Revenge of the Titans Review

by on 12th Feb 2012

Revenge of the Titans is an Indie title released on Steam in March 2011 due in part to its inclusion in the successful second Humble Indie Bundle. Developed by Puppy Games it is an imaginative combination of tower defence and RTS.

The game sends waves of rather adorable 'titans', reminiscent of Space Invaders, towards your main base. The intention, like most tower defence games, is to eliminate them before they reach you. To do this you have to manage resources using upgradable refineries and place turrets, barricades and other obstacles in such a way that they impede the enemies' progress. There is a certain amount of pre planning involved as the enemies will use the roads in the area, speeding their progress, but allowing you to estimate their path. It's an exclusively single player game which is slightly disappointing as a co-op mode could have worked well. There is a campaign mode along with survival and endurance.

The defence structures themselves vary from laser and explosive turrets, barricades of varying degrees of toughness and tanks and droids which stream out from their factories to engage smaller titans. The units can be improved by both options in the in-depth research tree and placeable buildings such as cooling towers that speed up the firing rate of your lasers, batteries that provide more ammunition or add-ons for your refineries that make resource gain more efficient.

These extra add-ons, rather pleasingly, can be used by more than one main defensive structure at a time making arrangement of your defences important. There are also some 'exotic' power-ups that are single use but stay on you for a single battle such as extra ammunition for your turrets. You can hoard these for as long as you want and reserve them for boss fights which can be very useful.

The research tree itself is in-depth and logical giving you access to many upgrade options at once.  Unfortunately the game rather suffers in that it gives you little guidance of where to invest, beyond refineries, and the later levels can be rather tough if you haven't upgraded in a sensible manner. This means that the game may take more than one play through to master, without a guide, as there is no way to either know what is sensible to take or what will be necessary to progress. Some of the more powerful titans in later levels can only be destroyed by different types of guns or defences making it frustrating to plan ahead in my humble opinion. It sorely lacks an ability to reassign points or even replay earlier levels for research points.

Despite this flaw the game itself is very pleasant to play with a friendly difficulty curve that will welcome beginners and avoid frustrating veterans of the genre. The titans themselves behave differently; from the small elusive ones sneaking past your turrets to the huge bosses you have to defeat to secure the different planets. There is a rather thoughtful option to 'fast forward' the march of the titans if you are satisfied with your defensive emplacements. It's also possible to reduce the difficulty during the game if you are struggling but the game is quite forgiving on its base settings and will probably provide a challenging but fun experience for most dedicated gamers. The game rewards you with an excess of medals and points if you finish a level with exceptional prowess giving you a rather smug feeling.

The aesthetics are very effective for the tone of the game. The 2D environments and titans being reminiscent of both Space Invaders and Pac Man. Even the rather retro 'pew pew' of the defence turrets evokes eighties arcade games and defeated alien sprites disappear with a satisfying muted explosion that almost seems lifted straight from the Atari 2600. The player is guided through the campaign mode by cute sprites representing a staunch British general and a bespectacled boffin. Magicka style mumbling stands in for voice acting. The synthesised level music can become a little grating for my tastes but is at least fitting for the game.

Overall Revenge of the Titans doesn't disappoint in what it sets out to do. The game-play makes sense and it is fun to see what you can do with your new upgrades or research. Again, there is a big flaw in the rigidity of the research tree but that also gives it some replay value. The art style and atmosphere of the game is really well conceived and it will make you smile alongside commiserating over failures. I had a lot of fun with this game and I would say it's well worth the price.

Reviewer's Verdict: 7/10

Game Card

Revenge of the Titans Box
Developer: Puppygames
Publisher: Puppygames
Released:14/12/2010

Screenshots

Databank