Starcraft II Arcade Reviews: Prototype Tower Defense

Starcraft II is the sequel to the incredibly popular Starcraft.  It was released in 2010.  It is an RTS (Real Time Strategy) game that is one of the best known in the world.  What a lot of people who don’t play the game don’t know is that it contains an arcade area where people can create their own games and put them up for others to play.  This of course, leads to a lot of interesting games and a lot of fun.  A game that drew a lot of inspiration from Squadron Tower Defense is Prototype Tower Defense.

Prototype Tower Defense follows the same concept as STD, except that it adds a lot more to the formula.  It still pits four players against four others.  Every round each player is attacked by creeps and they try to hold these back using their towers.  If any creeps get through then they head towards that player’s king, just like in STD.

Unlike in STD, the towers that survive the creep wave can do one of four things.  They can warp to the top of the screen, which is where players build tug of war structures using battle points, which are earned by getting kills using the turrets in front of the king as well as tug of war units and your towers that warp up to the top.  After crossing the top, towers and tug of war units will warp in front of the enemy king.  The surviving towers can also warp to the bottom of the screen, where they will fight with the  prototype assassins.  These can also be upgraded.  The winning side of this battle will warp behind the enemy king.  Towers can also warp in front of the players king for defense.  The final tactic is to turn the towers into sends, which will attack the enemy with the wave of creeps.

Prototype Tower Defense can be incredibly overwhelming, especially for beginning players.  There are so many different structures and areas that the players have to keep track of.  This game is definitely not for someone who has a hard time dealing with a lot of things going on at once.  If you aren’t fast enough, you won’t be able to keep up with your builds and you will drag your team down.

Most everything in PTD has a separate resource for it.  Vespene is used to build sends, though now there are multiple kinds of sends, such as ambush sends.  Battle Points look like a star and are used to build tug of war structures and upgrade turrets.  The last resource, which looks like a heart, is used to upgrade the prototype assassin.  Minerals are used to build and upgrade turrets, as well as upgrading your economy, just like in STD.

If you can figure out how all of the game mechanics work, Prototype Tower Defense is a lot of fun.  It constantly keeps the player engaged and it is incredibly rewarding when you win.  It really does make for an epic game experience.  It seems like an entire war going on when you get to higher levels, and it is fun just to watch, much less play.

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