Get a drink, grab a snack, and take a deep breath, because we've got a lot to talk about.
The Kingdom Rush series is now five games long (not counting Legends, anyway). I have played every level in every single one of them (aside from the levels I haven't yet completed in Alliance). There have been many levels I have not cared for, for various reasons - because they were too easy, too tedious, I didn't care for the mob designs or wave compositions, etc. Of course sometimes it is because of the difficulty, but usually this is because - for me, at least - the difficulty landed on the frustrating end of the "fun challenge vs frustrating challenge" scale. But despite the fact there are many levels I do not particularly like, there has never been a level I hated.
Until now.
I hate this level. It's one of the worst designed levels in the entire franchise, and it has finally cemented my opinion on an issue I've been wavering on ever since starting Alliance. Why do I hate it? Because your entire build plan has to be completely centered on dealing with wave 8, which is the wave with the large number of Dust Cryptids.
Now I will say that I think Dust Cryptids are well designed as an enemy. In fact I think pretty much all the flying enemies in Alliance are well designed. In previous games most flying enemies are low HP mobs who are just there to keep you honest from doing an all-artillery build - as long as you build a few ranged or magic towers they are not a problem. The flying enemies in Alliance though are cut from a different cloth. For one, they tend to have significantly more HP than in previous games. Most flying enemies in previous games have 100 HP or less on the hardest difficulty, while Corrupted Stalkers have 200, and other mobs just go up from there.
But flying enemies in Alliance also come with gimmicks. Corrupted Stalkers teleport forward the first time you hit them, so you need multiple towers staggered along the path to make sure they get finished off. Tamed Stalkers introduced the concept of a flying tank to the franchise - a behemoth that requires significant planning to DPS down. Finally Void Blinkers try to stun your blockers at just the right time so other mobs can slip through.
And of course the aforementioned Dust Cryptids leave behind a temporary area when they are killed that prevents other mobs from taking damage. This is clever because it forces you to spread your anti-aircraft towers throughout the map to gradually take them down, as opposed to grouping them all near your choke points like normal - if two Cryptids are approaching an exit at the same time, killing the first will just leave a dust cloud that will cover the second, allowing it to escape.
And that brings us back to this map. Wave 8 consists of 2 groups of 10 Dust Cryptids coming out of two different entrances - the top right and the bottom center. This is already challenging, as there are few build points along the bottom of the map between the bottom center entrance and the lower left exit they head for. But at the same time multiple Specters come out of the mausoleum in the center, distracting a large number of nearby towers away from the Cryptids.
The result is that I had to literally design my entire build plan around dealing with this wave, which meant that after getting a bare minimum Eldritch Channeler up and running to try to deal with everything else beforehand, I then had to spam Royal Archers over the entire map to attempt to create a defense that could take all the Cryptids down. Even then it is very hard, and heroes who do not have a ranged attack or a hero spell that can damage flying enemies to help out (*cough*Raelyn*cough*) really struggle here.
This gets me back to the opinion I mentioned earlier that I've been wavering on since Alliance came out. A significant portion of the player base has complained about the flying enemies in the game. As for myself, I've been torn since the beginning as to whether I liked or disliked them, unable to make up my mind. After playing this level though I realize why I've been wavering. On the one hand I really like the design of the flying enemies as discussed above. On the other hand I've also felt they are overused in the game. Well this level takes "overused" and cranks it up to 11.
But it also made me realize that I do not like the flying enemies because they force me to rely on Royal Archers so much. Archers are just neither powerful nor interesting as a tower. Yes, Armor Piercer is a fairly powerful ability, but ultimately I just resent ever having to use this tower. But that's the problem - there just isn't a good free-on-mobile alternative to it. Ballista Outposts are the other free ranged tower, but they are worse in every way. Their unique firing pattern is prone to overkill and just plain letting flying mobs slip through in between bursts. There aren't any magic towers that can do a better job either. Like Ballistas, Arcane Wizards waste too much DPS on overkill with their slow firing pattern. Arborean Emissaries have the kind of fast attack needed for flying enemies, but they are a support tower and can't get the job done by themselves. And finally Eldritch Channelers are awesome and can usually deal with flying waves (at least with Power Overflow), but they're so expensive to get going they're usually dedicated to your choke point and will be occupied with other mobs there when flying enemies come through.
This is another difference from previous games - in previous games flying enemies tended to appear in waves by themselves. They were the aforementioned "build check" to make sure you weren't just building choke points with nothing but barracks and artillery. But in Alliance flying enemies are much more commonly mixed in with other non-flying enemies, such that your choke point towers will usually be occupied with the non-flying enemies and you must build auxiliary towers elsewhere specifically to deal with the flying enemies.
Now again, I think this is clever design from an abstract standpoint, but when it comes to Alliance, I've settled on my opinion regarding flying enemies - I don't like how they are used in the game. They are 1) overused, and 2) force me to use a tower I would otherwise never build because it's boring and underpowered. Just as a note, I did try this level with the new Twilight Longbows, and while I was able to win with them as well I didn't feel like the performance was any better or more reliable than the Archers.
This map would only be moderately challenging if not for wave 8. As it is, wave 8 turns the entire map into an unenjoyable chore that I thoroughly detest. Not even a boss fight with a returning Arivan (rather challenging all on its own) can redeem this thing. Let's just get on with the heroes and get this over with.
Impressions
None of the grades are surprising at all, except perhaps Nyru. For some reason even with her pretty decent ranged attack I found it difficult to take down all the Cryptids. Raelyn gets the sole 'D' here because she cannot help with the Cryptids in any form or fashion. Her performance was not so awful that I truly felt like I was relying on RNG to get me through, as is our normal definition of 'D', but I docked her down from a 'C' for having to rely on Vesper to carry her.
I will also say that this is one rare map where Dark Army heroes have an edge over Linerean heroes due to Ominous Curse, and that's reflected in the grades below. The slowing ability on the Curse is a real boon in surviving wave 8, giving towers time to get all the Cryptids down. While I didn't do it with every hero, the best strategy for the map is to time your hero spell so that you can get back-to-back spells off in this wave.
Final Grades
- Vesper - C
- Raelyn - D
- Nyru - C
- Torres - C
- Anya - B+
- Grimson - C+
- Broden - A+
- Therien - B+
- Onagro - B
- Warhead - B-
- Lumenir - A
- Kosmyr - A
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