Fun game but, sadly, earns a thumbs-down for misc. [strike]bad[/strike] [i]evil[/i] design choices. I don't care that it was basically a freebie (I think) w/ other Sanctum games. FWIW I liked it better than those .. more straightforward TD, rather than the conceptual/strategic "fog of war" which plagues the 3D Sanctum games -- in which you basically learn to play by failing, not succeeding.
1) Tower Defense games should be as deterministic as possible, i.e. things happen the same way each time. There are many mechanics -- e.g. crate drops, dodgers, crits -- which do not follow this rule at all. Result being, what "worked" on one run, doesn't work on the next. Are the mobs going to spawn in such a pattern that they will collide with your Explorer Party, thus killing 1 or more of them -- thus reducing a very significant skill's power, by 33, 66, or 100%, depending -- or are they not? I guess we'll find out, when you click "start", after setting up your build for the 475th time!
[b]BTW, in Sanctum games, including this one, you build your own maze out of Tower "Bases", and towers can only be placed on said bases. So, redoing the build isn't just "throwing down a few towers"... it's throwing down about 50 bases, [i]then[/i] throwing down a few towers. 🤦[/b]
The crate issue is probably the most significant. I've seen as many as 3 in a wave; I've also seen none. 2 is equivalent to a tower, and 3 is a [i]good[/i] tower. Thus, none basically equals "restart". It's a big deal.
🔥👿🔥 THIS IS TD HELL. 🔥😭🔥
2) Basic QoL not found. No checkpoints. No key rebinding. Can only reset the whole skill tree, then re-spec everything, instead of simply "moving points around". How am I supposed to feel, about games/devs who make no effort toward human decency? Ppl who don't even [i]try[/i], do "do better". Answer: "not recommended". :P
No saved setting for "fullscreen" mode. U have to manually go to fullscreen every time you start the game, using Windows' default "fullscreen" bind, ALT+ENTER. Well, ENTER happens to also be the key to "start the wave" (which you can't change). So, you ALT+TAB to look at some screenshots -- because, of course you do [i]since there's no fricking checkpoints or saving[/i]. When you ALT+TAB back in, the game annoyingly reverts to "windowed" mode, so you press ALT+ENTER to fullscreen it. Well, guess what happens -- you just started the wave and you didn't even build anything yet! :P Restart............. (You mean to tell me, in [i]all[/i] the development, and [i]all[/i] the testing, no one said "this could be handled better"??)
Another player-hostile TD design choice: u sell a tower, u get a penalty in how much $ you get back, even if you're still in build phase. That's just rude.
Combine issues from categories 1 and 2, and things can quickly go from fun to not.
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[h3]It really all boils down to: a bunch of design choices that waste the player's time.[/h3]
Sorry -- I love the genre, and I enjoy this game when it's at its best, but, game/devs do not deserve a good reputation for overlooking such common-sense issues, and putting the burden on the player aka [i]customer[/i]. #BadSoftwareByBadPeople
I have other games I want to experience; I don't need to re-re-re-hammer this one like it's the one game you got bundled with your new console on Xmas. :P (And re-re-re-prove that I've mastered a map, up to, the 17.235-second mark, in wave 5, just to figure out exactly what it is that's breaking down and allowing leaks, at that point... This is what's known as "grinding", and we [i]do not like[/i] grinding! Checkpoints, MFs!!!)
BTW there's certainly a level of interest where u just derp around and "play for fun". That's not really me. To the extent Steam Achievements push the player to explore and excel, and serve as a guidepost for when it's time to "move on" to another game, I enjoy chasing them. And when certain ones require precision, if not perfection, that's when sloppy design choices get really frustrating.
So, when the first 20 runs of "this is a decent build I'm working out" turn into "good thing I 'like' this build since I've had to set it up manually 100x in the past hour 🤦" ... Cheat Engine to the rescue, unapologetically.
Have fun!
