This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
This game has no identity, but visually tries to steal from another's to convince you to buy it. Let's start off with the information given to you by the game. Once the game loads up, you only have one option, which is to open up the levels menu. Scrolling right after you beat a level will show you the new level you unlocked. The levels have names, but that's the only thing you are given. The enemies and even the towers are not ever given names despite having played through over a quarter of the game. There's not even a tutorial level, so if you're new to these types of games, don't expect to have a good experience. If you have played TD games before, however, you know generally how the system works. Different enemies are weak to different types of towers and tower upgrades, and you can find that information listed under each specific enemy in a bestiary or other in-game book that keeps note of them all. You can also find out what respective towers are good at by looking at their descriptions, usually alongside the monsters in the same book. This game does not have one, however, so you're left to assume and guess at what is the most efficient way to do things. I'd assume that mage towers were armor piercing, that archers were much faster, etc. This doesn't appear to be true in observation, which is the only thing you've got going for you in the game. By level 6, archer towers wouldn't do any damage to any enemy, even the ones from the very first level that had died easily to them previously. Then there's the economics of the game. TD games are about managing your resources well and knowing where to best use a specific tower. It's a sustainable, rewarding system when it works, allowing you to beat back waves of enemies and upgrade along the way as each round progresses. This game didn't get that right either. From level 1, you are given incredibly sparse gold (the in game currency to buy towers with), and while this is manageable in the early levels, it quickly progresses into unbeatable frustrating levels. There is no gold reward for finishing a wave, so you rely entirely on the gold from killing enemies, but you're given so little at the start that you can't afford to buy another tower/upgrade until you've amassed gold from multiple waves, and that's if you were lucky enough to scrape by with a life to spare from all the unkilled enemies slipping through due to your lack of towers. There is no other way to obtain gold. There is no global effect that you as a player can directly control, like there is in most games (BTD, for example), and when you finally do beat a level, there is no reward. You're given 10 lives a round, but you're not rewarded with shiny stars or an upgrade path for keeping them. If you beat a level, regardless of if you did it with 10 lives or 1, you unlock the next level. That's it. The game is not challenging in the way other TD games have been, it's just frustrating, slow paced, and limits it's interaction with the player severely by ensuring it takes forever to buy anything, even the basic 100 gold starter archer tower. It blatantly steals some of the design pieces from various Kingdom Rush games, and mimics them poorly. The game is simple, but not in a charming way that other games have achieved. The gameplay is not enjoyable or interactive. I spent less than $5 on this game, and I feel it was entirely wasted. Just shill out the money for a Kingdom Rush game (the mobile versions are much cheaper than the switch versions, but are still of the same quality), instead of wasting time on this low effort garbage.… Expand
Fantasy Tower Defense (2020)Your Score0 out of 10User Score
