TerTD

Initially gave this game a negative review and refunded due to what I perceived as a lack of information as to how to play the game. But, I also stated that I thought "there was a good game trying to get out". But something kept gnawing at me and I decided to go back and give it another try. With a bit more patience (and looking more closely at the intro Steam video and game notes), I have found an interesting strategic game. Glad I made the effort!

I haven't played many RTS games, but this is a pretty good example of what not to do in one. I'll look at the pros first before I get to the negatives. +Upgrade system, I adore getting permanent upgrades in games. +Energy being used for everything, both as ammo & as building could be used for a nifty idea & challenge. +Level editor, another thing I adore in games. That's all I could think of. The cons? There's a lot. -First off, the game is $8.99. For one dollar more, you could get a lot of amazing indie titles, and there's other options for games less than 9 bucks. Now, a price tag doesn't decide whether a game is good or bad immediately, but it sets an expectation. -The tutorial is not that great. A handful of the towers are just not explained, you have to figure them out on your own. It only teaches you the basics of the game, really. It's not the worst tutorial ever, but it could be better. -The map design in game is a mixed bag. Some levels are literally unloseable, I'm not joking when I say there's a level which is just a full screen of enemies that normally increase the spawn rate of enemies that spawn more enemy spawners, but by themselves, they do nothing. Others are a complete lag fest due to the amount of enemies that are going to spawn. Some just seem downright impossible, and sure, maybe I'm just not that good and they're puzzle levels, which would be nice, but still. -There's a prestige mechanic. Basically, you have to reset all your map completions to get some extra earnings. Sounds good, right? Well, why do I need to beat a mode that disables the upgrades you buy with a currency that you get more from when prestiging to prestige? Sounds counter-intuitive. Also, a lot of the skill upgrades don't even seem that good. And there's only 9 of them. -Another obnoxious thing is that when a tower gets destroyed, it explodes & destroys nearby things. This can lead to chain reactions that destroy your entire setup and basically make you automatically lose. It's an obnoxious mechanic. Overall, this game isn't worth the $8.99. It's a flawed experience, you could buy something much better with your money. For suggestions on what could be done with this game, here's what'd I do: *Make prestiging not require the no skills mode to do, but also not reset no skills times. No skills mode should be an extra, optional challenge, not something required. Maybe some achievements can be added to no skills mode completions. *Add more skills to the game so I can feel a greater sense of progression. *Remove the exploding towers mechanic. It could be kept for the reactor, but the rest it should be removed from, since I don't want to see my entire based crumble because 1 turret got destroyed. *Add stronger enemies in. Maybe if too many nests spawn in, they'll merge into a stronger nest that spawns stronger enemies. This keeps the challenge of enemies while significantly reducing lag. It could also allow for a new tower that specializes in high damage to a single enemy type. *A tutorial that explains more things in greater detail should help. Symbolism is important. You can use symbols & images to help represent what to do in a tutorial better. *Reduce the price tag. I'd say the game is worth $1-2 bucks at its current state. With some improvements, I could see a higher value. *Don't make levels that are impossible to lose unless they're tutorials. Levels like those are not good game design, those are designing for boredom.