Tower Defense games are a dime a dozen. So what does it take for a new title to approach the genre and offer something new—something which has yet to be offered by any other title currently in existence? Prime World: Defenders believes that the answer lies in the setting’s origins as a role-playing strategy game. But before we go into further detail, we must first establish that Prime World is a franchise developed by Nival, which comprises of Prime World, a persistent RPG game with strategy elements; Prime World: Alchemy, a puzzle game; and Prime World: Defenders.
With such a diverse background, it comes as no surprise that Prime World: Defenders is based on a setting with source material that’s rich for the picking of units, magical spells, and monsters.
But the game has more than just its setting to go on, which also integrates a collectible card mechanic, allowing for much more replay value—there’s reason to do the same missions over and over.
Like other tower defense games, the goal of Prime World: Defenders is to set up a host of defenses on the ground to prevent a stream of monsters from reaching the end and running off with your crystals. You have at your disposal a wide variety of units which come in the form of stationary turrets. Some of them stun, freeze, and burn and bestow all manner of status effects; while others lob volleys of fireballs and damaging magical spells at differing rates of fire.
These turrets are upgradeable both within battle for double the effectiveness, and outside, where you can level up their unit cards by combining them with duplicate cards or scavenging cards towards their progress meter. Did I mention that every unit itself is contained within a card? Yeah, it’s a little like Plants vs. Zombies in that regard. Also like PvZ, you can only fill up your deck with a certain amount of towers to use during each mission you go on.
The game combines the simplified RPG element of leveling up with its aforementioned trading card system. After you win a battle, you’ll have a chance to unlock new cards or acquire currency for which to buy new ones. Cards themselves come in various forms, with unique cards being the hardest to get, and offer better rates of fire, unique spell effects, and more.
In addition to unit cards, there are also spell cards (all of which take up their own slots, so you won’t have to sacrifice any of your space for units) that allow you to cast spells on the battlefield. These spells come with a cooldown and can be used to turn the ‘tide’ of battle, especially when you’re getting overwhelmed.
The mechanics are all well and good, but the game can become very difficult unless you’re willing to devote some time into leveling up your cards. Some missions are impossible to complete unless you have a good deck of cards at the ready, so prepare to grind—a lot.
Overall, this shouldn’t be a problem for anyone familiar with the genre, because after all, every mission itself is a bit of a grind, so it’s not as if the concept is anything alien to what you’d expect from a tower defense game. Bear in mind that leveling up alone won’t help you win missions, although they will go a long way. The challenge comes not just from how difficult the enemies are but also what types of monsters you’ll face—so you’ll have to change up your deck a lot of the time.
If anything, the leveling up and card collecting aspects add to the longevity of the game, giving you hours of fun as you try to figure out what the best strategies are for winning each mission—and that alone makes the game very satisfying indeed.
Final Verdict
Prime World: Defenders: 8 out of 10
A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
