Destroy The Monoliths

I played the demo and really enjoyed it and could continue into the full game which was nice. I'm someone who finds tower defense games to be kinda hit or miss most of the time, but really been liking my time in this one!

This one hurts. It's a neat concept, real-time tower defense/assault, but the clunky controls, UI, and scaling remove any sense of chill. It takes forever to mine, and you're [i]constantly[/i] required to balance between resource gathering and defense, which just slows everything down more. The multitude of enemy types means there's always going to be a hole in your defenses, so that creates frustration when you feel you've finally developed a kill zone. Pulling up the Build menu is a pain in the heat of combat, and the second you're overwhelmed, it's pretty much game over. Add in replaying a level also punishes you with penalties and it's a downward spiral. The biggest problem I had was the [i]finite[/i] resources per level, so as the enemies scale and begin destroying your walls and turrets, you permanently lose those resources. This could be mitigated if enemies dropped loot on kill instead of just healing orbs, but that wasn't the developer's intention. So it's just a constant barrage where you feel you're climbing uphill the entire level. Just left me with a more frustrating than fun experience.

Great game for people who want to jump in for 15-45 minutes at a time.

I've not played anything quite like it despite playing a lot of tower defence games. It feels a bit like some lost quirky pc game from the 90's. The kind of thing you might have stubbled on the demo of on an 90's pc mags free cd and then wonder the rest of your life what on earth that quirky game was you once played. At it's best it offers a really interesting and unique gameplay experience (at least from the games I’ve experienced) where you build things to both attack the enemies structures and to defend your own. You take advantage of the environment in cool ways, lay traps and build walls. Different maps introduce new elements to try and keep it fresh and you unlock upgrades and new things to build. You have to build vulnerable structures near the enemy monoliths to attack them and you need to build defences around those structures so they aren’t destroyed. It automatically saves the game mid level when I quit which is good as I have limited free time. This does feel like a game that is best played in 20-30 minute bursts and at this stage I don’t know what my total play time will be, but for the price I’ll get my moneys worth. TBH I’ll probably get my moneys worth in the time I take contemplating the unique mechanics alone. The game is good. Buy it. Now here’s a muddled attempt to get my head around what I don’t like: Part of the difficulty of the game comes down to quickly mining resources needed to build the defences/attacking structures before the enemy gets too strong and over powers you. Mining in itself is mainly shooting blocks for resources and is not where the fun comes from. Designing paths for enemies to take to give you time to do the mining while also building defences around the little outposts that attack the enemy monoliths is where the fun lies. It feels there’s the potential of a game that could suck 100+ hours out of me in this but somehow it doesn’t quite pull it off for me and it’s not easy for me to put my finger on. My best guess is I just don’t enjoy mining resources and too much of the difficulty comes down to just making sure you’re doing that. I do wonder if a version of this game, where you got all the resources needed from defeated enemies, would have worked better but that would play very differently so I don’t know. Summery: This feels like a breath of fresh air in tower defence games. Its relatively complex mechanics result in more dynamic levels and new gameplay experiences. However, rather than losing myself in it for hours at a time, as I have with some other tower defence games, I find I have my fill for the day after a 20-30 minute play session but that’s fine and enough time to finish a level or two. It’s a fresh and interesting take on the tower defence genre that's well worth playing.

Enjoyable

Absolute hidden gem of a Tower Defense game!

I think about this game a lot, And the other day when I was recalling a particular’s heated combat section, I realized I hadn’t left this game a review. Destroy the Monoliths is [u]brilliantly[/u] crafted, and Radiant Sloth deserves a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ win. I could tell you in specific detail precisely why this game is excellent, but considering that it’s currently on sale for less than a double cheeseburger, I feel I can state this confidently; Out of everything I’ve bought/played this year (200ish games), this might be the most hiddenest, gemmiest gem of them all. This game reeks of the Commodore Amiga, so much so that I must assume that the soundtrack was arranged in tracking software. Its vibe is wholly its own, and that ethos extends to the mechanics in ways that consistently have me giggling at the screen. It is so blatantly obvious that the folks (perhaps folk?) at Radiant Sloth are exceptionally clever, and while I loved Skycliffs (haven’t played Comet Force yet, just found out about it as I was looking to write this review), the craftsmanship I can feel in my soul as I play this game…..it’s so emblematic of how important indies are to carrying the art of games forwards. When you can see this game looking back, it is deliberate and excellent, and the new ideas splattered all over the mechanics are [u]so[/u] well done. You’ve got my money til the day I die.

Fun game!