Defend or Die

There’s something about the idea of plucky defenders holding the line against an overwhelming attack that seems to resonate with a large number of people.

There have been whole genres born from the situation - the popular tower and castle defence titles - and now it forms the basis for the action-shooter Defend or Die.

While those two genres rely on strategy and planning to overcome insurmountable odds, DoD takes a more one-man-army approach.

Defend or Die puts you in control of a plucky soldier, desperately hunkered down in a trench and assailed by enemy soldiers hell-bent on clearing you from your position.

Running left to right across the fortification, your man has to use his incredible slow-firing rifle to fight against the tide, picking up enemy grenades and throwing them back before they explode.

Due to the slow-firing nature of the rifle, it’s very easy to let at least one enemy slip by your defence, allowing them to merrily leg it up to the player’s character and start thwacking them. Thankfully, you also get a shovel to thwack them back before they do too much damage – who needs guns?

Adding to the mix are power-ups dropped from enemy corpses including air strikes, grenades, machine guns, missile-launchers, and health kits.

Gaining this vital final power-up requires some tactics, as it’s only dropped by enemy medics as they rush on to resuscitate fallen comrades wounded in battle.

Leave these fellows unattended for too long and they’ll bring the soldier back to life so they can continue rushing your position. Shoot the injured man too quickly and the medic won’t bother appearing on screen.

It’s a simple game to play, then, but strangely addictive at the same time.

The levels progressively get tougher in a smooth difficulty curve, with more enemies flinging themselves valiantly/hopelessly against your defence as the game goes on.

Even on the easiest difficulty setting, which the game defaults to, things can get very hectic very quickly, leading to annoying situations in which your character chooses to use the shovel instead of throwing an about-to-explode grenade away.

Along with the occasionally strange choice of action due to the single 'fire/action' button, it’s also disappointing that there aren’t more modes like an endless score attack to go along with the structured levels.

Because of this, Defend or Die should offer up an enjoyable enough defence to make it worth investing in a quick attack, but it won’t hold out on your mobile for as long as it should.