If you thought that tower defense games have run their course by now, then you’re mostly right. Indie developer FourLights’ newest release, Defenders of Time, is a stylized take on the genre that doesn’t take any real risks to differentiate itself from the scores of other games just like it.
As with other tower defense games, the goal in Defenders of Time is to stop swarms of incoming enemies from reaching a certain point on a map by building offensive and defensive structures to impede their movement. You’ve got upgradable turrets at your disposal that can be used to create pathways of destruction baddies on land and in the air must traverse, including some with incredible powers like the ability to freeze enemies and detect stealth units.
Sessions are meant to last just 10-15 minutes, as enemies will not slow down once they get going. To keep your tower management on par with the speed of the horde, units can be quickly sold off in order to reallocate resources for use elsewhere. It’s a small feature, but one that comes in particularly handy when splitting your attention among a variety of potentially critical pitfalls at once.
At the end of the day, every colorful armament you place on the field is far less important than the actual spot you drop it on. Having played tower defense games set everywhere from medieval kingdoms to the quiet mountain town of South Park, Colorado, I’ve learned that even the weakest units in the right configuration can demolish basically any threat that comes its way. What separates one title from the next after creating a path that snakes through a stage and forces enemies to march into a hail of bullets is personality, and I couldn’t find any in this game from the onset that couldn’t be duplicated elsewhere- until it came to multiplayer mode.
Defenders of Time starts really making waves once you add other players to the mix. Up to eight people can team up or take each other on, but it can prove difficult to source a group of that size for a tower defense game when so many other triple-a titles are being released this time of year. Managing to find a dedicated team will yield you more frantic management than you can hope to handle, though as a Commander who can control the use of a team’s resources, the sense of satisfaction after a win is incomparable.
Defenders of Time is pretty middle-of-the-road as far as tower defense games go, but it is an otherwise solid distraction for a few rounds. Maps are well-conceived and visuals vibrant, though there’s just something missing from putting this one over-the-top.
Defenders of Time is now available on Steam.