History YMMV / DefenseGridTheAwakening

** From ''DG2,'' 'Master Strategist', which requires you to earn 100 Gold medals. Problem is, the game just isn't that long- you'll have unlocked the ''second'' most grindy achievement ('Xenocide', which requires you to kill 50,000 enemies) ''long'' before you've played enough levels to earn 100 Gold medals. 100 levels is a ''lot'' of play, especially when that by necessity includes challenge modes...

** To make matters worse, the general consensus is that there's literally only ''one'' mission in the entire game where getting the achievement is even ''physically possible-'' Barrier to Entry. ''Any'' map featuring [[ScrappyMechanic fliers]] is automatically a no-go (as, unlike Gun and Cannon towers, Inferno towers can't hit fliers at all) a lot of the maps without fliers still have wave and grid layouts that simply make it impossible for you get enough firepower in position to win on Challenge with only the piss-weak Infernos to draw on, and the earliest and easiest missions like Assessing the Threat simply [[ThatBattleDidntCount don't count for the achievement]] [[BecauseISaidSo because they say so]]. And even Barrier to Entry is ''ridiculously'' hard to beat with only Infernos, largely because of an early wave of Bulwarks whose shields let them ''laugh'' at your firepower.

* ScrappyMechanic: Fliers from ''DG1.'' They don't follow the path that all the other units do, are immune to the attacks of all towers except Gun, Cannon and Missile (which are [[CripplingOverspecialisation useless for anything EXCEPT killing fliers, which they do with ABSURD efficiency]]), and if they grab a core then it's lost forever even if you shoot them down. They're so radically removed from the rest of the game's mechanics (and such an utterly token addition, basically just requiring you to waste a few hundred resource on a couple of level 1 Missile towers to be able to ignore them completely) that they're almost an OutOfGenreExperience and were ''completely'' removed from the sequel, with absolutely ''nobody'' missing them (Missile towers were repurposed as a more precise variant on Meteor towers).

** To make matters worse, the general consensus is that there's literally only ''one'' mission in the entire game where getting the achievement is even ''physically possible-'' Barrier to Entry. ''Any'' map featuring [[ScrappyMechanic fliers]] is automatically a no-go (as, unlike Gun and Cannon towers, Inferno towers can't hit fliers at all) a lot of the maps without fliers still have wave and grid layouts that simply make it impossible for you get enough firepower in position to win on Challenge with only the piss-weak Infernos to draw on, and the earliest and easiest missions like Assessing the Threat simply [[ThatBattleDidntCount don't count for the achievement]] [[BecauseISaySo because they say so]]. And even Barrier to Entry is ''ridiculously'' hard to beat with only Infernos, largely because of an early wave of Bulwarks whose shields let them ''laugh'' at your firepower.

* MostWonderfulSound: General Fletcher's praising words once the map is over is nothing short of satisfactory to hear.

** [[MarathonLevel Grinder and Super Grinder]] challenges for those going for the gold medal. You'll easily earn enough Resources to have 10 gold medals' worth of points, but you still need to finish with no cores lost; few things are more frustrating than being on wave 99 and failing to notice an alien head out with a core in tow until it's too late.

** [[MarathonLevel Grinder and Super Grinder]] challenges for those going for the gold medal. You'll easily earn enough Resources to have 10 gold medals' worth of points, but you still need to finish with no cores lost; few things are more frustrating than seeing a core go bye-bye on the 99th wave.

* ContestedSequel: From removing the interest resource gaining mechanic to the implementation of micro-transactions in community maps, let's just say some people didn't take kindly to the sequel.[[note]]Classic Open mode was added in 03/24 which features [=DG2=] maps using the same interest mechanic of [=DG1: The Awakening=][[/note]]

* ContestedSequel: From removing the interest resource gaining mechanic to the implementation of micro-transactions in community maps, let's just say some people didn't take kindly to the sequel.

** In some scenarios Meteor towers can easily dominate the battlefield. Great range, not very expensive, huge spread damage. Combine them with temporal towers + good maze guns for mopping up the survivors and bulkies, relax and enjoy. On the other hand, speedsters and isolated enemies draw their fire from clusters (resulting in overkill or miss) so the balance is cleverly maintained in most scenarios.

** The Landing Pods in ''Defense Grid 2''. These things always drop ''right next to the core housing'' and drops aliens there, long range towers (Cannon and Missiles) have the tendency to ignore them and keep firing on other aliens and sometimes you don't have the option to build short range towers close to them. Landing Pods become even more dangerous in Frozen Core challenges as if an alien so as much touches the core, it '''won't''' float back to its housing.

** In the sequel the Super Grinder challenge of Overlook can be hair-pulling difficult due to EarlyGameHell. You have only Boost, Gun, Inferno, Laser and Meteor towers for this mission and without Temporals to slow down Racers and Rumblers the player might realize how difficult things can get and how easy is to see everything spiral out of control because of Suppressors exploding and jamming your towers in the worst moment possible.

* ThatOneBoss: Crashers are this for the unaware. What makes them so difficult is the fact they very rarely come alone and by the time they die they can be midway to the exit carrying three cores and leaving them as easy pickings for smaller, more fragile enemies.

* GoddamnedBats: Swarmers are this especially early on some maps. Since they come in such large numbers it's easy for them to snatch a core one alien left after dying and slip by your defenses moving away from the map.

** Double Take in ''Defense Grid 2'', especially on Hard and Elite. You won't have access to any special ability here, so no orbital laser, tower empowering, instant resources or slowdown beam. To make things worse there are two core housings, so you also need to place towers carefully as you won't be able to fix a mistake with a special ability.

** Neither Cai or Simon has it easy, their home world was overran by the aliens and they are desperately struggling to save the people.

* DemonicSpiders: Seekers. Unreasonably tough and prone to spawning large numbers of a variety of other aliens in front of them. Even worse, the game's guns almost always tend to lock onto the expendable cannon fodder they're spawning, letting them make absurd progress practically untouched by your defenses.

* ThatOneLevel: Some levels in ''Defense Grid 1'' has the aliens starting ''extremely'' close to the cores granting that your interest incoming will be severely affected. Naturally these levels tend to be very hard and annoying also due to the fact cores will be floating constantly and aliens will be in a tug-of-war with you until the very end of the map.

** Balanced Building forces you to build one type of tower before you can set a second of the same type. Add that to some levels that ''really'' difficult on their own and you'll be pulling your hairs out of head in no time.

** Decoys. Reasonably though and they give aliens cloaking ability and without a Command tower (or Disruptor in the Boost tower in ''Defense Grid 2'') the other towers will focus only on the Decoy ignoring the others until it dies, by that point aliens can be either past through you main line of defenses or running away with a core.

** Neither Cai or Simmon has it easy, their home world was overran by the aliens and they are desperately struggling to save the people.