So I loved DD/DD2, but so many complaints are correct.
It is made by Trendy and I have no idea what their end game goal is/was but it certainly is not long term money or a good game. I would seriously pay the 15$ or whatever we pay to standard MMOs for a seriously good Action TD game. I LOVE the idea of DD and in many ways it was a good game.
I will not go in to the bitch fest of details as to why both DD and DD2 are a complete and sad fuck up, but I can sum it up in a few simple points.
1.) Complete lack of connection to players. Again I could list out 50 details of this but basically I have no idea what they are doing. Even if you ignore that the game will never be a blockbuster with 10+ million subs like WoW they could make 10 changes that would get them a solid player base of 250k. They flat out either refuse or are incapable, we will never know because they do not communicate to the player base outside of patch notes or lame random comments. The concept of the game and heroes from the ground up is shit, so when they build it becomes a shit pile. But seriously it could be turned around so easy. I am NOT an armchair developer. But I do know business and I do love TDs and it seems they suck ass at business and are decent at TDs but must have some creative dickbag blocking forward progress or they are just flat out retarded or have a 1 man team who can't keep up.
2.) I'm not sure how much this hurt them though personally I believe it was the dumbest fucking business decision they could have made as a small game studio.....but their first rendition of DD2 was meant to be a MOBA. I remember playing it at PAX. I am not a HUGE gamer but whatever. I get to PAX and find out DD2 has a stand. Sweet tits, I love DD. I go over and demo and it's a fully playable, and obscenely shitty, MOBA. So my guess is other than some engine/art asset work the entire phase making DD2 was a waste. So what we are seeing now is a 3-4 year alpha phase while they figure out how to tap back into the original idea that really lured people in and salvage what they put time in to.
However both points above highlight, in my opinion, why we will never see a DD game from Trendy worth shit. Company direction or management. Even in DD1, with all the bitching about gear resets and shit(which was bad but whatever) they could have made a few simple improvements and stopped doing that and had a killer fucking game, though granted for a small niche audience(maybe to grow?) Instead they ignored people, fucked up new shit and then put all development into a MOBA thinking, like everyone, they could cash in on the new cow, all ignoring the fact DOTA had it on lockdown except for the freak outlier of LoL. How many MOBAs have we all played? I've tried at least 10 as I love that genre, but a shitty game with no population does not a MOBA make.
Insert DD2. Basically better graphics than DD1, slightly better controls(yet ironically worse in some areas as you can sense the engine was meant for MOBA), and otherwise worse on all levels. Literally. I wish I were exaggerating because again, I loved what DD1 wanted to be and would pay for it. If someone wants specifics I can post a non-subjective post comparing DD1/DD2 and let you know....save your money.
All that being said I already paid my 15$ and truth be told it's probably worth it. I've spent 15$ on way worse shit on steam or shit that I have way less "hours played", but I'm not sure that is a testament to DD2, more so that I just really like TD games. I personally wouldn't give Trendy another fucking dime unless I saw a post about new management or something and if they get a serious competitor it would be good money. I'm not talking retire for life 500$ million cash, but a solid game company of 10 people could make a DD competitor and fucking burn them out of the market and everyone would make 120$k a year.
TLDR: Fuck Trendy and DD