A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this game.
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Positive Messages
some
Though Dungeon Defenders: Awakened pulls focus towards gameplay instead of its story, there are many opportunities for cooperative gameplay between players and overall positive messages about what can be achieved when teams work together.
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Positive Role Models
a little
Characters in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened all have their own separate strengths, but they are all focused on the same goal -- defending Etheria from monster invaders. But they don't really interact with each other much, leaving a narrator to tell every part of the story. This doesn't leave the heroes with many opportunities to model positive traits.
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Diverse Representations
very little
Most characters wear masks or are nonhuman, though a good thing is that there is an almost equal number of characters who are male-presenting and female-presenting. Players are also free to name their characters whatever they want and change the appearance of certain armor items to their preference, beyond items being limited to characters with a specific gender expression.
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Ease of Play
a lot
There are multiple difficulty levels in the campaign story mode, including a more intense "hardcore" mode, offerring wide appeal to players of all experience levels. But controls can be a bit awkward for console players, and the tutorials offered don't do the best job of orienting new players.
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Violence & Scariness
a little
A main goal is to use defense mechanisms such as beams, walls, and magic barriers to block the invading monsters from reaching Eternia's energy cores. So, while all violence committed starts off with this defensive goal, there are still weapons such as swords and laser guns that players will use on the monsters throughout each level.
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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
very little
The team's "home base" is located in a tavern with a bartender and barrels of what is presumably alcohol lining the walls. No character is shown drinking onscreen.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.
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Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Dungeon Defenders: Awakened is a downloadable tower-defense style RPG (role-playing game) for Windows, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Players enter the world of Eternia and must defend the land from goblin-like monsters who wish to take it over using several different character classes, defenses, and weapons. Players can approach this task alone or with up to three friends in a cooperative play mode. Gameplay consists of three stages -- a "warm-up" phase, a "build" phase, and a "combat" phase, giving players the opportunity to strategize and rebuild their defenses between waves of monsters. As for potentially inappropriate content, there's fantasy violence including the use of laser guns, swords, and other weapons, which characters are encouraged to use in addition to their defensive devices. Also, the team's in-game headquarters is located in a tavern, complete with a bartender and barrels that are presumably filled with alcohol. But no characters drink alcohol onscreen and only a very short portion of play time is spent in this location.
What’s It About?
DUNGEON DEFENDERS: AWAKENED is a story about a team of four heroes -- a Huntress, an Apprentice, a Monk, and a Squire -- who must continuously defend their homeland, Etheria, from invasion by monsters known as the Old Ones. At the beginning of the story, the team's strong and has much experience fighting these battles, but one day they are faced with a mysterious time rift that sends them back into the past. Suspecting that the time rift is somehow caused by the Old Ones as they seek revenge, the four must regain their powers and learn how to return back to the present day, all while keeping the Old Ones away from Etheria's energetic cores, called "Etheria Crystals" in-game. Along with the four heroes mentioned, all of which can be switched between during the "warm-up" phase at every level, players can also take on a Rogue, Warden, or Cyborg character to help the main cast with their campaign. Each level is broken up into three stages: the warm-up phase, where players can change their characters, weapons, and gear, the "build" phase, where characters use in-game currency to build defense structures like walls, laser beams, and tree-like roots, and finally the "combat" phase, where five waves of enemies attack the defense structures with hopes of reaching the level's Eternia crystal or crystals.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about fantasy violence in video games. Is the impact of the violence in Dungeon Defenders: Awakened affected by the kind of fantasy violence included in the title? Would the impact be more intense if the violence was more realistic? How can your family compare and contrast the violence you may see in the game versus violent news events you may hear about in real life?
How can your family make decisions about which titles they feel are worth buying and which they might want to skip over, especially if a game's re-released for a new system?
