Bite-sized Review:
D.O.T Defence

By Chris Picone, 14 June, 2026

I'll admit, I picked up D.O.T defence (I don't know what stands for either...) expecting a fairly generic tower defence game.  Turns out, it's a bit of a hybrid - it's definitely an RTS, but there are definitely elements of TD threaded throughout. Rattleaxe have merged the two genres nicely, added some roguelike elements, and then taken a quirky approach to the whole thing. The end result? A really fun, unique experience that had me coming back for more.

Aesthetics

I'm not sure how to describe the art style. Low-res but not that real chunky low-res; not cartoony exactly, but boxy and simplified; almost like a phone game but not soulless. Very colourful, though also colour-coded to make it super easy to see which team controls what. The UI's extremely minimal, the units and buildings all very easy to identify, and the animations are surprisingly splashy and fun. 

Gameplay

DOT sells itself as a "simplified" experience, I think mostly because most of the movement, production, and control is "automated" (although you can determine paths to direct your troops). Having said that, I found DOT to be rather diverse and surprisingly deep in many ways.  First, there are three factions, each wildly different to the other in terms of gameplay. The "default" humans control a wide array of infantry, troops, turrets, all of which behave as expected. The Chroma team feature swarms of zombies, numerous but weak - and replaceable as you raise enemy dead to join your legions. There's also a third, alien faction, but I don't want to spoil all the game's secrets. The game offers an extensive collection of buildings, units, special abilities, maps, and commanders, unlockable by beating levels across the game's three modes - campaign, wave defence, and skirmish.  This is part of what makes the game so more-ish; you're constantly given new toys to play with and new enemies and challenges to face as you progress.  However, you're only allowed to select one commander (which determines both the stat bonuses you receive for the level as well as your special abilities) and four building types each level, which means you have to constantly adjust your strategy, so no two levels ever feel the same.  Then on top of that there's also a huge range of mission variety; all your classics like base defence, wave defence, capture-the-flag, free-for-all, race-against-the-clock, stealth missions... and there are even levels where you get to manually control a super tank or a giant zombie hulk. It's just such a cool game.

Verdict

DOT Defence is bloody awesome, I'm genuinely surprised at how deep and diverse the gameplay is, it feels really fresh and unique, I'm totally hooked.  Would cheerfully recommend to fans of tactical games regardless of which genre they normally pigeonhole themselves into.  And the fact that it has such a generous campaign, two other game modes, and also offers up to four person multiplayer, it's a no-brainer - DOT just has so much to offer. 

Links: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3124850/DOT_Defence/