To preface this recommendation, I would like to say that I am not a fan of Steam's recommend system.
In the game's current state, it would be more accurate to say "Wait for a sale or wait for some updates."
Here's why:
The Good: The game's good parts are good, but nothing to write home about. IMO it doesn't outweigh the bad.
- The game is sleek and runs well. Performance is never an issue even on higher waves.
- The game is fun. It's a simplistic tower defense game that uses a hexagon pattern as a layout to place down towers. Has multiple types of enemies, ranging from slow/heavy armor tanks, to fast flying stealth enemies.
- Plenty of replay value here. There are a ton of modifiers for the game, five difficulties ranging from easy to brutal, and the evolution mechanic makes every run unique. No more memorizing the waves like in Bloons.
- Some base customization. You can purchase different pieces for your base that change it's look, while also tweaking the bonuses you get from certain pieces. You could have a fortress made of sand for a nice early game econ boost, or a reinforced citadel for longevity. With some more pieces and perhaps some optional cosmetic options for fashionistas, you've got a solid way to make each base not just a base, but a home.
- The utility/econ towers are pretty solid. For utility towers you have a service depot that repairs towers at the end of each round, a shield generator that provides some protection, a radar that detects stealth enemies, and some towers that increase the production of econ towers. Those econ towers, while simplistic, do their job well and provide you with necessary funding for the war effort. Nothing to complain about.
- The achievements aren't annoying. If you're an achievement hunter like myself, it can sometimes be a turn-off to see ridiculous achievements that would require an obligatory number of hours to platinum a game. Even if the achievements were obnoxious, the game is fun enough to play either way.
- A lot of potential. This game definitely has the potential to be great, provided more content is added and some things in the game be tweaked.
The Bad: The game's bad parts can range from somewhat annoying to downright heartbreaking. Could be addressed in some updates.
- The evolution system is a cruel mistress. The evolution system is an interesting design choice that adds a touch of pizzazz to every single run. This does not mean it's without flaw, however. Since the enemies you're given are completely random every time it can make or break runs within 3-5 waves. You could get super easy enemies for the first 10 rounds, or you can get straight up violated for 10 rounds. Point here being, there is no logical scaling in enemy difficulty. While I love the variability in each run, when most runs are gimped 5 rounds in due to instant spikes in difficulty that never go down, you can start to feel a little unmotivated to continue. After all, there's not much point to continue if there never seems to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
- The enemy types exacerbate this issue. There are two main types: organic and mechanical. Organics take more damage form poison and are slowed by ice, while mechanicals take more damage from electricity and are slowed by disruption damage. Each enemy, regardless of type, can have 3 enhancements: Fast, Heavy, Flying, and Stealthy. Flying enemies can only be targeted by certain towers, while stealthy enemies can only be targeted if it's within a tower's stealth detection range. Fast enemies have half health/armor/shield and move twice as fast, with heavy being the inverse with twice as much health/armor/shield and move half as fast. Enemy armor and shield acts as an additional health bar to reduce. They cannot be bypassed, so you HAVE to build towards having specific towers to deal with those certain types of enemies. Therein lies the problem, however. Since evolution is extremely random, if you get a mix of both organic and mechanical early game it's basically over since you physically can't spread yourself far enough to deal with everything at once. If you suddenly get enemies with both health and shield when you were only fighting regular health enemies, you'll find yourself quickly overwhelmed by the instant doubling or even tripling of effective enemy health since the evolution scaling is swift and merciless.
- The attack towers aren't that big of a deal. Towers have a few possible damage types: physical, corrosive, electrical, poison, disruption, ice, and EMP. Each tower only gets one outside the use of augments. This means that realistically, you'll have a nice diverse spread of towers to dismantle the equally diverse spread of enemies that'll come for your base. However, that's a little difficult to do when half of those towers will never see the glory of combat because the towers have EXTREMELY limited range. So you'll be inclined to use the same towers every run since they're the most effective for the limitations that they have. Pair this with the piss-poor upgrade system that is augments, and you'll find yourself doing almost the exact same thing every run once you hit wave 15+. In addition to this, none of the towers are particularly unique in their function outside of damage types. You've got direct hitters at various RoFs, splash towers, and towers that attack 360 degrees around them. That's it. No lasers, no chain-lightning, no flamethrowers, nothing. This lack of uniqueness just reinforces doing the same thing over and over again to ensure victory.
- The augment/upgrade system is pretty shoddy. Every tower in the game has augment slots to give various buffs to the towers or other aspects of gameplay, such as decreasing enemy spawn speed. The problem is that you get one augment per round, and each tower can hold 2-4 augments. Even starting out you'll most likely have 3-5 attack towers, requiring anywhere from 12-20 augments. There's literally no way to get enough augments to go around, which causes weak points in your defense simply due to scarcity that shouldn't exist in the first place. The augments themselves are useful, but not powerful. Most of them feel like things that should just be upgrades for money, rather than a completely new object, never mind such a rare object. Range and rate of fire shouldn't be an augment, it should be an upgrade. Adding new damage types, however, make sense as an augment. Speaking of upgrades, you got two. Increase damage, increase health. Not too much to really do there.
- No real endgame. This one is kind of nitpicky, but I feel that it should be said regardless. There are only so many enemy types right now with no boss monsters, so you'll be fighting the same goobers but with more health. Forever.
Conclusion:
The game is honestly a lot of fun and has a ton of potential to really settle into place as a great tower defense, similarly to TAUR. However, due to its current state, I don't think many people would really enjoy it, at least not until it gets some substantial tweaks to existing mechanics, as well as some additions to available content.
tl;dr, the game has a lot of potential, but I'd wait for some updates to come out before checking it out again.
