It is basically the same as the others. If Frontier turned you off because it was too similar to the previous titles, I don’t think you’d like this one.
I found Frontiers a little too hard, so Vengeance was just the right difficulty for me, in the way that I like Tower Defense games to be: push back against me a little bit, but eventually let me win. In Frontiers, once I finished the main story, I just couldn’t beat the bonus levels that unlock. In Vengeance I had trouble with the last mission and then I had trouble again with the bonus missions, but eventually I finished it all, I finished the whole game, which felt very satisfying. And the DLC towers I bought on sale were all fun to use in their own way, but none of them were needed.
Frontiers I still fire up every once in a while, just to shake my head and go, “this is impossible”.
Actually that’s how I found Frontier too. Or maybe it was fatigue but there was something I really didn’t like about Frontier and ended up not caring after a lose or two.
Thanks for the reply. However my son saw it and he wants to play this game with me. So I might cave in either way.
I would say Kingdom Rush: Vengeance is probably the best Tower Defense game I’ve played so far. Defense Grid was great too, and the other Kingdom Rush games are in the running for top as well.
I should also clarify that I played the Kingdom Rush games on my phone, so I don’t know if the Steam versions are any different in tuning or difficulty compared to playing it on a phone.
If they had a lot of people that thought Frontiers was too hard, then I get why they tuned it. I’ve probably just played too many of these.
I just checked your profile and noticed you got full achievement on the game. That’s really impressive in under 25 hours. I can’t use you as a gauge of difficulty lol.
Edit. I just checked my profile, it’s actually Origins I didn’t like. That was the last one. Frontier was great, but for some reason Origins didn’t resonant.
That’s fair. I did say I may have played too many of these. :) I’ve only gotten 100% on Frontiers and Vengeance. The original and Origins had some achievements that were too grindy for me.
Had you said that difficulty was an issue, I would have said Vengeance might work. Gameplay wise, I don’t think there is a big difference. In any case, it has the same polish and humor that the others have had.
What tower defense games would you recommend to people that are hopefully not on the harder side, out of all the ones you’ve played?
I think that Defense Grid 1 & 2 are not that hard and support maps with both pre-rendered spots to place towers and also build your own route to give new players a taste of each type.
Defender’s Quest Valley of the Forgotten for the fantasy genre.
Dungeon Warfare (I think the traps are a lot of fun) I think the game can get hard near the end but does a good job with the pacing of new towers.
I’m afraid I may not be the best judge on difficulty. Many have settings, but I can’t tell you for sure. As far as my favorites, here is a list I posted earlier (basically the same as what geewhiz posted):
I’ll have to try Defender’s Quest for sure.
Gemcraft looked too complicated for my meager brain, and I bought Dungeon Warfare but it’s so ugly it made my eyes bleed. :P
(I did play through and loved Defense Grid on Hard, but Defense Grid 2 on hard was too tough for me to even get through the first four or so levels. I’ll have to try Defense Grid 2 again on a lower difficulty level).
I found Defender’s Quest to be quite difficult near the end as requires some grinding but my skill level isn’t that great.
I also tried Gemcraft many times and it feels very complicated and void of personality. Something the KR games have in droves.
I have
from a bundle and it looks very KR like. I haven’t tried it but the ratings are good.
Warstone is fun. I really enjoyed that the different builds play quite a bit differently.
I wouldn’t recommend Gemcraft for someone new to Tower Defense personally. Though it is the king of TD games. Chasing Shadows eventually bogs down in the end game due to too many objects on the screen.
Dungeon Warefare feels like Orcs Must Die without the player being an active player. It is worth playing even with ugly graphics if you find yourself liking TD games.
Orcs Must Die 2 is fun Co-Op
There was supposed to be a sequel to Dungeon Quest but it never came out to my knowledge.
So I ended up buying the new Kingdom Rush to play with my son. He loves it. I am am not happy with the purchase.
First, the normal campaign is pretty easy. I’m doing the side levels and it’s a little harder. I understand that balancing is hard for game with a huge selection of towers and heroes so I’m guessing they decided to error on the easy side. Also, since you cannot plan head unless you played the level at least once, so I’m guessing the difficulty needs to be balanced for that.
Speaking of which, you don’t get to see what the towers do, what enemies are in a level, the level design, etc until you used them in battle. I understand it’s normal for KR to do this but it pigeon hole you into a basic set of towers in the initial encounter.
Secondly, I encountered bugs. It’s quite annoying actually because I had to restart level 19 because an enemy won’t die. I also almost lost a perfect level another time. This is extremely annoying because of the lack of a fast forward button.
I’ll probably wait for a big sale for the next KR if I ever decide to get it.
Eurogamer has a follow up article today.
Trailer:
I want to play Sang Froid (the article points out that one of the developers on Sang Froid did Wicca and that the gameplay in Wicca is more similar to Sang Froid)
but Sang Froid scares me. It’s free, you don’t even have to buy it, but watching / reading other play throughs I don’t think I have the dexterity / fast-thinking that it demands. So I was scared that it wouldn’t be for me, so I never even tried it.
So I’m kinda scared of Wicca. I don’t know.
DO IT
There is an “Ultimate Edition” supposedly coming out in Q1. It also has a demo. I put it on my wishlist, I’ll take a look after I get through Nioh 2.
I grabbed the demo and played the first 3 levels. Similar to the Kingdom Rush series, but maybe a bit harder. It has a big skill tree and progression, so you can replay levels with your upgrades. I think there will be around 60 levels, half “day” and half “night” (not sure what the difference is yet, since I haven’t done night).
It does have some drops that you have to click on to pick up, which I’m not a big fan of, but it isn’t that big a deal. Towers can be placed in most places not on the path specifically, but sometimes you need to clear the spot. You can also only place certain towers on certain spots (grass = orcs/arrows, stone = undead/magic, desert = demons/fire). Some spots are elevated and can take any tower and gives them extra range.
Certainly worth grabbing the demo. I’ll revisit it later for sure.