Mobile devices and the defense tower combine perfectly: the touch interface is excellently adapted to the mechanics of this type of strategic experiences, which therefore do not have to deal with particular control solutions and can fully express their potential, such as It happened for example with Anomaly. 11-bit studio series.
Well, as in the titles of the Polish studio, which later became famous with the survival games This War of Mine and Frostpunk, the new game from Ironhide Game Studio for the platform Apple Arcade It takes us into a post-apocalyptic setting, made up of desolate lands and bands of Mad Max-style marauders who are used to never stopping before reaching their goal.
This is where we come into play, with our positions and our tactics: will we be able to stop the advance of these fearsome hordes and defend what we love most? And, above all, will we have fun doing it? the answer in junk world review.
Structure: a long campaign underway
Currently also available in a soft launch version for Android, Junkworld has chosen Apple Arcade for its official debut and therefore the developers have had to review the free-to-play structure that characterized it, turning it into premium model absolutely free of microtransactions and also works offline which is requested by the Cupertino company's subscription service.
The result is a package. definitely rich in content that little by little become accessible, specifically a campaign made up of four chapters and as many scenarios, which however will soon see the arrival of more scenarios and missions. Special attention was also paid to the units, which are very numerous and also unlockable thanks to a well-thought-out progression system.
There's a little bit of everything: from turrets equipped with machine guns to sniper positions, from guys with flamethrowers to those who shoot jagged discs, from mutant generation factories to catapults, each with a different range of action and characteristics that coincide with a specific moment of action.
In this sense, the experience points obtained on the battlefield increase the indicators of each unit and allow at a certain moment to be able to buy updates that increase the effectiveness of the cannons or add special abilities to the repertoire of each tower, or even increase the "tactics" at our disposal, which often consist of warriors who will be distributed around the map.
Gameplay: traditional but always fun.
As already mentioned, in terms of gameplay. Junkworld is a traditional defense tower, although with some variations in the theme with respect to the guidelines of a subgenre that has also experienced some evolution over the years. In this case we have missions made up of three rounds, preceded by a phase in which we can place our units within the scenario.
This is a fundamental moment, because We will have no way to build more towers. when enemy troops begin to follow their predetermined paths, shown in advance by special indicators. What we can do in the middle of the action is activate the aforementioned tactics, which are loaded over time and are represented in the form of cards, as well as move one of the heroes that are part of our squad.
Among the new features of Junkworld it is worth highlighting that Enemies do not attack towers. but only the ground troops, if we want to call them that, and their objective is simply to reach the end of the path to steal the hearts that make up our life energy: if we let too many hostile units pass, it's game over.
The special abilities and wide variety of stations always manage to maintain a high degree of variety in the experience, although in some situations it feels the lack of a button to increase speed and therefore neutralize the downtime that occurs especially in the initial phases of each game, when the enemies are still far from our position.
Technical implementation: nice but small.
Ironhide Game Studio chose one cartoon graphic style for Junkworld, and in general it works although some solutions are not entirely convincing. Indeed, the zoom is very limited, so you end up observing the different units that fight from afar, without being able to appreciate their design or their animations, which however are clearly not the strong point of this production.
The different biomes change the face of the map, but it happens that you play for a long time in scenarios similar to each other, accompanied by the occasional phrase (the Rambo imitator is nice, in any case), because they are only functional and of a musical commentary without high notes, quite generic.
Conclusions
Tested version iPhone digital delivery App Store Price Free Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (2) 8.9 your voteJunkworld is a traditional but enjoyable tower defense, equipped with a large number of towers and units to unlock and upgrade, a fairly substantial and at times challenging campaign (which never hurts), as well as a touch control system that adapts perfectly to the needs. of the experience and never makes us want to use a Bluetooth controller, no matter how compatible it is. Some details are missing and the graphics are not always convincing, but if you appreciate this genre and are an Apple Arcade subscriber, the download is a must.
PRO
- Traditional but fun gameplay.
- Many units, great campaign.
- Perfect touch controls
AGAINST
- Some options are missing, such as speed.
- Sometimes it seems inevitably repetitive.
- Functional graphics and sound only.
