The fourth installment in the Kingdom Rush series and arguably the weakest one, Vengeance attempted to deviate from its predecessors in a multitude of ways. I will not mention the DLC as they are considered separate entries to the game.
The positives are, that its still Kingdom Rush, a fun tower defense game with lots of challenges to complete. Vengeance is full of nice little references and easter eggs like the previous games and achievements are more demanding this time giving completionists more of a challenge. The experience feels fresh as now the towers no longer are tied to categories and the player must select five individually to bring in the levels from a plethora of options. The upgrade system has been reworked to fit those changes although I prefer the previous model. Additionally, this game has more heroes in total compared to the previous entry so you can mix and match in your strategy. This leads to overall higher replayability which is a good thing, especially when considering that it has the most amount of stages out of every Kingdom Rush game so far, all complete with their own Iron and Heroic challenges as it is staple in the series. Lastly, the modding community has done wonders to all instalments in the Kingdom Rush series, so even if you do not enjoy the game you may consider getting it for the mods alone, Revengeance for example has done a good job rebalancing it.
On to the negatives. The towers and heroes are heavily unbalanced, with some dominating while others feeling underpowered. The game feels sluggish overall, with the first two levels of the viking chapter being especially tedious due to slow enemy arrival causing the levels to be needlessly long. Some boss fights are very fun and unique while others feel very underwhelming. Losing at the end of a stage is also more punishing due to the extended duration of the levels leading to needless frustration when replaying them. Special towers and level mechanics are few and far between in this installment, probably due to the amount of playable towers overall, and although the graphics have overall evolved and the artstyle is very beautiful, there are also levels and elements that feel underwhelming visually leading to the impression of a rushed development in combination with the lack of balancing. There are also reports of bugs in the game however I did not personally encounter any that I remember, however its good to keep it in mind.
Overall, despite the flaws I would say that Vengeance is worth it, although not on par with the previous games it can still hold its own as a Kingdom Rush game. The overall experience is not bad, just not as good as its predecessors. It still has the most content out of every Kingdom Rush game and there's clearly something to enjoy here, which is why my opinion is mostly positive of the game albeit its flaws.
