Forest Guardians Brings The Tower Defence Genre Back Down to Earth

Rather than the usual gun towers, lasers, and electricity fields found in so many futuristic TD games, this one is all about magic and Mother Nature.

Forest Guardians starts with a simple yet well executed backstory, explaining what happened to the Forest of Edia and why it is your duty to restore the Great Tree and get rid of the pesky Dark Ones who are trying to take over the land.

You start the game playing as a fox called ‘Foxxie’ with various other animal characters becoming unlockable along the way. Summoning trees, clouds, grass and land help you zap those baddies. As well as the elements you can also summon ‘faeries’ to perform different tasks, such as offensive attacks or collecting elements to help buy and upgrade more towers.

You also have orbs containing numerous ‘eco abilities’ which you can use in conjunction with each other to further advance the abilities and power of your ‘towers’.

If all this sounds like quite a lot going on, then that’s because it is. There are some interesting ideas in this game, but it can feel a bit overwhelming and overcrowded throughout. Coupled with the fact that you have to move a character around the board to place things doesn’t really help unclutter the screen either.

Pros:

• It’s nice to see an original take on the genre
• The developer clearly has a lot of ideas

Cons:

• The directional controls are too big
• Screen it too cluttered
• The gameplay is a little clunky there is a lot to get your head around

I am a big Tower Defence fan, and always on the look out for a game that can add a new twist to the genre; although Forest Guardians is by no means perfect, this certainly attempts to do something different.