Vampires Dawn: Battle Towers

If we ever ended up in possession of a massive castle - which really isn't very likely - we would dream about building it the sort of mediaeval burglar alarm that's constructable in Vampires Dawn: Battle Towers. Then we'd have a garden filled with armed towers - ones that automatically fired arrows, poison, freezing bolts of frost and cannon balls at anyone who dared to cross our boundaries. We wouldn't have the sorts of problems Madonna had with 'right to roamers' traipsing across her land, that's for sure.

Yes, as you might have guessed, Vampires Dawn: Battle Towers is a tower defence game. To put it simply, you build towers that - hopefully - stop floods of enemies from reaching their goal and killing your army. Killing enemies earns you gold, gold buys you more towers or allows you to upgrade the ones you have and so the cycle continues. Numerous times in each level, as each one has multiple waves of enemies attacking you in varying numbers and different types.

Succeeding at Battle Towers isn't as simple as just plonking down the most powerful towers you can afford and letting them do all the work, though. While it's true that once you've built them and the enemies are on their way there's not much to do but watch and hope they do their job, properly balancing your defences is a trickier task than it looks.

Different types of towers are good for different things, and some are much more effective against some types of enemy than others. Flying enemies are only touched by anti-air missiles and arrows for instance, while the heavy armour others wear needs to be worn down using a heavy onslaught of cannon balls.

There's also positioning to consider. Towers have a limited range so its important to place them where they can cause maximum carnage. Some also work better next to particular types of tower. So the Frost Tower for instance, which temporarily freezes enemies still, works well next to a heavy firing Cannon Tower, which will pelt lead at the rigid soldiers and polish them off before they even get going again.

These tactics are massively important and quite often getting through a wave of enemies without letting a single one get through seems impossible. Playing on the medium difficulty setting (there's also an easy and hard one) you'll see the losing screen more times than you might care to, although the game auto-saves regularly so you can return to a position just before you failed.

Which is a good thing when levels are so lengthy, but it can also devalue tactics a little. It's very easy to demolish towers, get gold for doing so and build more, and once you know which path through the level your enemies will take, you can just line it with towers.

Demolishing towers is a necessary part of getting through any level, and it's something that can get a bit tedious. You're only allowed a limited number of towers on the screen, so if you need a new one to cover a certain position you'll probably need to knock down another one, which could be one you've spent money on upgrading.

A really good tower defence game has a gradual difficulty curve and is totally addictive in that 'one more go' way. Vampires Dawn: Battle Towers doesn't have either completely nailed - the difficulty level is stilted and you're likely to spend some time stuck.

It does have plenty of options and new towers that are constantly being unlocked though, which drives you on through the game's tougher levels. It's not the best of the best, but it's an enjoyable game, and perfectly fine if you've already blown through Tower Defense. Just don't let it give you any ideas for burglar alarms.