The developers of Crimsonland have apparently discovered level design, spent more than 5 minutes on the textures and models, and invented perks that are actually fun. TvL benefits immensely. Be sure to get the DLC too, though; it makes the game easier and more replayable.
Kingdom Rush: Origins is exactly what you expect from a Kingdom Rush game and nothing more: challenging TD gameplay with a charming look, heroes for support, and a few goofy (but not obnoxious) easter eggs hidden throughout the game. Looks like you'll get between 5-15 hours of gameplay out of it, depending on how much you suck (so, 15 for me). There are no new mechanics besides heroes coming with their own on-demand powers for you to use alongside lightning bolts and summonable troops. Otherwise, you're dealing with the same four basic towers (each with a new look and new final forms, of course) and the same basic system of earnings stars to upgrade your towers. I confess I was a little disappointed by the lack of innovation, but I'm also glad they stuck with what worked and changed just enough to where I can cleary telling I'm playing a brand new entry in the series. When you're the gold standard in tower defense, you don't need to change much.
I confess it took my a long time to warm to this game because the setting is somewhat nontraditional (Lovecraftian Western with elements of high fantasy, zombie apocalypse, and steampunk is probably the best way to describe it) and the freedom in designing your own build can be almost paralyzing. But despite a slow start, Grim Dawn builds into the best ARPG on the market. I've sunk about 70 hours in at this point, and I still haven't finished the game because rolling alts is so addicting. The game is a dream for theorycrafters, but for people like me that just want to sling cool spells and slash their way through a few fantasy dungeons, there's plenty of that too. The additions of the Crucible DLC (very useful for getting good gear and leveling new characters) and Ashes of Malmouth (four syllables: ne-cro-man-cer) fill out most of what the game is missing and make it stand with the best of the best.
My goodness, was I having fun with this one. It's a pretty great Diablo-clone with controller support, fun characters, a unique setting, and several fun classes. Then I hit the second game. Frame-rates tanked from maybe 30fps down to 5 or lower. While I had previously been running medium graphics settings, the game became unplayable even at the lowest settings. The worst part is that there's no noticeable graphic improvements between the first and second game. The developers just didn't put as much time into making it actually run. I'm very disappointed. I was really looking forward to seeing how Van Helsing and Katarina's story turned out.
Guild of Dungeoneering is about building and manipulating dungeons so the idiot heroes you send in to them will complete their objectives and make it out alive with the treasure you need to expand your guild. It's a card-based game: the floor tiles are cards, the monsters are cards, the equipment pieces are cards, the attacks and spells are cards. You control everything directly except the movement of the hero: you control him or her indirectly, by placing juicy loot cards on the path you want them to follow. The combat is turn-based, and involves playing cards that can inflict or block (or both) either physical or magic damage (or both). It's a pretty tactical system that often involves exploiting the monster's weaknesses and predicting its next move. There's a fair bit of humor throughout the whole thing (every class, monster, and piece of equipment is some kind of riff on a classic rpg trope) and most of it is worth at least a chuckle. The game has a few significant problems: all character progression (including equipment and level) is temporary and confined to each individual dungeon run except passive "scars," which do harm as often as good. This means, unlike most rogue-lite dungeon crawlers, there's no real incentive to protect your more experienced heroes from death. Also, because the dungeons are built around multiple random card draws, the game suffers from layers upon layers of RNG: treasure, loot, dungeon pieces, monsters, hero attacks, and monster attacks are all separate card decks. All this randomness means that while player skill is important, you're significantly more likely to die because you encountered an unwinnable situation than because you made a mistake. The only effective strategy is to keep sending heroes to their death until you get lucky. All that said, it's addicting: the dungeon runs are tense and unpredictable, and no matter how many times you utterly fail, you convince yourself you'll manage it next time. You probably won't.
If you have coordination issues like me and struggle playing beyond the lowest difficulty of Guitar Hero or DDR, you will HATE this game. I know I'm the only person whose lack of fancy footwork rendered this game near-unplayable: over half of all the people that bought Crypt of the NecroDancer (at least according to the global achievement stats over on that other gaming store) never completed the first zone. That's how quickly the kinesthetic skill wall kicks in. There's technically nothing wrong with this game. As the other reviews will tell you, it's highly original, has a great soundtrack, and wonderful pixel art. But don't be deceived: this is not a roguelike or a dungeon crawler. It's resemblance to those genres is purely superficial. It's a dancing game. And if timing your own dance against the damaging dances of oozes, skeletons and dragons doesn't sound like your idea of a fun time, stay away from this one.
Kingdom Rush's extraordinarily high level of difficulty outweighs most of the positives in an otherwise good (if standard) tower defense title. Beating a level has less to do with what strategy to choose and more to do with how many upgrades you've earned by going back and playing older missions on higher difficulties, meaning most levels are simply unbeatable without having cleared as many missions as possible on the highest difficulty. And even then the game is murderously hard. This is the only game I've ever played where I've gotten to a point where the difficulty prohibits me from progressing any further--and that was only half-way through the campaign.
Defender's Quest combines the classic tower defense formula with RPG elements in a way that feels both classic and fresh at the same time. Because it works within the established TD formula, it's familiar and accessible. Because it replaces towers with hired heroes who level up, learn new active and passive skills, and equip new gear, it's offbeat and original. The art is both childlike and gritty. The story, the game's weakest point, is still functional and effective, and the simple characters are fun and relatable. It's a little short, but there's replay value both in beating older missions on higher difficulties and in starting a new adventure with new hero builds. Overall, a charming and unique hybrid of the Tower Defense and RPG genres.
Banished has no story beyond the hint that you and your people have been exiled to the wilderness to fend for yourselves. It doesn't need a story beyond that. The natural, organic drama of the changing seasons, the births and deaths, the growing and the harvest, and the fight for survival in a wilderness that even at its mildest can leave you without food and firewood in the depths of winter, tell the story. Unlike most survival city sims, however, there isn't a feeling of desperate micromanagment. Banished is a game of thinking ahead, to the next season, the next harvest, and the next winter. It's like tending a garden of thatched-roof houses, hard-working peasants, and beautiful, ravenous wilderness.
