Line #2 VideoGame/ISDefense


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/is_defense.png]]
2	''IS Defense'' is a game developed by the Polish studio Destructive Creations (best known for their debut game ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'') and released on April 19th, 2016 on [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] through UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. It is set in an [[AlternateHistory alternate 2020]], where the Islamic State has taken over the entire Middle East and North Africa region, and began sending boats full of terrorists en-masse in order to overwhelm Europe.
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4	You play as a lone UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} guard, stuck in his turret and tasked with repelling the invasion. You shoot at the boats and other attackers with a machine gun and a rocket launcher. These can be upgraded through earning skill points, and you also receive extra support through killstreaks, which can be upgraded themselves. There are three levels: Sicilian Shores, Spanish Harbor and Croatian Mainland, which are considered completed once you manage to kill a requisite number of terrorists and destroy enough of their vehicles.
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6	!! Tropes present in IS Defense:
7	* ArtificialStupidity: The terrorist machine gun pickups and the Hummers are programmed to park in one of the three specific spots (depending on whether they arrive from the beach, or from the hills to the left and right) before they start shooting. They don't take any obstacles that are already there into account, so you'll soon them drive straight into the remains of their predecessors. On Spanish Harbor, you can also see them drive straight at the destroyed parts of the environment like fallen lamp-posts, dragging them right in front of themselves.
8	** Allied infantry will not try to get out of the enemy vehicles' way and often end up run over. They also don't think to stand clear of parked vehicles while shooting them, even though the explosions will invariably kill them if they are too close. After you summon enough of them, they can also end up standing right in front of your own turret, and not get out of the way of your fire.
9	* AttackablePickup: Because the player character is stuck in his turret, you only get to use the ammo or health crates dropped from the air by shooting them.
10	* BattleInTheRain: Played straight in the Spanish Harbor mission, where the weather gets stormier the longer you hold out.
11	* BloodlessCarnage: The dead bodies do not bleed at all, which is particularly strange given the developer's reputation.
12	* BottomlessMagazines: Your basic machine gun has a 200 bullet magazine, which can be reloaded infinitely. The ultimate machine gun skill eliminates the need to reload as well.
13	* CarFu: The pickup trucks and the hummers will easily run over any infantry you summon that's in their way. Then again, it might be their fault for not trying to get out of their predetermined paths themselves.
14	* CriticalExistenceFailure: The player character's effectiveness is unaffected by his wounds. Equally, even the basic motorboats will not move any slower after they got riddled with bullets and are a hit away from exploding.
15	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The screen gets monochrome red and black when you are inches away from death.
16	* DefeatEqualsExplosion: Applies to all of the terrorist vehicles. Even if you only shoot at the front of the hull of a motorboat, nowhere near its engine, it'll still explode and not sink.
17	* DoNotRunWithAGun: Both the pickup trucks (and the Hummers) will only fire their machine gun once they've stopped, and usually the driver will have to get out and occupy the turret under your fire as well, when in reality the ability to shoot while moving is the whole point.
18	* EndlessGame: Each of the levels goes on indefinitely, up until you get killed. Hitting the requisite number of kills is only important for unlocking the next level, and then, the ending cutscene.
19	* EnemyDetectingRadar: Unlocked with the [=UAV=] skill.
20	* EverythingFades: Averted. Survive long enough, and the level will be absolutely littered with dead bodies and piles of wreckage.
21	* FogOfWar: The Sicilian shores are very foggy to make your job harder.
22	* FriendlyFireproof: Averted, as you can hit allied infantry with careless gunfire. It you end up detonating enemy vehicles, the explosion will take out any of the allied infantry as well.
23	* HeavilyArmoredMook: The landing crafts are this next to the motorboats, as they are slower, but can only be taken down by rockets, usually requiring three of them. It's often wiser to let them reach the shore, and then blow up the pickup trucks as they drive out, since they'll just move back home after everyone disembarked.
24	** The Hummers act as a heavily armored equivalent to a pickup truck.
25	* ImmobilePlayerCharacter: You are completely stuck inside your turret, and cannot abandon it at any point.
26	* ItsUpToYou: The large section of the beach is defended by a single turret. You do receive support by gaining killstreaks, though it's a little strange: apparently, the NATO command is far more willing to fly large transport planes to drop 1-2 crates of health and ammo (1st killstreak tier), or even to send in an airstrike (4th tier) then to send attack choppers (5th tier), when logic suggests the latter is much more cost-effective. Those choppers do not even have missiles at first: you have to spend skill points to get that upgrade.
27	** It's also willing to send an unlimited number of infantry to support your position, but only does so squad-by-squad. These troops still leave the approaches to your sides undefended, occasionally forcing you to repel flanking attacks from inland.
28	* KillStreak: There are five grades of killstreak rewards, and claiming one resets the counter.
29	** Supply crate drop: either provides extra rockets or health. Can be upgraded to drop two crates at once, or to make one health crate always restore your entire health.
30	** Infantry squad: A group of soldiers that'll shoot at all the enemies with their rifles. Can be upgraded into the Special Forces, who get more health.
31	** Artillery strike: Drops of a series of powerful, but inaccurate shells. Can be upgraded to become more damaging.
32	** Air strike: Much more powerful attack, which essentially clears out the entire beach. Can be made even stronger.
33	** Attack choppers: Calls in helicopters, which will hover above to shoot the terrorists with machine guns. Can be upgraded to use rockets as well.
34	* LifeDrain: One of the skills has you restore a bit of health with every kill.
35	* MetaMultiplayer: There's a leaderboard in the top-right corner, which lists your current score and position for that level, and that of the players immediately above and below you.
36	* MoreDakka: Intense Fire and Double Fire upgrades amount to this.
37	* PropagandaPiece: The game's obvious parallel to the real-world rhetoric around the refugee crisis was apparently [[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/aek3da/is-defense-is-islamophobia-the-game fully intentional]]. On the other hand, ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'' developer Rami Ismail thought that the game explicitly defining its terrorists as [=IS=] already made it superior to a typical [=AAA=] shooter set in the Middle East, because those "seem to assume any human alive in the Middle East exists purely to shoot at the 'heroic American'"..
38	* RandomlyDrops: It's completely random whether the supply crates dropped by NATO planes will contain health or ammo.
39	* RegeneratingHealth: One of the earliest Player skills available.
40	* RPGElements: The player earns skill points that are invested in one of four categories: Player, Machine Gun, Rocket Launcher and Support. These upgrades are also carried over into your next playthroughs.
41	* SequelHook: The ending has [[spoiler:the [=NATO=] alliance counter-attack the Islamic State in North Africa after your efforts repelled your invasion, and defeat them in their entirety, while also installing puppet governments in those nations and taking the remaining resources in those countries for themselves. Meanwhile, Russia and China, which have already freed Syria and Iraq from [=IS=] before the immediate events of the game, have also pushed into Turkey and Saudi Arabia, thus setting up the next conflict.]]
42	* ShoutOut: The Spanish Harbor level has a bunch of civilian cars parked around the place. One of them is pretty clearly styled after the [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Mystery Machine]].
43	* SloMo: Blowing up enemy vehicles up close briefly activates this.
44	* SuicideAttack: Boats will frequently contain suicide bombers.
45	* WeHaveReserves: Interestingly, it's played straight for both sides: while the terrorist hordes are clearly infinite and undeterred by seeing corpses and wreckage of dozens of their predecessors, you can also call in infantry squads an indefinite number of times. The end-of-level stats don't even mention how many of your allied infantry got killed.
46	* YouAllLookFamiliar: There's exactly one model for all of the vehicle and infantry types. The [=NATO=] infantry on your side will wear different kind of uniform depending on the level (i.e. sandy uniforms on the Sicilian levels, but forest camo in the docks of the Spanish Harbor) but are otherwise identical to each other.

Context VideoGame / ISDefense