By Ned Jordan
Tower defense games seem to be popping up everywhere these days, so it's no
surprise that the new PSP minis line of games gets its own version in the form
of Fieldrunners. Before I go any further, though, I need to point out to those
of you with an iPhone or iPod touch that this game first appeared on the Apple
App Store and that it can currently be had there at less than half the price of
the PSP version. However, before you Alt-Tab over to iTunes, you may want to
read on a little further.
Fieldrunners delivers the basics of a tower defense game. You get a stream of
enemies that enter from one end of the screen and head for the other and you're
given the goal of preventing them from doing so. The implement of your wrath
directed at those with the gall to attempt to run from one place to another is
an arsenal of tower types, each with its own special attack and effective range.
Gun, lightning, and laser towers direct their fire at individual enemies,
mortars can strike groups from a distance, flamethrowers will have enemies
burning for a short while, and ice and goo guns will slow enemies down so that
they spend more time in range of your other towers. Each of these towers can be
upgraded twice to increase their range and effectiveness, and you pay for
everything by earning money for the elimination of each enemy. If that alls
sounds pretty basic for a tower defense game it's because it is. You have three
basic classes of towers that upgrade in a simple fashion and a few basic enemy
types. That's pretty much it - no story, background, or anything of interest to
disguise the fact that you're simply placing nondescript towers to kill mindless
enemies simply for the sake of their killing.
Most of the levels in the game are wide open, allowing you to use your towers
to define the path that enemies must take through the level. At first this
sounds like it would lead to a lot of strategic options, but in practice it
quickly gets old. The biggest problem is that the limited number of enemy types
and their single-minded pursuit of their goal means that you can do almost
anything and still be successful. Making matters worse, you have to fend off 100
waves of enemies in a level and for most of that time you're not really doing
anything. You spend a lot of time just sitting there watching the next wave come
through, occasionally placing a new tower or upgrading an existing one. It grows
boring pretty quickly, and there were times when I got tired of watching the
game so I set it down and let it run on its own for a while. I don't know about
you, but I prefer games that can hold my interest for more than five minutes and
there are plenty of tower games out there that can do that.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
62%. Basically, it's too basic to be much fun.
