Comets and Craters
Defend yourself! Here comes another tower defense game on Itunes. Comets and Craters pits you against an evil alien race who wants to destroy Earth. Naturally, human kind will use a strategic line of tower defenses to stop the invading alien horde.
Gameplay:
The game features three difficulty levels to choose from. Before you dive in let me give you a quick tip that will save you a ton of heart ache. The first thing you must buy is a transport vehicle to pick up resources. I played a full game and could not figure out for the life of me why I wasn’t getting any money until I discovered I needed the transport vehicle. Why the developer doesn’t just give me a transport vehicle to begin with is beyond me.
The game has you strategically placing multiple towers on the map in an effort to blow up the non-stop wave of bad guys suicide bombing your base. There are several different types of units but really the only difference you will notice will be if they are in the air or on the ground. Otherwise, the units are fairly similar.
Unlike most tower building games this game will have you building a ton of towers. The game screen will literally be filled with towers. The bad guys come out of the same spot every time and you are fat with cash. This means you can make the entire path the enemy travels walled on both sides with towers.
The strategy is maintained by the placement of towers, the type of towers, and the upgrade of the towers. The towers do get damage over time and require healing. I found this surprising since the bad guys rarely if ever fired at you. Nonetheless, you will have to balance your funds to determine whether to heal or upgrade.
Controls:
The game has an excellent zoom feature that allows you to go from viewing the entire map to very close up in an instant. The towers are dropped and moved by slides of the finger. At times I had trouble moving towers to and around the map but this was rarely a major issue.
What We Liked:
+ Good Zooming capability
+ Ability to post scores online
+ Challenge mode with your friends
What We Disliked:
- Lack of originality (Far to many games out there like this)
- Strategy gets a little shaky with that much cash
Final Verdict:
The game allows a ton of turrets on screen at a time but that can be a double edged sword. This allows some strategic placement but really means you will just build a highway of death that needs routine maintenance and upgrades. This is not a bad game in fact in some respects it is good. The problem is in such a crowded genre it fails to shine above the rest.
 [xrrgroup][xrr label="Audio:" rating="3/5" group="s1" ] [xrr label="Video:" rating="3/5" group="s1"] [xrr label="Controls:" rating="3/5" group="s1"] [xrr label="Enjoyment:" rating="3/5" group="s1"] [xrr label="Replay Value:" rating="3/5" group="s1"] [/xrrgroup] |
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Category: Games
Just wanted to add that we have also revisited the Gameplay balance for 1.1 based on the feedback here.
The ATV010 does actually destroy Tranporters if they reach a crater whilst a Transporter is there collecting. This is the reason for having a purchase option for Transporters. In 1.1 you will see a lot, lot more ATV010′s to defend against which dramatically increases the chances of them destroying your Transporters.
The ATV030 damage on Towers has been increased, so your Crystals will be made better use of.
The ATV040 Splash damage on Towers and Mines has been raised from 20 to 50.
These details are all included in the new Help system shipping with 1.1
We have begun work on our planned 1.2 update which caters for many of the other items raised here.
Hi, I am one of the two creators of Comets and Craters. First up a big thanks to appVersity for reviewing us and thanks to those of you who have purchased the game, then taken the time to post feedback. We are totally committed to making Comets and Craters a unique TD experience, so your feedback is being absorbed by us. The game is complex and feedback so far has told us the in-game Help is lacking compared to the website help.
We wish to announce our upcoming 1.1 updates and a Lite version to be submitted very soon.
New Features in 1.1 update:
1. Map Builder – this awesome new feature allows players to create and save their own custom game maps in-game using our library of objects. You can also create Blank maps using Map Builder for open field strategy. To view Map Builder in action please visit our website Video page http://www.cometsandcraters.com/video.html
2. Help Screens – these have received a huge revamp to cover all aspects of game play, Tower/Enemy stats for Health, Damage points and descriptions of all game objects. Some screenshots of the new Help screens have been added to the Screenshots page http://www.cometsandcraters.com/screenshots.html
3. Crystal and Mineral Dock Renew! – this new feature allows you to renew your Crystal or Mineral Dock if you don’t have enough Crystals to repair it. You can use your Minerals to buy a new Dock!
4. Tower/Mine Radius – we have added a range radius for in game Towers and Mines. Tap the Tower or Mine on the game field to view its firing range. We have also updated the look of the old radius graphic when dragging Towers or Mines on the game map.
This update is only the start and we are already building 1.2 and if you think 1.1 is good we are taking game customisation even further. Thanks again for the review and the comments (keep them coming as we do make changes based on your suggestions).
Neil.
This looks very cluttered and confusing from the screenshots. Sometimes devs just don’t make good use of their space. I’ve seen so many games where the text is tiny and there is a ton of empty space. Others cram so much stuff in that you can’t even figure out what is going on and you mistap all over the place. Very few devs seem to be able to strike that nice balance.
“Why the developer doesn’t just give me a transport vehicle to begin with is beyond me.” Hahaha, that just cracked me up! hehe!
I think that is one of the cases where the dev has had just too much to do and completely overlooked it. I’m sure an update can easily rectify that.
I also think that, upon reading your review, the problem is the cash supply. You’re so wealthy that you can just do anything. My first TD was Fieldrunners, and it’s still close to my heart. I love the sound of the little grunts squealing when they die, but also the strategic part of FR was great. Your mazes evolved as you got more cash, not set in stone on the first go. Thats because you didn’t have much cash and had to decide to save up for the missiles, or plant more gunners or upgrade existing ones. You had to make tough choices!
For comparison, I also tried TapDefense (lovely game thats free), Sentinel (wonderful set-path TD, rock hard!) and GeoDefense (Truly hardcore, mindblowing visuals). These are practically the benchmarks and each offered something new. I was initially concerned about Sentinel as being another me-too TD, but they offered new strategies in having defensive gates that would be broken down, and having repair drones that could repair or harvest more cash. Very interesting gameplay. Reason why I mentioned that, is because TDs need to innovate like Sentinel in order to stand out from the crowd, and offer a new experience.
The first TD games was the original free TapDefense game. And I loved it. I’ve since purchased and played many of the TD games. For me the key to wanting to play more than just a handful of times is to have some variety in the enemies abilities and weaknesses and to limit the number and the ease of accessing the tower upgrades. Maybe this game would be improved with less available cash and upgrades? This would require more strategic thought in placement of your towers.
Agree with the above comment and the review. I was actually first introduced to TD games with TapDefense (the original free app) and fell in love, but after having a page of TD’s now, it’s become a little stale. I too would love something refreshing and creative that differentiates itself from the other TD games and lately I just haven’t found it. I guess the search will continue….
Thankfully line-drawing games haven’t hit the ceiling with me yet!
good read. im starting to wonder what any new TD game can do to be set apart from the pack. i had my hopes for this app, but i guess it fell short. i mean, so many aspects and elements are just being rehashed and recycled…there’s no ingenuity or creativity anymore.
i love TD games but im starting to think if u played one, u played them all.