The APPera

What happens when you take the original geoDefense and remove the walkpaths ala Fieldrunners?… GENIUS!

geoDefense Swarm ($0.99)

I have had the privilege try this game out over the past few weeks and I have to say that I am impressed. Much like the original Geo Defense, GD Swarm is a great TD game with lots of fast action.

It maintains EVERYTHING that we loved about the original. Now without a prebuilt track, the games get crazier, harder and wilder. This TD is one for the ages!

Presentation

This game has a beautiful presentation with bright colors and a very retro (vector graphics) look to it. The maps are easy to see with its black background and green hexagons, which become the basis of your tower building. Throughout the game there are lots of “fireworks” that go off when you die or kill a creep. It may obstruct your view for a bit (and add a bit of additional difficulty to the game), but it makes for a very colorful screen!

Literally, this game is just too beautiful to look at from any angle. As they say in the modeling world, this game has no 10/10 “profile”, it’s perfect from top to bottom.

Controls/Audio

I love iPhone games because no matter what, you are using your your fingers to play the game. I think this adds so much to the experience of the play. This game is all touch based as your place the towers with your fingers and upgrade them same way. Very simple and I believe that it makes the most sense for TD games.

I’d like to talk a little about the audio as well for Swarm. I rarely listen to the audio on games because I prefer to listen to my own music when playing, however for both Geo Defense games, I actually enjoy listening to the audio while listening to my music. It reminds me of a shooting game, with laser-like sounds when a creep is killed or gets to the exit. It doesn’t disrupt my music much because there’s no music in it, just sounds. Very rarely do I turn the audio off on this game!

Game Play

If you are unfamiliar with tower defense games, this one is a good cross between two different kinds. The first type is where you build your own route, using towers that you purchase throughout the game, for the creeps to follow. The other is where there is a defined path that the creeps follow and you have to build your creeps along that path. For all of the levels on Swarm, you can place your towers wherever you want, however most of the levels have different obstacles/blocks that you have to build around, making for a unique combination of the two types. The goal is to kill all of the creeps before they get to the exit.

In Swarm there are many different types of towers for you to choose from. When you begin, you only get the option of the Blaster Tower, but as you move though the levels, you get access to the Laser Tower, the Thump Tower, the Missile Tower, the Shock Tower, and the Vortex Tower. Each has a unique way of killing the creeps and should be used appropriately. The Thump Tower is a new tower to Swarm and can be used to kill multiple creeps at once with its power decreasing ability. My favorite tower is the Laser Tower because it can kill so many creeps at once and it has the ability to be locked if you want to force it to only shoot at a certain position.

Swarm has so many unique qualities to it which sets it apart as it enters an already saturated TD market in the app store. With 30 levels of all different maps, it is easy to get sucked in. The maps have different obstacles in it like speed “bumps” which doubles the speed of the creeps as well as power “bumps” which restores creeps with power, making them even tougher to kill. These unique features, along with the many others within the game, make it a game to come back to, time and time again.

OpenFeint

Swarm is one of the many games that takes advantage of the OpenFeint software. Once you have completed a level you have the option to tweet you accomplishment on Twitter. It’s nice to be able to go on and see who else is playing Swarm so that if I need suggestions for a map, I can ask my friends who are playing it as well.

Suggestions

Geo Defense Swarm is a well put together game with little room for improvement. I would only suggest the additional accomplishments are integrated into OpenFeint so that I can work on beating all of my friends top scores!

This game is REALLY challenging. The easy levels alone take a lot of time and repetition to complete. I wished that there were more easy levels since I can’t even get past the Normal mode.

I hope they can change the difficulty to have all three difficulty maps condensed into one with difficulty altered by how many creeps pass per round. Say for EASY maybe have 5 creeps and for experts, 15. This makes the game much more playable for less competent players.

Conclusion

I have had such a great time playing this game. It is one of those games that makes me come back time and time again, trying to beat levels that I haven’t yet and topping my own best scores. For $0.99, this game is a steal and if you haven’t picked it up, you need to now. You will NOT be disappointed!

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