Tower defense titles are a bit of a sleeper hit game genre.  That lack of titles reflects frequently on the lack of quality, and the willingness of creators to change the formula.  So when a new title does come out, it is refreshing when they try to mix the formula up, even if everything doesn’t go as well as planned.  That is where you get Ezaron Defense, a mix of city building and tower defense.

The downside to this mixture is that the city building never really felt fully fleshed out.  It was an aspect that existed in the game, but it felt more like exchanging one resource for another instead of any real improvement.  Buildings gave a one time bonus, that could be spent, then sort of stopped functioning.  This could easily be fixed later, but as it stands it felt sort of empty.

The positive is that the tower defense section is solid and well thought out.  While there is a single strategy that can carry the progression through a chunk of the game, it gets slapped down later on–asking the player to become more familiar with the mechanics and balance.  The core of the game itself feels fun and balanced, which is truly all that can be asked of a title in this genre.

While there are minor bugs, like towers continuing to make noise when the game is muted, or odd design short falls, like the lack of depth in city building, this is a solid title that should be included in any fan of the genre’s library.  For everyone else, this might be a good first place to start.  It won’t win any critics over to the tower defense team, but it is still a fun and entertaining game.