Townrs Defender

Pigeonholing things is a near-unavoidable human trait. In the music world, such habits can get pretty ferocious - a pair of pierced and preened metal heads arguing about the relative merits of Doom versus Death metal and whether hot new band X is more grind- or sludge-core is far from unthinkable.

We haven’t generally had such problems in the gaming world, though, where most titles wear their genres on their sleeves, for purely commercial reasons if nothing else. Castle defence games, however, have started to split into an array of sub-genres, of which Townrs Defender is of the hero defence.

While there are towers on the battlefield, your main responsibility lies in controlling a single warrior who does most of the damage. You control him or her with taps: where you tap, he or she follows - yep, you can choose your gender in Townrs Defender. Even fantasy games aspire towards political correctness these days.

Enemies come in waves, and your aim is to defend a gate that lies roughly on the other side of the level from where they appear. Preserving your scattered network of towers is key since they don’t regenerate.

You do, however. Get knocked out and you just have to wait around ten seconds to spawn at the fountain of life - a spot that regenerates your health, but isn’t in the most accessible location. Chests randomly appear that boost your health and provide other enchantments like increased attack power or amplified defence, too.

The real intrigue lies in the game's experience system. Your hero has four different attacks, unlocked with experience. One is executed by tapping enemies, another by drawing a line in, the third by tapping on your character, and the last attack is used by dragging a target onto the battlefield.

This gesture mechanic gives Townrs Defender more of an action-packed vibe than your average tower defence game. Plus, each time you level-up you can add a star to any available attack, making it more potent.

There are four character classes, too, although only one is available to you at the outset. As you experiment with a newly-acquired class, it seems as if it’s just a minor variation, but distinct strategies start to emerge for each one as the game develops.

The game's failing comes from not providing enough ground over which to explore these classes without retreading old territory. There are only two maps. While a trio of difficulty levels provides some motivation for replay, there need be more maps to reach its potential - unlockable ones would be a good idea, too.

Getting your hands on the different character classes proves to be a great motivator for the first few hours of play, but we were left hankering for a little more once Townrs Defender had spread out all its wares.

From another perspective, that’s no bad thing since it proves the game is enjoyable enough to keep playing to the end, which it certainly is.

If you’re looking for something a little different from traditional castle defence that retains that horribly addictive trait of the genre, Townrs Defender should keep you hooked for at least a few hundred invasions. You’d think they’d come up with a better defensive strategy after that.