Pretty Darn Cool

[Warlok]

This game *is* different. Some good tower-defense'ing to be done between this and Nordhold.

[JackThejil]

Heh. I think the thing that's stood out to me, other than the general polish in terms of UI and whatnot, is that it's the first rogue tower style TD with a fair amount of content I've noticed that doesn't lean on degenerate metaprogress*. Winning on the first attempt is quite reasonable. You don't need the unlocks (most aren't even accessible in the demo, after all) and there's no grinding for persistent upgrades.

It's not a design choice that necessarily makes things better, but it's definitely one that makes things different, ha.

* Which I'm not sure is the actual term for it -- games where it's somewhere between incredibly difficult and impossible to win without metaprog investment -- if there even is one, but it's what I've been thinking of that design choice as for a while now.

It's not necessarily bad (plenty of people enjoy that kind of design), but it's definitely a design space I tend to engage with by breaking out a memory editor and not, ha.

[Game Familiar]

The best form of metaprogression happens in your head, when you pledge to avenge your former self against the stupid Krylos using the knlowledge you acquired in defeat.