Tower Protection Lands on Mars in Escape From The Crimson Planet

Escape From The Crimson Planet is a tower protection sport, and for those who’re on the lookout for one thing feature-packed and complicated, this is not going to be the title for you. Nevertheless, for those who’re within the temper for a pared down, strong title that doesn’t attempt to be greater than it’s, Escape from The Crimson Planet is an efficient possibility.

Plot Ahoy

I do know I sound a bit like a damaged file after I observe that x or y title doesn’t have a lot in the best way of a narrative, however Crimson Planet actually doesn’t. The premise is that you simply’re an area explorer, Commander Blackwell, who crash landed on Mars in 1979. The locals aren’t too happy at your entrance, and it’s a must to battle them to outlive lengthy sufficient for rescue.

That’s it. That’s the whole lot of the sport, and that’s actually not a foul factor. Crimson Planet’s builders have opted to take a extra centered strategy to sport design, eschewing including content material for content material’s sake, and , that’s refreshing.

Evaluate Notes

Crimson Planet units out to be a tower protection title, and that’s precisely what it’s. There are two extra modes—FPS and Infinite—however they doubtless received’t wow you. The core of Crimson Planet is dedicated to unlocking new towers and enemy sorts whereas juggling the assets you’ll want to finish your missions. Be aware, there are solely 25 of those, and when you’re finished, you’re finished.

The useful resource administration side of the sport is pretty simple, if not with out problem. Inserting towers requires photo voltaic vitality, and as you’ll anticipate, you start every degree with a paltry quantity of this vitality, which depletes very, in a short time. The good technique is due to this fact to speculate your preliminary vitality into the turbines, which can then improve your useful resource pool. You do have a blaster with which you’ll be able to defend when you construct up your photo voltaic vitality reserves, so that you aren’t totally defenseless in opposition to the preliminary waves of Martians. After that, it’s a query of discovering a stability between tower placement, barricade placement, and the all-important photo voltaic generator upgrades.

Severely, you actually do have to concentrate on the upgrades. That photo voltaic vitality pool could make or break your engagement. Fortuitously, the Martians aren’t principally pace demons, so you must have a while to recoup your vitality funding to expend on towers. You have to to depend on your blaster, although, so do anticipate to account for that when laying out your technique. What’s even higher about that is that your blaster doesn’t require an vitality expenditure, however the trade-off is after all, ammo. You’ll due to this fact have to maintain a climate eye in your ammo pool. I typically desire to depend on the towers fairly than partaking myself, however that’s actually not a workable technique in Crimson Planet, particularly given the fairly restricted photo voltaic vitality pool.

Crimson Planet does supply a fairly strong variety of towers to unlock in addition to a good number of enemies that require quite a lot of methods. Typically, nonetheless, it introduces these Martian varieties at precisely the identical time they introduce their countering tower. For instance, you’ll get to unlock Bomb Towers, with highly effective space of impact harm, simply in time for the yellow Martians to return bearing down on you in hordes. This tendency truly determines one key side of gameplay.

Crimson Planet isn’t a sport that rewards advance planning as a result of the enemies are likely to require a really particular tower to counter them, and till what sort of enemy is coming from which quadrant, you’ll be able to’t actually anticipate what you will want till you want it. That’s not an issue for gamers not fascinated by grand methods, however for those who’re on the lookout for that type of gameplay expertise, Crimson Planet is not going to give it to you. This isn’t to say that Crimson Planet received’t problem you as a result of it would, however the problem lies extra in useful resource administration and fast considering in response to a stimulus than chess-like methods.

After experiencing the considerably steep problem curve of the degrees, you’ll encounter bosses. These encounters typically do require a considerate technique. Because the bosses are bigger variations of the enemies you’ve confronted with deep wells of HP, you’ll need to suppose extra fastidiously about your strategy. I actually suppose the boss battles are the place Crimson Planet shines.

Visually, the title is polished, with clear graphics and an virtually arcade-like look, and the soundtrack creates a nice retro vibe. Nevertheless, you’re not likely enjoying Crimson Planet for its insane graphics. You’re enjoying it for the towers.

TLDR

Escape from The Crimson Planet isn’t going to blow you away with its storytelling or gameplay, however what it would do is supply a good tower protection sport expertise. The 25 missions are simple, as are the controls, as soon as you work them out.

Escape from The Crimson Planet retails on Steam for an eminently cheap $5.99.

Stray Ideas From Behind the Keyboard

1. I didn’t look after the pc’s pop-up messages. I discovered them distracting, however I understand that that is doubtless my very own difficulty than a problem with sport design.
2. You’re Commander Abby Blackwell, which I appreciated.
3. The floaty platform on which Blackwell sits yielded some bizarre motion results.
4. Escape from The Crimson Planet targets the closest enemy first and solely very slowly shifts between targets. It’s a minor quibble.
5. Let’s be actual. I selected the Bomb Tower for instance as a result of Bomb Towers are cool.

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