Are you ready for another tower defense game? Paradox Interactive hopes so. Defenders of Ardania is an upcoming game by Paradox that tweaks the tower defense formula. Instead of just defending your castle against hordes of enemies you also have to navigate troops through enemy towers and attack their castle.
On the traditional tower defense side, Defenders of Ardania doesn’t really differ from the tried and true formula. You are given gold to build towers and that gold regenerates over time and when you kill enemies. Each tower is made to deal with a different type of enemy, whether they are flying, on foot, or even a small group of enemies.
You might as well turn around because you’re not getting anywhere near my castle.
You are only allowed a certain number of towers per level, so planting them strategically is important. This means fortifying your defenses while also crippling the enemy’s. As you build your towers out you are able to occupy more of the land, so in theory you can build a tower relatively close to an enemy’s castle to attack enemies as soon as they appear. There are also special squares on the maps that give towers buffs like increased range.
On the flip side, you are required to produce troops to storm the other castle. Again, different troops have different attack strategies. Each “wave” of troops has five spots for you to mix and match, and like the towers, you can only have a certain number of troops on the stage at a time.
One of the basic troops. Attacks in groups.
If an enemy sees you spawning a bunch of troops in a group, they will sell some of their towers to make more catapults that will do more splash damage. However, if you make rogues that move fast they will adapt to that strategy as well, so it is in your best interest to find a good mix of troops for your waves.
In addition to spending gold on towers and troops you are also given the ability to upgrade. For instance, you can purchase upgrades that makes towers and troops less expensive. Of course, it is in your best interest to upgrade so you can avoid getting overwhelmed by the enemy.
The single player map
Even though the game play might not seem easy going, the story looks lighthearted. It wasn’t long until alcohol was referenced as being more important than protecting your castle, and who knows where it’s going to go from there. Also, you are helped along in the beginning by a guy doing his best Sean Connery impression, and you can’t really go wrong with that.
While I did not try the multiplayer myself, it seems like it is going to be interesting, especially on maps where more than two people can play. You have your typical multiplayer options like Free for All and teams, and you can select maps from the campaign to play on. I can imagine that playing against another person instead of a computer will be really intense for tower defense and real time strategy fans.
If you’re a fan of these two genres, you will want to keep an eye on Defenders of Ardania. Paradox is taking a tower defense game and adding a little something to it, and the result looks promising. Look for it to drop on December 6th on PC, iPad, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.