DG2: Defense Grid 2

Verdict

Defense Grid taught a generation what good tower defence feels like: aliens walk a path to your power cores, carry them back out, and you build on the grid to make that walk as long and as lethal as possible. The sequel keeps the calm, the clarity and the chatty AI companions, adds proper maze-building on open maps, and brings a two-player co-op that still works well.

It is twelve years old and looks it, the campaign is ten hours, and the studio moved on long ago. None of that matters much at £8.50. It is the game we hand to anyone who asks where to start, and the Aftermath add-on is a sensible extra chapter.

Towers 16 of 20

Ten towers, three levels each, with a handful of boost towers and one-use commands. Every tower has a clear job and the upgrade is a straight improvement; it is a textbook kit rather than a surprising one.

Lanes 18 of 20

Twenty-one campaign maps plus the five voiced missions of Aftermath, which arrived in March 2026, ten years after launch, many with open build areas where the maze is yours to draw, and all with the core-carrying twist that makes long paths doubly valuable. The best pure mazing on this list.

Waves 16 of 20

Waves are shown in advance with the alien types, air units bypass the maze, and the challenge modes (fixed resources, fewer cores, a single tower type) are a proper set of hard modes. The campaign itself is gentle.

Economy 16 of 20

Resources from kills and from interest on what you have not spent, so holding money back is a strategy. Simple, elegant, and nothing to buy beyond the one add-on.

Longevity 14 of 20

Co-op, head-to-head, challenge modes, a map architect and leaderboards, but no new content in a decade and a small community. What is here is polished and finished.

In pictures

Report written against the Steam build current on 31 October 2026; prices read the same day.