Spooky tower defense with a twist.

I’ve played my fair share of tower defense games in my day. While I don’t mind them, they’ve never been my favorite genre of games, but as I always say, I’m willing to give anything a shot and see what it has to offer. With Hero Defense, which is such a generic name, it offers up a little something different for the tower defense fans to sink their teeth into, it has some issues, but it’s actually pretty solid.

Players take on the role of multiple heroes set in a Victorian era horror story full of vampires, walking dead, and much more. Instead of placing turrets and other types of defensive attacking machines, players dispatch heroes to take out waves of enemies coming down the enemy lines. Each hero has a specialty that they can damage more easily. The vampire hunter, Jack is better at killing vamps while the pyromaniac kid, Sam is better at burning zombies back to the grave. Each has their own style of attacking as well. So, the old man priest, Barrows can slow enemies with his attacks from afar while Jane goes down the enemy lines beating them to a pulp with her baseball bat.

Platforms: XB1, PS4, PC
MSRP: $29.99
Price I’d pay: $15

Throughout a level, players will gather orbs that serve a level currency that can be used to bring out more heroes or level up the heroes already in play. With each level, a hero activates a rune that the player has equipped for that given level that buffs depending on the rune. It could be better range of attacks, stronger attacks, or even more orb drops per kill. There’s a myriad of rune to equip and use all of which is unlocked via the town hub world, but more on that later.

Certain levels have shrines that a player can move their heroes to that will buff them in certain ways, there are also shrines designated for specific heroes. These can turn the tide in the heat of battle. Luckily, players have the ability to pause time and choose where to move their heroes before taking on another wave. They can also speed up time if they know they have a great route that will not allow enemies to pass. Be careful, if there is a break in the line, players only have five hits before the monster take over the town.

Along with their heroes, players can utilize items that can help out in a pinch. Bombs that can blow up enemy waves, freeze them in place, and a full on town mob that can overrun a wave really helps up when needing to hold off the hoard.

Back in town, players can level up their heroes for better abilities and skills, equip them with level runes, and transfer gold into gems that can be used both to upgrade heroes’ weapons as well as improve the town. It is a style that feels like it came straight out of a free to play mobile game, but there are no microtransactions to be seen here. It feels almost like it’s here for padding and seeing as how players are locked out of certain levels due to not have enough stars, the padding is real here. In order to get more stars, they must replay levels on a harder difficulty. I understand it can help out with learning the game in some ways, but holding the player back just because is a little annoying.

For even more of a feat, players can also have level modifiers on that offer up more challenges for the level like not using items or not taking any damage these give more currency to use for upgrading back in town.

While it is a simple game to understand, it can most certainly get complicated in the later levels. With more lanes introduced and a bunch of enemy variety, it can get downright hectic and pausing the action to get my bearings was a must.

It’s a decent tower defense game with some RPG elements thrown in. While I don’t like the padding the developers thrown in, I can still see past a lot of its faults like the camera not being the best or the occasional slow down that occurs when big waves are hitting. It’s still a fun tower defense game that does a lot of things right and fans of the genre will still enjoy. I would say just wait for a slight price cut.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.