Complicated beginnings
The first moments with Kingdom Rush (on console, editor’s note) are quite surprising and quite tense. The title indeed welcomes us… by familiarizing us. Let’s take a few moments to understand how this simple level of language is a problem in itself: in marketing, the idea of quickly creating closeness with the customer is a recognized means of including him in a relationship of trust, generally with the objective to make it spend more, better and, above all, faster.
If we take the time to dive into it for a few minutes, we quickly realize that simply replacing the “you” with the “you” is a common mechanic in mobile games (and failed translations). In this case, of course, this is no exception to this rule.
Knowing the maneuver, all the warnings went off in our minds at that moment. However, it was with real relief that we noticed as soon as we launched our game that the gem shop disappeared on this console version.
Yes, Kingdom Rush never asks us at any time to take out the credit card to spend more. No predatory microtransaction mechanics are present, whether through the purchase of virtual currency, to quickly skip levels or unlock heroes. No doubt it was essential to make this clarification from the start of this test, in order to reassure the most reluctant.
For anyone who has ever touched the mobile version of the title, getting started with the controller can be particularly complex. Achieving gameplay as fluid as touch is not easy. Still, Kingdom Rush does pretty well.
If it is true that it takes a little time to adapt to manage the title to perfection, the adaptability choices made by the developers are surprisingly ingenious and disconcertingly easy.
Thus, the left stick is only reserved for moving a cursor over the various available construction slots. The A key displays a wheel of choice, the LB trigger to guide our hero and the directional cross to summon reinforcements or a meteor shower.
From the end of the tutorial, it is with great ease that the title is taken in hand and that we chain the missions without any difficulty. Certainly, a few moments of tension can be raging: the speed of movement of the cursor is slower than our fingers, thus preventing us from instantly deploying reinforcements in the most critical areas. But the compromise is amply validated and is, so to speak, one of the best possible to date with a controller.
Yes… Kingdom Rush has managed to offer us a quality port. At least in terms of maneuverability and despite some inaccuracies.
A strangely complete title
How difficult it is to see all our certainties shattered like the foam blade of our convictions on the cliff of reality. And yet, we are about to speak well of a mobile game. A lot of good, even.
Kingdom Rush is therefore a Tower Defense like there are thousands since the first custom maps of Age of Empire. The principle is simple: through several levels, we have the heavy task of stopping hordes of monsters using our constructions before they reach our base.
It is through twenty-seven maps that the game welcomes us, for a content of 6 to 10 hours of play. Each one is worked with care, whether on the graphic plan or level design. All of them, without the slightest exception, offer a challenge worthy of the most devious strategy games and, without good physical and mental preparation, can block us in our progress.
It is not uncommon indeed to lose, overwhelmed by the hordes of enemies constantly breaking on our base, or simply because of a second of inattention. The Ironhide Game Studio title requires concentration at all times, especially in its most intense phases.
But let’s break it all down. The main campaign is, for its part, composed of twelve maps which serve, more or less, as a huge tutorial for the title. Each brings its share of novelties, whether in terms of enemies, improvements, heroes or optional additional content (freeing a Troll to come and help us, for example).
Through this very correctly narrated story (if not the familiarity), we follow the adventures of a kingdom in the throes of chaos: the forces of evil pour out and try to invade, in turn, each of the zones. The game therefore makes us travel from green plains to desolate lands through snowy mountains.
Three biomes. It’s certainly not much, but the quality of the very cartoony graphics engine easily manages to make us forget this defect thanks to a particularly pleasant level construction. It’s very simple, no two cards are alike. Whether through branches, multiple enemy spawn areas, or simply by adding unique scenery elements.
The enemies, precisely, are particularly numerous. Sixty-one different types of creatures and no less than eleven bosses, who will do everything to invade us. Ranging from the simple goblin to the witch, passing by the black knight or the giant bat, the latter do not shine by their originality… but all are different and force us to adapt our strategy.
Let’s take some very concrete examples: giant bats can only be reached by ranged attackers, black knights are immune to magic, wargs are particularly fast, bandits pass behind our defenses, etc. Everyone, without the slightest exception, must be learned so as not to be overwhelmed.
The Bosses, on the other hand, are real HP bags that also have unique techniques. Thus, some will summon minions, others will destroy our towers… but all will be a challenge of a particularly high level. Even at the “beginner” difficulty level.
To defend ourselves, the developers at Ironhide Game Studio have opted for simplicity. Here, there are only four different types of towers that are available to us: archers, infantry, mages and bombers.
If in the first moments these limited choices are surprising, we quickly understand the purpose of such a decision. Controller in hand, in the heat of the moment, it is particularly easy to spot what type of tower to place and install it in a fraction of a second, avoiding the disaster of defeat because of a number of choices. too important.
These towers can evolve in exchange for money. If we start each card with a small nest egg allowing us to place our first defenses, it is by killing enemies that we earn enough to increase our possibilities.
Each tower has five levels of improvement (including a final one which is a choice between two) in order to deal with all situations. And the final decision, precisely, is often Cornelian. Will we instead choose to transform our peasants armed with pitchforks into paladins capable of healing themselves and with impenetrable defense, or rather into bloodthirsty barbarians capable of defeating entire groups of enemies?
Strategy is at the heart of Kingdom Rush, and the smallest decision can affect the outcome of each mission. Wanting to focus on defense is the risk of seeing hordes too large to contain. On the contrary, wanting to bet everything on the attack and it is the possibility that winged enemies come to taunt us by simply flying over our armies.
Fascinating in its gameplay, Kingdom Rush is undoubtedly an excellent Tower Defense that knows how to keep its player in suspense and give him a lot of thrills.
Of course, we also have to talk about the heroes. The latter are particularly powerful units, capable of gaining experience to become stronger. According to the different maps of the campaign, we unlock no less than thirteen of them. Each has its specificities, characteristics and special moves, but only one can be deployed in combat. Thus, it is still a daunting choice that is offered to us and a strategy to put in place according to the latter.
Once the last map of the campaign mode has been completed, the content-hungry player can rejoice because fifteen new Elite levels have been added. More difficult still, the latter are a really pleasant puzzle, adding even more fun to a game that already has plenty of it.
Of course, it is also possible to redo the levels already completed in an additional difficulty (heroic) in order to unlock new stars…
When we finish a level indeed, our performance is rated from one to three stars. These are a form of currency that we can spend at will to improve our units. It is therefore quickly essential to achieve the best score in order to make life easier during the most complex levels…
…And that’s where the game’s real flaws kick in.
A questionable interest
Whether or not we are bothered by the principle of Free-to-Play and more particularly their economic model, it is important to compare what is offered in Kingdom Rush on smartphone and on console.
We mentioned it earlier: here there are no microtransactions in this Xbox version. On mobile, these allow you to buy gems (an exclusive currency) that can be earned based on our performance in combat or via real money.
Thanks to these gems, the player can then freely buy various bonuses to make his life easier: healing potion, extra life, money to facilitate our constructions, etc.
Maaaaais… to incite to spend it in this type of production, there are not thirty-six thousand possibilities. The simplest (and the one chosen by Ironhide Game Studio) is to drastically increase the difficulty of the title.
Kingdom Rush is a challenging game. Incredibly hard, even. Including in campaign mode levels in beginner mode. Only the most experienced strategists, game maniacs and the most persistent will be able to complete it in the most advanced modes. For the vast majority of players, even the lowest difficulty is already a really tense challenge.
On smartphones, it is in fact possible to buy bonuses to manage to pass complex levels more easily. But what about this Xbox version, then?
Well… nothing. Nothing at all. If the store has been retired, no option has been implemented to replace it. So we only have our eyes to cry and our determination to try to push the experience.
The problem is simple: the advanced difficulty modes (including the famous heroic level) are simply out of reach for the vast majority of players, undoubtedly depriving us of an important part of the content.
We would also have liked not to be faced with a simple port of the mobile version, to have exclusive improvements or, why not, the content added in the Frontières extension.
We are literally in the presence of a twelve-year-old title, a version more or less identical to that available on smartphone, amputated from part of the content, all at the price of 9.99€ while its mobile colleague is free.
The interest is therefore debatable in view of all that we have mentioned. If you want to immerse yourself in the Kingdom Rush experience, take these parameters into account and, why not, try it for free on your smartphone first.
Finally, we can’t miss Xbox Play Anywhere. By buying the Xbox version, we are indeed also entitled to play on PC.
Tested on Xbox One X
