TDS - Tower Defense Strategy

I really want to like this game.... however, I cannot even navigate it to a basic level. Even getting into the first mission was done largely through trial and error. It's not just the UI in terms of menus, the UX is insanely confusing. At no point am I ever sure that my click will do anything, let alone what I want it to do. Also everything is renamed away from genre-specific names so unless you know what your "Cardinals" are or where your "Vessel" is.... the text isn't going to help you anyway

This is actually one of the best tower defense games I've ever played. All of the levels are so beautiful and mechanically interesting, and the unlockable characters are insane. The people complaining about the UI are just weak. This game is intentionally a little confusing but it's part of the vibe and I love it. Co-op is an excellent experience.

Very fun game if you like defending towers using strategy. (the dog is a very good)

The gameplay is pretty difficult unless you're playing cooperatively, which makes it a bit easier as you can actually synergize a bit. Map design is seemingly designed against the player, many maps are multi-layered with only a few seconds to understand pathing via a tiny almost transparent line that travels. One map straight up punishes you for not forseeing a lane change, not very play friendly of you map. Most maps give you a very narrow room for traditional tower defense placement, usually requiring you to just use the snowman to stall them. Infact the snoman is actually overpowered for defense when using healing heaters and thin walls, most of the time the snoman got me to wave 20-25 without really trying. Also on some maps there are stairs or ladders, putting walls near these without covering the entire edge to edge can result in them walking around, very funny of you game. UI design is artistic, and I mean artistic. In that its not designed to really be readable until you know what you're looking at. Many ui buttons are unlabeled and symbol only, I like reading to know what I'm about to press instead of guessing. Also the worst sin of game uis, you cant press escape to exit menus. Cutscenes/transitions are nice, but they are no skippable. This isn't a problem but when I don't care for a moment you have to just wait through maybe 10-15 seconds of transition everytime you get an item or unlock someone. Please just let me skip the cutscenes. Enemy balance is a bit funky since up to wave 20 is decently easy but then after that you are essentially boned if you do not have solid DPS and defense since it introduces a guy who will kill everything instantly in a 3x3 area after wave 20 something. While it is an upgrade of the previous version of him, the damage going from manageable to entire defense line shattered in seconds in like a few waves was a bit funny. Theres also the artillery guys who appear around wave 20 and so on that can do massive backline damage, keep in mind you cannot directly repair buildings so those buildings are essentially just damaged forever annoyingly. As for characters or vessels as they're called, the only one I found useful was the snoman with the other being the starter guy. When used together they are pretty solid for resource gathering and just building a solid defense. I've found some usage with the catman on some specific maps but didn't really like him that much. The knight you get later who can arm their knights with guns seems useful as a support but doesn't have many wall healing options despite getting a so called modular wall. My other minor complaint is that the current vessels seem lacking, theres like 1 generalist and 4 supports really, I've found only the starter guy to be good at collecting resources but I haven't done extensive testing since the game gives you no info. As for towers and upgrades, probably the most annoying part of the game. Unlike many other tower defenses, this game does not tell you what the next upgrade does, requiring you to waste resources to see if it will even help you at all. Ontop of that you cannot undo or swap upgrades, so you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up trying to upgrade multiple towers now you have to sell it and start again. Also there is no tower copy and paste or upgrade path blueprint, so upgrading a million things gets a bit tedious. Another complaint is the snoman's sno launching requires you to individual re-aim each one... like please add a button to aim all or a select to aim a few cause re. (After more playthrough time, the most useful characters are sno sno then buster, Sno Sno can use snobbles and heater healed thin walls, decently op if combined with someone running damage with smacky. Buster is straight up busted, dogs deal damage when running through enemy, speed pads can make chainsaw setups or just run their path, enemies that want to damage units and towers will stop to damage dog and get damaged.) Overall, I am neutral about it, mostly because of how little information the game gives you. I'm all for experimentation but like experimentation is punished with how slow resource gain can be. If I'm going to experiment I don't want to just be killed for a mistake I can't really ta If you are going to play have a second person and be prepared for verticality cause many maps are multi-layer jungle gyms.

UI is wonky, but you learn it after a few rounds. After you learn it, this game is really awesome. It's a shame there are so many negative reviews because aside from learning the UI, it's a great game that I think about often. My friends and I have done all maps on all difficulties which for us was around 130ish hours of content. Well worth it. I wish there were DLC for more maps, I would pay for it. One of the few games I've 100% just because it was a blast playing it with friends. You'll learn the UI and you'll have fun. It's a hidden gem that deserves more attention. If you like TDS games and your friends (hopefully), don't hesitate to try this game

I'm with the guy that couldn't work out wth is going on. I played this game for 7 minutes and couldn't get into anything tower defence related. Not good.

Cute art, classic gameplay loop, loads of depth. Love this game, and wish there was a larger community for developing new levels and sharing strategies. I do wish some of the game's text would explain the exact mechanics a little more clearly (10% attack speed buff rather than "attacks faster"), but the journal helps, and the changes to exploration UI have helped immensely.

I don't know what the other reviews are wilding about, I find the UI to be simple game is good fun for those that like Tower Defense games with a bit more actual gameplay then just "place tower", the system they have with each vessel having unique towers and they have to run to place them is very fun, and each vessel feels balanced and fun to use (though I suck at Sno Sno), the Cardinal system is cool too, adds more variety and strategy the maps are varied enough to keep me engaged, each map has different techniques and not every vessel or combination of cardinals will work for each map Boutman is my favourite

I dont understand most of these reviews that are negative. I never really had an issue with UI and i think the games great. Ive done every level and ive done most to the maximum wave. this game has a great variety of levels and after you beat it most of the levels get a variant of sometimes minor and sometimes major differences. I highly suggest playing this game with other people as each character is quite unique and having multiple can make some nice defensive builds. Knowing what i do now I would have paid double price for the game. I seriously hope it gets a content update at some point. Not because it is lacking anything but because i just really want more. The art is also really good for everything. SEEK THE DUCK

one of the strongest tower defense games i've ever played. very engaging, very deep, lots of strategy that opens up in terms of playstyles the ui is pretty but incredibly difficult to navigate at first but just keep clicking around and you will figure it out