Lair Defense: Dungeon
A tower defense game for Android devices that is a free download? Yes, please. The game puts a spin on the formula by using a medieval fantasy setting including knights, thieves, and spellcasters. The game essentially puts you in control of dragons defending their nest from these evildoers. It is bad enough that these human types want your gold, but they also want your eggs!
How it Plays
Waves of mobs spawn, usually from two points, and if they get past your towers each one of them will grab one of your eggs and attempt to carry it back to the beginning of the map where they spawned. If they make it to their spawn point the egg they are carrying is lost forever. If you kill the mob before they escape the egg will drop to the ground where the enemy was defeated. This mechanic makes it important to not let the enemy ever make it to the nest if possible. The end of a round is signified by either the loss of all eggs or the defeat of all enemies.
Weapons of War
You will fight off the enemy using three dragons and two spells. To be able to use the powerful spells you must have enough mana, and the ability must not be on cooldown. Even though the different tower types are supposed to represent different elements they do nothing special until you upgrade them to level 4. There are upgrades beyond level 4 but they have to be unlocked by collecting and spending gold coins. Here is a short breakdown of what each of your weapons can do.
- Red dragon (fire element) – Will lock on to a target like a laser beam dealing continuous damage. When upgraded to level 4 it deals large dmg in a small area.
- Blue dragon (ice element) – The first enemy it fires upon gets shot twice. At level 4 it has a chance of encasing an enemy in a block of ice for a second.
- Green dragon (poison element) – Each shot deals damage over time through poison. Once the tower reaches level 4 it also slows enemies.
- Meteor spell – Deals large damage in a large area at the cost of mana.
- Freeze spell – Freezes every enemy on the screen for 3 seconds.
Currencies
There are several types of currency within the game. Food is used to place your dragon towers on the board. Gold coins are spent on upgrades inbetween rounds. Finally, mana empowers your spells. Food and gold are both gained by killing enemies with the option of purchasing gold directly from the developer for real world cash. The rounds get progressively harder so the early upgrades are a plus. Mana is generated in two ways during gameplay; first it passively generates throughout the round, and secondly you can place your towers on special slots to increase the generation rate.
The Verdict
While the game makes a commendable attempt to be a tower defense game, the problems with the interface surface rather quickly. The game has only one way to place towers; by dragging their icons from the bottom of the screen to pre-determined pegs around the board. The meteor spell is used in a similar fashion to placing the towers, while the freeze spell is simply clicked. All this being said, it is a free mobile tower defense game. The game is pausable, and you can jump in and jump out of the application at will. This game is perfect for those long waits at the doctor’s office, but I would not use it for my main source of entertainment.
