Kingdom Rush Origins Review (*GearHead*)
Kingdom Rush Origins is the third installment in the Kingdom Rush series and the chronological prequel to the first Kingdom Rush game. Taking place on the southern continent 30 years before the original game, the enemy factions and towers are entirely new as we play as the Sylvan elves instead of the Linerean Army like the first game.
The game follows a typical tower defense formula with plenty of other systems that improve the experience. The main gameplay consists of building towers in strategic areas to form choke points with barracks and your hero, and using spells when necessary to support your defense. There is plenty of strategic depth to be had- enemies have special abilities and armor, so you will need to consider that when formulating a defense to beat a level.
One thing that this game does incredibly well is the down time between upgrading your towers. In other tower defense games, it can become mindless and boring quite fast waiting for enemies to die so you can get the next upgrade. Kingdom Rush Origins completely subverts this typically genre complaint by always giving the player something to do. Reinforcements can be placed anywhere you desire and have extensive techniques to support your defense. Your hero has special abilities that can be micro-managed to get the most benefit from them. You have a variety of spells that can be used strategically to clear hordes of enemies that would otherwise break through. Almost every level has some kind of interactable to soften up or kill enemies, bringing benefits if you care to pay attention to them.
The content flow in this game is immaculate. Every level has something new, whether it is an enemy, tower, interactable, bonus tower, or mechanic to strategize around. In addition, every level has 2 challenge modes by completing the base level, and these can be fun and challenging to try and complete.
There is also metagame progression to be made if you're interested in that kind of stuff. Completing levels will give you stars that can be used to purchase permanent upgrades for your towers and spells. Each hero also has upgradable abilities and XP can be earned for them simply by playing levels. It's very satisfying to get each upgrade as they all feel considerably impactful.
Audio and visuals are excellent. The drawn graphics and animations convey so much character rarely seen in other games, and the towers all feel badass and awesome once you upgrade them, partly thanks to the neat little one-liners they deliver. The comics seen at the beginning of some levels are great too, and help the player feel invested in the story. Speaking of which, Kingdom Rush Origins does the best job conveying a story of the 4 games in the series. It provides plenty of character development and fanservice for the original Kingdom Rush game.
This game is probably the best tower defense game out there. If you're considering it, then I would highly recommend, even if you haven't played the original KR!