Intro and Premise
Commanding armies and configuring strategical positions of towers and defense points on a map requires analytical skills and foresight into the opponent’s next move, and this game requires exactly that. Siegecraft Commander, created by Blowfish Studios, is a strategy game where the player controls multiple towers with various effects and their positions on the map. The goal is to utilize these towers and their abilities to take out the enemy’s opposing forces and claim the territory for the victory!
Gameplay
Siegecraft Commander’s gameplay centers around positioning towers on a map and using their abilities to take out the enemy army’s towers. The effects of the towers vary widely, the outpost for example, serves as an anchor point where many other types of towers can come from, and serves as a main offensive unit. Libraries allow for special long-range magic bases towers, as well as a tesla tower, which creates an energy shield. Other tower types include ground and air units, including blimps and dragons. Using the left control stick, the player controls the direction and distance of the next tower.
There is a single player and multiplayer mode for the game, the single player mode boasting two (possibly three) different campaigns, all containing multiple maps. The difficulty of these maps ramps up the more chapter the player progresses as well. One of the campaigns is from the perspective of the enemy race from the primary campaign, which adds a nice layer of depth to the game.
Completing the maps do take quite a bit of time (but perhaps that is due to the inabilities of the player eh hm). Half way through the map, however, it became much more useful to rely on one or two different towers, rather than spending time on setting up other towers with long cooldown times. Because of these long cooldown times, these towers were defenseless, and would quickly be destroyed by the enemy.
The other side of this coin is the multiplayer section of the game. It includes real time or turn based versions of the game. There is not much to say about the multiplayer section, since finding a match was virtually impossible. 20 minutes in the queue resulted in no match, not even another player appearing in the lobby. Had there been shorter queues or more players engaging in multiplayer, that would have made a rich contribution to the overall enjoyment of the game. The Commander section of the main menu lets the player select their character for online play as well as invest skill points into abilities.
Aesthetics
As for the aesthetics of the game, the bright colors and cartoonish character models are almost reminiscent of mobile tower defense games. The music did not stand out as exceptional, but it was effective at creating an atmosphere of adventure. The coolest parts aesthetic wise would most likely be the loading screens, which are beautiful pieces of art depicting instances on the battlefield.
Overall
Siegecraft Commander in the end is in an odd place. Gameplay can be entertaining and engaging strategic wise. However, whatever creativity that can happen on the battle field is deterred by long cooldown times and low health pools for different tours. The lizard men campaign came across more interesting rather than the human side, since the human side mainly consists of foolish and eventually tiresome characters in pursuit of gold and treasure. The main blow to this game’s success would be the lack of ability to play online multiplayer whatsoever. If there were a few adjustments to the formula, this would be a perfect game for single and multiplayer experiences.
7.5/10
Take a Look at the Siegecraft Commander Nintendo Switch Trailer:
Siegecraft Commander is available now on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, and HTC Vive.
Nintendo Switch Review
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Overall Score - 7.5/107.5/10
Having spent my entire life gaming, my interests have expanded over to how the gaming industry has grown and developed into a globalized market over the course of my life time, as well as how games can build community and create a sense of belonging for people. I'm also trying to climb ranked in Overwatch so if you want to queue together, let me know
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