Actually, there's a game that just came out for the DS a couple days ago, called Lock's Quest, that is a TD-RPG. It got a good review at IGN, and I just picked it up, and it's actually really fun.
It takes the basic TD idea of building towers and walls and traps and stuff, but then adds in a character. Basically, to repair things, you have to actually move your character, Lock, around the map to do it. He is also able to fight baddies to help out, and when killing enemies you don't automatically gain the resources, but rather Lock has to be nearby for it to be drawn towards him. On top of that, you don't gather "scrap" (which is used to unlock new turrets/materials/traps/helpers) unless Lock is present upon the death of an enemy.
It's not -exactly- like tower defense, in that the enemies seem to attack your defenses rather than just walking stupidly by them, but I think that makes it interesting-plus, the AI adapts. If they attacked one section of your fortress and got destroyed, they'll attack differently the next round and search for a weak spot, which makes for an interesting little challenge.
I'm about an hour and a half into it, and I have to say it's one of my favorite games of this year. There's actual strategy involved. I tried one thing, got absolutely annihilated, or they broke through but the time limit went up and a wave of relief passed over me. The fact that there are separate build and combat phases adds a lot more to the TD aspect of it. Also it's not building a maze so much as it is fortifying positions. You don't need to build 40 towers. You could very easily just have standard walls up and just run around and fix them. Atleast in the beginning. Not so much when they throw nastier baddies at you.
I'm a big fan of TD games. I enjoy real time strategy, but I dislike commanding units. My dream game would consist of a standard RTS (e.g. DoW), but you don't get to command any squads directly. Rather you issue high level orders to the squads, like:
You protect the east side of the base. You guys harass the enemy cappers, but retreat and reinforce if you take 25% casualties.
To a certain extent, TD is that type of high-level RTS. Granted, that's because towers aren't very complex units, since they don't move. But it's a first step in the direction of game I would like to play.
They are very mathmatical, and require micromanaging, and constant thinking about the consequences of your actions, some people really like that kind of thing.
At PAX I played a Tower Defence game called "Defence Grid: The Awakening", it was pretty neat. It is the first Tower defence game even with a narrative. It's being made by "Hidden Path", a bunch of industry vets, including Mark Terrano (ex-Ensemble Studios) and Dave McCoy (ex-FASA).
I didn't notice that on the expo floor. That's a shame, because it's the type of game I really would have enjoyed. I haven't even seen a video of this title online yet.
The first tower defense game I played was Sunken defense for starcraft.
I guess you could say there was teamwork, in that any enemies you didn't kill the person opposite you in the grid had to take care of. But it was mostly just a time waster. And it was pretty fun, I guess.
I didn't notice that on the expo floor. That's a shame, because it's the type of game I really would have enjoyed. I haven't even seen a video of this title online yet.
It wasn't actually on the show floor, I played it in a private showing in a suite at the Sheraton.
There are no videos of it online yet, I do have some screenshots though. One sec...
TD games are fun because it's a distillation of what makes RTS games fun.. build up bases, and kill the enemy. The only difference is instead of invading their base, you get to defend yours. Some of us enjoy turtling up behind impenetrable walls and laughing as the bad guys fail to break in.
If there was a mod for a Sim City game that sent waves of invaders and added military features, I have a feeling we will have witnessed nirvana.
Do what you can to elect Harris/Walz and downticket Dem candidates in your area by doorknocking, phonebanking, or postcarding: https://www.mobilize.us/
The ones where the enemies walk along built-in paths usually bore me to death. I really like Cube Defense (on WC3) because it is designed with building mazes in mind.
Immortal Defense has to be my favorite tower defense game. Very trippy, good plot, lots of innovation. It's got a really nice demo (about two hours long) if you want to try it out.
I started playing TDs in SC and they were a cooperative progression-based puzzle game. There's not a whole lot of games like that. The whole concept of "Okay we got to wave X, what can we do to get further next time?"
I think WC3's best ones occasionally missed the point by making them single player + other people. The sheer amount of options in elemental tower D was pretty cool though. It was worth trying several other strategies after you had found one that you could win with.
PixelJunk Monsters is really great if you want an actual console TD. The problem is that it gets sort of stale after a while when you have to work up to unlocking the same towers every single map.
EDIT: Yeah, and SC's UMS games were excellent. Protect the Queen was another fun one and so was matrix defense (basically a TD where you used units instead of towers to build walls). It also had the earliest version of the gametype that would become DOTA.
Aeon of Strife.
Everyone talks about how Aeon of Strife was the original DoTA, but I could never find the map. :-(
God, I've spent hours and hours and hours playing TDs on WCIII with my best friend. I love them so much, I will buy SCII just to continue playing awesome custom maps.
I was pretty heavily addicted to Desktop Tower Defence. Its one of the best ones on the net I believe. Its simple, lets you make your own mazes and has a ton of game modes.
For those of you wanting a deeper TD experience (but still a free, browser-based game) I recommend GemCraft.
It's multi-map, and you can replay some maps to try to get a higher score. Actually, you must get a higher score if you want to unlock the hidden maps. Each map has some unique challenges, some have big bosses at the end. Plus, you can attack the enemies directly, which makes the game a little more interactive and less "let's watch the money roll in while we wait to have enough to buy that next tower/upgrade".
Also, to get an idea of how many of those games there are, check Tower Defence.net. There's so many of those games, it's ridiculous (although half of them are pretty crappy.)
I'm partial to the Vector TD series, Laser TD (which is not as well-balanced as others, but it has some fairly interesting weapons) and AntBuster, which is pretty unique in the genre, and its only fault is that losing can be up to the randomness of the ants' movement.
Posts
I'm about an hour and a half into it, and I have to say it's one of my favorite games of this year. There's actual strategy involved. I tried one thing, got absolutely annihilated, or they broke through but the time limit went up and a wave of relief passed over me. The fact that there are separate build and combat phases adds a lot more to the TD aspect of it. Also it's not building a maze so much as it is fortifying positions. You don't need to build 40 towers. You could very easily just have standard walls up and just run around and fix them. Atleast in the beginning. Not so much when they throw nastier baddies at you.
You protect the east side of the base. You guys harass the enemy cappers, but retreat and reinforce if you take 25% casualties.
To a certain extent, TD is that type of high-level RTS. Granted, that's because towers aren't very complex units, since they don't move. But it's a first step in the direction of game I would like to play.
I guess you could say there was teamwork, in that any enemies you didn't kill the person opposite you in the grid had to take care of. But it was mostly just a time waster. And it was pretty fun, I guess.
That's why I liked it?
that's it exactly.
I was trying to think of that.
It wasn't actually on the show floor, I played it in a private showing in a suite at the Sheraton.
There are no videos of it online yet, I do have some screenshots though. One sec...
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3
Screenshot 4
Screenshot 5
If there was a mod for a Sim City game that sent waves of invaders and added military features, I have a feeling we will have witnessed nirvana.
Immortal Defense has to be my favorite tower defense game. Very trippy, good plot, lots of innovation. It's got a really nice demo (about two hours long) if you want to try it out.
The set route ones can be fun, but are generally retarded easy.
I'd completely forgotten about that map. So much fun.
Everyone talks about how Aeon of Strife was the original DoTA, but I could never find the map. :-(
So I googled and came across desktop tower defense.
My God, that shit needs to be filtered at the network level. That game could ruin entire companies due to lost productivity.
I want this Lurker Defense map if you have it
It's multi-map, and you can replay some maps to try to get a higher score. Actually, you must get a higher score if you want to unlock the hidden maps. Each map has some unique challenges, some have big bosses at the end. Plus, you can attack the enemies directly, which makes the game a little more interactive and less "let's watch the money roll in while we wait to have enough to buy that next tower/upgrade".
Also, to get an idea of how many of those games there are, check Tower Defence.net. There's so many of those games, it's ridiculous (although half of them are pretty crappy.)
I'm partial to the Vector TD series, Laser TD (which is not as well-balanced as others, but it has some fairly interesting weapons) and AntBuster, which is pretty unique in the genre, and its only fault is that losing can be up to the randomness of the ants' movement.
Check out my new blog: http://50wordstories.ca
Also check out my old game design blog: http://stealmygamedesigns.blogspot.com