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Who would’ve thought that the Kingdom Rush series would be given a new lease of life on Xbox over a decade after its inception? Not me, to be honest, but the proof is in the playing, and I have been rather impressed with both Kingdom Rush and Kingdom Rush Frontiers so far. Now it’s the turn of Kingdom Rush Origins to try and conjure up another tower defense experience that’s going to draw you in for hours.
Will Kingdom Rush Origins deliver yet more addictive tower defense action, or is it now a tired concept that’s bereft of fresh ideas?
Kingdom Rush Origins certainly retains what makes the series so successful, but it also injects freshness into multiple facets.
Before Lord Malagar and the evil wizard Vez’nan were the bane of everyone’s lives, the General (your role) had a whole host of other threats to contend with. That’s right, Kingdom Rush Origins is set up as a prequel with a narrative told by King Denas. Prepare to lead the Elven army against gnolls, satyrs, golems, ogres and a shed load of other enemies acting under the command of not one, but two major villains. It’s up to you to defeat the Queen of the Twilight Elves, Malicia, and the Queen of the Spiders, Mactans, before they get their hands on an ancient power.
The storytelling is done prior to each level using snippets of text and the odd comic book storyboard every so often. From an aesthetic perspective, the comic style is done fairly well and seeing certain characters presented that way is neat. Granted, it’s not the most engaging story, however the reasons for what transpires are outlined and that’s all you can really ask for. You won’t be delving in purely off the back of the tale being told though, for it’s the gameplay that’s geared up as the main draw.
The campaign consists of fifteen levels, with a further seven opening up after completing those. Surviving the enemy onslaught for a number of waves, by stopping them from breaching your defences, is the aim. Doing so almost perfectly will see three stars awarded for your efforts, but should the sneaky baddies get through then your HP gets depleted and less stars are available to obtain. Losing the entire HP results in failure, so you best get building towers and spending coins to help avoid that occurring.
In regards to the towers at your disposal, the basic types remain the same: archers, magic, melee, and artillery. It’s only when you manage to earn lots of coins to upgrade a tower to level four that the differences between them and the previous game’s incarnations become easily noticeable. You see, every tower has two powerful, advanced versions to choose from when maxed out.
The melee barracks become home to forest guardians who can tangle enemies up in nature; the archery experts target faraway foes with lethal accuracy; the elven mages wield powers to send nearby baddies to a different realm; and the artillery tower transforms into a very angry treant capable of throwing fiery rocks onto the battlefield. These are just a few examples, showing the fresh ideas the developers, Ironhide Game Studio, have implemented in this area. While there’s a lot to like, I do miss the Battle-Mecha T200 and thieving assassins of Kingdom Rush Frontiers.
To increase your chances of victory further, reinforcements are on-hand as well as a thunderbolt strike. Both are on a cooldown system, hence can’t be spammed, but do come in very handy when the towers get a tad overwhelmed. Upgrading these by spending hard-earned ensures their effectiveness is even greater in the latter stages. And if you’re still short on firepower, fear not, as a hero will step up and fight for the cause.
With sixteen heroes to unlock as you progress through the campaign, it provides a tremendous amount of choice. Whether you look towards picking from the likes of the simple ranger Eridan, noble knight Prince Denas, or elementalist Arivan, or instead bring in the mage dragon Faustus, panda monk Xin, or werelion Bruce to really go crazy, the decision is yours. As an added bonus, every hero possesses their very own spell which can be activated multiple times after the imposed cooldowns are over. These are awesome as you can call for dragonlings to set the ground alight, summon a mighty demon, whip up a tornado, or turn enemies into allies.
All of the above should provide the foundations for you to thrive on any of the levels ventured into. You do need tactical nous though, because the layouts are nicely varied and offer the invaders multiple routes to attack from. When you least expect it, the map layout could be altered by evil forces and enable additional paths to sneak through. Another quirky feature sees teleportation pads used to create unpredictable movements. The maps also occasionally house special towers or other interfering assets exclusive to that particular level. Taking everything into account, it’s clear that a lot of effort has been put into the designs and it certainly pays off.
The enemies faced are really diverse, so understanding their strengths and weaknesses is a must to curb the threat they pose. For example, there’s not much point in positioning troops on the ground for the flocks of flying dark faeries and cloud stalkers, while archers won’t put much of a dent in the most formidable warriors like the elite twilight avengers and golems. Therefore, some serious consideration about what to build and upgrade is crucial to holding down the fort. As for the bosses rearing their heads at certain points in the story, they’re brilliantly tough and sometimes quite mischievous, destroying your towers.
Tackling the entire collection of levels will take over ten hours and, by that point, you’ll still be eager for more. Apart from attempting to succeed on harder difficulties, there are Heroic and Iron challenges to undertake. Essentially, they introduce modifiers to make things tricky, such as only being able to upgrade to a specific tower level or banning the usage of certain types. Oh, and you only get one HP, meaning a single enemy breach is the end of your attempt. It’s more than enough to add a decent amount of longevity to proceedings.
Unfortunately, I do have an issue with Kingdom Rush Origins and that’s the controls, once again. There are no problems regarding the button assignments for calling in support, but the core activity of purchasing and selecting towers is frustrating. It’s a task to simply manoeuvre to the tower plot of your choosing, with even more of a nuisance caused when picking tower types and such. The reason appears related to the analog stick sensitivity being set too high and there’s no way of adjusting it in-game. It’s far from ideal when all kinds of creatures are descending upon your territory.
Ultimately, Kingdom Rush Origins is a credit to the tower defense genre and greatly builds upon the success of the series. The maps are excellently designed, the enemies are incredibly varied, and it’s packed full of cool heroes. While the towers don’t quite live up to those that have come before them, they’re still fairly innovative. The only downside lies in the controls, with their oversensitivity hampering the ease of erecting towers.
Kingdom Rush Origins is a little more expensive than its predecessors, but it’s still terrific value for money and you’ll quickly become addicted to its strategic gameplay.
Thy kingdom awaits you, General!