as far as your patience allows in the campaign and then simply choose to play the superior one-screen game modes, you’ll find plenty to enjoy in D.O.T Defence. Levels with train tracks are particularly fun, as turrets (usually stationary) can be built on train carts to go whizzing around the map, barraging enemies they zip past as they go.
There’s a lot of fun to be had, I just wish it would let me do so.
D.O.T Defence is now available on PC
