Shepherds of the Abyss

Ever since the Warcraft 3 Tower Defense community died out it's been hard finding a solid tower defense game with an emphasis on strategy, they are usually very straightforward and don't require much thinking. Shepherds of the Abyss on the other hand has delivered everything I have been looking for in a TD and more. While many games have abilities of some sort, they never really feel genuine, it feels like they were tossed in last minute before release, whereas in SotA you make up your own "army" consisting of some default creeps and your own Shepherds, these Shepherds all have special abilities much like DOTA/LoL and truly feel like they have their place. Items is also something SotA has done very well, you can buy items for your Sheps, some are active and some are passive bonuses, and they all feel very in-touch with the game. But the part where SotA really shines as a bright star above all other Tower Defense games is in its mazing. The martial art of making your enemies walk the longest, most tedious path, through tight corridors of flame spitting towers and axe slinging statues. No competitor even comes close in this aspect of the game, some lets you block one route so the creeps will take maybe 10% longer to finish their run, in SotA you can make them walk five, if not ten times longer. And yet it never gets into a repetitive pattern. SotA is tower defense taken back to its roots.

Reminds me of the early tower defense games I used to play in Warcraft 3, but with a lot more depth. I really enjoy trying to figure out the best defenses to build and learning how the towers can be upgraded and work together.

I consider myself a veteran of TDs, willing to try out any that look even halfway passable. This could have been a good one. But..it just failed. It has some aspects which *could* have worked well, such as the minigame where you can manipulate the upcoming wave's buffs. That's something new rather than just warning the player what sort of minions are approaching next. I'm not sure if it's very well implemented though, as most of the time all you are doing is reducing one buff that has an extremely high number and would cause you to lose instantly if you didn't do it, such as a 12x hit point buff. Hardly fun or interactive. The towers are quite limited in choice, there are only 5 types that do any noteable amount of damage, with no further upgrades. Most of them feel incredibly weak, which makes mazing highly necessary. There is no variety of minions, it is nothing but 'chompers', a generic rodent with sharp teeth, occasionally given a different colour according to it's buffs. Occasionally there is also a mini boss in the form of a tree, dog, or golem, so perhaps small versions of these could have been used for non-boss levels. There is no campaign (!), just 1 single 'map' which is generated randomly, with a square also randomly placed somewhere on the map that minions must touch before they then go for the exit. This means there can be some points on the map that they walk past 3 times if you do it right. Unfortunately the map gets generated with randomly placed statues and small annoying walls which all get in the way of an ideal maze most of the time. When I find myself quitting and restarting the map just to get an 'optimal' layout where I won't wipe on the 3nd wave, something is very wrong with the design. One downside I noticed is after you spend all your gold, you only gain 1-2 towers worth of gold per round, which means if you are even slightly behind, you can't do much at all and it quickly snowballs into a sudden loss from there. Back on the topic of levels/maps- the existence of this single 'RNG' created map means there are no actual levels, which furthers my thoughts that this is an incomplete beta version that I've just paid money for. Perhaps a series of maps with fixed walls or other fixed obstacles/paths would be worth adding as soon as possible as it really makes it feel like the game was just thrown out to get money before it was finished - I actively avoid 'Early Access' games due to being burned by this exact issue so I feel mega duped here and will be requesting a refund as soon as I submit this review. Also, even as a veteran of these types of games, the difficulty is extreme, so I can see new players giving up in disgust or boredom within a few hours. Overall verdict: this game has some potential if big changes are made, but should still be marked as a beta or early access, as it is hard to argue that there is enough content to call it a full release. Do not buy it, there are much better uses for your tower defence money such as the Kingdom Rush series which are highly polished, cheap, and available on multiple platforms.

[h1]Allgemeines[/h1] Bei Shepherds of the Abyss handelt es sich um ein Tower Defense Spiel welches ein paar eigene Konzepte mitbringt wie z.B Seelen sammeln um diese als Buff zu verwenden. Im allgemeinen ist es jedoch ein klassisches TD mit schönem Grafikdesign. [h1]Mehrspieler[/h1] Konnte ich leider nicht testen da ich keine Spieler fand [h1]Singleplayer[/h1] Der Singleplayer ist nur 1 random Map welche Spielbar ist mit Endloss Wellen bis man stirbt, was durch den hohen Schwierigkeitsgrad meist recht schnell passiert. [h1]Positives[/h1] - Schöne Grafik - Gute Animationen - Mazing - Gegner Wellen können modifiziert werden was auch ein Teil des Spieles ist. - Mehrspielermodus koop und VS [h1]Neutrales[/h1] - Steam Errungenschaften [h1]Negatives[/h1] - Kaum Spieler dadurch ist der MP nutzlos ausser man kauft es mit Freunden - Keine Kampagne, nur eine Random Map - Tutorial zeigt nur 2 der Türme und erklärt die anderen nicht, ausserdem wird die Modifizierungsleiste nicht ausreichend erklärt - Hoher Schwierigkeitsgrad von beginn an. - Zu teuer [h1]Fazit[/h1] Shepherds of the Abyss hat ein paar sehr gute Ansätze und ist Grafisch schön umgesetzt, jedoch fehlt es an allem anderen. Neue Spieler haben anfangs kaum eine chance mehr als 5-10 Wellen zu schaffen da das Tutorial nur die Hälfte erklärt und das nur unzureichend gut. Die Türme und das Modifizierungssystem sind interessant gemacht aber sehr unübersichtlich. Meist schafft man es selbst in der ersten Welle nicht alle 5 Gegner aufzuhalten mit 10 Türmen wo man im Tutorial 3-4 Gegner mit 3 Türmen schaffte. Zum Spielen gibt es nur eine Random Map und sonst nichts und der Multiplayer ist leer. Ich fand kein einziges Spiel. Solange die Playerbase, der Content und der Preis so schlecht sind kann ich das SPiel in keiner Hinsicht empfehlen.

Very disappointing game. Save your money. There is just one survival mode. Only 5 towers. There is an interesting mechanic with moving buffs the creatures get... but thats about as far as it goes.

Honestly, I haven't played many tower defense games. Regardless, I can already tell this game has enough depth to keep me busy for a while. After going through the tutorials, I realized there's a lot more to it and I have a lot of options strategy-wise for when I dive into multiplayer. For an unfinished game in early access, it's definitely impressive. I recommend it for anyone that has a love of tower defense and even to competitive players new to the genre.

This brings me back to WC3 tower defense, with upgraded graphics and an easy to navigate UI. All pros in my book. It has one of the most superb maze pathing guides I have ever seen. Ever wondered what path the enemy will take if you put a tower at location x? Well it clearly shows you what will happen, before you place the tower down. Every tower defense game should have this. I just can't rate this with a thumbs up, as it seems v1 has released, but yet, towers only have 1 level, and I can't help, but feel this will get boring fast, with so few tower varieties. This just kind of screams beta to me? Here is my suggestion, unless this game gets more tower levels and variety, consider buying it for 10$, and in worst case scenario refund it. I'll be back at some point, and hope to see ++betaContent Unrelated note, my firewall keeps bugging me, about this game wanting to reach out to the internet, even though I'm on single player, after denying it a few times, the game crashes.

NOTICE: I was provided a key for Beta Testing to discover Gameplay and User Interface bugs about a month before EA Launch. Shepherd of the Abyss takes well known Tower Defense mechanics and provides a heafty twist. Allowing you to building your towers in any location on your map to direct the flow of monsters coming from the portal. But there is more, you can select monsters for their next wave and heroes. The Heroes (Shepherds) you control with hotkey abilities. Allowing you to freeze towers, spawn waves of spiders, or even heal your wave monsters. These changes make for some fun gameplay and removes the wait to see your results on how well your towers tackeled the wave as there is some skill involved in making the best use of your Shepherd's abilities. Positives: Great twist on an existing style of gameplay (Tower Defense) Added mechanics (Heroes) Wave Control - you control what comes out of your opponent's portal! Negatives: UI needs some more work Heroes can be slightly confusing when you have 3 active at a time Overall - Its worth picking up if you have a friend who wants to play too!

I am a huge fan of tower defense games and this really scratches an itch I've had for a long time.... MULTIPLAYER TOWER DEFENSE! You heard me right... and its awesome. A fantastic early access game!

Impossibly diffcult. Frustrating soul catching mechanic. The ability to catch what a mob drops is on a cool down. So even if you manage to kill a mob you get nothing for it if you didn't or can't catch its soul in time. Game is just not fun. If you want a 3D TD game try Prime World Defenders.