The tower defense genre as a device is more ignored than it is used, which is sad as it only really didn’t appear that long ago. Siege of Centauri takes another stab at this genre, but with much added nuance and added plot. While this might not be the first time that people have attempted to add much needed depth to the genre, the quest remains if it will be enough to pull it away from the general setting of being a casual game.
The gameplay is classic tower defense. New towers are introduced, new upgrades to them are added slowly, and overtime. After a certain number of levels different restrictions on how many towers, or what kind of towers start to be limited. Nothing is reinventing the wheel, but it actually manages to do every one of those things better than most things before it, which is actually an accomplishment.
Simply by tweaking one or two options, and having a handful of towers that are similar, but can function in a fundamentally different way when tweaked make the game stand out. Granted, at the end of the day it is still a tower defense, and the depth only goes so far, but it is still there. And it is fun.
No one is going to be writing fanfiction about Siege’s story, but the fact is that it manages to explain why the player is going from point A to B. To call it serviceable wouldn’t be correct, as it functions on all points; that sort of seems like all it ever really wanted to do though.
All and all the game is fun and looks really good for the genre. Do yourself a favor a pick up Siege when it is on sale during a Steam sale, it is a perfect late night game to play when nothing else seems to be right.