Kingdom Rush Origins – PC Review

Genre: Indie, Strategy
Developer: Ironhide Game Studio
Publisher: Ironhide Game Studio
Release Date: Oct 17, 2018
Edited by Thorstag

While I can not say I am fond of tower defense games, there is a fair amount of strategy to them, and they can be a good distraction from the norms of every day. The previous statement being said, the game has to be able to differentiate itself from other games on the market, and while this one has some more unique features, it feels like more of the same in the end: Kingdom Rush Origins. Kingdom Rush Origins is an indie style, tower defense game developed and published by Ironhide Game Studio that stands out with the towers and heroes.

As stories go, Kingdom Rush Origins has a simple and lackluster story to a degree, but it serves the premise of the game well enough in the end. Our story takes place in a time of peace for the Elven people, but as you all know, peace is but frail existence. The Gnolls see things otherwise, causing trouble as they may be prone to do. I usually do not combine paragraphs, but in this case, I feel like it can be done as the stories greatest strength is also its biggest weakness, the simplicity. I would have loved to see more depth from it overall, maybe give introductions to the various heroes through the cartoon panels of storytelling.

Like archers in the waiting, the main gameplay of Kingdom Rush Origins falls to the player’s tactics and placement of various types of turrets but what makes this particular tower defense game stand out is the tower upgrades as you unlock them. Each tower has two styles of upgrades you can play around with once unlocked through the story and you hit base tower level three, ranging from the arcane archers, which allow the player to do burst damage and sleep enemies from a distance to that of monks, dual wielding Elven warriors who specialize in bladed combat and dodging. Each tower upgrade goes further into specializations of that turret, as mentioned prior with the ability for arcane archers to put enemies to sleep for a few seconds, to monks being able to dodge attacks and become temporarily immune to damage.

Towers are not the only thing Kingdom Rush Origins brings to the table, as the game also promotes a hero and talent or skill system. Heroes, as this might imply, unlock after beating a certain amount of levels in the game and come pre-unlocked at a certain level and while the player has no real control of them other than movement, they will perform certain moves unique to themselves. Talents work as they should, after beating each level, you get stars based on how you did in the level, and you can apply these stars to various upgrades to abilities, alongside points for heroes once they level up to improve or add new abilities to their lineup.

While I like usage of the hand-drawn elements given visually, the on occasion generic-ish soundtracks I feel like is the weakest part of Kingdom Rush Origins from a presentation standpoint. The hand-drawn like elements used in the background to the characters is to themselves alright, as the prior games in the series use them so to keep the games inline with each other. As for the soundtrack, I felt like it fit the game as it was expected to, but I can not say if I remember one track really sticking with me after I closed the game. The soundtrack, for all purposes though, functions and uses sounds of the locals of the stage zone, same with familiar sound effects like birds cawing in the forest as a good example.

When it comes to defending the kingdom in Kingdom Rush Origins, I feel like it is a unique enough of an experience to pass the time but one you could quickly fill with another game at its price point. The interesting turret upgrades, the hero and skill trees systems, and cartoony graphics with a comic book story presentation would make for good time passer if there were ever a need for one.

Pros:

• Interesting and unique turret upgrades/tracks
• The hero and skill tree systems

Cons:

• The soundtrack left a minimal impact to remember it by

DarkLunarDude gives Kingdom Rush Origins A Drastik Measure of 6.0 out of 10.0 (60)

At the given price point on Steam of $14.99, Kingdom Rush Origins I can suggest to others, but I would recommend waiting for a sale, as while the game has plenty of levels to burn through, its more of a time burner than anything else.