Strange Wilderness
Savage Moon throws a little Starship Troopers at our tower defense genre and we likey.
Published: February 6, 2009
The tower defense genre has exploded from a cute little Flash concept on PCs to big business. It seems there isn't a platform out there that hasn't gotten some kind of tower defense clone, but the PlayStation Network was privy to easily one of the best examples of it in PixelJunk Monsters (and followed shortly thereafter with more goodness in the form of the PixelJunk Monsters: Encore expansion) courtesy of Q Games.
Q finally has some PS3 competition from developer FluffyLogic's Savage Moon, and it's one that uses the familiar model of timed waves of enemies and specific kinds of turrets used to keep said waves from making their way to your home base, but introduces just a few new concepts to keep things different enough that the game is certainly worth a look -- even for those that may have been burned out on PJM.
Chiefly among the new additions is the ability to shift resources, in real-time, to affect either the amount of money you gain per alien critter (called Insecticytes) killed, the amount of damage you do, or the defenses of all your turrets. You can select up to two of these at a time, though picking any one will, naturally, sacrifice the effectiveness if the remaining two. If you opt for two, then the bonus will be split evenly between them, but at least you'll only be reducing one area's effectiveness.
Otherwise, things are mostly similar to what you've seen in other games. You've got your basic all-purpose Machine Gun Tower, your Anti-Air Tower, and all manner of area effect and enemy-specific other turrets like Laser and Mortar Towers. There are some interesting new concepts in play here too, though: mine turrets literally huck mines all over the level, both service as a pre-emptive strike on enemies and doubling as a makeshift mortar launcher, while thumper turrets will pound the ground to pop up enemies that would normally burrow and make things tough for your other turrets.
Throw in things like self-explanatory Repair Tower (necessary as these are hardly passive creatures marching toward your base -- and in fact they'll happily do an about-face and move in an entirely different direction if you happen to throw up defenses along a previously unprotected route) or the enemy-slowing Chaos Towers and re-routing Blocking Towers and there are plenty of wrinkles to iron out on every map. There's also one other turret, and it, properly (or is that improperly?) used (or abused?) can essentially break the game: the almighty Amp Towers.
Amp Towers' job is simple: boost the inherent abilities of all your other towers. Once you've progressed to the point where you can first unlock and then apply the levels 3, 4 and 5 upgrades, Amp Towers turn even level one Machine Guns into beautiful killing machines, and Anti-Air Towers become almost cross-map snipers. Upgrade those base Towers and you have the means to essentially walk all over any enemy waves that may come at you -- provided you take the time to set your turrets up in the right place.
Notice that I said Amps have the potential to break the game. It's entirely possible that the game's delay in coming to the States could have been used to tweak things a little, as it's not quite a free ride to pocketing the game's Trophies, but it's close. When you factor in some of the game's little annoyances like turrets that seem to let one enemy squeak by while just watching them pass or towers that are mostly useless (I'm looking at you, Laser Tower) or that the mines ejected from their respective Towers often end up plastered across areas where enemies would ever travel, the temptation to just build up some basic defenses, crank up the cash bonus and get yourself into Amp Land as soon as possible is that much stronger.
Q finally has some PS3 competition from developer FluffyLogic's Savage Moon, and it's one that uses the familiar model of timed waves of enemies and specific kinds of turrets used to keep said waves from making their way to your home base, but introduces just a few new concepts to keep things different enough that the game is certainly worth a look -- even for those that may have been burned out on PJM.
Chiefly among the new additions is the ability to shift resources, in real-time, to affect either the amount of money you gain per alien critter (called Insecticytes) killed, the amount of damage you do, or the defenses of all your turrets. You can select up to two of these at a time, though picking any one will, naturally, sacrifice the effectiveness if the remaining two. If you opt for two, then the bonus will be split evenly between them, but at least you'll only be reducing one area's effectiveness.
Otherwise, things are mostly similar to what you've seen in other games. You've got your basic all-purpose Machine Gun Tower, your Anti-Air Tower, and all manner of area effect and enemy-specific other turrets like Laser and Mortar Towers. There are some interesting new concepts in play here too, though: mine turrets literally huck mines all over the level, both service as a pre-emptive strike on enemies and doubling as a makeshift mortar launcher, while thumper turrets will pound the ground to pop up enemies that would normally burrow and make things tough for your other turrets.
Throw in things like self-explanatory Repair Tower (necessary as these are hardly passive creatures marching toward your base -- and in fact they'll happily do an about-face and move in an entirely different direction if you happen to throw up defenses along a previously unprotected route) or the enemy-slowing Chaos Towers and re-routing Blocking Towers and there are plenty of wrinkles to iron out on every map. There's also one other turret, and it, properly (or is that improperly?) used (or abused?) can essentially break the game: the almighty Amp Towers.
Amp Towers' job is simple: boost the inherent abilities of all your other towers. Once you've progressed to the point where you can first unlock and then apply the levels 3, 4 and 5 upgrades, Amp Towers turn even level one Machine Guns into beautiful killing machines, and Anti-Air Towers become almost cross-map snipers. Upgrade those base Towers and you have the means to essentially walk all over any enemy waves that may come at you -- provided you take the time to set your turrets up in the right place.
Notice that I said Amps have the potential to break the game. It's entirely possible that the game's delay in coming to the States could have been used to tweak things a little, as it's not quite a free ride to pocketing the game's Trophies, but it's close. When you factor in some of the game's little annoyances like turrets that seem to let one enemy squeak by while just watching them pass or towers that are mostly useless (I'm looking at you, Laser Tower) or that the mines ejected from their respective Towers often end up plastered across areas where enemies would ever travel, the temptation to just build up some basic defenses, crank up the cash bonus and get yourself into Amp Land as soon as possible is that much stronger.
