What Makes Fieldrunners 2 Different?

[Falterfire]

There are a LOT of Tower Defense games on Steam. Most of them are basically the same thing except with slightly different towers and a different art style. What makes Fieldrunners different from other Tower Defense games?

I'm genuinely curious. I like the art style, but I'm curious what sets this game apart from others like it. I ask especially since the feature list basically reads to me like 'Everything you expect from your standard Tower Defense!'

[Raggadagga]

yea. it's a tower defense. nothing innovative, nothing special...but still lots of fun, nice balance, nice graphical style.

[cYzzie]

the difference to most tower defense games is the "length" of one round, i have played an hour or so now and i already have levels with 70 waves. Also you mostly build "labyrinths" as on most maps the incoming enemys have no or just little predefined path

its nice, but (for me personally) nowhere near Defense Grid, which is the supreme tower defense game in steam store in my eyes (only the controlls are very clunky)

so far it seems a bit "slower" than most tower defense games which is mainly because of the many waves, plus it seams that early bad decisions bite you in the ass very late but very massively which means you have to repeat the same level a lot with better tactics.

i have no reason yet to say its not worth the 10 bucks as i am enjoying it.

(all my experience was built on playing most levels with "tough" setting which is the medium one)

[KK]

Edited.
I do not want my previous post to have negative impact on the game.
Its seems much better than the first one.
Its a good/okay TD game.
will buy when its around $5.

[mr bigdad]

Oh thanks for telling this, now im definitly waiting for spring sale. Not paying 10 euros now.

[Ａｎｏｎｅｍｅｓｉｓ]

Kingdom Rush All The Way, As You Can See FieldRunners 2 Just Came Out And Isn't Even On The 2nd Page Of The Top Sellers, The First Ones $5...And It's Buggy As ♥♥♥♥ And Abandoned By The Dev's...So $9 For The 2nd One? Ridiculous...$5 And This Game Would Be Selling No Questions Asked...But It's A Port..Meaning It's The Same Game You'd Be Buying On The IOS And I Don't Find It To Be Worth $8 More? That's Just Crazy

[mr bigdad]

Thanks for the headup. Now im keeping my hand definitly off of it.

[just.dont.do.it]

*Good* TD games on Steam include (I'm skipping Defense Grid, as it doesn't need extra advertising):
1) Harvest: Massive Encouter -- a rare take on a "survival" kind of TD, where you have a freeform build, endless enemies, and some pretty cool rules of engagement never seen in other TDs. Oh, and there're lots of modes too, so it still can be played like a "traditional" TD.

2) Revenge of the Titans. A self-balancing TD game: no matter how good or bad you perform, the game adjusts difficulty on-the-fly so that you'll always be grinding your teeth. For those who love some real difficulty -- it's super-awesome.

3) Anomaly Warzone Earth. While not having any mind-shattering new game mechanics, it gets 5 out of 5 for solid implementation, pretty graphics, a noticeable story, and the masterfully-implemented approach of a "inverted TD" gameplay (you vs. towers).

[Falterfire]

Thanks for the suggestions. My personal favorite is still Bloons TD 5, but it's not on Steam. I already have the other three that just.dont.do.it suggested. I don't think I've put as much time into any of those as maybe I should. I'll go play some of those now and come back when this is (further) on sale.

[JoshuaJSlone]

A few main reasons I enjoyed the original Fieldrunners so much compared to the average tower defense game.

Enough variety, not too much variety. That is, there are enough different kinds of units and towers to make it not monotonous, but also not so many that you'll forget the particular strengths and weaknesses of each.

Visually distinct. Pretty easy at a glance to tell everything apart, and often the design makes sense even if it's the first time your'e seeing a unit. Once you get that the little red guys are the basic unit and the bigger red guys are a buffer version, it's easy to see the same relationship among the types of motor vehicles, for instance.

Plenty of building freedom. I like building mazes, so games that have the enemies following a totally set path, or on maps where a lot of stuff is preset don't appeal to me as much. It's worth noting that Fieldrunners 2 mixes this up a bit, having some of all styles--and with more stages than the original, it didn't have to skimp on the style I enjoyed from the original.

Endless mode, replayability. Some just have you reaching a goal of a set number of waves, and that's that. Since you have the option to go on indefinitely in Fieldrunners, there can be the continuing temptation to try to beat your personal best.

[GasTank7]

I've played too many Tower Defense games over the years and I haven't tried this yet although it looks fun. I might pick it up on iOS as it's still only 99c at the moment.

One TD game that really caught my eye and I actually spent many hours already is Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten. I didn't think I'd care after playing so many TDs but they meshed RPGs in there so well and I actually followed the story (I usually skip all stories, quest texts etc...) and I couldn't stop playing.

Defender's Quest's New Game+ mode is very well designed; your progress is saved across both the regular game and the advanced game (even if you finish the game on normal, there are still plenty of levels to beat and rewards to obtain). Some levels actually require you to stop and think how you're going to beat them...

Anyway, I might pick up FR2 and check it out but just wanted to let you guys know about Defender's Quest if you're RPG hungry like me.

[[STD]Random Lead]

Originally posted by KK:

Tower Defense games can be completely different...

Apart from gameplay, they also differ in mechanics..

The most boring TD games are the ones that has static mobs

(Mobs always moves and act the same (in a line), usually end up with the same score, regardless of how you play) Static mobs prime example : Sentinel 3: Homeworld... looks nice at first glance, but the mechanics ruined the game.
*Most mobile TD games have this problem, the only one i know that does not have this problem is Tower Raiders 3

Fieldrunners 1 does have this static mobs problem. Not sure about 2, but from the picture and videos, the fundamental mechanics are the same, so I assume, 2 does have the same problem.



- Build variations, different ways to making the most efficient built? (Prime example: Defense Grid)
- Towers upgrade? (base stats upgrade, usually in F2P versions)
- Rank/points? (Prime example : Defense Grid, people there play for high score)
- Map design
- Modes (Endless, limiting numbers of towers, allow only specific towers to be used, reverse flow/direction)

I'll address these as they are valid reasons.

The AI in this game is what I would call static 2.0. The mobs do run in a straight line but it is based on a maze mentality. They have a predefined set of rules that they follow that allows their line to change. If you have played Defense Grid you know the AI. They follow a fixed path until you alter that path.

Build variations are a must in this game. The same static build may work on the first two difficulties but will most likely not work on hardest and definitely will not on endless. Some endless wave levels require you to unlock towers to be viable in the high score arena. Please note I said ENDLESS requires unlocks. The game is balanced on a map unlock basis with what you have. You just need to play smarter.

The towers do have two additional power levels that you buy but I do wish you could upgrade towers similar to an rpg. There is a game franchise on IOS that allows this. Forgot what it is called. Just to reiterate. You can buy a tower up to a third tier but there is no way to upgrade towers outside of this. The game I am referring to on IOS allowed you to focus on specific towers or gameplay early on. Eventually you would have everything upgraded but the focus order of upgrades was on you.

This game does have a point rank system. This is where unlocked towers and build strategy come into play. You HAVE to sell towers to get high scores. You lose points but doing so allows you to replace a low dps tower with a higher dps one late game. Killing more offsets the points loss.

Personally I like the map design but haven't played enough to give a true breakdown. I will say Defense Grid gets me thinking more but this still allows me to think of build efficiency orders.

As for modes all I have seen so far is an ENDLESS mode and a PUZZLE mode outside of regular maps. There may be a reverse mode or limited tower mode but I am assuming no for the time being. Defense Grid is the king for different modes and rewarding you for them.

This doesn't seem like a direct port to me but I haven't played a game on my ipad in a long while. I will say I prefer this on the PC myself. Plus ten bucks is nothing to me. I am not living on fixed income or an allowance. As a working adult I can justify $10 worth of pay for this.

[just.dont.do.it]

Having tried the game, I must say that it shows some interesting aspects (maze-building, towers with abilities better that "shoot" and "aoe shoot"). So given that, this TD may be somewhat better than most.

[Pie Master]

have you tried sanctum? thats pretty fun. or theres dungeon defenders if you wanna throw a bit of rpg into your td

[troublmaker]

It's just a tower defense game. I liked that the levels were relatively short. Most tower defense games when they have 80 waves that's about 2-3 hours to finish. It means if you make a mistake you're set back 3 hours....

This game doesn't have that, average length per map is 7 minutes.

[KK]

Originally posted by Minaxter:

have you tried sanctum? thats pretty fun. or theres dungeon defenders if you wanna throw a bit of rpg into your td

Sanctum is extremely hard in singleplayer... its more of a first person shooter game than TD
I would rather play Fieldrunners than Sanctum...

I got fieldrunners from google play store long time ago...
And I do have Sanctum on Steam

And i spent more time playing Fieldrunners on my tablet than that Sanctum crap...