Tower defense games are a dime a dozen these days.  That doesn’t mean they’re not fun, they’re just everywhere you look.  But anymore it takes something truly interesting to make a tower defense game worth one’s time and money.  The big boxed RTS games keep relying on the legacy of Command & Conquer and Wacraft, while indie-made strategy games dry-hump the leg of Plants vs. Zombies.  Generally, I’m not sure how many more games can offer something new along the lines of “build turrets and watch them destroy things”.  So it’s with great pleasure that I can report that Revenge of the Titans is an independent stab at the tower defense mechanic which is not only stylish and funny, but addictive in its own right. 

The very first thing you’ll notice about RotT is its stylistic 8-bit inspired visual palette.  Two guys make up the entire team at developer Puppy Games and these two guys have managed to create a game with fantastic panache and appeal, and not to mention utmost polish and design depth in a genre that’s quickly verging on the passé.  Though the graphics are charmingly old school in presentation and never really aim to “wow” you, there’s a certain appeal to the way your general gives you briefings between missions and the way the Titans march towards your structures bobbing and bouncing menacingly. 

And there’s the difference that makes Revenge of the Titans something more than just another tower defense game.  The enemies aren’t in it just to get your base; they will stop and destroy anything in their path.  So while in most games your main goal is to create a barrier of weapons and walls to slow down the marching onslaught, in RotT you have to try and place structures in such a way that allows you to output the most damage on the encroaching horde while still not impeding their progress.  You can of course place walls and other slowing effects on the map, but pretty much everything is subject to destruction at the hands of the Titans.  So while you may stop one wave from crashing in on you, if they managed to beat down some guns in the process, a second wave will follow right behind and you’d better be prepared to rebuild.  If this were a straight RTS, you could move your structures before they took a beating.  If it were a straight Tower Defense, they’d be invincible.  This small, difficulty increasing change is why RotT is much better than most recent releases in the sub-genre of Tower Defense.  It actually brings something new to the table.

There’s a lot more resource management involved in RotT than in most tower defense games as well.  One of the first things you’ll gain access to through the campaign portion of the game is a refinery which harvests your currency and allows you to keep laying down weapons and structures.  The thing is, even these can fall under fire from the Titans, so your best bet is almost always to lay down as many refineries by the deposits as you can and leech money from them until they’re dry as quickly as possible before the Titans can make your life hell.  And this isn’t always as easy as it sounds. 

The sheer amount of oncoming enemies in later stages means you’ll need even more money, and while the early missions seem like a cake walk, you will fail eventually.  Luckily Puppy Games has thought ahead and made it so that the game’s difficulty setting can judge how well you did on a failed mission and adjust itself down to where it thinks you’ll have a better chance of success.  You can always say “no thanks, I’ll take my butt-whooping” but for the less patient the option to tone it down is always there.

The campaign mode is a lot more than just a string of missions too.  You’ll fight across many different areas of the world, as part of a nameless defense force, and the types and amounts of Titans you face will steadily increase forcing you to rethink your strategy as you progress.  But there’s also an absolute wealth of different upgrades, weapons, bonuses, and structures you can buy into as you go along.  So many that you’ll very likely have to play through the campaign a few times to see them all.  Some offer more firepower, while others offer more defensive capabilities, and others still give you more money to spend or make it easier to reload your weapons.  In either case you’re better preparing yourself for battle, but it’ll probably take you a while to figure out just what upgrades you want to focus on, as some are only unlocked by unlocking others.  One down side of this system is that the upgrade menu doesn’t always make it clear just how the upgrades will help you.  I’d like to see more numbers or details on what they do, rather than experimenting and hoping.  But that’s a minor quibble. 

Ultimately there are only a few missteps that I can mention about Revenge of the Titans.  The first is the confusion levied by the technology tree, and the second is the rather quick spike in difficulty.  Like I said previously, it’s a blessing that you can town things down if you’re easily frustrated, but Revenge of the Titans is one of those too few games which comes out swinging at the player and makes you want to try “just once more” to see if you can get it right.  It’s because you always feel just one proper placed turret or refinery away from beating each mission no matter the beating you take and it’s this kind of difficulty that makes gaming both fun and rewarding. 

The only other thing I can really nitpick about is that the game’s somewhat on the short side.  I feel like I’m moaning about my hot-fudge sundae being too delicious while also not being bottomless, but that’s the long and short of it.  You’ll be done with the main campaign in a couple of hours, and while you’ll probably want to play through it again there’s not much to do beyond it.  There are other game modes like an endless challenge to keep you entertained but the real fun is in the campaign and we’re left hoping that Puppy Games is seeing enough success from their release to add on to it or create a sequel. 

There’s really a revival of the PC game from independent developers like Puppy Games lately.  It’s these small teams that are not afraid to try something different or new, and you can’t really beat the prices of their digitally released titles either.  I’m hard pressed to find any game these days that’s worth $15 bucks, and you’ll get plenty of enjoyment from RotT for that much.  Everytime someone says PC gaming is dying I point them to titles like Minecraft, Magicka, and now Revenge of the Titans.  These smaller and more intimately developed games might not have the glitz and glamour of big-budget releases but they have a charm and passion all their own.  And in a clone-heavy genre like Tower Defense, it’s nice to see a little guy come out with a title that not only proves there’s more tricks to be tried but also plays so smoothly and addictively that I find myself seeing murderous Titans in my sleep. 

Pros:

• Exceptional retro art style
• Deep upgrade tree
• New twists on old formula

Cons:

• A short main game
• Confusing item descriptions