Epic Win!
Epic War (out now, $2.99) is the newest addition to the overcrowded tower defense genre. Luckily, it is a more than welcome; not necessarily because it does anything new, but because it does everything so well.
Epic War has a great art style. The monsters and environments are very well detailed but sadly the game is not retina ready and the monsters can look a tad blurry when zoomed in fully. However, this isn’t a very big issue and the graphics aren’t pixelated as in some games. The main title screen is a bit empty and the in game menu feels a bit clunky but this is nothing game breaking and you can easily look past it. The stars of all tower defense games are the enemies. Epic War has 14 different enemy variations, all of which are beautifully detailed and unique. The uniqueness helps the game stand out from most and you’ll be eagerly awaiting to see what’s coming out from the corner.
Many tower defense games suffer from slowdowns in later levels with a large number of things going on but Epic War has no such problems. The framerate is always silky smooth and everything runs very nicely. The animations are very well done and the death explosions are great to watch. One unique feature of this game is the ‘splatter’ feature. If you kill a large enough number of enemies within a short space of time you’ll sometimes get a splatter of blood or goo on the screen which you will have to wipe off with your finger. This doesn’t add anything to the game but it can prevent you from seeing whats going on. It’s also nice wiping the blood of your enemies off the screen!
The gameplay itself is the usual tower defense style gameplay. You place towers around a pathway and prevent the enemies from going across the path to the other side. You have 5 towers at your disposal and each can be upgraded in either range, damage or speed. This is all very simple and you’ll definitely feel at home if you’ve ever played a tower defense game before.
There are 4 levels with 15 waves in each. The game should last you a good amount of time and if you’re a big fan of tower defense games you might find yourself replaying the levels. You also get 3 bonus levels were you have to squish as many bugs as you can. For a tower defense title there is a lot to do. The developer has said that game center integration will be added, along with new levels, enemies and towers. If this happens then Epic War should have no issue topping other tower defense games.
iFanzine Verdict: Epic War is one of, if not the best tower defense titles I have played on the iPhone. It’s a great, well crafted experience with plenty to do. Unique monsters, easy to pick up gameplay and a smooth engine all lead to a well polished game that can easily be recommended. With a few updates this can become one of the top games in the app store. It’s similar to Starcraft 2 and is the perfect iDevice substitute
[xrr rating=4/5]