Master of Defense

This was supposed to be a post about how wonderful Space Rangers 2 is but I saw a review over at www.gamerswithjobs.com today for a game that I hadn't ever heard of and my interest was immediately piqued. Master of Defense is, like many of today's pleasant surprises, developed in Russia and is a wonderfully simple and addictive, yet challenging strategy game.

I say simple because there's not a lot to it. There's a road running through your map (village, hills, mountains, whatever) and numerous monsters will attack in waves. You simply spend gold to erect one of three types of towers alongside the road -- one kind of tower can attack only ground monsters, another only flying monsters, and another can attack both although with less power -- and watch as they decimate the encroaching parade of monstrosities. You then earn more gold, upgrade your towers with a click of the mouse button (thereby expanding their target range, speed, and power) and prepare for the next wave. You can eventually also upgrade skills with experience earned.

So what happens when monsters reach the end of the road? They kill your citizens. You begin with 100 citizens in your castle and normal monsters can kill 1 to 3 of them should they reach the end of the road. Boss monsters can kill more than 10. Your goal is to see how long you can go while still having some people left to protect. It's possible to earn an occasional bonus civilian, and also increase their ability to survive monster attacks.

Anyway, this doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a whole bunch of something that has occupied my time for the past 2 hours. Yes, I played through the demo several times in a row. And right after I post this link to the game's website I'm going to go buy the full copy. The demo is free and if you enjoy it, the full game is only $20. An extra $9 if you want a hard copy mailed to you.