Another tower defense game... another system of the same path, and one simplistic idea where you build the same as every other game and then you win... Well think again. Protector is a totally new form of tower defense. And let me tell you, it is hard, very full of depth, and will make you want to finish the game... if you can.

If you have ever played a TD game in your life, especially the original, you will know that a lot of them are similar and follow the same type of pattern. There are a number of waves, you need to build turrets and upgrade so that you defeat all the enemies. Well mostly these games degrade once you hit a certain level. The reason for this is you reach a certain upgrade level, and the enemies die so fast and the cash comes in so quickly that you can never lose.

Protector doesn't do that... ever.

This game instead puts users initially in the view of a map, and seeing this map you are encouraged to play through the tutorial. Well if you have played TD games before, I would not recommend the tutorial, it's a bit of a waste of time. If you haven't then that is the place to start for you.

After the tutorial you will realize that this game is almost an RPG tower defense game, and yet it's not quite that. So to start, there are multiple maps. Imagine you need to fight onslaughts of enemies on various different battlefields. to do so you need to enlist the support of various spell casters, as well as physical and spell units. These units will remain stationary on the battlefield and can never be replaced... a very important point I will discuss later on.

Units can only be placed on cleared and paved ground. This means that when the map starts, and the path units take is shown, you will have limited areas to put casters. In other words, you REALLY need to plan out ahead what your defense will look like closer towards the end of the map because once you set a caster you cannot remove him. However, areas around the map can be paved and allow you to place a caster there, but it will cost you valuable gold.

And there is more. You see certain waves will have resistances or immunities to certain caster types. Usually maps have a theme, so perhaps the majority of waves have resistance to ice, or fire. Also, some monsters will even adsorb certain attacks and they will get healed. This means you need to analyze the waves that will be coming at you on that map and plan accordingly.

Another interesting feature is the upgrade system that Protector works off. As opposed to the usual, you get gold and you upgrade idea, this game has a new system that is much more complex. Firstly, not only do you need the gold to upgrade, the unit you want to upgrade must have a certain amount of experience before it can get that upgrade. This means if you stack units at the very start of the map, when you place ones back more they won't be able to gain the required XP to get upgraded. This feature of course means inevitably your new units will be rendered useless when they are needed in later stages. The next feature in the upgrade system is that there are two different upgrades you can take. There is a general style, and a specialist style. The specialist one will upgrade the abilities of that caster, frost slows, fire splashes, poison is damage over time... that sort of thing. The second however will upgrade more the damage, range and attack speed of the particular mage. So this game really has a lot more than the average TD style game.

But wait, there's more... You see the final thing they implemented is a system in which after you complete each map you are granted upgrade points. These points allow you to boost specific traits that will affect you on the maps. These range from specialized new units to overall damage on certain casters. Planning for each map will be required.

... Honestly by the time I was doing medium difficulty maps I had to tailor my specific build order, placement and even upgrade point setup to win; you can reset your upgrade points whenever for no penalty. This should indicate that this game is no joke, it is hard. Damn hard.

Now for everything else. There is an auto-save feature, very useful, also you can control the sound easily enough to be good. The game is fairly simple to learn, and won't take more than a few minutes to pickup. Higher levels are a different story tho.

You will not get far in 30 minutes, I should warn. You will most likely finish two maybe three maps. That's it. There is a good chance I will end up going back to this game over and over again until I manage to beat it.

So my overall conclusion is, play this game if you want to spend the time to beat it. If you are looking for a quick fix, or a small tower defense game, this is not the game for you. However, other than those time feature... this game is wonderfully complex, deliciously sinister, and takes everything you will have as a flash gamer to beat it.

Rating:

Longevity: 5/5
Interface: 4.0/5
Addictiveness: 3.5/5
Sound: 3.5/5
Simplicity: 4.0/5

Overall: 4.0/5

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