Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - Hier 00:34

Rustic Defense – Review

We’re really in the Christmas season now, and for video game fans that feels like… well, Christmas. From Pokémon to Call of Duty, this is the time of year that typically sees major titles vying for your wallet and your attention. It’s understandably easy for smaller releases to become snowed under, but we do feel like they still deserve some attention. Take Rustic Defense, for example, a humble tower defense game. While it may not have the attention-demanding power of the latest Just Dance, it’s still worth a look. That doesn’t guarantee that Rustic Defense is a great game necessarily, but if you simply overlook it, how would you ever know? Story Despite Rustic Defense being set in a medieval fantasy world, there is no narrative to speak of present in the game. The general idea is that you’re at the helm of a kingdom. Monsters attempt to invade from every corner of the world, and it’s up to you to stop them. That’s all you need to know. Ultimately, though, this feels very much like a missed opportunity, as the game’s setting generally lends itself particularly well to storytelling. What makes this especially egregious is the fact that the game has built-in hero mechanics, meaning that the right context to introduce fleshed-out characters is sitting in plain sight. Graphics Your kingdom and its surroundings are represented through simple, but effective, voxel graphics. The stylized, blocky visuals are effective enough, and there is a surprising amount of variety when it comes to the game’s different biomes, which comprise valleys and swamps as well as deserts and mountains. Granted, most of the environmental differences are simply the result of a different colour scheme -deserts are yellow, mountains are grey- but for a game like this, simple visuals directly translate in readability. Given that the maps are randomly generated and fog of war plays an important mechanical part, being able to assess things at a glance does help. The game’s stylized visuals keep Rustic Defense lightweight as well, with a stable frame rate and decent, but not outstanding, performance. Sound With no narrative to speak of, Rustic Defense also has no narrator -nor any true voice acting in general. Instead, the game’s soundscape is mostly carried by its sound effects: the zapping of turrets firing off lightning bolts, the roars of monsters, and explosions provide much-needed credibility for the on-screen action. The game’s soundtrack ties things together. While we’d say the music veers to the generic side of things, the cheerful tunes that you hear in between waves of enemies do feel appropriate for the rustic setting, as does the more dramatic score that plays as enemies stomp their way towards you. Gameplay We’d hesitate to call Rustic Defense a standout entry in the tower defense genre. Combining classic tower defense mechanics with roguelike elements does sound like a good idea, but the game doesn’t flesh things out enough to be memorable. In classic tower defense fashion, Rustic Defense’s core loop sees you build turrets on your map, after which waves of enemies come down paths towards your base. As long as you can keep the health of said base above zero, you survive. You’re not alone in defending against enemy hordes: when you start a run, you select a Hero, who will assist in defending your base should enemies evade your turrets. They act more as a safety net than anything, but they do actively contribute to the fight. Still, as a mechanic, heroes feel underexplored, serving as little more than an example of Rustic Defense’s failed potential as a standout game. Of course, your focus as a player isn’t on your hero but on building turrets. When you start a run, you have limited resources and only a handful of turret types unlocked. The game actively discourages you from spamming cheap turrets, as repeatedly placing turrets increases their cost. With only basic turrets and limited money, it’s likely you’ll fail often until you unlock better turrets or skills, meaning the early game can feel particularly punishing. Being a roguelike game, this early difficulty is by design. Luck plays a part here too, as no two runs will be the same because a good chunk of each run is randomly generated. Between runs, you earn XP based on how many waves of enemies you’ve beaten. You gradually unlock skills, both active and passive, as well as turret upgrades. Even if you fail a run, you make progress over time. Supplementing these permanent buffs are temporary buffs in the form of cards that you get during the runs themselves: upgrade cards, weapon unlocks, cooldown or damage boosts, and even special epic cards that grant powerful weapons or permanent elemental damage to your turrets. The world itself also plays a part in how effective a run is. The procedurally generated map is covered by fog of war. As waves progress, you can choose certain paths to lift the fog and reveal more of the map, effectively deciding where to expand your defenses and which route enemies will take. Despite the procedural generation of the world, Rustic Defense does get repetitive rather quickly. There is effectively only one map here -even if it offers procedural variation- and few changes to the formula. The lack of very strong early power makes for early sessions that feel grindy until your unlocks build up. Also, if you don’t get lucky with good cards or resource opportunities, a run quickly becomes about punishing luck rather than rewarding skill. Of course, that last point is a common pitfall for roguelike games, and a new run is as easily started as a previous failure is forgotten, but this does contribute to Rustic Defense’s feeling of repetitiveness. Still, at only €9.99, it could be considered an adequate palette cleanser or digital stocking stuffer for anyone looking for something different to play in between the season’s big hitters. Conclusion There is a good game -perhaps even an outstanding one- hiding somewhere in Rustic Defense’s core experience, but the game ultimately fails to capitalise on its raw potential. The tower defense gameplay is solid but doesn’t stand out, and the roguelike elements are a mixed bag: they either don’t feel fully fleshed out (the hero) or even deter from runs, particularly in the early game. We’d still say that Rustic Defense is worth the look if you’re in the market for a tower defense game, but keep your expectations in check.