FULL DISCLOSURE: I was given a press copy of this game prior to release. It is your right to disregard my opinion based on this fact, but I assure you that this has never affected, and WILL never affect, the way in which I construct this or any other review I write.
If you’d prefer a video version of this review have a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh8kx23DDRI
Kaiju Panic, a new Tower Defence kind-of-action hybrid developed by Mechabit Limted. This is their first game on Steam, they’ve released a couple of smaller games and one or two VR games but for all intents and purposes I consider this their first major release.
As I said, it’s a tower defence game, but it has some atypical elements to it. I called it kind-of-action, but that’s not even really accurate. You basically play this game from a perspective that you’d imagine wouldn’t really mesh with the genre. Though I have to say it’s been done before by Orcs Must Die, and Orcs Must Die manages to achieve this gameplay from an even stranger perspective. Though, Kaiju Panic certainly has it’s unique elements and we’ll get into that in a sec.
Presentation
The game looks good. The art style certainly stands out and it was, as it usually is, the reason I requested a review copy of this game in the first place. Presentation is massively important and I feel, while it doesn’t blow me away, it certainly does the job. It’s bright, colourful, and varied between the different locations in the game. The character design I found to be pretty cute, and I while I liked the enemy design, aside from a few exceptions, the enemies were relatively generic looking. The boss-type enemies were definitely the highlight we’re talking design. They looked pretty sweet.
Mechanics
The game is standard in a few ways as you’d expect; you have a base that you need to protect from enemies that will, usually, make a beeline to the base. I say usually because about half-way through the game the enemy AI is upgraded, and they begin calculating the best places to focus their efforts which is pretty cool. I love it when games find a way to up the difficulty without turning all of the enemies into damage sponges. Really refreshing. There’s also a ton of variety, aside from the upgraded AI there’s also the lab that you can use to purchase new technology with research points -- though that’s pretty standard. You have three different types of weapons -- Cannon, Laser and Acid; they all serve different purposes, and you’ll find yourself using them all, which is nice to see. There’s also a bunch of unique mechanics; the currency you use to build weapons are these crystals. So, at the beginning of every level you must construct mining devices, and I found myself gathering people to help me while the crystal was being mined. Getting people to help you is probably the coolest mechanic of the game, where you can order civilians to man certain weapons and each civilian has their own strengths that can help add to your turrets. It’s got a really deep strategy to it and, as a tip for you if you choose to play this game, MAN THE TURRETS. I spend the first couple hours or so losing to the 5th level because I underestimated the importance of placing civilians on turrets.
Story
Story’s ok. Serves it’s purpose. Like the presentation, it’s good, but nothing to write home about. It’s there to give context to the gameplay, and that is totally fine. I don’t want to undervalue the importance of context in games, because games without any context feel slightly soulless. They feel like a tech-demo rather than a full game, and this game certainly feels like a full game. I guess what I’m saying is: it’s good the story is there, but no one is going to playing this game FOR the story. It’s super simple, like Mario saving Peach.
Verdict
Now, Kaiju Panic is $20. That seems like a lot, but hear me out. The game is long. There’s a lot of content here. Now, I’ll fully admit that I haven’t finished the entire game, but it took me around 6 hours to reach the third area, and there are six areas. Generally the levels in the third area were longer than in the second area, and the second longer than the first. I could easily see, on the high-end, this being a 15 hour game, and on the low end being a 10 hour game. That’s also backed up by the fact that new elements were being introduced in the third area, and there were tons of different weapons that I hadn’t bought yet in the lab; so the content is relatively high quality. So, is it worth $20? I’m gonna say yes if you’re going to play a lot of this game. One of the reasons I couldn’t finish it before release - and by the way I like it so I will finish it - is because I couldn’t play it in long stretches. In my opinion this game is best experiences over a long period of time where you keep coming back for more.
