Defend the Castle

[h3]Tower defense rogue-like where you hold out against an evil king with a band of archers and magicians.[/h3] After spending 3 hours with the game (long enough to finally beat the last boss), it's clear to me that the game has another pretty basic yet very satisfying wave defense gameplay loop. You start with a castle and need to defend it from invaders such that they don't destroy your castle within 60 seconds. However, if you do manage to get destroyed you want to have at least 100 souls farmed so you can "respawn" and try the day again. The things that stood out to me immediately where the following: [quote] - Decent enemy variety affecting attack style and movement speed. - Units with certain visible gear behave differently (i.e. no headshots on units with a helm). - Quite challenging at the start, but if you survive long enough to unlock more archers, magic attacks and the catapult, your offensive capabilities snowball into something very devastating. [/quote] One thing that surprised me was that arrows are shot based on the horizontal position of the aiming reticle only. This means it doesn't matter how high the reticle is the arrow will fly the same distance. Think of it like telling the archers "Hey guys I want the arrows to land around this spot." Do keep in mind though there is some variance in terms of where arrows land even if you shoot at the exact same spot (just like in real life!). From a practical perspective I've found that placing the reticle above the unit you are trying to hit has a decent chance of landing the hit, with some exceptions for targets very far or very close. This is also affected by how fast the unit is moving. Once you start seeing archers firing back at you from the field, things get interesting because you have to decide when to focus on them vs. X number of melee units closing in on the castle. Not only that, you also get enemies with suicide vests as well as catapults to deal with depending on how many days you survive. At the end of each day you have the option to spend the money you have gained on a variety of offensive and defensive upgrades (ranged, magic and castle). Many of the upgrades are quite expensive, so with the exception of health and shield repairs, you might have to survive two days (or more) to have enough to buy many of the other upgrades during the early game. Once you get defeated, you come back to a different screen where you can spend any souls you have accumulated on buffs, pick a "Life Line", and replay the day. The life lines are pretty cool as they are very significant in terms of helping you kill enemies. Some trigger fear to cause the enemy to run away and others just provide devastating amounts of raw damage independent of your arrows. I haven't quite figured out what the "consequence" is for using them though (other than the fact you can only use them once during a "run"). As a side note, the game ends after you survive for 31 days, with a "boss" fight every 10 days, culminating in a final boss fight against the "King". [quote] [b][i]Liked:[/i][/b] - The drawn art font and art style is actually pretty cool. Though the font used in the menus and dialogue seems a bit off (pixelated?) and more difficult to read than needed. - The upgrades seem meaningful and worth it for the most part. However I do think they are kind of expensive. - Long range headshots feel quite satisfying. - The arrows shooting animation that happens as you select menu options is a nice touch. - While the dialogue from the King wasn't anything special, I did enjoy the trash talking he does right before each boss wave. - Spamming fire spells and fire catapult shots at the left edge of the map and pretty much locking any enemy from making it past the center of the screen feels real good. Perfect revenge after spending my first 2 hours getting rekt by them. [b][i]Didn't Like:[/i][/b] - You essentially "lose" any souls you accumulate under 100 when you are defeated. - Game doesn't explain what each of the "Life Line" options are in terms of benefit vs. consequence. - Game doesn't explain what some of the upgrades do in detail. For example, Watchtower and Castle upgrades. - F12 button doesn't take a Steam screenshot for some reason. [/quote] [h3]Overall, very challenging but fun to play. If it was up to me though, I'd smooth out the early game experience by changing the following:[/h3] [quote] - Adding some smaller soul cost "incremental" upgrades that only cost 25, 50, 75 souls. - Make the first 3-5 "respawns" cost 25, 50, 75 souls instead of immediately starting out at 100. - Even if it has to be an "upgrade" allow the player to accumulate "leftover" souls from previous runs instead of that progress being lost. Though perhaps the intent is not to make this game a "rogue-lite". If that's the case then my request isn't really fair. [/quote] [b][i]Some "Nice to Haves":[/i][/b] [quote] - A headshot count in the daily score summary. - The ability to shoot at enemies that are retreating. - Give the Watchtower an offensive benefit to the player. Right now it's just recon on the troop types present in the next wave. - Ability to enable enemy health bars and damage numbers. Or alternatively some sort of "codex" in the main menu where the player can see detailed stats of this nature. [/quote]