Ironhide turned into one of the most greedy game developers on iOS and it shows. I agree with all the previous criticism here of paying $5 for a so called "premium" game and only getting part of the experience. I see some people here say that, well, that's just the way this trend is going. No, it's not. There are plenty of great iOS developers who release full games with even more content and replayability for just as much or less. This is a trend that is going with Ironhide and it's a real shame. They're milking their customers dry, plain and simple. Next KR might have premium stages, I honestly wouldn't be too surprised. Vote with your wallets plain and simple - no matter how hard it is (I'm a big KR fan so skipping this entry is not easy).
It has been years since I’ve played kr and I even installed all of the previous title to compare. On one hand it’s basically the same game for the 4th time only with new look (first 3 are literally the same game). If someone hasn’t played any of them I see no reason to buy this. Just buy the whole trilogy for that price. On the other hand, graphic leap is quite big now, more so than from frontiers to Origins. I love how the world map looks now. As for the IAP one of the devs responded on discord: "I just want to give you my two cents as an Ironhide employee (speaking for myself, not for Ironhide) regarding paid content ingame, I know a lot of people think like you about the premium towers, and I understand the sentiment. But i feel something some players fail to understand is that while ironhide has gotten bigger (which also means costs are higher than ever) teams also got smaller, industry and inhouse standars are higher, and that translates in games taking a very long time (3+ years) to develop and cost a lot of money. But at the same time the mobile market doesn´t allow for premium games to charge what they really should because most people just don´t pay more than a few dollars for mobile games. I believe you can understand how hard it would be to develop such a big game and not expect to monetize it in a way that allows us to keep making games. I just wanted to adress this from my point of view because I feel the whole narrative of greedy developers who dont care about players is very unfair. Not saying every decision or step Ironhide takes is going to be the correct one, but being realistic it just wouldn´t be possible to make the kind of games we make and just sell it for 5usd and expect that to sustain the company in the long run." Taken from reddit
Some users (including me) talked to some devs at discord, there he wrote it. This isn‘t an official response from Ironhide Games. He is an Iron Marines dev, not KR. He was not responsible for this decision to include IAP towers.
No offense to him or anything but that's a standard response from an employee wrapped around as a "personal opinion" defending his company's policies. He's basically saying that most people won't buy anything above $5 and that's their way of extra income from the game - fair enough. Yet he does not touch on the fact that this content is gated behind a paywall on day one!! AND at absurd prices (not considering discounts). As much as I enjoy KR they're definitely not worth $60ish dollars. Considering you have indie games like Dead Cells, Celeste (etc...) with everything included at $20 it does raise some questions to the authenticity of this so called "premium" game. I know the above games are on consoles and not on mobile but they're all made by indie studios similar size (or smaller) to Ironhide. Heck, Celeste was made by two people. The claim that making a game and then charging "ONLY" $5 doesn't make economically sense to keep the lights on, then, by all means make it a freemium and let the people pick and choose which stage, hero or tower to buy. How can Bloons TD6, Alto's Odyssey, Oddmar, Grimvalor offer a premium experience without any additional costs for the SAME price and Ironhide can't? What makes them special? More/less replay value? Don't think so. Unknown developer? Nah, not really.
Lol Dead Cells was made by a company who makes free to play browser games that sell IAP and subscriptions to make money. Dead Cells is literally their first ever paid game. Not sure what kind of example you're going for there. The other examples you mention are either made by extremely small teams or have outside funding. Ironhide is at least 30 people. But I would love to know the inside scoop that you have on Ironhide to positively know that they should have been able to make this game and release it for 5 bucks and still be profitable. Apparently you know something that even people who work at the company don't know, they'd probably love that information!
so, with that criterion the next year they can release KR 5 with 3 areas and a story with good/bad ends (and everyone will say "the game can be completed without any IAP") and another 10 unlockable areas under a paywall +heroes packs, towers packs etc etc... and you gonna buy it all 'cause they'll be now 40 good people. then will come KR 6 with a huge beautiful area and a complete story (and everyone again will say "the game can be completed without any IAP"), and other 12 purchasable in 3 different IAP packs +heroes packs, towers packs etc etc... and you gonna buy it all 'cause they'll be now 50 good people. so, they do what they want, and in the meantime we buy no question asking... and shut our mouth up on forums... just 'cause they are called... IRONHIDE am i right on all that?
To offer a compromise to both sides, there’s always the steam version which will have the full content and only cost $10 on sale. Just wait for that if you think that the mobile versions are too pricey.
Do you know that my post is deleted by ironhide? This means is this game is not premium as I said before. This is a freemium game with lots of money and lots of money Thank u dev for deleting my post And please delete this post too. I bought all of your games before but with deleting my post I will never buy any game from you again and u are a thief from now for me. Please delete this post too..
The developer did not delete your comment — one of TouchArcade’s admins did. You simply can’t make unfounded accusations in this forum.
A bunch of people are arguing about IAP, but I think the folks who have not bought the game would be better served to trust those who have and are playing it. I am quite far along, have bought no IAP, and can tell you that there are more then enough varied tower types and it is simply fantastic. The challenge level is perfect to me; I am an experienced TD gamer but I still have to find myself working hard to complete some levels and particularly with 3 stars. There is no pay to win here; just superior and very well balanced TD. Thank you Ironhide!
I received a message and says ur post deleted by ‘’ironhide’’ not admin nor moderator or etc.. I wrote only my opinions. What was wrong simply mister clever?
So can we get back on topic here? I think this IAP debate has gone on long enough and no one is going to change their mind so it's probably better if we talk about the game instead of your opinions on the IAP. Normally the mods would have cleaned up the thread by now and moved the discussion into the lounge / general game discussions (which happens to nearly every derailed thread) but I guess they decided not to so here we are... no one actually talking about the game... just the IAP.
I agree with lawliet. Can I just say how awesome are shadow archers!? Literally just completed the Jokull level with only shadow archers (and 2 Dark knight towers).
So what is it, 11 towers we get for included? As in, like double the amount that we usually get? That’s awesome. Only thing holding me back is that 16 levels seems a bit short, however I could be wrong and that might be the usual length of past games, haven’t gone back to look just yet.
Yep, the tower variety is awesome! Unless somebody is fanatical about the game, the IAP towers seem like an over abundance of choices. I feel like I have only scratched the surface understanding the interactions of a subset of the included towers. Each level is quite long, so 16 levels seems like plenty. Plus, they are all so good. Hopefully, the game will do well enough for Ironhide to provide more levels as they always have in the past.
Yeah i believe they did the same with previous KR games? Released new levels later on. I am not 100% sure. Gameplay till now (level 5) is awesome. Although the game seems similar with their previous ones i think they did many changes to this one and i like it more. From the number of towers to the length of the levels to the design of the troops (friends or enemies) to the map everything seems "upgraded"
Shadow Archers seems OP. I usually put 2 melting pots, so they give a buff to ~3 adjacent towers and spam archers everywhere.
My favorite tower right now is the Dark Knight. Not only do they look cool but it's like a giant wall. Also it seems the new meta in this game is insta-kill attacks with so many high HP enemies. The knights have a stall move (shield) and a small instakill chance. I just love how you can hear the chainsaw sword (lmao!) rev up right when they trigger instakill. I really do love the assortment of towers.
