As I say, the unit types don't fall far from the standard tower defence tree, but that's a positive: it entails snap judgements and understanding of what you're dealing with. Presentation-wise, it's superficially charming, all teeny cartoon men who look for all the world like Team Fortress characters in the Super deformed style, assisted by tanks and planes. There aren't that many maps, but somehow the cleverness, twinned with the work done on animation and sound, makes it feel dramatically bigger than any other TD game I've played. It's a subtle distinction - and perhaps not an especially novel one - but it works in the game's favour, encouraging real analysis of each new level rather than a mere girding for the stiffened challenge ahead. It's surprisingly rare to encounter the open map with a start and end(s) which typifies tower defence, and much more about solving a more specific logic puzzle. Or the Fieldrunners must be guided onto vents which lie over fiery pits, all the better to slowly roast the dumb little men with. So, bridges placed apparently at random somewhere in the middle of the map must have turrets built around them in such a way that, after crossing them, the titular cloned army-men loop around and then under them, thus ensuring they are peppered by your static gunfire for a couple more precious seconds. These are, usually with some degree of flexibility, train sets which must be constructed in particular patterns if your toy locomotive is not to tumble off the side and onto the dusty doom of the carpet below. So the distinctively Fieldrunners 2 aspect comes from the presentation - more on which shortly - and a clear focus on treating the maps as puzzles rather than simply escalating unit numbers or toughness as the game wears on.
FIELDRUNNERS 2 THE FRYING PAN STRATEGY MODS
stuff like damage and slow), but the basic formula, as laid down by Warcraft III mods a million years ago, remains. Yes, there are less well-trodden roads in there, and particularly if you get into the business of unlocking the farthest branches of the tech tree you'll wind up with hybrids (i.e. Which makes it an oddly complicated game to describe, as I can't sit here reeling off features and judging mechanics or saying 'and wait until you see the hyper-splat piss-dragon unit!'You put down turrets, and the most familiar archetypes turrets at that: gatling for basic damage and wall-building, glue to slow down the infernal march, rockets for area damage, flame for damage over time. Kill little dumb men, earn money for more towers. but with a twist!' and instead tries to do the absolute maximum it can with that absolutely minimal concept: FR2 consciously dispenses with all the gimmicks and inversions and oddball features we see listed in so many games heralded by claims such as 'tower defence. Rather more importantly - because I've just spent far too many words saying 'it's quite difficult sometimes' - it is a classical tower defence game with absolutely no shame about being a classic tower defence game. It's a game that looks for all the world like it should be treating me with infinite compassion and kindness (not from love, but from 'don't spook the strategy virgins' business nous), but no, it has far darker intentions.
Admittedly, more taxing tower defence games do exist - abound, even - but it's the disparity between FR2's oh-so-casual appearance and how demanding it becomes at times that addles me so. Why dumb little men go down when I place tower that should make dumb little men go up? Why dumb little men walk under bridge bristling, with machineguns not over it? Why, dumb little men, why?įieldrunners 2 has the blandly calming face of smiling Disney clown and the fiendish brain of Mirror Universe-Einstein. All dumb little men do is march forward in dumb straight line but me am too dumb to kill them.
FIELDRUNNERS 2 THE FRYING PAN STRATEGY PC
Is this game of marching men, upgradeable turrets and maze-building as perfunctory as the PC adaptation of its predecessor? Is it as gloriously silly as it looks? Is seeing a picture of a little guy with his face covered by his oversized helmet still funny the five hundredth time around? March onwards to find out. Fieldrunners 2 is a classical tower defence game, originally for iPhones and iPads and now converted to PC.
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