OTTTD
Review
Over the Top Tower Defence
by William Thompson
reviewed on PC
Sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads
I did test out each of the characters though, and each has their particular value. Their usefulness often depended on the attacking enemy though. Foes range from speedy, but lightly armoured fish, to heavily armoured, slow moving tank turtles. There are some hilarious nods to pop-culture with some of the crazy enemies. Sharks with laser beams attached to their heads and walking severed hands (like Thing from The Addams Family) are just a couple. Other standard enemies include zombies, giant teddy bears, helicopter crabs and motorcycle riding squids and each have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Great Boss battles
A number of the campaign levels contain Boss characters. In these missions, gamers don’t actually have to complete all the waves of enemies, but simply defeat the bosses. Easier said than done though, as they are usually more heavily armoured than the standard enemies, and can pack quite a punch, often disabling the towers until you repair them again. The Kraken was particularly tough, as its tentacles would appear from various water holes and damage the nearest tower quite quickly.
There are actually two game modes in OTTTD - the 25 mission campaign and the five Endless mode games. The Campaign requires gamers to defend their headquarters against certain opponents over a set number of waves of enemies. As long as the headquarters survives the onslaught, the mission is completed. Having less damage to the headquarters earns a greater score and can give a maximum of three stars for each mission. The Endless mode places you on a particular map and then continues to send wave after wave of foes until your headquarters is finally destroyed. The more waves that you survive, the greater the score.
Visuals
OTTTD has a cartoonish look about it, made more comical by the variation of weird and wacky enemy invaders. The settings are bright and colourful, further adding to the cartoon feel. As enemies are destroyed they explode leaving bones and gore all over the landscape. Eventually, as the level progresses and more and more waves of enemies are destroyed, the ground becomes completely covered with viscera. This definitely looks cool, but it often completely covers the paths that the invaders follow. Towers and enemies variations are easy to distinguish luckily, and the interface is clear to read. All the important details are simple to find, making for an enjoyable experience.
It is not just the visuals that have a comedic touch. The hero characters come out with some hilarious one liners that had me chuckling to myself. The voice acting is actually pretty cool, with Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonations amongst others. The hilarity continues when you read through some of the weapon descriptions and mission briefings and de-briefings.
Conclusion
Tower defence games are a dime a dozen, but I found myself playing OTTTD for hours on end as I moved through the levels. The difficulty is set about right, with the early levels simple, whilst the later levels being fiendish tough. And even when completed there is always the opportunity to play through again and gain the full three stars available for each mission. The colourful visuals compliment the voice acting perfectly, setting a humorous tone. With the seven playable characters and the variation in towers, there is plenty of replay value - well, until you finally complete each level with three stars. But up to that point OTTTD is a heap of fun and worth checking out.
8.3
fun score
Pros
Colourful, funny, easy to play
Cons
After you get past the game with three stars on each level, there's not much else to do
