When I was playing through the game originally this was the map where I feel like the challenge and fun really kicked in. The first few levels of course you write off as tutorial levels, and there were a few after that that were interesting, but this is the inflection point in terms of the game's difficulty. Going back through on Impossible I'd say I still feel the same way. It's a little unfortunate that it comes nearly halfway through the game, but it is what it is.
This level brings a lot of heat and forms a pretty decent challenge (especially if you're only using one hero). There's an intensity to it that has been lacking in Kingdom Rush games lately, but I'm hopeful that Ironhide has now rediscovered, if the Pirate Kings DLC is any indication.
The bottom lane is intended to force you into a hard decision - do you try to make two choke points, one early and one late, to try to stop the Nightmares from turning into Bound Nightmares? However the bottom lane is geared towards an artillery solution to begin with, which handles Bound Nightmares pretty well, so it's more effective to just go with a single late choke point.
Impressions
One thing I have to say about grades in this series that may be a bit of pointing out the obvious is the fact that I expect GPAs overall to be much lower in this series compared to any previous one. That's not because Alliance is necessarily harder overall, but since I'm doing it with one arm tied behind my back in trying to use a single hero at a time, things are just naturally going to be a lot more difficult.
With that preface, we can get on to an exciting milestone in this series - our first 'C's! Raelyn, Torres, and Grimson really struggle here, and the reasons should be fairly obvious. Raelyn's slow movement speed, coupled with her lack of AoE capability, make it hard to deal with the hordes. Only her strong 1 on 1 skills against the tougher enemies save her from 'D' territory. This is also I believe the first time when I found myself considering when to use a hero spell based on getting the Ominous Curse effect as opposed to just the spell itself.
Torres joins Raelyn in the slow as molasses club, making it very hard for him to lane dance as needed in the early waves. His poor DPS also means that sometimes he's late to the party - still trying to help wrap up one lane when he really needs to be making his way to the other one already. Thankfully his hero spell is pretty clutch as an AoE damage solution.
As for Grimson, while his high mobility is certainly welcome compared to the other two, his lowish DPS coupled with difficulty tanking the hardest enemies mean that he's just not contributing as much as you ideally need your hero to on a stage like this. While his hero spell is nice in providing AoE damage, it's also a bit tricky to use and guarantee you get the enemies you want to get.
As for the others, Vesper, Nyru, and shockingly Anya earn 'B's. Again there's just a bit too much work involved with them that prevents the smoothness we look for in an 'A' grade. I'm really disappointed about Anya. I love her character design and her kit, but the growing feeling I've been having is that her overall DPS is just a little too undertuned for her to come out as a top-tier hero when all is said and done. Her performance here is a sad confirmation that I'm on the right track in my assessment.
Final Grades
- Vesper - B
- Raelyn - C
- Nyru - B
- Torres - C
- Anya - B
- Grimson - C
- Broden - A
- Therien - A
- Onagro - A
- Warhead - A
- Lumenir - A
- Kosmyr - A
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