Fortified Review

Made by developer Clapfoot a former mobile games developer, Fortified is a tower defense game which is slightly intriguing. I’m a massive fan of tower defense games as they’re a great time filler, but sometimes a time filler can get a little, well repetitive.

As a fan like i first stated i have to uphold my composure and natural instinct and give this game a chance…

Let’s set the scene, based in a classic, cheesy 1950’s backlog where aliens have invaded the earth and want to take over the world killing everything they come across, something the gaming industry has fed off for years on a sci-fi genre that never seems to fade. I’m also a sci-fi groupie of epic films such as Independence day and games such as the original Alien games, so was waiting for this game to bring me some excitement as much as i can crave.

You start off at the menu which is a classic design of a 1950’s comic book with very eccentric colours and over enthusiastic characters which really do bring me back to my youth and love of comic books, i started off going through the campaign (if you can call it that) and proceeded to choose my character carefully.

“based in a classic, cheesy 1950’s backlog where aliens have invaded the earth”

Ranging from a Captain America inspired US Marine to a sci-fi space cowboy i was obviously feeling patriotic and chose the all or nothing marine with a Thompson machine gun and a sawn off shotgun and proceeded to the first round. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by 3D third person style shooter which is quite refreshing for an indie game as usually you have a basic 2D visual’s to comprehend, but with a low budget you can see what a small team of developers can really pull off. The other three characters are a femme fatale jetpack wearing Rocket Scientist whose special power is unlimited ammo, then we have The Agent who is a bit of a suave marv with the heroic ability to have added damage boost. Last on the list is The Spaceman whose astronauts suit is never taken off and wields the ability is to either freeze the enemies or slow them down.

What is appealing is the structures that you can ‘purchase’ with the in game currency (dollars) earned by slaughtering slimy aliens, you can also interact with the towers for example, the US Marine will deploy a rifle tower which will engage enemies when they are in range. Or you can have that soldier follow you and protect you, go back to base and protect the rocket and finally go and protect a selected area designated by youself. Now this game entails you to protect a rocket ship from alien invaders which is located inside quiet complex levels that can be attacked from multiple sides, this brings me to my first worry for this game for the lone-wolf type of player.

As we know tower defence games get harder as you complete wave after wave but i’m the first to admit that this is a very difficult game when going solo, the waves of enemies get increasingly hard very quickly and that for me will put off any comeback ability for players looking for a game to get their teeth into. It’s next to impossible to complete without a team of players as you have increasingly harder enemies which have shields covering them, they will attack from multiple directions leaving you to be in two places at once and they even attack from above in the form of flying saucers. Now after the first 4 rounds you get the feel for the game but once you hit round 5 (of twelve) things started to turn a bit mental. I mean i love a challenge but this is borderline ridiculous, with a boss at the end of the twelve waves which is actually quite fun with a team, you won’t be experiencing this as a solo player unless you’re one of those gamers who don’t see sunlight too often!

I don’t want to criticise this game too much as there is a slight depth to the game as you earn experience and unlock points which you can acquire new weapons and structures to help  aid in your quest for victory. Going into a bit more detail on weapons they have a vital role to play (obviously) let’s bring the shotgun into the limelight, as with all weapons in this game you can unlock it’s secondary features. Take the shotgun, it can fire explosive bullets or can freeze enemies for a very short time which will be essential with the sheer amount of enemies the latter will become paramount.

This is where the game shows some depth and starting to drag itself into a game that’s actually quite decent. The saving grace has to be the ability to be able to Xbox Live match with random players which does help in your quest to complete the rounds, but you rely heavily on those players – one putting in a shift and two will they actually stay! I was lucky enough to have been put with a group that actually helped me and was pretty good but i also experienced the bad side to it, which unfortunately this was more often than not, at the end of each completed round you all press the menu button to show that you’re ready to proceed to the next round. Now the problem with this is there seems to be no time limit making you rely on others to also press the menu button, sounds simple right..? Wrong! I was often left waiting an age for the next round which really killed my vibe and mood for the game, a solution would be the ability to all press and be ready and proceed quicker which would be fine but have a maximum time limit of say 30 secs – 45 secs etc so you can progress. Simple.