I'm not sure why this game entered EA already.
There is no real content at all:

- The UI is not even remotely done (there are even texts that don't even fit into their bounds, so you cant read them [FIXED]); The graphics on the buttons look spongy/washy [I'm not a native english speaker, i hope you know what I mean]; It looks kinda empty and undone: simple background, no real aesthetical beauty right now
- Only 1 hero/player character/class/whatever you call it right now
- If you want one of the 3 skills your character has, it feels like playing with a 500ms ping; it's super delayed and you have to stand still for a second to even beeing able to use them (this feels super aweful if you're used to some moba games)
- You have to wait several seconds and then roll your face over the keyboard to skip the intro video - every time you start the game (ok, could be some kind of "hidden" loading screen; but a text would be nice to see when to skip it) [FIXED]
- No content at all: 1 "campaign" - no story (not even via text boxes), you simply finish one round, loading screen, next round

I'm not saying this game is bad - it's simply not really a game right now. This EA is way too early imo.
I will keep it instead of refunding and I hope that I can change this review in the near future to something more positive :)

Edited on November 3rd: More details on the isses I see(!) with the UI
Edited on November 9th: They fixed a lot of stuff already - now please give me some content to make this one positive ;)

Embers of War from Dark Rift Entertainment is a mix of a Tower Defense game with role playing elements.

The Key gameplay is building different towers and defend your base from the waves of enemies.
Here you take the Role of Gwen. It’s the only hero right now, but they will add several other heroes soon. Gwen is a futuristic soldier, equipped with a sword and a machinegun, so you can do melee aoe damage or ranged single damage. Furthermore, she has some abilities, what reminds me of some MOBAs. She can throw her sword like a boomerang that comes back, stun the enemies in a cone in front of you, heal herself, use her jetpack to travel around faster and her ultimate where she flies up in the sky and fires rockets down on the monsters (can she please shout “Justice rains from above”?!) and doing a mass of quick damage. But you can only use it when your mana (?) bar is on 100%. You fill the bar by doing damage.
The only negative point here is that the controls feel a bit bad and when you want to use a skill you need to stop first and tap it sometimes for several times. Hope this will be fixed in the future.
There are some different towers in this game that fulfill different roles, single target dmg, aoe dmg, long-range dmg, short-range dmg etc. But you can build these towers only on the special places. After you have filled all these places I’d recommend to upgrade your towers to make them stronger.
The monsters in this game are quite strong and after some levels I really had my problems sometimes. You are almost dying constantly because they have such a high damage and your building get destroyed, too.

The visuals and sound in this game are okey. I have seen better, but this one is still in early access and there is so much to come! Hope the developers don’t forget about this game (as many of the early-access devs do), then this game could be really good.

So, let’s sum it up a little bit.

Positive:
+ Nice graphics
+ Intuitive gameplay
+ Variety of different towers
+ More heroes announced
+ Difficult, but not too hard
+ Controller support

Negative:
+ Clunky usage of skills
+ Only 1 hero now (will change in the future)
+ No real story mode here, you just do one level after another

In all this game is good, but it has to be finished. It’s need more heroes, some fixes that would make the game more comfortable to play and personally I would love to see a multiplayer CO-OP mode!
Let’s see what the devs plan and do in the future. Hope they will be able to show the people that this game is worth playing it!

But for now it’s just a 7 out of 10 (enemies reaching your base) as it lacks much in the present state
(Will update this review once new content is added)

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I’m usually hesitant to buy into early access games, but I’m glad I decided to take a chance with this one.

Pros
- The WASD control scheme is super intuitive for character movement
- Unlike most td’s I’ve played, the towers really feel powerful, and the enemy physics are hilarious
- I love that the main character is female :)
- The minion abilities were interesting, the stealth guys scared the crap out of me the first time they showed up!
- The ART is AMAZING!!!

Cons
- Only having 1 hero gets a bit redundant, also it took me a little while to figure out how to activate the ultimate ability
- This game really, REALLY screams CO-OP, but is only Single Player :(
- There seems to be a few obvious bugs that slipped, but luckily none of them have been game-breaking for me, just a little annoying, like the music cutting out on longer maps
- No tutorial! Not a big deal, but being a mostly casual gamer, it would be helpful

There’s definitely a lot of potential here. I hope the developers keep updating this!

There is a very good game here. Graphics and setting are nice. I like most of the mechanics as well. The major thing is that it needs a LOT mre content, balances, and depth. However, it is EA and they have that stuff planned. They certainly have a viable core here to build that on. I have confidence that this will be an excellent game as it progresses.

Hmm...has promise. At early access, maybe worth it at $5, but needs a lot more work. Swapping between construct & 3rd person control/view needs tweaking. The game should automatically pause when you go into construct mode. That seems a major oversight. Also, why limit map zoom/perspective when switching to 3rd person control? I guess I'd understand that if the switch was to 1st person, but doesn't make sense in same god/overview perspective. Finally, crashes everytime I try to tweak video options.

Ultimately, I'd rather play (replay) the superior Defense Grid and Defense Grid 2.

You could play a tower defence game on your phone that would be more user friendly and fun. It also wouldn't cost you any money.

There are updates coming as promised by the game, but I don't belive what's on its way will even make it worth 20 bucks.

This is an acceptable product for a two dollar game. It attempts to be xmorph (hybrid tower defense and combat) but doesn't really feel good to play. The towers are standard but have no character, and none really feel like they're doing damage.

Stuff just waddles around while towers animate and bars diminish as you waddle around waiting for cooldowns to refresh.

I don't feel this is a waste for two dollars, as I'm sure I could get two hours of distraction from it, but it's easily forgettable.

I will say that the promo animation is *VERY* nice.

This is a good looking game but they give you no directions on how to play whatsoever. In ten seconds the stupid game is over and I've lost. Is this the bst we can do? Don't waste your money on this game

I want to like this game, however, it keeps crashing. I'm running Windows 10 and 100s of other PC games without issue, but this one won't let me get past a couple levels with a crash and I cannot change any of the Video or Sound settings without crash. Let's see if they bring out an update to fix, I have sent multiple crash reports.

I think this game has potential and should be supported. I wish there were more action TD games on the market. I think what would make this gane even better is RPG elements or charater development because this portion of the game seems hollow the time being. I recommend this game for TD fans.

Devoloment team, kindly keep the updates coming to keep us consumers motivated.