Northend Tower Defense Review

 Northend Tower Defense is, well, a tower defence game with a twist, developed by Northend Games and published with help from Gamersky Games. Initially released in Steam Early Access back on the 9th of March 2022, it is now fully released. I don’t exactly like war, but I do like virtual simulations of them! So, is it worth the good fight or should you just go AWOL? Let’s find out!

Let’s talk about the presentation, and overall it is fairly good. The music is bombastic, heroic, and intense which fits the chaos of war. Although, you will barely hear it over the sounds of all the explosions, guns firing, and death. While not as bright and colourful (it is war), the graphics do remind me of Overcooked, especially the soldiers with their floating hands and cute faces that you will barely see as they die to various bullet hoses. The levels you fight in are varied, from the trenches to beaches and the war-torn streets of a city. Not only are they quite good-looking, they also offer unique scenarios that will change how you approach a battle.

There are two modes: the campaign where you’ll face an army of soldiers and the Zombies mode where you'll face an unending force of the undead. While both are tower defences, they play quite differently. The campaign is based on a war vaguely based in World War II, where every level will have you on a different battlefield. All you need to do to beat it is to not let your commander die before an airstrike is called on the last wave. Simple, right? Well, with hundreds of enemies out for blood in real-time, you’re going to need an army of your own to fight them off. You have two currencies to help you do just that: Money to spend on troops and Points to spend on special orders, such as airdropping extra troops, laying down mines, calling airstrikes, and getting a tank to drive into the middle of the conflict. As you kill enemies, you’ll gain these currencies as well as EXP to level up, where you can unlock more unit types, upgrades for those units, and some bonuses like bombing runs, extra cash, or healing the commander.

But what are these meat shields/soldiers of war? Well, they range from gunners wielding M1 Garands, SMGs, and machine guns, to artillery like Bowitsers and mortars, to… less conventional forces, like crossbowmen. I’m not the biggest history buff, but I don’t think bicycle riders were used as suicide bombers. That being said, you will need every single unit and upgrade you can get because if you aren’t using them effectively, your commander will fall in seconds. The enemy army is relentless, not only sending hundreds of soldiers at you, but also sending in trucks, tanks, and planes to thin out your numbers. I seriously recommend purchasing anti-air and anti-tank units and keeping some troops in the back because some jerks do manage to sneak in from behind.

The commander isn’t just a total sitting duck, though. He has a bazooka and a sniper rifle to help pick off targets. However, he has limited ammo and only gets more at the start of every wave, so you will need to pick your shots carefully, which is pretty hard when there’s a literal hail of bullets coming your way. Now, you can pause the game at any time if you need time to breathe and get your troops in order… but I noticed that not everything pauses. Occasionally, there would be an explosion or something that would kill off some of my gunners. It’s a minor annoyance, but still, I’d like to have time paused fully.

These fights can be really hard and it’s sort of inevitable that you’ll lose a couple of times. It’s seriously heartbreaking making it to the last wave, but your commander has taken so much damage that you can only watch as his health ticks down to zero, even when pausing the game. However, if you find yourself struggling trying to beat the campaign, you aren’t out of luck yet. You earn Loyalty points whether you win or lose, which can be spent in the Loadout menu to purchase new troops and vehicles that aren’t unlocked through completing levels. These unit types can seriously turn the tides if used at the right moment. That being said, you might want to focus on getting snipers on your side. They are pretty damn powerful.

But that’s only one-half of the game. The Zombies mode is a much different beast. While you will be using your normal troops, you can only have 12 out at a time instead of however many you can fit in the given spaces. Also, there is no winning here: you play until you die with your only motivation to last longer is getting up to the top of the leaderboard. You’ll be fighting off an increasingly lethal horde of the undead, scrounging up money to buy units, abilities, and traps. Units, abilities, and traps are random though, obtained through essentially a slot machine, so you don’t have the most control over your defences. However, if you get duplicate units, you can use them to level up those soldiers so that they’ll fight a little more effectively. Zombies will also drop power-ups which can seriously help, like dropping bombs, sending in a tank, or simply instantly killing anything for 30 seconds. I quite enjoyed playing this mode and it’s a nice break from the frantic scrambling of the campaign. It’s still fast-paced but it feels easier to get a handle of.

Now onto technical performance. Even at maximum graphic settings, I didn’t get any drops in framerate despite all the chaos happening on screen, no matter which mode I played, staying at 60 FPS all the way through. The load times can run a bit too long for my liking, but that’s okay. I did encounter a few visual glitches such as my bazooka men wobbling back and forth like one of inflatable punching bags. I didn’t really have major issues with the game design, but it is very simple and doesn’t offer too much strategy other than spamming as many troops as you can. 

Northend Tower Defense is just like surviving a firefight behind enemy lines: a mad scramble to fend off the enemy and barely making it out alive. Fights are frantic as you’re trying to assemble all the resources you can get and doing your best to use them effectively, no matter the map or game mode you play. It’s a good, if short, time that makes winning each battle hard-fought and earned.