Dawn Of Defense Steam Demo Review
Verdict: Play
Viking Tower Defense where you hold trench lines and push RTS island captures on the same run, and the land you hold ban
Most Tower Defense games play out on one battlefield. Dawn Of Defense gives you two at the same time, and that one idea makes it more interesting than a lot of the Tower Defense games I saw during Steam Tower Defense Fest. Dawn Of Defense is from 6side Studio. You are a Viking tribe pushing back against an empire, mixing Tower Defense, RTS land battles, and Roguelike runestone upgrades in one loop. Single-player, planned for Q4 2026 with no price listed when I played. My verdict is Play. Not my most enthusiastic Play on the channel, but a solid Play for Tower Defense fans who want more than placing towers and watching.
Dawn Of Defense earns a Play if you want Tower Defense with a land-war economy attached. Two fronts at once is the hook, runestone pivots keep runs moving, and catapult greed will humble you fast. Not the loudest Play on the channel, but worth your time if you like juggling trench defense with island pushes.
Pros
- Dual battlefield design makes island captures fund trench defenses instead of feeling like a separate minigame
- Runestone picks that shift from economy to tower power give each run a readable arc
- Procedural map layouts force different defense spreads instead of one solved lane every time
- Catapult-heavy moments feel great until a wave punishes lazy one-build planning
- More active than classic Tower Defense if you want RTS land pushes in the same session
Cons
- Gold economy stays tight even when you lean income runestones early, so you still triage towers, support buildings, and troop bills
- Rough edges show alongside the strong core loop
Two battlefields, one run
This is Tower Defense with a second front that actually matters. You build towers to defend your trenches against incoming waves while your hero and troops are out on the map conquering islands in real-time tactics fights. The more islands you hold at the end of the run, the more gold lands in the bank.
The land battle is not flavour text. It funds your defenses between waves. You spend that gold on towers, support buildings that generate more income, and troops for the next push. If you like juggling two problems at once, the pitch lands fast.
Runestones, routes, and roguelike map rolls
At the end of each round you pick runestone upgrades. Early on I grabbed economy boosts, things like a flat 250 gold bump. Later I shifted to tower range and damage. That change in priority as the run develops is satisfying, and it gives the Roguelike layer teeth without turning the session into a menu simulator.
The map changes every run. Sometimes you are only defending one or two attack routes. Sometimes four or more open up, and the more lines of attack you have, the thinner your defenses get spread. A bad map draw can make a run feel punishing in ways that are not obvious until you have done a few of them. That is procedural pressure, not a tutorial failure, but worth knowing if you expect every seed to teach you gently.
Catapults, health swings, and a tight gold economy
My best moment was going all in on catapults and sitting back while they smashed through waves. I felt like a genius. Then one round hit and I lost almost all my health at once. Turns out you need real depth in your Strategy, not one trick. The game punishes one-build runs when a wave finally finds the hole.
Gold economy felt tight throughout. Even when I prioritized income runestones early, I still struggled to afford everything I wanted across towers, support income, and troop pushes. That might be a skill issue on my side, and it probably is, but it is the kind of pressure you should expect going in rather than assuming one economy pick fixes the whole run.
At the time I played, Steam listed the demo as Very Positive across dozens of reviews, and I broadly agreed. Rough edges are real, but the core loop is generally good for Tower Defense fans who want active decision-making beyond passive tower watching.
Game Info
- Developer
- 6side Studio
- Publisher
- 6side Studio, Rekoup
- Expected release
- Q4 2026
- Platform
- PC
- Multiplayer
- No
- Controller
- No
- Playtime
- 1h
Watch the video review: YouTube
Tags: Tower Defense, Strategy, Roguelike, Indie, Base Builder, PvE
Appears in
- Steam Medieval Fest 2026: Steam Medieval Fest runs until April 27th and I played every demo worth your time so you don't have to. Three made the cut. A Viking tower defence roguelite, a city builder on wheels, and a goblin jester stamping decrees while trying not to lose his entire population to bandits. All free. All worth an hour of your time before the fest ends.
- Steam Tower Defense Fest 2026: Steam Tower Defense Fest runs until March 16th and throws a lot of demos at you. I played three of them. One has two battlefields running simultaneously, one is a mobile port that somehow still works, and one looks like someone spilled Skittles on a fantasy battlefield. Here's what's worth your time.
Related Reviews
- Ironfront Express: Ironfront Express is a Bullet Hell tower defence roguelike where you are the train, and every layer of the game keeps ru
- Slotbound: A roguelike auto-battler where you spin a 3x3 slot machine to summon your army instead of choosing it. I meant to give i
- Castillon: A bite-sized medieval fantasy of build-by-day, defend-by-night that's part strategy, part Tower Defense, part city build
- Fangstorm: A first-person wave defense game where goblins ignore your carefully placed traps because you forgot there are three rou
- UnderDark: Defense: UnderDark: Defense has a solid core buried under an unfinished mobile port.
- Silky Road: A roguelike Auto Battler where you build a train cart by cart and it fights off the waves for you while you manage the m