I didn't expected much, not only game costs less than a dollar, but also in full 3D. Boy, i was so wrong! Not only Axon delivered inredible quality for early access title, but also can be called THE BEST tower defense of whole genre - and thats coming from person with hundreds of reviews with like 95% of them negative. Now why was i so impressed? First of all, very fast, non-hand-holding tutorial allowing you to gasp game scale and try all mechanics to figure if you should spend time on it. UI is clean, everything is easy to controll. No bugs, crashes, freezes or errors found.

The things that immediately bought me is ability to fully determine enemy path: you can place ground tiles to reach new areas or create some yourself. After beating wave there are few bonus choices - to take extra money or get more terraforming means. Freedom is everywhere in this game. You choose towers placements freely, not in predetermined spots like cheap Tower Defense games do. There are 32 towers / traps (yes, traps included) and each can be upgraded into three VERY different variants. For example, AoE tower can spread virus among enemies so they explode upon death OR install +40% slowdon instead. Yes there are some basic upgrades as well like +range, but most of the time they still come with extra unique benefit.


Just like in any Tower Defense you kill monsters that come from spawn portal and trying to reach the end portal, but, you have several technologies to reshape entire world. Including ability to move exit point and place free-$ barriers, also able to sell placed towers for 100% price to make sweet rearrangements later. Monsters split into basic types, pretty much what "Defense Grid 2" offers: runners, zergs in big numbers, tanks, healers, shielders etc. Nothing special, but enough to get you entertained. Finishing campaign mode grants permanent technology point for unlocks in research tree and tower points for towers upgrades tree (new defenses unlocked for free as you progress). Before starting level you can freely choose 8 towers and 'spells' to add to roster.


So, i am comparing Axon TD to HUNDREDS of other TD's, including some hugest things like Orcs Must Die, Gemcraft, King's Bounty, Dungeon of the Endless and Primeworld Defenders 2. And yes, ability to change terrain and fully create path for enemies is very rare; i suspect devs took inspiration from "Variables" — an asian TD with biggest terraforming feature ever created for TD genre. So, Axon isn't bringing something new, but delivers much required features. Varietty of game modes is another reason to give it ago, things like co-op and rogue runs are present in less than 1% of TD's.

There are also quality of life features ALREADY in place, despite being EA, like codex book with tower and enemies descreptions. Also each tower shows full stats, so player can read and figure out what is going on and plan strategy accordingly. RNG is not a factor here which i like a lot, no annoying booster packs or hidden PTW mechanics. And it has a story on top of everything, without stretched hours of bla-bla-bla dialogues - straight to the point.


That is absolutely "yes, go buy now", i can't imagine better investment into early access title and this game looks like the most interesting project among all shown in recent event ("small dev teams" or something like that) where i found it. Since there aren't much content yet you can get it for almost free, but i can clearly see this one will be successful and turn into real huge monstrocity. Well done, devs!

[h1]First impressions[/h1] I didn't expected much, not only game costs less than a dollar, but also in full 3D. Boy, i was so wrong! Not only Axon delivered inredible quality for early access title, but also can be called THE BEST tower defense of whole genre - and thats coming from person with hundreds of reviews with like 95% of them negative. Now why was i so impressed? First of all, very fast, non-hand-holding tutorial allowing you to gasp game scale and try all mechanics to figure if you should spend time on it. UI is clean, everything is easy to controll. No bugs, crashes, freezes or errors found. The things that immediately bought me is ability to fully determine enemy path: you can place ground tiles to reach new areas or create some yourself. After beating wave there are few bonus choices - to take extra money or get more terraforming means. Freedom is everywhere in this game. You choose towers placements freely, not in predetermined spots like cheap Tower Defense games do. There are 32 towers / traps (yes, traps included) and each can be upgraded into three VERY different variants. For example, AoE tower can spread virus among enemies so they explode upon death OR install +40% slowdon instead. Yes there are some basic upgrades as well like +range, but most of the time they still come with extra unique benefit. [h1]Gameplay loop[/h1] Just like in any Tower Defense you kill monsters that come from spawn portal and trying to reach the end portal, but, you have several technologies to reshape entire world. Including ability to move exit point and place free-$ barriers, also able to sell placed towers for 100% price to make sweet rearrangements later. Monsters split into basic types, pretty much what "Defense Grid 2" offers: runners, zergs in big numbers, tanks, healers, shielders etc. Nothing special, but enough to get you entertained. Finishing campaign mode grants permanent technology point for unlocks in research tree and tower points for towers upgrades tree (new defenses unlocked for free as you progress). Before starting level you can freely choose 8 towers and 'spells' to add to roster. [h1]Unique features[/h1] So, i am comparing Axon TD to HUNDREDS of other TD's, including some hugest things like Orcs Must Die, Gemcraft, King's Bounty, Dungeon of the Endless and Primeworld Defenders 2. And yes, ability to change terrain and fully create path for enemies is very rare; i suspect devs took inspiration from "Variables" — an asian TD with biggest terraforming feature ever created for TD genre. So, Axon isn't bringing something new, but delivers much required features. Varietty of game modes is another reason to give it ago, things like co-op and rogue runs are present in less than 1% of TD's. There are also quality of life features ALREADY in place, despite being EA, like codex book with tower and enemies descreptions. Also each tower shows full stats, so player can read and figure out what is going on and plan strategy accordingly. RNG is not a factor here which i like a lot, no annoying booster packs or hidden PTW mechanics. And it has a story on top of everything, without stretched hours of bla-bla-bla dialogues - straight to the point. [h1]Verdict[/h1] That is absolutely "yes, go buy now", i can't imagine better investment into early access title and this game looks like the most interesting project among all shown in recent event ("small dev teams" or something like that) where i found it. Since there aren't much content yet you can get it for almost free, but i can clearly see this one will be successful and turn into real huge monstrocity. Well done, devs!