Kingdom Rush Origins Review (sunsetgun)
tldr; this Kingdom Rush really grew on me, but still remains my least favorite in the series.
Upon first playing this, the new theme and look of the towers/units was really refreshing, The addition of a hero skill was nice and everything seemed promising. However, gradually this game became somewhat of a slog to me, especially coming off the high of playing arguably the best Kingdom Rush title ever (Frontiers).
I quickly learned some towers were just outright inferior to other options, which mind you isn't unique to this Kingdom Rush, but the inferior ones felt almost useless compared to their better counterparts. Maps slowly became more and more gimmicky, almost forcing you to interact and use map gimmicks if you wanted a full clear run on higher difficulties. Map designs also grew to become repetitive. The theme that was once charming in the beginning slowly became lackluster compared to the more medieval kingdom setting the other Kingdom Rush titles have (never knew how much I would miss the line "FREEEEDOM").
On the plus side, the game looks gorgeous. The world map is especially very pleasing to look at. The introduction of the hero skill was a great addition to the series and the heroes themselves are very fun to play in this game, albeit some are just straight up OP. Some of the towers that were strong were amazing; Bladersinger Hall is crazy and I'd say easily the barrack with the strongest stopping power in the entire series. Oddly enough, I also find Lightning very satisfying and prefer it to the meteor storm in the other games.
Overall it was a fun game, Weaker than the other titles in the franchise, but still a must play for Kingdom Rush fans.