Remember tower defense? Back in the early days of the App Store this fledgling genre was all the rage, thanks to blockbusters like Fieldrunners and, later, 11 bit’s stunning Anomaly series. More recently the strategy genre has been dominated by …
Remember tower defense? Back in the early days of the App Store this fledgling genre was all the rage, thanks to blockbusters like Fieldrunners and, later, 11 bit’s stunning Anomaly series.
More recently the strategy genre has been dominated by city-building MMOs, thanks to the runaway success of Supercell’s Clash of Clans. And that’s fine, but sometimes it’s nice to play something a bit more immediate and direct.
Introducing Enigmata: Stellar War, a polished casual strategy title that revives the glory days of the tower defense game and augments it with elements of the real-time strategy, bullet-hell, and base-building genres.
Enigmata: Stellar War is a prequel in the Enigmata series. It arrived on Flash gaming site Kongregate in 2014, and made its way to mobile last year.
The story – which has grown progressively richer over a number of years – follows the adventures of Genu, Neko, and Lyra as they make their way through the galaxy, fending off attacks from the evil Allegiance.
Gameplay-wise, the core of Enigmata: Stellar War is exactly what you’d expect from a tower defense game. You need to place various turret-like units in such a way as to repel waves of attackers. These units can be upgraded on the fly, to help fend off increasingly tough opponents.
However, this game differs from many of its rivals in that there are no set paths for your enemies to approach along. Instead you’re free to plop any units down wherever you like, giving the game a more fluid, organic feel than most.
This really comes to the fore in PvP, where you can test your strategic nous against other players and learn from their attacking tactics. In PvE, meanwhile, you can gradually work your way up through the levels and learn your craft.
There are 15 levels to play, and more than 25 different units to build up to their full impressive killing potential. There’s bonus content, too. You can access this with a single IAP, and it consists of three extra levels, new units and features, and the SW Battle Arena, where you can take on other bases.
Enigmata: Stellar War looks incredible, with vivid colors, spectacular explosions, distinctive designs, and just the right amount of detail. No matter how busy the screen gets, you can always see exactly what you’re doing, which is testament to some very clever design.
But it’s the gameplay you’ll want to play it for. Enigmata: Stellar War combines elements of several genres to produce a unique, fun take on tower defense. You can download it for free right now on Google Play and the App Store.
