Balancing a tower defense title properly is a pretty tough task. Make a game too easy and players may lose interest in advancing through the game’s missions and difficulty. On the other hand, an incredibly difficult TD title can potentially alienate a lot of prospective players. Epic War TD 2 (Free) by AMT Games leans heavily on the difficult side in terms of the TD spectrum. However, the game is balanced well enough that most TD gamers can succeed while optional modes provide a challenge for the hardcore fans.
A sequel to a 2011 title, Epic War TD 2 gives off some pretty cool vibes with its art style and presentation. The visuals are a mix of Starcraft and Fallout in terms of futuristic elements mixed with a post apocalyptic setting. Alas, whatever tale you make up in your head in regards to the setting is all you’re going to get as Epic War TD 2 is devoid of any formal narrative. Granted, epic tales are rarely told in a TD setting but I found it interesting that Epic War 2 chose to bypass any attempt. Thankfully, the actual gameplay shines well enough.
When it comes to towers, Epic War TD 2 has a good mix of classic tower tropes (basic gatling gun, AoE flame thrower, etc) mixed with a few interesting options (Tesla and Laser). Towers are unlocked via a progressive upgrade scheme that requires stars to unlock the next tower in the sequence. Stars are earned by playing and completing missions. Some advanced towers require player interaction in order to successfully use them, but most towers are on the standard auto-target that’s found in most TD games.
Overall, I thought the game did a decent job of providing specific detail on each of the towers as well as what the upgrades would unlock. Each enemy has a weakness in terms of tower type and it’s pretty easy for most players to understand that part of the gameplay strategy. One of the bigger annoyances I found, however, dealt with the lack of introductory tutorials for each tower. Folks that have played enough TD titles can probably guess as to what the majority of the towers do, but the lack of descriptive text makes for a lot of trial and error. This is especially true considering the game’s tendency to create situations that call for a “specific” solution to get past waves.
Where I think Epic War TD 2 absolutely shines is in its difficulty balance from map to map. Simply put, this is a pretty tough addition to the genre. Most maps have at least one or two waves that require a specific combination of towers (which aren’t too hard to figure out if you analyze the types of enemies coming at you) but otherwise the game provides some margin of error as far as the types of towers that you should use. The fact that most towers serve a particular purpose and have a specific enemy that it’s strong against means that alert players should be able to quickly read and place towers in the correct sequence.
In this regard the gameplay is almost like a puzzle in some respects that requires some critical thought in order to pass individual waves. There’s also no IAP and no way to bypass maps, meaning that players will have to beat maps in succession. Personally, I found the difficulty to be exhilarating without being overbearing. Maps are certainly difficult, but it’s not too hard to play with combinations of towers to find the right combination. The game’s ‘Pro’ mode, however, truly is a strict puzzle environment as exact combinations of towers in the proper locations are required in order to succeed.
Epic War TD 2 is a pretty straight-forward tower defense title. There aren’t any RPG-like elements, story, or anything other than good, difficult gameplay. However, I do think that gameplay is good enough to carry the lack of a comprehensive tutorial or the reuse of maps across missions. It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten a tough, nice looking TD title, and I recommend folks looking for such to give Epic War TD 2 a try.
Ahhhh, shit. That last paragraph just made my shoulders slump. RIP video games
Like this game is ok, but honestly it looks like a Game Jam project that took a few guys a few hours to make, and it's on pace to out-earn a game bursting with heart and soul. The message here is this: Lesser games can make more money solely on the merits of a chosen pay model. I know I'm not breaking any news to anyone, but it depresses me no less.
Radical may not be the most gorgeous game on the App Store, but it took several months of development. Maybe we're just super slow, but we do a large amount of testing with players because we're weird like that. :)
qpawn: this is clear to me. i'm a big fan of MShorts (have been in top 100 of every level at one time or another), and this is a totally different beast... but the same attention to absolutely perfect controls is wonderful to me. you folks know how to nail UX for quick reaction games, thanks.
Ok, that comment was hyperbole, I didn't mean to say the game looks or plays shoddy, as it does not. But it certainly must've been a fraction of the work/heart/soul that went into say, Mikey Shorts, no? Again didn't mean offense to the game, I actually play and enjoy it, along with all 3 of the Mikey games.
I know what you mean. I put a lot of effort into anything I create for people, whether it be making a mobile game or Photoshopping a friend's face onto a horse. For Radical it was less work, but also less stress. We add as many drops of heart and soul as we can to make the game fun for people. If more people are able to enjoy our games, we're happy. :)
Anything polished takes a long time.
People don't realize just how long even a solid UI takes to program when you're not contracting out the non creative aspects of a game (like menus) to a sweatshop like "some" companies do.
Kudos, I think radical is solid as hell.
"Still only one continue per game, THOUGH." That's the best freaking part about the entire thing. It's still a level playing field. This is one of the best pay models that I have seen on ios!
Hmmm, well it didn't seem like money was the primary motivation for them to get into game development... If they can get some cash flow for small and simple games like Radical then go for it, I just hope they will still make deeper games like Mikey/Hook Champ too that either have a set cost or at least can pay to remove ads and any other F2P stuff.
Exactly, money hasn't been our primary motivation for making games, but it does allow us to keep making them. The big thing for me is finding time. Staying at home watching two kids eats up a lot of my time these days. I would love to get to the point where I can spend more time developing, or even do it full-time, as it has been a very fun and rewarding experience so far. Maybe when the kids go to college! ;-)
Funny thing is, with the radical mode, you won't ever need to see an ad as they show up only when you get a score of 20 lol. :D
Also, more than 1 million scores show up in Game center, so I guess close to 1.5 millions downloads. Pretty great, congrats on a very well balanced quick reaction game guys
Well by some divine miracle I managed to snag a score of 41 on Frenetic mode, I'm still reeling lol
Dude, sweet ;)
Hopefully the success of something like this will give you the budget and time to work on bigger stuff as well. Nothing wrong with balancing diff types of game / audience / sales method, happens all the time in other industries
Look I don't know how people can support this developer as they actively deceive us! I have gone to my grocery store no less than 10 times trying to buy a box of Mikey Munch cereal and now I find out it isn't real? Well, I for one will not buy another free video game from BeaverTap until Mikey Munch cereal is part of my complete breakfast! Who's with me?
Guys...?
Hello?
Mikey Munch was pulled from grocery store shelves in 1989. Golden Shorts coins were hidden inside every box, but children kept swallowing them. Lawyers. Am I right?
My Mikey Munch Golden Shorts Coin near-death choking experience court case has been in litigation since 1990.
Best. Trailer. Ever. It looks like the 'commercial' took longer time to make than the game itself. Pity so few devs put effort like this into their trailers! I'll try this game just because of the trailer!
The better revenue has nothing to do with the payment model. The success is all due to the RADICAL trailer!
They need to change that icon.
aahhhhh. as a dev.....aaaahhhhhhh. but good on you guys.
Id rather play Swing Copters. But I'll probably end up trying this inevitably.
Alright, this game is pretty Radical. Paid the $, new mode is crazy
Wow. That is great. Congratulations guys! I downloaded Radical when it came out as well. It's fun. I'm still trying to find the "secret sauce". Without causing a lot of pain I'm trying to get a better understanding of why IAPs are so accursed. Is the same feeling toward in-game ads? My first game took about 2.5 years to make. Granted, that means diddly squat when it comes to trying to make a fun game, I know. I decided on the free model with IAP so everyone could download it and not cost anything. Since the d/l count has been about diddly squat I'm seeking help. I plan to release much smaller games this year and go the in-game ad route. Thank you for letting me ask. -- Jeff
There's good IAP and bad IAP. This is obviously good IAP. A free ad-supported game, so the young and wretched can play it and make the devs money with ads, and an ad removal IAP so that those with coffee money can put some right in the devs pockets. What's not to like?
I totally liked the way how they bulit the ads into the game and i have never liked watching commercials more than in radical because i think these guys absolutely deserve to get paid for their great work. Congratulations!
Hopefully they can use the revenue from their "smaller" twitchy games to be able to continue to produce games like the Mikey games. That would be ideal.
I've absolutely loved playing this game from the get go, to all those haters saying it looks far too simplistic then all I can say is beauty can be on the inside! Sometimes less is more and this little gem has ultra-tight controls and is a very addictive highscore chaser. I gladly put my money down for the no-ads option as I also loved playing Mikey Shorts and the more support for those Beavertap chaps the better I say. Incidentally, I would love to compare scores with any other regular players out there...add me on GC under Deckard740 if you feel you can take me on 😜