You start off with some generic form of currency that can be used to purchase towers. These towers are also somewhat generic, as tower defense games go. You start with quick shooting laser weapons and towers that deploy bombs which deal more damage but hit slower. Shortly after, you unlock a missile launcher that can deal a fairly decent amount of damage but is quite pricey. You can upgrade your turrets as you play or pay to buy another slot in which you can place another tower. There are up to 5 slots and you start off with 3 at the beginning of each round. You are issued a few healing charges that can basically heal the base you are protecting up to full.
There are also two other interesting items you are issued at the beginning of the game, the first are mines and the second are meteors. The mines basically spawn randomly all over the screen and disappear after getting hit by an alien ship. The meteor is an instant attack that deals damage to everything on the screen in one go and then disappears. Unfortunately, both the base heal and the area of effect attacks have limited charges. You can spend some money for more if you run out during a run-through or you can reset your progress and start over with 3 charges for each of the aforementioned items.
The game, while fun and addicting, has some bugs and some small gameplay issues. I noticed on one occasion I finished a wave and waited for the next after starting the new wave only to have nothing show up. I ended up resetting the level to get it to work. Not a huge issue, but I could see that being irritating if your are struggling. Another bug I had was the game just outright crashed for me causing me to have to restart an entire level again. Another issue I had with the game, which isn’t a bug, is the speed multiplier. It goes up to 2X the speed and that’s it. The ships already move at a snails pace, 2X basically brings it up to tolerable levels. It helps that unlike many other tower defense games you don’t have a maze to work with to funnel enemies, they just come in a straight line for your base and the distance is fairly short.
Overall this game is fun, and it is free which is a plus. It is very hard and the developers have made it incredibly easy to pay your way to victory if you are truly lazy or having trouble with the difficulty. You also always have the option to play survival mode. As always the paid version of the game removes advertisements, although the advertisements are not nearly as invasive as they usually would be for a free game. This game is definitely worth a play-through.
Final rating: 3 out of 5
