Recent reviews by xBusse

Unique mechanic that gives it a "roguelike" feel, where each layout is randomized, and each set of tiles you receive are randomized. Definitely makes it a bit more exciting. Single player modes with the occasional multiplayer/competitive mode are right up my alley; as I typically prefer to play by myself. So far obtaining premium currencies through 'free' methods (daily rewards/achievements/daily missions/etc.) is extremely simple, and possibly too rewarding. Some might disagree with this obviously, but as someone who understands that free games are going to have some level of micro-transactions; the dev has been more than generous in this game compared to others of a similar play-style. Seems like a lot of thought went into the balancing of this, and it seems like this game will be fun for a few hundred hours; hopefully that stays true!

As a long time iOS Player who recently has benefited from the ability to now play on Steam - I want very badly to be able to publicly recommend this game. Thousands of hours (total between iOS and Steam) have been played, and overall I have been extremely happy with the game. But lately, there are more and more cause for concerns over the devs mental health and plans forward. If you read the description of the game on Steam the Dev sounds like a guy who has a plan for everything, wants his playerbase to enjoy his "free" game, and is constantly available for support and interaction with his playerbase - and while those three may have been true at one point, over the last few months they've fallen flat. Read through the reviews from May 2023 on. They've been negative or mixed. Yes there were some "review bombs", but most of the negative reviews are disgruntled players. For every person who review bombs, someone who wants to get close to the dev will post a positive review to try to off-set it. The sailing bug and how it was handled was pretty rough. The manner in which he talks to people on Discord and handles criticism lately is pretty rough. He used to be great! I theorize he's just getting a bit burnt out and trying to cash in on everything before he takes a hiatus (this is purely speculative). He normally builds up a TON of hype for new updates - and followers were an update that deserved exactly that. It's been a long time coming... yet he drops the update and barely says a word. No hype, no build-up, no chatting with the community after. Even now, nearly 24hr after the release it's not available for a large chunk of his player-base (Steam on Mac doesn't work by the way Lava... before you say "I made it available on Steam!"). He's given no explanation, no follow-up, not even a "I understand there are some complaints, let me review and try to come up with a solution"... nothing at all.

Ask any of his long term players, or players who have played his old games. He has a history of doing what he just did. He wants to silence critics, while boasting that he loves criticism. He wants to implement as many predatory gambling mechanics as he can, while claiming they're just a justifiable source of income BECAUSE of all the FREE content he gives us. One doesn't equal the other. Lava has put out a TON of free, amazing content - and no one should try to take that from him. I will continue to play and enjoy this game. But just because you put out some good content, doesn't make you infallible. This last update with Followers could have been simple and great - instead the dev wanted to make a quick buck - AND BOY DID HE! He introduced pets into the game that are borderline game breaking. You get 1 free pet per week, or you can buy pets with a brand new currency that's not obtainable through any means other than purchasing with real money. As you purchase with real money, the cost of the pet pulls actually INCREASES. There's no "pity" system. There's no "you will unlock all of the pets first before getting duplicates". You could spend $44.99 right now, get 10 duplicates of the same common pets, and be no better off than you were before. Naturally the odds of getting a strong/rare pet are low, while the odds of getting a poor/common pet are high. Currently duplicates serve no purpose, but will soon be trade-able (as long as it wasn't obtained with your free 1x per week pull). This opens up a whole separate issue where a real world market will be brought into the game - which the dev has always been adamantly against; but now that he can implement a new cash cow, and tie the real world market to that - he's all for it. The mechanics implemented with the followers should likely be nerfed a bit. But how can you? People already spent THOUSANDS of dollars trying to roll "King Doot", which if you get this pet early on is unbelievably overpowered. The new currency (which he did this same concept in his last game, roll out a new currency late in the games life that people have to buy) needs a method of farming beyond purchasing. Currently the old gems, the 'premium currency' have already been devalued since the release of W5.

I do hope I'll be able to soon update this review, and be able to recommend it again - like I have to so many others in the past. But until the predatory tactics slow down a bit, or at least an explanation is given, I can't possibly justify bringing anyone else into this game.

Excellent game with a ton of future potential. Dev has a great roadmap of updates to come. The dev is active and supportive, constantly taking feedback into consideration, fixing bugs, and ensuring things are fair for all players. Fun gameplay which is paired well with it's excellent graphics, music, and variety. There are things to do from beginning to end, with a tremendous community attached to the game. While the game is an Idle/Incremental Tower Defense game you can definitely benefit from playing the game actively. There are RNG elements which cause variance in each account, so it stays exciting and different.

Many have said in reviews that it's Pay 2 Win, and it's definitely not. There are checks in place to prevent players who pay from exceeding players who are Free 2 Play. There are premium options available (of course, it's a free to play game) but all they do is make the game faster/easier, they don't give you an advantage all the way through the end of the game. I have a free to play account, and an account with premiums - on my free to play account I come in first in tournaments, and on my premium account I've been beaten by Free 2 Play players.

Definitely a 5/5 for me, excited for what updates come in the future.

Both this Game and Customer Service are absolute jokes. I'd hardly ever leave a review like this, but I'm baffled at my experience. I downloaded the game last night and played one game against AI/Bots (on Easy Mind you). It was my first game, never played before. After the round (was about 30 minutes or so, Steam says I played for 35 minutes total) I had a few less than 20 kills, and missed most of my shots (was using a Sniper the entire time). When the game ended, I received a message stating that I was being banned due to their anti-hack/anti-cheating software due to suspicious behavior. There was no suspicious behavior beyond how bad I was doing against Easy Bots. I had a consistent network too, ruling out anything wonky with that. I reached out to Customer Support for help, and they basically just said "Sorry, you are banned. You did something wrong. You can play on another character though" - and I CAN'T EVEN PLAY ON ANOTHER CHARACTER! The game force closes immediately upon opening after showing me the banned message. Extremely disappointed as this game seemed like it could have been fun, but based on all the reviews complaining about either too much anti-ban or not enough anti-ban, it appears they have a lot of work to do.

Edit/Update -

They responded FIVE TIMES, all with the exact form response saying "Sorry, you are banned. You cheated in some way. You can play again on another character" while still not allowing me to play on another character. I have sent a Sixth appeal requesting a real response. I don't truly expect one. Extremely disappointed.

Edit/Update #2 -

We're up to 11 responses. 10 of which included the exact same form response. The final response claimed they use "incredibly advanced anti-hack software which determined I was cheating" - but their advanced software cannot tell me how I was cheating. I asked if they watched the 35 minute video of me walking around at regular speed confused, missing most of my shots at the AI Bots, and trying to learn the game - I don't think they did. Well fingers crossed!