Thronefall Review
Thronefall, currently in the late stages of Early Access on steam, is a simple yet deeply enjoyable game. The game sees you, the king, build new structures during the day and fight off waves of enemies during the night. With multiple perks, weapons and challenge settings, Thronefall has high replay value and is well worth picking up.
If you’ve played any of the Kingdoms games the formula and controls will be familiar. During the day you spend your limited number of coins adding new walls, towers or barracks to spawn units. Days last until you choose to end them so there is no time pressure to contend with. Each night, a fixed set of enemies attempt to destroy your castle, entering from one of multiple entry points on the map. Through towers, units and your own weapons you fend off these waves as best you can.
The game has six standard levels which feature a set map and set waves of enemies. You can up the difficulty by turning on additional mutators which buff enemies or restrict your resources. There’s also a set of challenge scenarios and an endless mode. Endless mode has you progress through a set of increasingly difficult scenarios, keeping the perks you unlock in each one. Given the buildings in the game have a fixed and limited set of upgrades, this provides a fun and difficult challenge that has kept me coming back for more.
The visuals of the game are simple but very fit for purpose. Enemies are a distinctive red, your units a clear blue. The screen can get crowded but there’s never a feeling of being lost or overwhelmed with what you’re seeing. The music in the game is likewise simple but very well executed. I find myself occasionally humming some of the level soundtracks after I finish a game.
Given that the game is in early access it does have some minor issues. Mostly these are around balance and small polish to quality of life. Depending on the set of perks you pick, a level may be near impossible or a complete breeze. After a while I found myself using the same five perks in almost every standard level without much need to change. Recent patches have tweaked these perks so I am confident the final release version will have a more balanced set of options.
The control of your units can also be somewhat frustrating. Units are gathered and then placed by walking past them and selecting those close to the king. Often the process of finding some units, running to where you want them and placing them there meant it was easier to use the ‘select all units’ shortcut and just move them all at once. On top of that units sometimes make questionable targeting choices causing them to run from their set position towards distant enemies. Again, nothing game breaking but something I hope the developers tweak as the game gets ready for its full release.
Overall, if you're a fan of strategy and looking for something that is easy to pick up but full of interesting challenges this could be the game for you. Given the studio is only two people they have done a fantastic job and I look forward to seeing what they produce in the future.
Rating: 3/4 - I'd be happy if more games were like this.
Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/