Entertaining but lacks proper balance in difficulty modes
This game is not much different from other tower defense games when it comes to the basic gameplay.
Players have a base to defend(cows), artillery to defend with(barrel turrets, fireworks, ice machine and more) and a spawn point of enemies(Martians).
The difference can be noticed once players begin advancing through levels, the various items they receive and enemies they encounter make this game very interesting and fun to play.
Players are required to protect Barney's cows. Barney is a talking outhouse who is terrified of Martians and he asks the player to help him keep his cows safe.
The main currency of the game are cogs. Cogs are used to buy and sell items. You are given a set amount of cogs before the beginning of the round but if you wish to produce more cogs and defend with a greater number of items, you must build a cog machine that will generate new cogs over a set amount of time. Players are given the information about the types of Martians that will invade the round and they have the ability to choose which items they want to use in that round according to the enemies.
During the round players are given a laser gun that can be used to render special abilities of Martians useless, inflict damage to them, boost the machines or destroy stacks of hay for cogs. Players have to be careful though, the gun can overheat and become useless for a short period of time if used too much.
Beware Planet Earth features 20 machines that can be used in different ways to overcome all types of enemies. There are over 20 types of Martians in the game that all have features specific to only them(Ninja's that turn into wooden blocks, Cleaning lady that uses a vacuum to make your day horrible, mad scientist with a protective aura and so on).
There are 46 levels spread through 4 seasons including 18 challenges along with 2 difficulty modes. We must not forget most needed achievements. Players can gather 27 of those.
Only considerable downside of the game would be the huge imbalance between normal and veteran mode. Normal mode is incredibly easy and gets relatively boring fast while Veteran is ridiculously difficult and requires a huge amount of multitasking and planning(and retrying) to complete. I believe there should have been an additional mode in between that would perfectly balance the game for all players.
There aren't many options in game, you can change sound volumes and toggle fullscreen and veteran mode but then again this is a 2D tower defense game.
The interface and animations are very kind to the eyes and they would be most accepted within the younger gaming population, Sounds and textual messages are humorous and once again point that this game is most suitable for children. Killing Martians isn't exactly how I would educate children about outer space beings but who knows, maybe that is a good idea.
Experienced tower defense players may find the normal mode boring and tedious while the Veteran mode will test their skills to the max.
Lightmare Studio's debut title is definitely worth 10 bucks in case you have a child that may want to murder Martians, you are a noob at tower defense games or you are a pro wanting to challenge yourself and die a billion times playing in Veteran mode.
Written by Petard
www.petardia.com