14 DAY TRIAL // 
How do you fight using just four or five towers when you know that the enemy creatures are going to bring up to ten different types of enemies to the fight? This is one of the core questions of Prime World Defenders and the answer that players put together will determine how successful they are in the game.
The title from Nival Interactive uses the core mechanics of the tower defense genre during tactical engagements, but the team expands its limits quite a bit, with upgrades, magic and character abilities.
Towers come in different flavors, suited to various enemies and situations, and players initially only have to worry about placing them well and mixing them to create efficient fighting units.
As more towers and item cards are obtained in the campaign, the Forge system allows players to combine two towers in order to increase their power or add a modifier to give them new capabilities.
This means that there are new ways of tackling particular situations and some experimentation is required in order to get access to the best tool for a particular job.
Players of Prime World Defenders can also use the shop to get the cards they need and silver can also be used to open up new skills that are a big help during battles.
As gamers get through more stages, they get access to more cards and more skills and the complexity of most battles increases quite a bit, especially when various magic attacks are thrown in, with their own particular effects.
Enemy design is another strong element of the game, with quite a bit of variety that asks players to mix and match their own forces in order to make sure that no creatures get through the tower wall.
The fantasy world feels a little bland and I have never felt compelled to find out more about it; the enemies remained just units to kill and my own objective was just to get more powerful towers and better magic to take them out with.
Another disappointment is the limited assortment of maps, which means that I have often felt frustrated to deploy pretty much the same tactics and towers while getting more money and cards from the secondary quests.
Prime World Defenders also has some pretty harsh difficulty spikes, especially when boss battles come in. And even after farming secondary quests for upgrades, the battles were rather tough, with a pinch of good luck required to progress.
For some players, the first encounter with the Forrester boss might be too hard and they might be tempted to abandon the game rather than farm other missions in order to get resources and progress.
There’s nothing innovative here, but the development team does a good job of keeping players engaged, which can be a challenge given the inherent repetitive nature of the game.
The overland map is also good looking and the interface is informative when it comes to upgrades and forging new cards.
Prime World Defenders is an interesting take on a genre that has failed to innovate too much lately, but the structure of the game and its core mechanics make it best suited for those who already have a strong preference for this type of game.
