King’s Guard TD

I'm a big, big fan of tower defense games and well, it's not always easy to make new games in this genres for many reasons; the most common ones are that virtually all the tower defense games available from Flash websites and all over the stores are made by indie developer studios or single developers, and many of them (like the Kingdom Rush series, Incursion, Gemcraft, Curse Treasure, Protector.. it's full of awesome series :P) deal with similar mechanisms and settings.
Of course, this is a little bit "forced"; what I'm trying to say is that these games have to follow a precise scheme made up by one or more paths that the enemies will walk on (there can be multiple paths, or different layers so that enemies can climb ladders, or even circular paths like in Protector where before hitting your health points the enemies will "circle" for some rounds over the same path), there are somehow fixed spots for towers (some games give you more freedom of choice, but generally speaking you'd want to put the most effective towers obviously in the places that are more effective against the most enemies) and of course speaking of the towers (or, like in Incursion and Kingdom Rush, towers that spawn 3 different warriors, mages, archers etc.) we're almost every time revolving around similar concepts: archers, magical towers, warrior/tank towers, cannon towers all of them upgradable.
What a developer can do is to polish the graphics, to invent some kind of plot and to put all of his efforts on creating different, entertaining and new upgrades to the towers themselves, so that they will Idk, transform into mecha robots or that the warriors will become paladins or that towers can be built for 5 or 6 floors like in the awesome Giant and Dwarves game by the Labugames studio.
So, when you go outside lines traced by your ancestors (xD) you assume all the risks of creating something unenjoyable. I played dozens of tower defense games which tried to create new systems, like 3D sci-fi games or such, but they ultimately ended to be difficult to enjoy and very repetitive, like the developers had played all the classic games before and wanted at all costs to create a totally different game. Unfortunately, tower defense games are most effective when they're placed into a medieval/fantasy setting - of course speaking of fantasy you can add all the mages and the mech things you want, but my idea is that the simple "protect your kingdom" idea is the best one, or "protect your gems" if you look to Cursed Treasure or similar series, always set in a medieval fantasy setting.
This game, as the title says, makes use of a traditional medieval setting with a glimpse of charm by creating a 3D world - something that it's impossible to have on a Flash website, hence I sincerely recommend you to play this game full-screen 'cos even on a wide monitor it's difficult to see everything properly, trust me xD I always try everything windowed but this game needs to be played fullscreen and has no problems at all of crashing or freezing.
Three champaigns are available, and three difficulty settings too - starting from normal and not easy unfortunately, but it's ok ahah xD; every champaign (only the first will be available at the beginning) consists of 20 different levels set in a similar world.
Ok, sometimes you'll get hints of a storyline but yeah, I appreciate that the developers tried to give to the game a less casual outfit but it's nothing remarkable xD Anyways, you'll be always in a 3D setting which can be zoomed in and out and moved by dragging the mouse cursor and well, everything works pretty much as every other medieval-settled tower defense game.. and to me, for only 0,99€, it works greatly.
You have a fundamental fast forward button, your health points that get damaged if the enemies make to your base castle, the amount of money you can spend and on the upper right side the number of waves - nothing new, everything good :)
With hotkeys automatically assigned to numbers from 1 onwards, you'll have to put your selected towers on fixed squares all over the map; here you don't have fighters but just towers that of course will launch different projectiles - bolts, arrows, cannonballs, bullets and so on (overall, six different towers) - and you'll be able to upgrade them in order to increase range, damage, fire speed rate and so on. The WASD keys will prove to be extremely useful to navigate the maps, but the fast forward/pause system works nice and you have all your time to plan everything. And of course you'll have the usual spells: meteors, hammers from the sky, paralyzing roots and so on.
Plus, every tower is upgradable to different levels (some towers cap at 3, others at 5 and so on) and many levels will require some strategy and not putting the same tower everywhere and let the enemies come to you xD
Of course, you will have the chance to buy upgrades between levels: mainly spells as I said, but also upgrades for your in-game towers; you'll be able to carry on only four different magics on the playground :)
The game lacks something; hotkeys for spells, a button to send waves earlier, easier system to upgrade your towers, some more work in order to place better buttons like Start and so on, but really for an indie tower defense game coming out at 0,99€ I don't really get what we could expect more.
I get an objection I read somewhere: this games seems to be available for free on smartphones. Admitting that I don't play that much on phones, on one hand I don't really understand how such a 3D broad game like this can be correctly played on such a little screen but on the other hand I think that 1€, 0,5€ as it's now on sale or even less if you've got a coupon is not a big expense at all, considered that there are no DLCs or microtransactions in game - by buying the game you'll have everything and you'll just have to play, grind get money, upgrade your towers and face the difficult levels and bosses and so on.
Yes, it's a classic tower defense games and yes, it doesn't offer anything new but it's great to have games like this on Steam and even for a (very old and) long-time tower defense player like me it proved to be a solid title in its genre, not boring at all and worth to be played. Graphics are very nice, the gameplay offers a great difficulty curve and the six towers and all the other upgrades and magics you can buy make this title, in my opinion, a nice one in its genre.
Of course I have always to add my two cents in the end: you need to like tower defense games, and you also have to know that there are dozens of better tower defense games than this one, sometimes much better. But this doesn't subtract anything to the value of this game - and I'm always the first to downvote a game not worth to be bought and played.
So, for a 1€ (at its highest non-sales price) game, this has lots of longevity and although it doesn't offer anything new, it's enjoyable for what concerns both gameplay, upgrading system and graphics; it's difficult but it's also very fast. I get the "boring"/"grindy" objections but well.. are there tower defense games that don't require grinding? Ahah :)
This is why I said that I'd not suggest this one for a tower defense beginner.. I'd rather suggest them to go on Kongregate or ArmorGames and try some tower defense games on Flash; this one is super enjoyable and funny but not for a beginner who doesn't like grinding or is new to these games' mechanics, even 'cos this games doesn't offer an extensive tutorial at all - you won't need any tutorial for a classid TD game, but if you're new to the genre maybe it could have been useful.
Overall, don't buy this only for the trading cards if you like the genre.. it may not be in the top-10 of the tower defense/strategy games ever published, but it's still a good title :)

Introduction
King's Guard TD is a classic tower defense game. There isn’t much of a story, your kingdom is in danger and you’re a knight tasked to protect the castle. The lack of story or any characters with personalities means that everything focuses on gameplay and I found this boring. If you enjoy tower defense games then you’ll have no problems, but it also doesn’t add anything new or inventive. What it does offer are three campaigns to go on and a total of fifty levels to keep you busy.
Gameplay
Your goal is to defend the castle from waves of enemies. You can erect towers to attack the enemies and the game offers of a variety of different types. They range from a basic tower that just attacks one enemy, a multi attack tower and even ones that can slow down enemies or bomb them. There are different types of enemies, some fly, some are fast or have high defense. The strategy of the game is knowing which type of defense to put up when you need it. Towers can be upgraded in game but there is also a shop where you can purchase permanent upgrades or special attacks. I found the upgrade shop to be the most innovative aspect of the gameplay, everything else is run of the mill tower defense logic.
Graphics/Audio
Graphics are fine, it’s a cell phone app port so they’re colorful and eye catching up but don’t have much depth. The characters are very generic looking and the levels are pretty forgettable. That said, I did like the graphics because they were simple and easy on the eyes. I appreciated that, though the maps are a little small. Audio wise it’s fine, the music is there but not impressive. There is no voice acting and the game could use more sound effects honestly.
Pros
+ Relatively cheap.
+ Decent graphics.
+ Simple to grasp gameplay.
+ Steam achievements and trading cards.
Cons
- Repetitive gameplay mechanics.
- Port of a cell phone game that is available for free.
- Doesn’t offer anything new or different in terms of the tower defense genre.
Final Thoughts
King's Guard TD is a good game for the price tag. If you want to pick up a cheap tower defense game to waste some time on then this might be a good option for you but if you want more substance then look elsewhere. This is a cute and simple bare bones games designed for the cell phone, it works alright on Steam but may not keep player’s attention long.
Rating: 5/10
This review was submitted for Elite Giveaways, check us out for more reviews ranging from Indie games to AAA games to F2P games.

Basic Information
Title: King's Guard TD
Developer: FreezeNova
Publisher: FreezeNova
Genre: Tower Defense
General Impression
King's Guard TD is indeed a mobile game port, but one which has been converted to the PC platform quite admirably. The gameplay is your run-of-the-mill tower defense mechanic which has just enough stage diversity preventing it from being too repetitive. Alas it still becomes so, but I don’t think this game formula could innovate a lot beyond what we’re already seeing. You should perceive King's Guard TD as a relaxing distraction, from heavier titles story-wise. You have more than decent graphical details and sounds, Steam Achievements and also Cards. Given its low price point you really can’t complain or ask for much more of it.
Strong Points
+ Nice graphics and sounds.
+ Plently of level diveristy
+ Steam Trading Cards & Achievements.
Weak Points
- Repetitive, even if all tower defense games are after a while.
Rating 8/10

This review was submitted for Imperial Reviews and Cubbes.

Not a great tower defense game, but a nice basic, serviceable entry in to the genre.
Game play is rather claustrophobic, with short paths and a severe camera angle that can often make it hard to get a feel for what is going on, and the tower upgrades are very basic, with no choices to be made once the tower is decided on. There is no pathing, and limited strategic options.
That said, the graphics are very cute, the sound effects and music are nice and there seems to be a robust upgrade system, though to date you can never actually use more than four of them. There also seem to be a lot of levels, I think there are twenty levels for the first set of missions, and there appear to be three sets of missions, so it looks like it might be a lot of game.
Other comments talk about an increase in difficulty around level five? Either this has been addressed or it simply didn't impact me.
Get it on sale if you like the genre, but you wont be missing much if you give it a pass.

Introduction:
The game is developed and published by FreezeNova, King's Guard TD
is a recently made tower defense game, you can only play a single player mode, and the single player experience is quite enjoyable! Feel free to > Click Here < check out some more great titles from this dev!
Gameplay:
In this game you play as a knight who got an order from a king called: King Dragnor. The King told him to ‘fight’ to the invaders of his kingdom. You are not real fighting to them with your classic sword, but you are the person who is building traps to slow enemies down/kill enemies. You play each level in waves, there can be a range of waves from 3 to 10 at a time. This game starts off very easy and you may think that the game overall would be easy to play. But believe me, it gets a lot harder later on in the game. You have to build towers, and you can make them even better! So you start with one that is shooting arrows, later you can unlock more towers and some other nice goodies that you want to have! The game has a big variety of levels and maps, and that is making the game also fun to play! Also there are a few bosses, and some of them are hard to defeat, so the strategy is here to not spill your money.
From a graphical perspective, it’s not that good, the quality of the game is a little bit low, but still nice to play this game! Also if you look at the details, you will see the little things what are making this game special to play, as example the stockpiles. This game has also options to lower the graphics and resolution. I haven’t encountered any bug or fault in this game in my played hours, so the dev of this game has done this nicely.
The sound department of this game is very nice to hear, especially when you start a fight. The most sounds are also funny and they are original. If you are talking to the king or to a boss you aren’t hearing any sound. Some voice acting in their chats would be really appreciated.
Pros:
+ Variety of levels and maps.
+ Nice sounds.
+ Nice details.
+ Steam Trading Cards & Achievements
Cons:
- Low Quality.
- No sounds if you talk to people.
Result / Final thoughts:
What really impressed me about this game was just that you (almost) can’t get bored of it. You just have the feeling to try it again, and again, and again. If I have more spare time, I shall play it more. The game has just some little problems, but the problems are fixable, so I hope that the dev shall look into it, and try to fix it. It’s also nice that the dev has added cards and achievements into the game. That can help you to motivate to don’t give up at the game, but go further and try to collect the achievements, cards, and the ingame-goodies. Well, this was my review about this very awesome game! I hope you enjoyed reading this!

It is a decent tower defense game, although it is not something I see myself playing very often if ever. I guess it is something to play if your bored, and like the tower defense type of games. At least it is not as bad as I initially thought it would be. Although I do not remember how this ever got into my games library, like a lot of games of mine.
My Review:
8.4/10

For the price and based on other FreezeNova games I've played, it exceeded my expectations. It's a traditional, basic but enjoyable tower defense that, apart from an inventory that allows you some customisation, doesn't really bring anything new. There's an upgradable six towers available which you can place in limited positions across each map.
The campaign starts out pretty challenging with each level requiring some thought to win. About half way through the game, there are a lot of recycled maps which you can easy win with a cookie-cutter formula.
For fans of tower defense only.
5/10