As someone who grew up playing a LOT of tower defence/base defence flash games on school computers, you could say that I have somewhat of an affinity for the genre. Be it rose-tinted nostalgia or the fact that I poured hours upon hours into games like Bloons and Defend Your Castle, there’s something about them that I just can’t put down. So what happens when you take city building and tower defence and smoosh them together with some wonderful visuals? Thronefall, that’s what happens.
Thronefall is a delightful strategy game that sees you take control of a ruler that must defend their lands from overwhelming hoards of baddies that want to destroy everything and anything that you build. Unfortunately for them, you’re not going down without a fight! You can dish out damage or build towers and let your minions do said damage for you, whichever you prefer. As of October last year, the game launched into 1.0, adding new levels, weapons and a host of quality of life changes that enhanced an already fantastic experience.
You’ll have to adapt and build your structures accordingly though, as each wave has different kinds of enemies that will provide different challenges or quirks that mean they’ll have to be closely monitored or taken care of relatively quickly, as you’d be surprised at how fast a fight can go from manageable to “Oh dear god how are there so many of them on this side I thought I was doing great?!”.
When you first load into the campaign map, you’ll notice that it’s been split up into segments that you’ll have to conquer in order to ‘beat’ the game. There’s 10 levels in total, with each of them having a different and unique environment for you to build up a little kingdom in. Each level gets progressively more challenging than the last, at least in my experience, so you’ll have to invent new strategies as you go. There’s technically 11 levels if you count the endless option on the map (with it being aptly referred to as ‘Eternal Trials’) but seeing as that’s essentially an endless wave level it’s more of a bonus option for avid defenders to see how long they can survive the nights.
There are two ‘phases’, with those being day and night respectively. During the day, you’ll be using any gold pieces that you’ve either earned by slaying monsters or by having sources of passive income in your town to buy new structures that will either help you defend and night or ones that will generate you more gold to use. I found that it’s good to have a healthy balance of both economic and defensive structures, leaning more into resource production early on so that you’re prepared for buying beefier upgrades for later nights.
Thronefall prides itself on being a ‘strategy game without the headache’ and I have to say that it lives up to this promise wholeheartedly. The level of complexity is simple by design, and it’s the kind of game that you can easily master the more that you bash through each level. I’d say there’s some micromanagement, as is customary for a strategy game after all, but it’s not exactly going to leave you feeling overwhelmed as most of the time, a lot of your base defences are running on autopilot and you’re there simply to lend a hand.
For those who might want a little more of a challenge though, there’s an absolute abundance of different perks, modifiers and challenges provided with each level that you beat, ensuring that completionists are satisfied to their heart’s content. When I say abundance, I mean it, I didn’t quite realise how many were in the game until I completed the tutorial and opened up the first level screen to select my starting perks. There are 54 perks in total, along with 18 supplementary modifiers that affect how strong the enemies you face will be. They are all extremely unique, with no perk offering a buff close to the one next to it. This, for me, led to a lot of situations where I was booting up old levels to essentially ‘buildcraft’ which perks I felt would be the best ones to use for later levels.
Alongside these perks and modifiers, you’re granted access to a couple of different weapon options that mean you can either dump damage into enemies from range where it’s safe or live out your barbarian king fantasy and dive into a horde of grunts headfirst with a spear or sword. There’s a real hack and slash feeling and it’s how I think the game should be experienced personally, as the level of excitement and risk/reward that comes from engaging a large group of mobs by yourself to slow them down added a layer of extra peril.
To round things out I will essentially say this: Thronefall, for me at least, allows me to relive all those hours I spent in my computer lab in high school playing old school flash games and for that reason alone I would recommend it wholeheartedly for anyone who either has previous experience playing tower defence games or for someone who’s looking for a visually pleasing and mechanically solid strategy game that will surely keep you occupied for a grand old while.
Thronefall is available now for PC and Nintendo Switch.