Even after playing this game twice as long as any other in my library, I'm not sure how strongly to recommend it. My playtime is highly inflated due to how much grind this has, and I think there are better, faster and more fun versions of this 3D action TD experience. The Orcs Must Die franchise, for example. But a quick story might explain why I'm recommending this despite my reservations.
The final boss battle (not the secret boss battles, just the normal one) has three big maps where a good setup can get you through, then a fourth map right before the fifth map with the actual final boss. For weeks, that fourth map was my impossible roadblock. The time to build before enemies arrive is way too short and you have to juggle protecting the middle and killing old bosses. I played solo until then, but I asked some friends to come help and opened my map to multiplayer – and within minutes max-level randos were there to help. This game came out in 2011, I played in 2025 and there are still people hanging around. They allowed me to do the first three maps my way, didn't leave when I made mistakes, destroyed the fourth map and then we all took out the boss for a triumphant conclusion.
Yet the major flaw with this game comes from that lifespan. The game designers have been pushing out updates and patches – even recently – which add new things and change the meta. There are DLC characters you absolutely must buy because the higher difficulties practically require what they can do. There are maps which maybe were okay back when they first came out, but now feel almost impossible except perhaps for those max-level legends of the community. If you buy this game now, you have missed a decade of holiday events with special unique items. Sadly, the game's difficulty curve seems tied now to what long-term players can achieve, not new players. There's a few good guides to help get you up to speed (Chiku and pew pew pew) but even they can be hit and miss.
The difficulty also seems heavily tuned in favor of having a group; I could imagine my own experience being much easier with two or three dedicated buddies to play alongside. Certain heroes just cannot defend against certain threats, while many maps are large with multiple critical points to defend. Letting each player focus on defending a specific zone would be great.
Yet this is also a game which feels best suited for the solo player. One mistake can end a map at any time, and the defense building currency needs to be used carefully and balanced across the whole map on early waves. You then go away with a lot of equipment to sort through after each map, which might take some people longer than others, and you have to farm maps multiple times to get anything good from the wildly random loot. The ability to reroll even one stat per item, or just the removal of all negative stats, would be game changing.
Gameplay is essentially 3D tower defense with unique hero characters bringing unique defenses. Each magical bolt tower or cannon or TNT trap can be positioned freely and aimed exactly, costing some amount of magic currency with a maximum decided by the level. Once you have a roster of leveled heroes, you can mix and match defenses; a classic combo is the monk's slow aura with towers positioned to take out everything walking through. Good gear and stats can get you through many of the maps with infinite build time, then the challenge starts with limited built time on difficulties where you'd better know your build by heart but the rewards become better.
You can disappear into this almost like it's a full-time job. Missions take a long time and even a hard map will reward mostly trash gear, so you need to beat impossible maps with some kind of trick build if you want to rank up quickly. Loot sorting takes a long time and even the stuff you keep can be upgraded in multiple ways and worn in sets which means you'll farm more just to find the right one. Failing a mission can mean hours wasted other than the trash you picked up before dying.
So why play this game at all? At first, it's the little things. There's an immediate sense of being a small kid playing pretend heroes in a big adventure world. Early maps in the campaign are about proving yourself as a hero, defending your home with the fantasy equivalent of homemade traps, as well as letting you take on monsters yourself. Low-tier gear might give a couple bonuses, so you're just putting on what gives the most to the most needed stats and doesn't hurt other stats too much.
By the middle tiers though, gear gives bonuses to almost every stat, yet there are soft caps in the data and heroes who fall into specific roles. You need everything: raw power, tactical builds, a watchful eye and a little luck on top. Addictive challenge maps force you to try new things, failure often feels like just one small change in your setup could have saved the whole thing, and every success leads to more difficult challenges and seemingly-impossible walls to break through next.
And then … is it even possible now to get out of the middle-tiers? You're a god to all the early maps, and you're as weak as soggy paper to some of the highest challenges. Maybe the only way to keep going after that point is by playing with others? Which might be why the community is actually pretty good; they need each other, from having people with broken builds or event gear set the traps, to relying on players as powerful as a whole build themselves watch a zone.
I'm recommending this, but not because I feel good about the game. There's many things to complain about, especially if you prefer to play solo. Yet I'm recommending this game because hundreds of hours slipped by in the blink of an eye for me, because I was having fun with its challenge and barely noticed the grind for that long, and because the amazing community who helped me beat the end boss once again reaffirmed my belief in humanity. The world they've created is fantastic at pulling you in and not letting go. Is that because the game is great, or because the game is an addictive slot machine with extra steps where you pay time for the reward of paying more time? Both can be true.
