I know my pace has slowed down a lot lately, for which I apologize. Some of it has to do with life factors, but some of it has to do with the fact that I'm just not really getting into these Alliance bonus campaigns. The first one was okay at best, and I made my feelings on the boss map abundantly clear. I'm not particularly enjoying this one either, and today's map I've started referring to as "the slog in the bog" in my mind.
My feelings about Alliance and how the Kingdom Rush series has evolved overall are gradually crystallizing as I keep playing, but one thing I've begun realizing is that as the series has progressed build variety has been steadily decreasing. I've done several one-tower challenges on my channel for the original Kingdom Rush on some of the most difficult levels, and I realized that that would just not be possible on most of the harder maps in Alliance. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I will say it's sucking the fun (for me, at least) out of a lot of these levels.
Part of the charm of the original Kingdom Rush is that you generally had a lot of flexibility in terms of your build. Every tower was powerful, and so every tower could - generally speaking - get the job done. Now you would think that would be an indication that the game was easy - you can just throw any old build at a map and it will work - but for whatever reason that was not the case. Hard levels were still hard, even though with enough experience you could have the skill to do challenges like one tower.
In Alliance I generally have the feeling with any new map that there's the One True Build that I have to figure out. That's putting too fine a point on it, and of course there is wiggle room for variation, but I still feel cramped in terms of playstyle.
Part of that may be due to the fact that I limit myself to non-premium towers only. I do that of course so that these videos can serve as walkthroughs for mobile players who don't want to spend money on the game. It could very well be that if I was using those towers I would feel the freedom to do something crazy like a Stargazer-only build. But as it is I feel like I'm treading the same rut just with different scenery every time - okay, the Royal Archers have to go here to deal with the flying enemies, I need a Dwarven Flamethrower here to deal with large packs as well as provide additional flying enemy support, etc.
That's a lot of prologue, but I just don't have a lot of enthusiasm for discussing this map. It's a different premise, I'll grant, given that non-flying heroes are confined to the exits. I'm possibly forgetting, but I don't think that's been the case on a map since The Sunken Citadel in Frontiers. Given the similarity in names, perhaps there was a deliberate attempt to recreate that experience?
Besides that the only new gimmick here is the Hydra, who is quite the tough customer. I thought the flavor text on its card was a hint that fire could prevent it from transitioning to its second phase, thus I originally started trying the Dwarven Flamethrower, but alas it appears Ironhide was just trolling us. It turns out the Flamethrower is the best DPS option for the upper right chokepoint anyway, since it hosts both magic resistant enemies like the Hydra as well as some Nesting Gators at one point. And yes, in the Bonehart video I did forget that the Hydra had good magic resistance when I replaced the Flamethrower with an Eldritch Channeler.
Impressions
Grades are unsurprising and largely unremarkable. I will say I don't feel I'm doing a very good job of accounting for the fact that I'm relying hard on the second hero in these grades. I'm slightly resentful that the game is forcing me to have to use two heroes, ruining my perfect grading scheme, but at the same time I'm also grateful that it's challenging enough to require me to do so.
Final Grades
- Vesper - C+
- Raelyn - C
- Nyru - B-
- Torres - C-
- Anya - C+
- Grimson - B-
- Broden - A+
- Therien - B+
- Onagro - B
- Warhead - B+
- Lumenir - A-
- Kosmyr - A
- Stregi - C+
- Bonehart - A+
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