Cosmic Raze

A lane defense game similar to Plants vs Zombies, but featuring a deep system of weapons and synergies (similar to Gunlocked) and a mechanic where you can vertically rotate the lane, adding more action and micromanagement. Main downside is that it starts a bit slow, and the final waves feel a bit unnecessarily once you’ve unlocked all possible upgrades. However, this will likely improve with the first patches, since it’s in early access and the developer is reliable. Overall, it’s easy to recommend, especially given its low price.

The game seems fine, I was actually looking forward to it a lot, since the synergies and concepts on the dev's previous game were so cool. I'm leaving a positive review because everything looks to be interesting, but I'm also refunding it because I *really* dislike the shift mechanic (which is essentially having to keep moving your towers around) during a any given wave. It just makes the game anxiety inducing and adds too much of an action/real-time element to a genre that I find more fun when it's actually purely tactical/strategy base. I don't like micromanagement in tower defense games. Again, this is just a personal preference, and the game seems perfectly fine.

As usual for this Dev, a familiar genre given life with an interesting take on synergy bonuses. Appropriate amount of content for EA. I complained about a bug and it was patched within hours, which is more than you can ask for.

I loved this devs work on the game; [b]Gunlocked[/b]. [b]Cosmic Raze[/b] does some interesting things but doesn't come together as a game that is very fun or interesting to play, at least for me. I hope after this experiment there is a plan to make a [b]Gunlocked 2[/b].

Fun, run-based strategy/auto-battler game. Although not verified yet, I can confirm it runs great on Steam Deck. I've been primarily playing with a controller on both PC and SD and certain builds do appear to be inherently more difficult than if you're playing with M+KB. As of this writing I've only beat Difficulty 1, but the hooks are there. Really can't go wrong at this price, very well presented. I won't comment on depth at this stage as I feel I've only scratched the surface and this is still EA. I'm sure more is coming and I really am only starting to grasp some of the synergies. For 2 bucks you'll more than get your money's worth already.

Really cool strategic tower defense with a high degree of interactivity. The lane shifting mechanic keeps you engaged and opens up a ton of depth when it comes to turret choice. All the different synergies are interesting and the passive buff system based on loadout is a nice way to smooth out some of the randomness inherent in attempting builds in these types of draft-based games. Dev has a solid history of consistent updates, bug fixes, and community engagement on all his previous titles. Really look forward to the finished product, and would already recommend.

The grid mechanic is a very elegant twist on the genre that, while simple, changes a tower-defense game into something far more active and engaging - it's got a very strong "one more round" pull. I'd encourage anyone even remotely interested in the genre to give it a shot, you won't regret it.

A fantastic little roguelite/lane-based sci-fi tower defense game. Each run you'll be tasked with defending the earth against alien invaders by placing and managing weapons on a grid-based map, similar to Plants vs Zombies. At the end of each round, you'll get the opportunity to buy new weapons, upgrade weapons, and level up (gaining new augments and passive bonuses). I really love how weapons and augments have intuitively named classes. and the shop makes it easy to see what things synergize well together, so you can easily start putting together powerful combinations. Fielding enough synergistic weapons of a particular class (ie assault) will activate additional passive bonuses in sort of a Teamfight Tactics sort of way. There's also just a lot of personality in general - lots of fun flavour text sprinkled across weapon and augment descriptions, some really nice pixel art, and interesting weapon behaviours and unique game mechanics. For example, you can scroll your weapons across "lanes" to cover holes in your defenses, and there are even augments that interact with that. It really helps make placement of your weapons matter. All in all, this is a great little game, and another FromLefcourt classic. If you're worried about it being Early Access, don't be. This dev has an amazing track record with Early Access and is super responsive if you have issues.

Cosmic Raze lives up to its creator's specialty: aggregating small improvements and seeking synergies (both explicit and implicit) to achieve victory in seemingly unsurmountable circumstances. I like that he's return to the approach of giving the player tools that are easy to follow visually so that you feel how each small improvement you make affects the whole. I'm still amazed at how many different and fun games can be made from a single approach, and I'll continue to look forward to whatever the creator brings out.

I'm a fan of the dev and probably always will be. Cool game dude.