Here we go for my first review in a while.   Last Friday afternoon, I was pretty much done with University exams and works, beyond one exam I had to write over the weekend.  So I was looking into finding a game to play that evening. After looking around, I found out about a little PSN game called Comet Crash.  What is Comet Crash?  It’s another Tower Defense game.  At the very least, the third on on PSN, with PixelJunk Monsters (which I didn’t like because of the slow pace) and Savage Moon (which I didn’t get around trying).

So another Tower Defense game, must be like all the other Tower defense games pretty much right?  Well, find out if it is or isn’t after the jump!

Story

The story goes a bit like this: You and your friend(s) must join forces to clean off comets off the scums that inhabits them by kicking their ass before it’s too late.  OK. I’ll admit it right away.  I just made it up.  There’s no story in Comet Crash, you just go from one Comet to another every few levels until you beat the game.  So isn’t it ok in that case to make up your own story..?

Graphics

If you’re looking for pretty graphics, well, that won’t happen here.  The modeling is pretty basic in this game.  But that wouldn’t be fair to stop at this.  Why would you care about the graphics looks in a Tower Defense game ANYWAY?  You can differ pretty much easily what is what, even though the models are pretty simple.  And as the levels get higher, you’ll more and more be seeing a lot of units at the same time on screen, I’m talking hundreds at a time here, without any frame-rate drop.  So quality over quality, but in this case, that’s a good thing.  It’s actually more like practicability over aesthetic, and it works.  As much as I’d like to see those insane units rush in some nifty looking 3d modeling at the level you usually expect of the PS3, I’m still content of what I have here.  It just might not be so for you, it depends on how picky you are.

This is what the graphics looks like.

Gameplay

Here’s the answer you’ve been looking for.  Comet Crash does what other Tower defense games don’t.   Put you on the offense!  You still have to defend against the swarm of enemies sent at you from your opponent, so how does that work?  It’s simpler then it sounds in theory.  You control a flying ship that can put your different types of towers on the map.  This is the only difference between you and the computer player.  As well as you do, the computer can upgrade and put new towers and types of buildings around on the map.  The only rule here is that you can’t completely block off the path to and from each side’s bases.  I’ll come back to the different type of towers later, but for now, I’ll continue with the meat of the game.  As you build your defense, the computer will send to you his swarms of units at you, and they’ll be following (if they’re not flying units), the shortest path to you.  So you can’t ever slack off on defense.  But you won’t ever win like this.  You need to set up an offense of yours too.  Like I said, it’s simpler then it sounds.  Additionally to defensive towers, you can build two types of buildings that trains different units, the more you have built, the more units you’ll be producing.  Those units will be found inside your base that you must defend.  You can easily see what units and how much you have ready by moving the right analog stick.  This is also how you launch attacks.  Pointing unit types with your R3 stick will launch a wave of those units.  So usually, when you’re ready, you should launch everything you have.  Speaking of training buildings, you must be careful as to where you build them, you don’t want to build them at locations where it’d be more strategic to have defensive towers.  So that’s the gist of it.

Fortunately, it doesn’t stop there.  As you get across each level, you unlock the technology the computer was using against you on that level.  For example, there are some types of pyramids that do a lot of electrical damages when your ground units passes by them.  You eventually need to use a type of units that will disable those pyramids for a small amount of time.  So the whole strategy usually involves you sending those units ahead of your tanks who will then be able to go through.  But the tricky part is really timing here.  The disabling units are slower then even the slow-ish tanks.  Then you get to the next level, and you get even more stuff to look out for.  It starts out fun and becomes even more of a blast as you get through the game.

Picking up cash and upgrades are of course fundementals of the game.  After all, you can’t have a Tower Defense without those two things, it’d suck.  So you get your butter and bread by grabbing comets that passes by and bringing them near your tower so that they destroy it for your source of spendings.  One thing I mentioned before, is that I didn’t like about PixelJunk Monsters because of the slow pace, by that, I meant that your character moves as slow as a snail.  This isn’t the case in here, you move around freely and at a satisfying speed that won’t have you lose simply because you couldn’t get at that one spot in time, which in my opinion in that kind of case is just a cheap way to add difficulty.  As for the upgrades, they’re what you expect of a Tower Defense game, added range, speed or attack power.  For the units themselves, you get access to different types by upgrading the buildings that trains them.  You can’t really boost a unit’s attack by itself.  At least as far as I got into it before writing this review.

Overall

If I have to compare it to anything, it reminds me of two of my favorite types of custom maps games in Starcraft.  Tower Defense, and those games that were often themed on the Simpsons and other stuff, where you had units always popping around your base, that you’d send all at once against your ennemies’ bases.   It really grasp the RTS game type rush, yet it adds the tower defense concept to it.  It’s addicting and fun.  You can really see that the developers, Pelfast, are gamers and that they enjoy playing and making games. It’s obvious that to them it’s more then just the paycheck that made this game come to fruition.

That isn’t all.  The best part of the game beyond its crazy addictiveness? The multiplayer co-op.  You can team up with up to two of your friends to take on the computer through all the levels.  Jobocan spent the evening with me building up defenses while I was focusing on offense.  It was really enjoyable and the greatest moments where those close wins after getting our ass kicked by an unexpected attack.  One of the last levels we played, we basically destroyed the computer’s base a split second before he destroyed ours, giving us a satisfying close-call victory.  A lot of the game relies on your timing to attack and building defenses, it makes those victories that much more fun.

There’s also a 4 players versus mode we didn’t get around and a few other modes.  The only drawback is the lack of online play, but I’ve been hearing that this will be fixed.  If it does, this will definately keep me busy until Fat Princess comes around.

At a pricetag of $9,99, there’s little reason not to buy this and give it a shot with a few of your friends if possible.  Otherwise, I’m sure it’s still enjoyable. This game get’s my personnal Seal of Awesomness!

David A. Games, Review, ps3