Hydraulic Empire is a good tower defense game, and it's also a big mess.

It's hard to get beyond the first bad impression. The presentation is terrible. Lack of Menus, Lack of tutorials, Royalty free Elevator Music, Poor Graphics, everything has "Mobile port" written all over.

And that said, if you manage to get beyond your initial reaction and start playing, you will notice it's actually a very competent hex tile based tower defense game.

The gameplay is spot on. There is no major innovation in the system and the stages and enemies are just varied enough, but the mechanics are solid and the challenge level is just about right.

Be warned that there is a serious difficulty spike for the last few missions, but it's not impossible. To be frank I found the balance perfect. You will not succeed if you try the same things over and over again and just sit back and grind, like a lot of other tower defense game out there.
Hydraulic Empire encourages trying different tactics out after you fail.

But you must get past your first impression. Boy this game is shoddy! The controls can get fiddly when the map is cluttered, and so can finding your hero be. There are even some upgrade menus that are never explained, you just find them by clicking around random stuff and wonder what in the hell you've just opened and what it does.

If you can live with these issues, and know your way around TD games, you won't be dissapointed.

Oh, by the way, I cannot quit the game, only way is to shut it via target manager every time...

[h1] Competent but Underpolished[/h1] Hydraulic Empire is a good tower defense game, and it's also a big mess. It's hard to get beyond the first bad impression. The presentation is terrible. Lack of Menus, Lack of tutorials, Royalty free Elevator Music, Poor Graphics, everything has "Mobile port" written all over. And that said, if you manage to get beyond your initial reaction and start playing, you will notice it's actually a very competent hex tile based tower defense game. The gameplay is spot on. There is no major innovation in the system and the stages and enemies are just varied enough, but the mechanics are solid and the challenge level is just about right. Be warned that there is a serious difficulty spike for the last few missions, but it's not impossible. To be frank I found the balance perfect. You will not succeed if you try the same things over and over again and just sit back and grind, like a lot of other tower defense game out there. Hydraulic Empire encourages trying different tactics out after you fail. But you must get past your first impression. Boy this game is shoddy! The controls can get fiddly when the map is cluttered, and so can finding your hero be. There are even some upgrade menus that are never explained, you just find them by clicking around random stuff and wonder what in the hell you've just opened and what it does. If you can live with these issues, and know your way around TD games, you won't be dissapointed. Oh, by the way, I cannot quit the game, only way is to shut it via target manager every time...