Revenge of the Titans is a 2D tower defense game with RTS elements developed by London-based studio Puppy Games. As in all tower defense games, your goal is to halt the oncoming horde of enemies by strategically placing defensive towers that destroy them. In this case, humanity is being attacked by aliens coming from Saturn’s largest moon Titan.
The campaign spans 50 missions across 5 locations (Earth, The Moon, Mars, Saturn and Titan). After you’re done with the 10-hour campaign, you can spend more time with the game in the Endless, Survival and Sandbox modes. There’s a good amount of content here. If you’ve played a classic tower defense game, Revenge of the Titans will feel pretty familiar. However, what separates this game from the usual suspects are the subtle yet profound base building and resource gathering elements found in traditional RTS games.
Every map starts with just your base which you have to protect from the Titans. Then you have to build factories that mine crystals in order to make money to be able to purchase other buildings and towers. You also have additional buildings at your disposal such as shield generators, cloaking devices, reloaders, etc. All of these can be unlocked over time in the research screen before every mission. After completing each mission you are awarded with a single research point. Apart from buildings and towers, you can research technological advancements which bring their own benefits to the table. The great thing about the research system is that you can re-spec the entire system before each mission. This enables you to try out different tactics and you will need certain towers and abilities when facing a particular enemy.
Enemies come in a pretty large variety of shapes and sizes and certain missions also throw huge bosses at you which can be very challenging. Certain towers are good for certain enemies, that’s where the research screen comes into play. You need to pay attention as to what types of enemies are coming so that you can choose the appropriate towers and technologies otherwise you’ll have a pretty hard time finishing a mission.
The game will also randomly distribute power ups and cash bonuses during missions which you will need to manually pick up on the map within a limited time frame. There’s also a tower that needs to be used against a certain enemy that you have to manually control. Coupled with the base/add-on/tower building, the situation can get pretty hectic at times and certain elements such as the power up pick ups simply come off as an artificial way to increase the action. It impeded on the strategic element and just feels needlessly overbearing.
That said, Revenge of the Titans nails the addictive and tactical core that makes tower defense games so satisfying. And with the RTS twist, it manages to differentiate itself which is really important as the genre is becoming increasingly crowded. It’s a good title for newcomers and veterans alike.