So I previously published a negative review but now that I understand the game better I can provide with accurate and meaningful information so people can really know what's going on. And there's an awful lot to say about this game.
First of, it is very addictive. A Tower Defense with incremental and survivor aspect where a single tower is sitting on a big tile, facing waves after waves. I'm totally the kind of player for that kind of game.
It can be very fun but also very frustrating, and I'll explain how.
There is a turorial that last for about 30 seconds, it just shows you in the worst possible way how to upgrade your tower. The problem is when you launch your first game, it doesn't look like the tutorial... And the tutorial fails to teach you all the very unnecessarily complicated mechanics in this game.
So, first problem, and that's a big one: it really needs a tutorial.
Oh, don't get me wrong, the basics are simple enough: you pick upgrades for your tower so it can kill stronger mobs. But there are so many 'rules' among upgrades that you'll need hours of play before figuring everything, and the strategy to be able to push through higher waves isn't obvious at all.
Second problem: the skills and upgrades are totally unbalanced and most of them don't work long term. Basically the only reliable strat is to max defensive layers (health, health regen, armor) and reflect dmg.
The rest is useless / doesn't work on high waves (I tried many times with many different skills and couldn't go past wave 20 until some guy told me about that specific reflect strat).
As of the skills: no one tells you that you can have up to 4 (but you can also take none of them). In my honest opinion, the spear, the hammer, the 'shards' are the most (and only) useful skills.
The game doesn't teach you that, at the beginning of a run, you have a set amount of gold, you can choose between 3 skills that cost a certain amount of gold and then what you have left you can invest in the available upgrades. The game doesn't teach you that choosing your first skill you get a one time free reroll, that each skill gives a unique perk (spear +15 armor, hammer 1 free reroll, 'shard's +34 to reflect).
The game doesn't teach you that rerolls are reset after each 30 sec, or that the price of upgrades increases and when it does so... and so on.
The game fails to teach you numerous major stuff about it and you'll have to figure it out on your own...
Also there is one annoying bug that happens too much: sometimes your tower (and the tile) don't show on screen so you can't see how much HP you got left, which is kind of a problem...
Last in the annoying things: some mobs don't damage your tower, they just have aura that gives dmg boost, health regen or defense boost to the other mobs and they just walk around and leave if you can't kill them... But, at some point, at higher waves, there are a lot of them, and they block the other mobs that are coming to the tower to hit it... and that's just ridiculous...
You could say: just kill them. Well I tried that, you can't cause only the reflect build works and since they are not attacking you, you can't kill them. Just you try with an offensive build and see how that works (it does not).
So overall, between the useless skills and that bug, there will be a lot of times when you have to quit the run.
Also I should be commenting on the runs and how you start them cause it doesn't make any sense... there's a lobby... doesn't work, so the only thing you can do is 'start game' (and it's so damn slow) and you find yourself playing among bots with random names (Bob, Average Guy) and if you're lucky you'll get another player (but you'll realise there's not too many of them either).
Now when your tower dies, the run ends, and depending on how you did compared to the other players (bots most of the time) you are rewarded with blue gems, the one and only currency in this game, which will let you buy stuff in the shop such as frames, avatar, arena background (the tile) and new looks for your tower, but also gems with bonus... it is kinda slow to grind for gems and the cheaper gems in the shop are awful. The only ones worth getting are those who add reflect dmg to your tower and health regen. The rest is just meh (useless) and the big gems with interesting bonus are 'not cheap' - 7k gems... yeah...
So I think you get an idea why this game is so frustrating... and I almost forgot to mention: there is no meta progression. The only thing you can do is putting your gems with weak bonus in slots that you unlock at certain levels. you get 2 slots pretty quick (but only low gems can go there), one slot for a higher quality gem (which doesn't give crazy bonus either), and the other slots you get at lv 22 and higher...
And that's how you've been playing hundreds of hours for so little progress...
The aesthetic of the game is ok (nothing crazy but nice), the UI is terrible...
This game needs a real tutorial, a rework for UI, something needs to be done about the lobby / how to start a run, rebalance for the skills (for now you get the right skills/upgrades or restart), fix the bug where the tower and tile don't show, also do something about the passive mobs that block the other mobs...
And only then would I recommand this game. As of now, I just can't, even though I spent hours on it.
