Why You Can Trust CNET Kingdom Rush Origins review: Still the king of tower-defense games
As the third installment of a the popular tower-defense franchise, Kingdom Rush Origins continues to get better, improving upon the fun and familiar gameplay.
Editors' note: This review has been updated with information about syncing between devices.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Kingdom Rush Origins (iPhone|iPad|Android) is the third installment in a well-established tower-defense franchise that includes improvements on the same great gameplay from earlier versions and new features to keep it interesting.
The Kingdom Rush series uses a fixed path (instead of an open field) where you place towers on fixed emplacements, and gradually changing levels bring new challenges as you play. It also has special abilities you can use to nuke areas of the map in an emergency, and a hero system that lets you bring in one specialized player to balance your defense.
When I saw that there was another installment to the series, I wondered what developers Ironhide Game Studio could do to keep the game fresh. But even when I realized the core mechanics were the same, all the new tweaks still make it worth the price, with tons of levels and new content to explore.
Getting started
As the third game in a very polished series, Kingdom Rush Origins lets you jump right into the action and -- even if you haven't played the earlier games -- tells you how to build your defense against the enemy onslaught.
You start with enough gold to construct a few towers, but it's important to check the map to see where your enemies will be coming from. If you end up building all your towers by a single entrance (there can be multiple entrances), the second the enemies use another entrance you'll be scrambling to take them out before they make it to the end.
As you play through your first couple games, you'll learn about heroes you can use and upgrade, the different types of monsters, and how you'll need a mix of towers in order to be successful.
As far as content, there are tons of levels to play throughout Kingdom Rush Origins and three skill levels to give it plenty of replayability.
It's all about the upgrades
Each level gives you a number of lives. If the number of enemies that pass through the exit is more than your remaining lives, your round is over. The only way to stop that from happening is to upgrade.
You get four defense towers to choose from that give you different types of attack power including elven infantry, elf archers, mystic mages, and stone druids. The infantry is the backbone of your defense, fighting on the front lines as it defends a path. But they also slow enemies down so you can really deal damage with your other towers. In other words, using a mix of towers is the best bet.
Each of your towers can be upgraded to give them more attack power and more attacks. For example, the elven archer tower starts with just one archer, but you can upgrade it up to three archers for triple the attacks. But even beyond that, you can upgrade the type of arrows the archers use and add sleep poison to the arrows or burst-shot abilities. In between games you can upgrade the overall power of each type of tower as well, so it's important to keep adding points earned to each tower type so they're stronger overall.
Choose and upgrade your heroes
Along with your towers and special nuke abilities, you can also have a strong hero on the battlefield you can control. You can use heroes to attack particularly strong enemies, or to fortify areas of the map that are vulnerable to attacks by moving them into position.
There are nine different heroes to choose from, each with their own set of abilities. For example, a mage type hero would be a ranged attacker, where a melee hero will battle on the front lines, but the abilities for each can be upgraded between games using points from your winnings.
Each hero has five different abilities that you can upgrade. So, in the case of Arivan the mage, you can choose to upgrade his fire, ice, snow or earth attacks, or add points to his elite ability that sends a tornado down the path that shoots lightening as it hits several enemies at once. Which heroes you use and how you upgrade them is up to you, but you'll find that having a good mix to choose from will help you get through the tougher levels.
Lots of little extras
One of the things that makes Kingdom Rush Origins so great are all the little extras you'll find as you play.
Some maps will have giant flowers growing at strategic points, and when they are pulsating with light, you'll be able to tap them for a single attack of several magic missiles. Another level has little creatures up in the trees (that look quite a lot like the Ewoks from "Star Wars") that automatically start throwing spears at your enemies as they pass by.
For added protection, you'll also find buildings already some maps that give you extra heroes to use in your defense. For example, you'll be able to buy a building that produces a character called the Panda Hero that is an effective addition to defend a single path.
On any given map, there are tons of things to touch and press that add to the interactivity of the game. But trust me, you'll be so busy upgrading towers, directing your heroes, and using your special abilities there will be little time for horsing around. Still, it's great to find these little Easter eggs as you play.
A word on pricing
As was true for earlier installments of the Kingdom Rush series, Origins has separate installers (and separate pricing) for iPhone ($2.99, £1.99, AU$3.79) and iPad ($4.99, £2.99, AU$6.49). Unfortunately, this means if you want to have it on two iOS devices you'll have to pay for each. I really wish they would make it universal.
Android gets a break in pricing because it is universal to all Android devices, but keeps the lower price of the phone version ($2.99, £1.99, AU$3.79).
The other way the game separates you from your money is with the special heroes. You can unlock a few of the heroes simply by playing, but if you want some of the higher-tiered heroes, you can spend as little as $1.99 on up to $6.99 -- just for a hero.
I appreciate that Kingdom Rush Origins is not going to nickel-and-dime you at every turn like other freemium titles, but it still seems a little steep.
No sync?
One problem a colleague pointed out to me after this review posted is one that's definitely worth mentioning.
Not only will you have to pay twice for the game if you want it on more than one iOS device; the game does not sync between devices. In other words, if you played on your iPhone and completed several levels, when you pick up your iPad to play, you'll be right back at the beginning.
Some people on Twitter pointed the problem out to Ironhide Game Studio and here's the response:
Obviously, this a feature that many games already have and it's something a big game like Kingdom Rush Origins should have. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll need to wait until upcoming games for the feature.
Conclusion
Kingdom Rush Origins keeps the familiar and fun game mechanics from the first two installments in the series, but manages to add new features that keep the game fun and immensely challenging.
With tons of upgrades, new towers, new enemies, and upgradable heroes, there's plenty to do while you stave off the hordes. If you want to unlock everything, however, you're going to have to pay additional money, and it's pretty expensive. You also will not be able to sync your game between devices.
Still, with all this content and challenging gameplay, Kingdom Rush Origins remains at the top of my list for tower defense. Anyone who likes the genre should download this game immediately.