This is a stranded tower defence game with a card collecting elements thrown in for towers and skill management. This mixup of genre works well here and offers a fun time as long as you can put up with a few annoyances. The story follows your band of treasure hunters who away from the wars in the mainland for the struggle of prime (the games universe’s main resource), hunt for resources and artefact while fighting off those infected by its powers.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very solid and is the main reason that I felt invested and interested during my playthrough. The main map acts as the level select, and also as the main command screen to manage your roster of cards and talents. Here you can upgrade your inventory through combining two or more cards, buy more cards from the currency and spend skill points on passive talents. The cards either represents a tower or a special magic ability that can be used in game. You may get special cards sometimes that are used to improve existing cards. Completing levels earns you both cards and currency with bonuses based on performance. Completing optional ingame challenges offer better rewards for some extra challenge.
Level design
The level design looks lazy on many ends, for eg: The edges of each level are just a blanket of fog. (Kind of like sweeping your house and hiding the dirt under the carpet.) The tile set of often repeated, and you find little variety amongst some of the different levels. Each new level is challenging and different enemy type make you change your strategy and tower lineup. Although you may find yourself grinding through some of these levels over and over to level up or find that perfect card to level up your favourite tower. The map is setup so that you can goto the main story mission or in one of the 3 side missions whose purpose is to allow farming so that you can prepare for the more difficult main mission. Grinding however is a chore that feels unsatisfactory because of the lack of challenge they provide. They seems to be put into place only for the sole purpose of grinding for gear like you were playing a free 2 play game. This artificially elongates the length of the game and introduces an unnecessary level of grind to the game making you hunt for those extra tower cards to strengthen your arsenal.
Graphics
The game looks old, pixelated and jarred with sharp edges and blurred textures. It there is anything that can benefit from a texture update pack this is it. The art style too is heavy on the eyes with either dull browns or over bright whites, starkly contrasting the hand drawn look of the main map and tower cards. Almost as if the game is trying to compensate for something, like a smaller screen of your portable device. The animation on the towers and enemies is passable at best, on the other hand the variety of enemies and the mixed strategy needed to pass them is good.
Audio
The audio is laughable with uninteresting music not able to match up to the sound effects of the gameplay. The sound effect though uninteresting are very clear and informative of what’s going on in the game giving you incentive to keep them on while playing. Although you may find yourself turning the ingame music off for some of your tunes in the background.
Conclusion
Prime world defenders is a tower defence game with solid gameplay and mechanic with a decent price tag and story. It lacks clarity in its identity, with a lacklustre pc build that feels like a port for an iPad game and a two tier currency system that serves no purpose. Prime World: Defenders has some good ideas, but the execution is lacking. You get a lot of game for the price. Collectible card system provides a unique experience for the expansion of the range of towers available and the choice of which towers to focus for upgrades.
PS : At the time of writing the game is on Sale at steam, Making it an very worthwhile purchase for $10 (Rs 600 approx)
