Wow! Thanks everyone. I had no idea there were so many. I have a lot of games to check out. I'd still take more, but I didn't even know that there were this many TD games around.

Tons of multiplayer TD custom maps for SC:BW. Look for the Turret / Sunken / Photon D maps, along with other maps with 'defense' in the title. Not a lot of balance in some of those maps, though.

Love the game, but dear god does it need the ability to build up your structures and defenses before the 1st wave attacks, like every other tower defense game I've played. There are some structures that, as soon as you place them, the countdown begins. Really annoying :P

A lot of repeats here (and I feel like I'm missing something):

Gemcraft - Chasing Shadows does start pretty slow, for sure. And I will say I unlocked some features well before I figured out how/why I should be using them.

But it gets very interesting once you start unlocking and learning the games multiple systems. You will replay some boards but it never felt like a grind to me - experimenting with different combos and boosts felt really creative and experimental. mqstout notes mixed gems are "better" but that's not entirely true - they do higher damage per shot, but the trade-off is reduced gem effects (armor reduction, slow, crit, poison, etc.), so you have to decide what you want your gem to do.

To me grind is doing the same exact thing over and over - you will likely develop preferred strategies and tendencies, but the map mix (and the unavailbility of certain gems/tactics on many maps) will keep you having to adapt. I do think the sequel (Frostborn Wrath) does tilt toward grindy though. I only got about 15 hours in and it never grabbed me the way G:CS did (~200 hours).

Defender's Quest was one of the first games I got on GoG, and holds nostalgia. I really enjoyed it at the time. It's not a deep game, but it's most story-driven than the typical tower defense. It has a bit more RPG flavor just because your towers are archers, dragons, etc. and there are more upgrade features/options than many TD games.

Orcs Must Die, particularly the first game, is hilariously fun. The second is probably technically better, but I enjoyed the game play and the story of the first more (I liked the second; I loved the first). And the floor trap that launches orcs into the air and down into the lava is definitely one of the finer moments of enjoyment in any TD I've ever played, albeit while you can lean toward investing in traps over your hero, you can't beat most maps without at least being adequate at the first person shooter angle.

From the perspective of sheer fun, OMD is your best bet if you can do the first-person part at all (for a normal mode playthrough you don't even have to be great as long as you are decent at the trap part- I suck at FPS for example).

Dungeon Defenders (cartoony) and Deathtrap (from the Helsing universe) both follow the same gameplay model, and are both at least decent, though OMD was way more fun for me. I do still need to finish DD someday. Deathtrap was technically very sound with good systems/features, but I can't say it inspired love. It's just very good but not exceptional (83% positive on Steam).

Kingdom Rush series is also cartoony, and also has a hero you control in the mix, but it's definitely top-down instead of 1st/3rd person. It's decent. I've played several (on steam and on Kongregate back when) but off-hand I don't remember which versions I liked most. I feel like the more recent versions I've liked less tho.

The Anomaly series is a bit uneven, and I would say even the good installments are pretty short. It's also a flipped tower defense where you are the attacker rather than the defender. But it's cheap (often in giveaways here at that) when on sale, and a good palate cleanser.

I wouldn't pay full price Warstone TD but it was better than I expected.

Note I played these all single player, I can't really comment on co-op or multi-player modes. [Edit, and I don't know why I underlined some and bolded others - don't look for any significance in that lol]

You smell like a bot, taste like a bot and look like a bot. Jusy saying.

I can also recommend Defender's Quest and the Anomaly Series. The Kingdom Rush series isn't bad either though it is a bit too cartoony for me. Deathtrap is also quite nice and often on sale.

There is also a hidden gem that's free on GOG that I can wholeheartedly recommend: Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves

Though that game deviates a bit from standard tower defense games so it takes a little time to get used to it. I bought it back when it still cost money and don't regret the purchase one bit. I even bought more to give away back then because I liked the game a lot. It's been a while since I last played it maybe I should install it again. But since the game has become free you can simply pick it up and give it a try.

I haven't tried even near all the mentioned TD games, but those that I have, even the praised one, seem to always fall into the category of "ok I guess, but meh...". Not sure why. Like the Anomaly series, Kingdom Rush etc.

The only exception for me is Plants vs Zombies. I just feels right, it has just the right balance between being an easy to learn casual game, and still being just enough challenging, without becoming frustrating. Also its humor mostly works for me, except that "crazy" neighbor, he is just a stupid character.

I like both the PC and mobile versions. I've replayed it through maybe five times already. Not sure whether EA Origin is nowadays the only place where you can buy it, I nowadays have it there (I used to have it from elsewhere but it wouldn't work anymore, but I could redeem it from EA Origin with the registration code of the original I had, or sumthing... I wasn't as lucky with Peggle, it couldn't be redeemed similarly from EA Origin, for some reason...).

The mobile sequel Plants vs Zombies 2 is a bad game though. IIRC it is a freeware game where you are supposed to buy stuff with microtransactions, and they have changed the gameplay accordingly, making it so that much more often (than in the original) you will increasingly fail due to bad luck (ie. the monsters appear from places which are very inconvenient to you, maybe the game even does it on purpose), which is how it is trying to push you to buy powerups etc. with real money, so that you could get over those tight spots that happen increasingly. No thanks, bad game, bad bad game.


RTS games (the kind where you gather resources, build a base and crush the enemy bases; like C&C, Warcraft, Starcraft, KKND series, Age of Empires series, Total Annihilation etc.) is one of my most favorite genres.

I've tried to analyze why that is, and all I can think of is some kind of psychological aspect, the way you get to both build and improve your own base, and at the end of the round destroy enemy's base. It is a bit like a kid building a big structure with legos or a sand castle, and then getting to smash it all down. Yeah!!!

The RTS games where there is no resource gathering nor building a base/producing units, don't interest me that much. In fact I dislike them how you need to babysit all your units so carefully so that you just don't lose even one of them. So yeah, I hate the "special missions" in Starcraft which deviate from the basic gameplay of resource gathering and base building, the ones where you need to go into some scientific installation with a small group of units. I'd rather just skip them.

Also, multiplayer or skirmish mode RTS doesn't interest me either. Skirmish mode RTS feels a bit like playing an online multiplayer FPS games (like Team Fortress 2 or Counterstrike) against computer bots.

One thing I find charming about a few late 90s RTS is that you often will enter a new mission with no FOB; but that's because it's up to the player to actually pick a spot and establish it. Warzone 2100 and Urban Assault both did this to great effect; as did Earth 21X0.

Pop3D has an infamous "Special Mission", but it wouldn't be a Bullfrog game without something that was pants on head, now would it?

Command and Conquer is pretty much enjoyable as is Ashes of Singularity -.-

Defenders Quest of course

and, i lost the title but there is one alternative TD where you have to guide a convoy with several armed vehicles through a alien infested town, i belief there are 2 or 3 games from the same developer ( just read the title in the first post, anomaly )

also , started with but never managed to try more then a couple of rounds is Creeper World 3

Particle Fleet Emergence is still awaiting its playthrough but i haven't managed to find both time and or leisure to start with the thing

The idea did appeal to me once ;)

I like to pretend that one doesn't exist. FWIW, while PopCap was the dev, it was made post-EA acquisition.

p.s. I just tried the demo of the new Kingdom Rush installment ("Revenge") and I really didn't like it. It seems like just the prior installment as is but flipped so the bad guy is now the good guy. So the original version still stands as the only one in the series I actually liked, just personally.

p.p.s. I did enjoy the demo for Cursed Treasure 2 (Ultimate Edition, due to be released...eventually?) though, so thanks to amok for that recommendation.

Are you refering to the timed missions?
Those were annoying but to be honest, they are actually fine for what they are.

No.

The Cage.

Pixeljunk Monsters is my favorite tower defense. And it's even better if you hook up another controller and play it with a friend in local co-op.

I've heard good things about https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/empires_in_ruins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9s7N20K4YI

Also, the dev has an account on here ,)