I picked up Guards because I am a huge fan of turn-based strategy games. I opened the game, selected my four default heroes (peasant, healer, archer, and witcher) and began my first attempt at survival. My archer shot arrows, my healer healed, my peasant threw pitch forks, and my witcher witched! I crushed the first 3 enemy waves, but on wave 4 I was immediately crushed by them. UponI picked up Guards because I am a huge fan of turn-based strategy games. I opened the game, selected my four default heroes (peasant, healer, archer, and witcher) and began my first attempt at survival. My archer shot arrows, my healer healed, my peasant threw pitch forks, and my witcher witched! I crushed the first 3 enemy waves, but on wave 4 I was immediately crushed by them. Upon returning to the main menu I thought, “That was fun, but the difficulty curve was crazy!” and then I realized I had gained enough Mithral (the in-game currency) to upgrade a few of my heroes and even unlock a dwarf with a shot gun! After a tearful farewell to my pitchfork flinging peasant, and the joyful welcome of the shotgun dwarf, I immediately started out on another mission feeling more powerful than ever! I blasted through wave 4 with my new dwarf, but was then crushed on wave 5. Upon returning to the main menu I thought, “That was fun, but the difficult curve was crazy!” and then I realized I had gained enough Mithral to upgrade a few of my heroes and even unlock a... “Wait a Minute! I’m stuck in a loop!”, I thought, but then decided I should unlock the Amazon.
Overview
Guard’s a very simple game to understand and play. You select a team of four heroes, and then try to survive an onslaught of enemies that are separated into 10 levels. Once you get to level 10 you have to defeat a final boss while surviving the relentless assault. Between deaths, you have the opportunity to upgrade you team, buy items, and unlock new heroes to take into battle.
How It’s Played
Guards is played on a 3-lane grid with your heroes lined up in a sideways “T” on the left, and the attacking enemies on the right.
It has a unique swapping mechanic that drives it strategic gameplay. Each turn, you swap the position of two of your heroes, and then all of your heroes (besides the one in back) make an attack. The enemies then advance toward your heroes, making their attacks. As you eliminate enemies, new ones will continue to spawn. Swapping with the hero in back will make that hero recover some lost hp, but will also make the hero brought forward unleash a usually devastating special attack.
This swapping mechanic allows you to strategically adjust your team based on the type of enemies you are fighting. For example, if my knight (melee) is in a lane facing down a goblin shaman (ranged), and my low health archer is in a lane cowering in front of an armored cow-mammoth-turtle then I can swap my knight and archer to allow my archer to shoot the goblin, and let my knight take the hit from the cow-mammoth-turtle. Since a variety of enemies are always spawning, the battlefield is always changing, which means you need to continue to swap hero positions to succeed.
What I Liked
If you’re on the fence about this game, play it for the hero swapping. Hero swapping is a simple mechanic that allows for complex gameplay. Given that there are eight heroes to choose from who all have special attacks, there are many potential strategies for progressing through the game. I opted for a team of low health ranged heroes so I could eliminate enemies quickly at a distance, but if I allowed too many enemies to gang up on one hero, it was game over. I also enjoyed the difficulty curve that the game presented. Each time I played, I made it a little bit further before I would die, and of course I would get upset, but never at the game. I was angry at myself because I could have totally avoided dying if I would have just swapped my healer with my archer.
The visual style of the game is simple, yet cohesive, and you probably won’t even care because you will be too busy planning your next hero swap.
What I Didn't Like
The grind is real with this game. Each time you die, you have to start over from the beginning and that can be extraordinarily disappointing. Mainly because once I make it to level 8, I know that I can always make it to at least level 8. I don’t want to have to replay levels 1-7 just to try my luck at level 8. This just feels like an artificial way to increase the length of the game.
I also found myself wondering if the visual aesthetics were the right choice for this game. The swapping mechanic is amazing, but maybe using heroes that fight enemies was not the right choice to match. There is no indication why the heroes must swap places in order to attack. Is their commanding officer a huge fan of music chairs? Also what exactly are they guarding? It seems to me that there is never anything of value behind them. And why does the game end when only one hero dies. Are they such a tight-knit group that when one comrade falls, they consider it a defeat even if the player wants to press on?
The Verdict
Guards unique swapping mechanic makes it worth a playthrough for fans of turn-based strategy games. If you can get past the grind, the game offers a lot of variety and complexity of gameplay for being a small indie game.
7/10 Good… Expand
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