Genre: Tower Defense
Year: 2018
Developed by: Ironhide Game Studio
Published by: Ironhide Game Studio
Platforms: PC, iOS, Android
#53
Feeling Like: I’m not an addict (maybe that’s a lie)
The Kingdom Rush series may have killed the genre. I’m angry when I discover a tower defense game is NOT as good as a Kingdom Rush (they never are), I’m miffed that the graphics aren’t as charming and, most importantly, I’m fuming when I actually feel like I can just play a few rounds and then quit.
I am hopelessly, utterly addicted to the Kingdom Rushes. We’ll go with Kingdom Rush Vengeance as the main entry here, but this could be a combined entry for all four games: Kingdom Rush, Frontiers, Origins and Vengeance. They all have their twists and quirks, but with Vengeance Ironhide Game Studio seemed to completely master their formula and keep players coming back. I don’t necessarily love the “play as the villain” scenario, but I do love the “holy shit how have I been playing for five hours already” scenario.
Even seeing a screenshot possesses me to open Steam, and re-install Kingdom Rush Vengeance. It’s an uncontrollable urge. I love every map; the freedom to place your towers wherever you want and which ever towers you want is thrilling. Each magic blasting, or cannon bursting, or zombie infesting ability is useful in some manner, but it’s up to me to figure out the perfect combination. Sometimes I’ll go for a “mass summons” build and try to resurrect corpses, create giant skeleton warriors, incant ghostly spirits and urge magical fish to provide a physical presence on the map to block the waves of enemies trying to get past my defenses. Other times I’ll focus on a few single powerful towers, capable of one-shotting any enemy or just go crazy and try a bunch of towers I’ve never used before. I tried scouring the web for “Tier Rankings” on the towers, but honestly where’s the fun in min-maxing this type of experience?
It’s one of the few games I can think of where I will beat every level in a single sitting, if I have time. It’s also the perfect podcast game, and I’m shocked at how few times I was irritated, or annoyed. Oh ok, that path can’t be left unchallenged. Gotta shift this tower down here since it wasn’t hitting the targets without expensive upgrades. Let’s try building more blockers so I can get my hero in on the action and create a choke point for their AOE spell to hit hard.
I love being able to see the whole map in one glance. There’s no confusion about what to do, or where to go. It’s pure strategy based on your own preferences, and the enemies coming. You can get away without aerial defenses for now, but you know they’re coming down the line. When do you take the plunge? Do I go for the monks who net me more money, or focus on the laser tower since its DPS is the highest? I know the questions, but I don’t even care what the answers are. Just playing a level, any level, brings me joy.
I’m at 72 hours according to Steam and while that may pale in comparison with some big RPGs like The Witcher 3, or a MOBA like DOTA 2, for a Tower Defense game that is an eternity. They’re generally meant to be bite sized appetizers, not entrees you order fourths of. But I couldn’t enough; I relishes in tackling the highest difficulty settings, maxing out all the heroes, even attempting to get all the achievements. I almost never do this, but Kingdom Rush Vengeance is the pinnacle of the genre, the zenith of watching countless dudes waddle, fly, sprint, dig or saunter past your hopefully-well-placed arrows, tree roots, and lightning clouds.
I always say I want more Tower Defense games (Defense Grid 2 was another sparkling example), but maybe I just want more of this? Whenever Iron Hide announces an expansion (like they just did), I literally count down the days. The only problem is they will often delay the PC release and as much as I love the series, I can’t even fathom not playing on my giant computer monitor. I’m a PC man, through and through. I will drop whatever I’m playing if I hear I can sample the new stages. It’ll probably only be three or four more, it doesn’t matter. Any excuse to hop back in and listen to Jeff Marek and Elliot Friedman discuss the latest hockey news while I watch my orc shamans wreak havoc among mouse robots and armored dwarves.
Mixing and matching towers is a new addition to Vengeance when Origins just gave me just five towers but with multiple ways to upgrade them. I’m honestly not sure which I prefer, but Vengeance seems the most polished. Even if the community swears by Frontiers and Origins, I guess I’ll stick with the one they keep adding content for.
Tower Defense seems to be the kind of game that had its time in the limelight before being ushered off stage left. Came and went. When Newgrounds was massive and people were just starting to figure out that you could make browser games that occupied player attention as much as console games, the market was flooded. Maybe it was the saturation, or maybe this is the kind of thing that is limited by its very nature. Or maybe we haven’t seen enough creativity in terms of disrupting the fundamentals. Defense Grid and Defense Grid 2 were unique in that you could form the very path enemies took. Dungeon Defenders allowed players to fight alongside their towers, adding a third person action/adventure/RPG vibe that led to some fantastic multiplayer sessions.
Nah. There’s more milk left in this cow, I’m sure of it.
I cheated a bit, having this on my Top 10 of 2020 but I’m convinced its spot is justified. Unsurprisingly, my opinions haven’t changed since.
The Kingdom Rush series offers the best of the best. The graphics are cartoonish, simple and totally apt for this kind of game. You need to be able to clearly see every enemy on the screen, what their behavior is, what attacks they’re winding up for and that’s perfectly done here. It’s not even the best Kingdom Rush game and I was instantly in love. Throw on a podcast and I will lose hours of my life trying to 3 star every stage. It’s about as close to an addiction as I’ll ever hopefully succumb to.
It’s such a satisfying gameplay loop. You can level up your towers, but the greater growth comes in knowledge of the level’s layout and enemy spawns. Which towers should I focus on upgrading? Focus on a single tower and grow it to an unstoppable obelisk of death, or ensure all my towers have a slight bump in power? Which hero should I take? How come that wave got through? Am I focusing on aerial enemies too much?
All of these thoughts came to me with each failure, yet I never felt discouraged. It only took one or two tries to get a foundation of understanding about which towers belonged where. The feedback on whether a plan was going to work or not is pretty instantaneous. All the towers have their own special abilities, and the varying designs of attack and defense lend themselves so well to experimentation and multiple playthroughs. I will play any and every iteration of Kingdom Rush until I get bored of Tower Defense. Which will be never.
The 500 