Challenging Defense Game
Though really there's only one stage, the different levels are all focused around difficulty. I've met my match in Stage...err...Difficulty 3, though I know if I had the patience I could see it through. Seems that Difficulty 4 would really kick my ass, though, but it all seems to gravitate to enemy rush's having access to more advanced units way before you do.
The rate at which currency is produced is thicker than a backwoods swamp, and I find myself prioritizing Salvage Yards before advancing to the Farmhouse. Those sprinting spitters cut through shovel guys like nobody's business, and for a projectile character, our Farmboys are kinda underpowered. Sure, they mow through the normal zombies perfectly when grouped, but if it takes two Farmboys to advance through a steady stream of zombies with $400 ($200 each), it would be a better investment just to wait a bit and spend $500 on another Salvage Yard. Then you can pump out a greater rate of units, save if you have enough Trailer Parks...but in the harder difficulties you're so thoroughly swamped with early Hunters and Spitters that you have no choice but to kind of dangle by a thread with a weak stream of Shovels. By the time that Tank breaches through your underdeveloped army, you're sunk.
As you can tell, it's easy to get into the game. The music is nice, the graphics are nice, and although the character sprites are tiny as hell, it allows a much broader view of the battlefield...which looks good, mind you...I just have a problem with the same stage being called different stages. You could say, from the sky background, that it's indicative of different times of day. Okay, so if the "Easy" mode is storming over the bridge by morning. What do they do when they win? "Whoo Boy! That was fun! Yep, Clementine's family and forty others are dead, but we did it! Now let's go BACK over the bridge, TEAR DOWN everything we just built, and do it again...it's almost noon!"
...That's just stupid...I mean, they ARE trailer hicks, but come on. How about some varied scenery? THEN you can call them different stages. You got the bridge. Then you go into the city. From there? Who knows, get creative.
If it weren't for those Yeehaw abilities, I probably wouldn't have won at all with the sluggish rate of income, and even at some points, Trailer Park restrictions. It was an effective means of balancing out the steep and powerful output of incoming zombies. I had the biggest battle with the first stage as the zombies wheeled out a mighty catapult. It surprises me that the walking dead have an understanding of historical warfare and engineering...lol
But despite the balance issues in the ending half of Stages...err..."Difficulties", and the unclear rate of accumulating Yeehaw points, this was a really fun take on the Attack & Defend castle games. Being a fan of Left 4 Dead, Zombie films, and being a Texan that laughs at the expense of rednecks, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this. Because I have yet to win completely, I'll come back to it, so there's a plus for replayability.
The points off are for having to play the same stage over and over again, because it ruins the illusion of progression...it's just hundreds of trailer trash dying over this one bridge repeatedly, and they don't even get to keep their structures...so it makes little sense. I have no problem with the challenge, just so long as it's immersive.
Still Voted 5. I hope you're working on a sequel! :D