I didnt play Creeper World 3 but I did play Particle Fleet Emergence by the same dev and I know its similar. It was sort of a TD game. Bit like Infested Planet is I guess, but I dont put them in my TD list because the units move and aren’t towers.
I loved OMD 1, but wanted to keep the list without hybrids.
I’d say it (unlike Particle Fleet) is definitely worth bringing up in this sort of conversation. Creeper World has always been doing it’s own awesome thing, but it’s at least tower defense adjacent.
Particle Fleet was a bit of a let down after playing Creeper World 3. Give it a go!
(I would also put Infested Planet in my list, had I remembered it existed. I consider these horde/swarm RTS games the same thing as TD games, really. I don’t care which part does the moving, it’s about the overwhelming odds!)
Ah, what a great way to express it. Thanks for articulating that. I’ve always wanted to include Infested Planet on a list of bona fide full-featured RTSs, and I wondered why others don’t do the same. But I think you’ve solved it for me. The whole idea of holding back an overwhelming horde is the foundation for tower defense games, and it sets them apart from actual RTSs.
Which is, of course, why Creeper World belongs in the discussion. Speaking of, someone hurry this up:
-Tom
Thanks all
I’ve tried both Creeper world 1 & 2 and bounced off hard on them. I just didn’t find it fun. I looked at a few youtube videos and the way some of these really good people and I play are completely different.
I take 30 min to systematically clear a board and found it highly repetitive and frustrating. Just inch your way in but then something always goes south.
When i watch some youtube gods, they clear the map in 5 min. It shows there are two vastly different games here - the one I am trying and the one they are doing.
On sale on Steam until September 23.
CW1 has a horrible, 90s flash style interface. It’s torture to play. CW2 isn’t so terrible, but the top-to-bottom style of the creeper presents a different sort of experience, and the mechanics of the energy supply and the creeper’s units are a bit more tedious than 3. I recently 100%'d CW2 “just because”, and it was quite tedious, whereas I never had that experience in the many, many hours of CW3 I’ve played.
CW3 is basically a fully-fledged RTS style game with everything in the interface working beautifully and fluidly. The campaign is also a fun and constant challenge, and then all of the mods add more replayability. (Including the janky “play as creeper” mods!). CW3 is also the one I started the series with. I can’t imagine I’d be the Creeper World fan I am now if I’d played CW1 or CW2 first!
It tends to be in bundles and things and going for cheap – perhaps give CW3 a shot and see if you like it?
I also started out playing in the same style you did, which is systematically clearing every inch of goop from the map. But then, towards the later missions, that becomes much more difficult and you realise that the properly win you need to use the various units to their own strengths. Quite often in the later game you’re launching full-scale Normandy style invasions where you try to establish a “beach-head” on another island, or perhaps you go for a pin-point aerial insertion with constant helicopter logistics to cut off a Creeper source. But, like any game, there’s to “right” or “wrong” way to play. Sometimes slowly fighting back against the tide and eradicating every inch of creeper is just what you want to do :)
But then, by my own logic, should we consider Left 4 Dead a tower defence game? ;) Or Alien Shooter? Even the Alien Shooter devs considered the TD genre a separate one in which they could make another game!
I’m not 100% convinced that CW3 and Infested Planet are tower defence games… but I’m also not 100% certain that they’re not tower defence games, as they definitely scratch the same itches.
https://tigpan-bytes.github.io/errordefense/
It’s not bad…
@Effidian how did Warstone TD end up? I see its on sale.
Maybe they tweaked some stuff with an update? I played it in the summer of '09, and breezed through every level I had difficulty with by just building only machine gun tower (with the rare occasional slow and AA).
Warcraft 3! There’s a lot of great little mods for it.
I would recommend these:
- Artifact TD
- Eeve TD
- Elements TD
- Gem TD
- Sprout TD
- You TD
I probably spent like 1,000 hours playing tower defenses in it :)
Well, I took the bullet for Security Breach and after 1hr and 55 min, I refunded. It looked cool and despite having so few reviews and so little traffic on the steam forums, I caved b/c I love tower defense.
Lots of things to like. It’s a well designed game, with multi-levels, decent music and a pun-infested story that’s not too bad. Apparently a lot of traps
But I didn’t get to experience much. I got to the 4th level where they introduce spring traps and dual paths and the spring traps and I just kept running into problem after problem.
Spring traps won’t spring
Spring traps spring creeps upwards instead of where they’re supposed to go
Arrow traps that take forever to retarget creeps - it waits until a creep is in range and if the tower was last aimed at a creep 180 degrees away, it takes forever to rotate.
Target priority of targeting strongest didn’t work
And no grinding allowed - well it’s a pittance on replaying levels that would mean you’d have to replay it 8-10x to get the same amount as the first time you beat it.
Refunded.
Another one I came across today.
Factorio meets Creeper World ?
Well that looks like the kind of thing I’d enjoy.
…AND it’s got online co-op and a map editor with procedural generation. Good lord, that looks like the kind of thing that might eat my life.
These are holy words that speak to my soul!
Mindustry is 99 cents on iOS in case anyone wants to try it out. I plan on getting it on the PC myself. But for 99 cents might get it on both if I like it enough.
It’s also free on the Play store for Android users… So here it goes!
Edit: Initial post-tutorial thoughts…
There’s a lot here to like, including a huge unlockable tech tree. Building with touch screen controls is fiddly, but manageable. I do wish there was more notification when buildings get destroyed. Maybe that gets easier with experience, but I can already see that I’ll have trouble remembering what buildings were there.
Apparently they have just ported Lock’s Quest, one of my favourite DS tower defence games, to iOS and Android. And it’s still a premium title.
How are the controls for Locks Quest?