When I reviewed God of War: Ragnarök, it took me 48 hours to complete it. When I reviewed Ghost of Tsushima, it took me 50 hours to fully complete it. When I reviewed Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance the last two weeks, it took me 51.1 hours to fully complete it. And every moment was beautiful.
Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance does its best to bring a short, yet meaningful story to the KR family, while also introducing some gameplay structure that will challenge the player, as much as it motivates them to play it repeatedly. In addition, this KR seems so much more balanced than previous games in the series. What more could you ask for?
So, sit back, arm your cities with the right heroes, and let’s get this review going right now.
*HORN SOUNDS*
Short story with purpose
When a new evil arises in the world of Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance, there’s only one thing to do – FORM AN ALLIANCE! And an alliance was formed with the warriors of Linirea and the Dark Army. And a reason was born to get your tower defense on!
It’s a simple story that introduces more badass heroes as well as more tower options. Sometimes with a game, all you need is a single narrative purpose to make the gameplay so much sweeter. And this story did the trick. It did open the door to new heroes, both good and evil, and allowed for a variety of ways to play the game. In a sense, as simple as this story might look, it played well into the hands of the gameplay, which makes it far more complicated than it looks.
So, the story is good.
Gameplay that is thick with strategy and difficulty
A short explanation of gameplay
If you are new to the gaming scene, then let me first say, “WELCOME”. You have a lot of catching up to do, and I highly recommend The Binding of Isaac. If you can’t play The Binding of Isaac for reasons, maybe your parents aren’t keen on the anti-religious sentiment it perpetuates, then Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance is also a good start.
The gameplay of KR is simple. You pick heroes to defend lanes that the enemies come down. You put towers in specified spots to help stop those enemies before they reach your heroes. As you kill enemies, you gain points, and then you can use those points to upgrade your towers. In addition to those gameplay elements, you also have three power-ups that live in the bottom right that can be used to tame the enemy waves, which come fast and furious as the levels progress, though those power-ups have a cooldown on them (so, use them wisely). For every success in the game, you can also power up a skills tree between levels that help you strategize and execute in particular ways (like gaining more money, having tougher ground troops, etc.).
This is the concept behind every Kingdom Rush game, and it’s this core set of gameplay elements that make the series fun, and addictive.
And surprise, surprise, Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance follows along with that fun plan.
While Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance doesn’t shy away from that gameplay blueprint, the main gameplay structure difference throughout the years has been led by how creative the devs can get with the level structures. Each level has a different way for enemies to travel through it and different methods for trying to keep the player constantly on their toes. These levels keep the gameplay fresh and provide a cerebral rush to the player, as you always have to keep an eye on enemies and how they are approaching.
Beyond the gameplay elements and structure that has stayed true to its creative intentions over the years, there is still more underneath the hood with Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance. That ‘more’ begins with the game’s balance and difficulty.
Uphill at first
The biggest difference I noticed from the previous three games of this series was how the game put you to the test by finding ways to build up your loot. For some reason, Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance seemed a bit steeper in that initial jump-off point where you’re grinding things out to upgrade your towers and peeps. The first four levels, even on normal difficulty, push against the player and keep you right on the edge of defeat.
There were times when I had to use my power-ups a lot quicker than I imagined I would just to keep the enemies at bay. Enemy invasion, even in early levels, seemed to be quicker and more brutal. I was constantly having to keep watch of multiple lanes as enemies poured into them at a constant rate. The game at times felt relentless, especially when my heroes were underpowered at the beginning and my choices of towers were limited. It was almost as if the devs purposely wanted to throw the kitchen sink at you to get your attention from the start, and it certainly worked well. And believe me when I say this, this hard difficulty right at the beginning is not typical of a KR game. This is new but welcomed. You don’t hit that difficulty until you get to a particular level in the game.
That particular level was called “Corruption Valley” and it featured two main lanes coming down towards your heroes, and two side lanes that led to a vat of pink goo. The main lanes had a constant stream of enemies tearing through them, while occasionally one-eyed octopuses, appearing by the dozen, would pour into the side lanes leading to the goo. The game wanted you to handle those creatures, while at the same time defending the main lanes. And that wasn’t all. If the octopi successfully got into the pink vat of goo, then they would create a giant rock creature that was difficult to bring down, especially with the early heroes, towers, and power-ups in play. I must have played that level about 12-20 times before finally getting it down. It required a lot of strategic thinking on my part and testing out different towers, and heroes. The latter of the bunch I never really changed in previous KR games, but Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance forces you to choose the correct hero for the level you’re playing. I was surprised by how unique each hero was and how impactful some heroes were with certain levels in the game than others. I had far more fun using the heroes this time around than in previous games in the series, as they felt more strategic than just gimmicky fun.
Anyway, long story short, the pink vat of goo level was a brutal level that demonstrated how much thought the folks at Ironhide put into its design. And there were a lot of levels like this, where they featured their own complicated twists, like the pink vat of goo, that force you into developing clever strategies to successfully win. That alone gives you a deeper experience with a game that is, respectfully, of a mobile gaming nature. It ain’t casual anymore, folks!
Now, even though it was an uphill battle at the beginning of the game, as it should be when you’re trying to progress and unlock power-ups, heroes, and towers, Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance felt a lot more meaningful with its content than previous games. Most importantly, progressing through these types of levels with the game pushing back at you made it more satisfying when I finally learned the best way to approach particularly difficult and creative levels. It certainly made the entire gameplay experience far more exciting and worth my time.
Yes, even 51.1 hours of it.
Extra goodies to keep you locked-in
While unlocking power-ups, heroes, and towers are certainly good goals to keep you pushing forward in the game, there is also life happening all over the levels that require your attention. These active areas help with the gameplay sometimes, while others are there for humor and accomplishment.
These active areas can range from helping Link capture rupees while fishing, or launching a little guy upward in a Lion King opening-movie fashion. There is life constantly happening around the levels beyond just enemies heading down lanes. While these extra goodies mainly point back to unlockable achievement awards in the game, they also act as additional content to keep you interested in what’s going on around you during a battle. Or they are distractions that help you fail. Either way, good fun.
Longevity
So, how do you play a tower defense game for 51.1 hours? Simple. You play the game on all its difficulties and try to unlock all the achievements. You also try to unlock all the heroes and towers. There is a lot of replayable and solid/meaningful content in Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance, especially as you power up your heroes and towers. As you go back and go through the same levels for various reasons, the game becomes more fun, even in its most difficult mode (Impossible mode – that truly is at times impossible).
Now, it should be noted that I did die quite a bit in the aforementioned pink vat of goo level so that probably added a few hours to that total.
But mostly, the hour total was because the game was fun. Between this and Balatro, I can’t get work done.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance from developer Ironhide Game Studio is the best in the series. It has beautiful gameplay balance, adequate amounts of grind thanks to its challenging difficulty, and gives a bevy of reasons to replay it multiple times.
