Kingdom Rush (defense)

Kingdom Rush by Ironhide Game Studio has been released some time ago. If you have not played it yet, well, have a good read below of what you have missed.

Kingdom Rush is a tower defense game where the player builds towers to stop hordes of rushing attackers. It stands out with its cartoony art style, lovely sound effects and active gameplay. And I do mean active. There are things to do even after the towers have been built.

This review is based on the 1.072k version.

Build towers, stop rushers.

Basically, the player builds towers to stop rushing attackers. Different types of towers are suited against different types of attackers - archers for physical damage, mages for magic and artillery for the large groups of little guys. Plus there is a barracks that produces soldiers who physically block the advance of the attackers.

There are things to do besides building defenses. In addition to telling the soldiers from the barracks where to gather, the player has the ability to Call Reinforcements and summon a Rain of Fire. Call Reinforcements will summon a couple of soldiers to block the attackers. This is the most often used ability.

Rain of Fire is, well, as its name suggests, fiery death from above. Because of its long cooldown, it is usually saved for emergencies. But I like spamming the skill. :)

And if the game does get slow with nothing to do, the next wave may be summoned earlier to provide threats to play with.

Challenge level!

In addition to the basic campaign levels, there are challenges for each level. These are shorter levels with only one life (i.e. no enemy must be allowed through!). Also, there is a restriction to the global upgrades (see below) the player may have as seen in the red text in the screenshot above.

Completing basic campaign levels and the challenge levels will award stars, which may be used to purchase global upgrades.

Six types of global upgrades with five levels each.

The upgrades available improve each of the four tower types and the two abilities. Of course I would max the Rain of Fire ability so I can spam it more often with greater effect. :)

The stars used in the global upgrades may be reset. Thus, different strategies may be used without having to start a new game.

Achievements!

And to boost the ego, there are achievements to fulfill. Most of them involve a lot of work but there are a few that are true challenges. Like the one that requires a barbarian to stay alive long enough to kill ten enemies. Keeping barbarians alive is not an easy thing to do.

Encyclopedia of tower knowledge.

There is a detailed encyclopedia of the towers and enemies. Listed here are all the strength and weaknesses of the enemies, as well as details on the towers available. It is admirable that the developers went to the trouble to produce a separate image for each level of tower upgrade, along with descriptions, stats and encyclopedia entry.

For most part, the game is easy to play. However, it may be difficult to win a level without letting an enemy past, especially if the wrong strategy is used. This may lead to rage-quitting. There are Youtube videos of the solutions, but you don't need those, do you?

To summarize, not only does Kingdom Rush have good gameplay, it also has good presentation. The art is nice to look at and the sound effects good to listen to. That is in addition to an active gameplay where the player has stuff to do throughout a level.

Finally, the #1 good reason to play the game is for the quote when the Dragonbreath Launcher of the 500mm Big Bertha is upgraded. It is a must for Die Hard fans.

Fun!