Despite the equilibrium along the 'front line', I think there's definitely the possibility for bold moves and offensives. Using heavy artillery or air support to clear a small area of creeper and then dropping in turrets or shields to create a beachhead can turn the tide, and the game provides enough tactical and logistical options to keep this interesting.

I kind of wish the creep became more aggressive over time (or built new structures such as spore towers), in order to force the player to act rather than let a prolonged stalemate develop.

@awesomeclaw: True, but even the bold offensives in Creeper World are slow-paced compared to Starcraft.

As for it becoming more aggressive, I disagree. Showing everything the map will toss at you from the start is an important aspect of the game.

I loved creeper world 1 to death, then I remember not liking 2 one bit, it changed too much.

I like strategy games but the sometimes frantic pace of a standard RTS kinda puts me down a bit, I tend to prefer TBS games for that mater, but given the much more slow paced nature of creeper world it kinda gelled with me pretty nice.

And yeah I do consider this a RTS because there are no turns or waves involved, just got 3 on the sale, will play it sometime.

Your description makes it sounds really cool, I saw it on the steam store but saw nodes in the screenshots and thought "Oh god, tower defense" but it seems like theres more to it than that.

I picked this up on sale earlier this year and got really into it. It's a nice twist on the tower defense genre.

@finaldasa: @mikemcn:

Really, this is NOT tower defense, you're not just protecting a number of set paths and you're also not creating paths and choke points with buildings and whatnot, the terrain is what it is and the creep can get to you from anywhere due to the real fluid dynamics, any structure you build is insta killed by touching the creep, your best friend is terrain elevation so you gotta use that well.

Also you HAVE to go into the offensive to win, it's not just setting defenses and then sitting the waves out, there are no waves, it constantly creeps up to you.

@onarum: @finaldasa: @mikemcn: Yeah, it's not Tower Defense, although it does seem similar at first glance. It's more like two blobs crashing together and vying for territory.

First part of each map is a frantic rush to grab as much terrain as you think you can defend. Your power generation is determined by how much land you control, so if you control too little, you can't power your guns fast enough. If you control too much, you stretch yourself thin. Large emphasis on securing chokepoints here. Valleys & river beds also play a key role, since Creeper pools up in them, which makes it easy to wipe it out en masse with a few Mortars.

Second part is a slow build-up for the initial push. You slowly build up extra generators/weapons in preparation for going on the offense, being careful not to build so many at once that the weapons holding your front line lose power. (Power is used for both construction and as ammunition, and is distributed evenly across all buildings demanding it. You build too much at once and your guns barely fire.)

Third part is breaking the equilibrium by unleashing everything at once to gain a foothold past the front line. There's several buildings that do damage in bursts: fighters, bombers, and Bertha artillery cannons that take a minute+ to load but utterly obliterate any Creeper it hits. Before the Creeper can refill from this onslaught, you fly in your guns & mortars to keep it pushed back, node-ing the extra land you just gained to produce more Power. There's also a Sprayer which spreads Anti-Creeper, a fluid similar to the Creeper that can push it back and slows down its advance. It uses Ore for ammo instead of Power, so you can only use it sparingly, but it's great for keeping Creeper off a patch of land long enough for you to claim it.

The tide begins turning once you push all the way up to a Creeper spawn point and destroy it. Not only does it reduce the amount of Creeper being spawned, making it easier to continue your offensive, but it leaves behind a Position of Power that supercharges buildings placed in it. Using it makes it extremely easy to push back the Creeper in a wide radius.

The closest analogy to this type of gameplay I can think of is World War 1 trench warfare.

Also a correction to Onarum: Creeper does not instakill any building it touches. However, it damages them fast enough that few buildings will survive long in it. Flying several guns into Creeper to clear it out is risky, but possible.

Creeper World 3 was actually one of my favorite games I'd played this year. I'd never played the earlier ones, and picked it up during the summer sale iirc for like $1 upon someone's recommendation. Ended up playing it for like 20 hours. I eventually got to a timed level though and that sucked all the fun out of it. I loved playing the game slowly and building up an unnecessarily large line of forces before actually really expanding and fighting for the objectives. Reminds me of old RTS games where I'd just build for an hour straight then run over the enemy.

I never played 2, but 1 and 3 are very fun, a great way to lose some time without having to pay too much attention.