Tower Defense Games!

I recently got into tower defense (Orcs Must Die), and I would like to know your opinion on them:

1. What makes a good tower defense game? What specific features and mechanics?
2. What are the best tower defense games and why?
3. If you were to make your own, how would you make it?

Part of why I'm asking is also because for some reason Orcs Must Die 3 doesn't grab me like the previous games, but I'm not sure why.

1:What makes a good tower defense game : Fun but not frustrating enemies, Interesting Heroes to play as with a varied skills that make each one unique. Fun units/ defenses

2: In my opinion Kingdom Rush is the best tower defense game. I hits all the good points I made above.

3: If I was to make a TD game I think I would add more RPG to the mix.

I love tower defense but i don't have a particular game that i'd hold up as a favourite, i feel like nothing has really nailed it yet, i remember the tower defense mod for Warcraft 3 fondly, the South Park one is neat, Orcs Must Die was good, i had some good times with a friend in Sanctum 1 and 2, i think the first is better overall, Iron Brigade is fantastic but i feel is too reliant on the player and the PC port sucks, i need to play more Revenge of the Titans since i got it as a gift, this year i finally got around to trying Defense Grid 2 but i didn't gel with it.

Looking at my Steam library though i'm reminded of one that is absolutely my favourite, Toy Soldiers, i've always loved revisiting it and the WW1 themed towers really works for me, upgrading them is cool and drastically changes their effects, some of which are extremely satisfying, you can take control of towers which is a core mechanic and their strengths become obvious really quickly.
It does have cons though, controlling vehicles is less fun which is something they double down on in Toy Soldiers: Cold War so i prefer the base game, but it's short so works well as a weird expansion.

I am not too familiar with the genre, honestly, though I can say I've played some tower defense in games I was otherwise interested in for other reasons. I think part of the reason I struggle to get interested in the genre is that it's really all about min/maxing against various scenarios and I've never been all that interested in that conversation, whether strategy games like Civilization or RPGs like Disco Elysium, I ultimately really like making stat decisions based entirely on feel but that's never seemed to be the main appeal of a tower defense.

Anyway, a tower defense mode I really enjoyed and often think of re-installing is 13 Sentinels, which surprised me because most of the heat swirling around that game came from the story, with at best a positive nod toward the video game part of the game. But I thought it was awesome! The graphical style is novel and the roles of the 8 characters are super well defined. As a result, for people more familiar with the genre I suppose that could make it feel tedious or superfluous, but I thought it really nailed a sort of vector graphics, firework display power fantasy that I really enjoyed making my way through. Granted, that also means this is really more of a tower attack than a tower defense game when you really think of it. Nevertheless, I'm still stewing a bit over how cast aside this game's gameplay was when I found it quite charming! So there.

Another tower defense mode I played recently was in Yakuza Kiwami 2, which I didn't take to nearly as much. It's far more complicated, but to its detriment I feel, especially because if you play the main game pretty comprehensively by the time you're ready to give the mode a serious shot you've got dozens of characters to choose from and upgrades to glom onto the base materials right from the start. As such, you're given this impression that the mode is a bit of a lark and probably more obvious than it first appears (like most Yakuza mini-games end up being) but I totally didn't find that to be the case. I found its symbol-based language really arcane, its MOBA-like in-battle upgrade system kind of inscrutable (again, why have two level 5 guys when you could have eight level 3 guys?) and I wound up just mashing instructions out until I hit a wall where the AI was clearly programmed to be circumvented by certain strategies and I just couldn't be bothered to suss it out.

I thought Middle-earth: Shadow of War had intriguing ideas but ultimately was a mess. It's been a while so no definitive thoughts on it anymore other than the defense threats often felt like annoying distractions from the progress I was making, while the attack sequences often felt chaotic and ultimately aimless thanks to an incredibly dull story and notably flimsy context throughout most interactions in the game beyond direct threats from nemesis orcs. It would have been interesting to see Monolith iterate on this idea outside of the LotR IP but I'm not sure Warner Bros. doesn't let them without taking another shot at a microtransaction monster in the same breath.

Anyway, like I said, no actual tower defense game thoughts, but some adjacent thoughts on adjacent games.

I think the biggest thing when looking for a new Tower Defense game is asking "what does this TD game do that others don't?" The market is so oversaturated that there almost needs to be some sort of "gimmick" to set it apart these days. Someone earlier mentioned the Kingdom Rush series and I think because they vary the setting/heroes and some mechanics between each release while keeping the same base formula, the games always feel fresh. The Sanctum series are great Tower Defense games that combines TD with FPS and it works really well. As for games without gimmicks, I think the Defense Grid series is the best traditional Tower Defense series.

In regards to Orcs Must Die 3 though, I think it is just too similar to the other games in the series. So it is just a "here we go again" moment....

I'm not sure what I would do to freshen up the genre though. I tend to gravitate to the Dungeon Defenders/OMD style, so probably just add a hero/loot/rpg elements like those games did.

Arknights. Arknights does tower defense like no other. Unique mechanics that allow multiple solutions to any given level, fantastic art, and incredible music.

Also, your "towers" are individual units with their own skills and strengths. Team composition and strategy matter more than overpowered units.

I've banged on about this game in a lot of threads before, but it remains the only game I keep installed on my phone, and I play it every day. It's free to play but generous with the premium currency and the gacha draws.

@dragonmoony:I have loved the Creeper World series forever. The recent ones, especially 4, have taken on a sort of "puzzle" feel where a specific combo of structures is needed to beat specific worlds, but I have played and loved all four of them. Plus, they're very inexpensive to buy.

The general idea is that humanity nearly gets wiped out by a purple "ooze" called the creep (it's more blue in the older games but whatever). It's effectively a gelatinous tidal wave of destructive ooze and as you beat each level you get new weapons to fight it ranging from laser guns to your own "anti-creeper" ooze to bombers and whatever. You can place towers literally anywhere.

It's the kind of game where you are overwhelmed, and often you're supposed to lose the bulk of your structures up front (especially on a first playthrough) until you finally create your "safe space" surrounded by towers, and then you fight back.

It gets more complicated in the later games - they do add a few "mobs" and the rendering of the creep gets more sophisticated, but if you're into tower defense I think they're amazing fun.

A trailer from the first one, 12 years ago.

A trailer from the most recent one.

Some TD games I have a lot of fun with.

Trenched/Iron Brigade. It is like Orcs Must Die. You play as a character that can attack and place turrets. Also has multi-player.

Defense Grid 1 & 2. Fun over the top tactical game. A lot of modes have multiple challenge modes once you've played through the map once.

Pixel Junk Monsters. Another top down. Good power difficulty ramp. Also map specific challenges.

DG 2 is a game I put a TON of time into on both PS4 and Xbone, love it to death and am still bummed the company went out of business before making a third one. It hit the thing I seem to search for in TD games really well, namely putting up machine gun towers and watching it chew through enemy hordes. Something about it itches a specific part of my brain that I really dig.

Pixel Junk Monsters is one of those games that I play a couple of levels of every time I turn on my old PS3. The art style and enemy types are just perfect and it strikes the right balance between player activity and simply watching the damage rack up. It feels less strategic and more like a puzzle game sometimes, but still a classic.

I was getting ready to say it felt like we were due for a new Plants vs. Zombies, then I checked and apparently the last update to PvZ 2 was 3 days ago?! So they've been adding to that game this whole time? It's been years since I played it, maybe it's different enough now that I could go back into it and it would feel like a different game...

To add to the list:

Dungeon Defenders adds an action rpg layer with loot so feels like you are constantly getting stronger. Each character has their own set of towers and abilities which ass a lot variety so grinding and replaying levels doesn't feel as tedious. Multiplayer is great.

Mindustry is a Vinny game. It combines tower defense with factory automation. Once you set up defenses, you can go about upgrading and optimizing your supply lines to prepare for the elite and boss waves. It also free on itch.io and mobile or $5 on steam. I think its currently $1 in a fanatical bundle. The creator is pretty actively adding new features too. Multiplayer is also fun.

I would like to see tower defense mechanics added to a game like Stardew valley or Minecraft where you have base/home to protect.

I like a game where I can set stuff up and be active somewhere on the map. Like South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!, one of the first to really get me.