When comparing Defense Grid: The Awakening vs Kingdom Rush Frontiers, the Slant community recommends Defense Grid: The Awakening for most people. In the question“What are the best PC Tower Defense games?” Defense Grid: The Awakening is ranked 5th while Kingdom Rush Frontiers is ranked 11th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Very nice voice acting
Pro Looks beautiful
Pro Checkpoints in levels
Checkpoints allow for partial level rewind so beginning parts of levels don't need to be played over and over to get to difficult parts.
Pro Can really build some crazy mazes in later levels
Early on you are limited in placement, but in later levels you can and need to build your own mazes to really direct the enemies. There are lots of options/routes/ways to build those mazes so it really opens up a lot of replayability to try and beat your friends scores by tweaking your mazes for maximum points.
Pro Great game
Pro More interesting enemy designs than the first game
The original Kingdom Rush already had great enemies which felt distinct, but this game is a level above that. Additionally, the in-game encyclopedia articles are helpful in conveying why each of them are unique.
Pro Better gameplay than the original game
Cons
Con Eventually starts running poorly
Con During early missions you are very limited in tower placements
It gets better though and you can really build some crazy mazes.
Con No real progression
You just have a few upgrades for your tower and heroes, removing any real sense of progression.