Vellocet_NZ

A great - and much-needed - step forward for the series. Previous versions have essentially been sniping simulators (in the same way that Goat Simulator doesn't actually simulate the life ****) - once you got past the trick shots, collectibles were one of the only things that kept the gameplay from becoming very "rinse and repeat". This time round, they've overlaid actual game elements and a more free-form approach to gameplay, even if it still tunnels you from objective to objective. This gives you a greater feeling of agency over your character - when you clear a room, it's not just, "Wow, I made an awesome shot". It's also, "Wow, that was quite cool how I approached that field full of enemies". It's not a detailed or authentic MilSim, featuring only a few "real world" conventions applied in a way that's typical of modern gaming - bullet drop, scope shake, breath holding. It's not going to be for everybody, but it's a big advancement for the series, and doesn't feel "lazy" or like a proof of concept like the previous versions sometimes did.

It can be hard to give just one rating to games that are in a divisive genre - in this case, tower defence games. If you've ever been confused about what it is people enjoy about stopping an inexorable flow of monsters using tower blocks, stop reading now - this game is a paragon of that genre, doing nothing much new, and it's highly unlikely that Fieldrunners 2 will change your mind. However, if you're receptive to TDs, this is definitely one of the best. It's polished to a fine sheen. The balance - that intangible thing that sets the good TDs aside from the great ones - is there. There's very little trace of its legacy on mobile platforms - the graphics are perfectly crisp at 1920x1080 and are colourful and well-animated. Obviously, you won't get Skyrim's sweeping panoramas on a series of one-screen maps, but it does what it needs to very attractively. The interface almost seems designed from scratch for PC (apart from a few very minor ****, like the Esc button being "quit the game" rather than "deselect selected, or load the menu screen" which seems to be the PC default). On the downside, there's a very limited persistent upgrade system (ie gear you buy between rounds with cash you earn from beating levels). This is something many other TDs and games do, and it's something I personally miss. However, you probably know whether this is equally important to you or not. Overall, it's definitely worth the purchase, and given the choice, I'd rather play it on a PC than on either a tablet or a mobile. And I suspect for many purchasers, that will be one of the major questions they'll be considering. At the end of the day, it can't get a 10 - it's not perfect, especially when the gameplay itself is somewhat limited compared to more complex games on the market currrently. But if you've tried and liked TDs in the past, definitely try this one.

Tons of promise, shame it went the way it did. Well ahead of its time, both in terms of appeal to the audience and the technology and systems to run it properly.