Wardens Rising Preview
After being MIA for the past few years, the tower defense genre seems to be in the midst of a mini-renaissance. That’s good news for us fans of those games, in which action and strategic planning come together. Wardens Rising does the tower defense genre one better by adding MOBA-like mechanics as well. While not ready for immediate release, there is a free demo on Steam.
By the Book
The basic narrative premise is not incredibly original. The discovery of a super powerful mineral called Synthesis leads to incredible gains but also unleashes the denizens of other-dimensional evil. Your task is to defend a series of bases from waves of monsters. You play as one of five heroes–three are previewed in the demo–and you alternate between building defenses and wading into ARPG-style combat yourself. While only the single player mode is available in the demo, Wardens Rising also encourages cooperative PvE play.
Lots of tower defense games include powerful hero characters. Where Wardens Rising stands out is in the extensive selection of weapons, spells and upgrades that your hero can access, in addition to the many upgradable turrets, walls, traps, and other defenses available for each match. The MOBA influence will really to come into play with other cooperators, with the ability to cover multiple “lanes.” Even without other heroes, your character has some assistance. There is a robotic ally called a SPEC. Each SPEC has, as the name implies, a specialized set of support systems and attacks.
As is also typical of classic tower defense games, each wave of enemies becomes increasingly more challenging. This is clear from the demo. Even by the second or third wave, I was scrambling to build, repair and fight off the very mobile parade of monsters.
Lots More to Come
At this stage in its development, Wardens Rising is missing a lot of content. This is not surprising, as it doesn’t release until 2025. The demo is single player only, one map, three heroes and three SPECs. Even with these limitations, it’s easy to see the potential and appreciate the machinery under the hood. The demo is also pretty rough, technically speaking. More missions crashed or froze than played out until the end. But hey, it’s a demo, and it’s free.
I really liked Wardens Rising’s slightly stylized and colorful art direction. It’s vibrant and detailed. The sci-fi fantasy setting leaves lots of room for cool machines, weapon effects and spells. Animations were fluid. However, the inability to rotate the camera is frustrating when enemies are moving along multiple paths. Structures are placed using a grid-based overhead tactical map, which I liked. The demo could have fleshed out its tutorial when it comes to using SPEC and some character-specific abilities. I’m hoping that there will be a map editor, too.
I’m a fan of both tower defense and MOBA-style games, so Wardens Rising is like a perfect blend of flavors. I enjoyed the flow of challenging combat and the potential depth and replayability that the demo hints at. I look forward to following the game as it winds towards release.
Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.
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