Tide

Tide is a small free to play game that mixes third person shooting with tower defense, and I think that combination is what makes it worth trying. Instead of sitting above the battlefield and watching my towers do everything, I am actually running around the map fighting enemies myself while also building defenses to protect my treasure. The basic idea is pretty easy to understand, but having to handle both the shooting and the tower placement gives me more to think about than a normal tower defense game.

The part I enjoy most is how active the combat feels. I am not just waiting for the next wave because I can get involved directly and help my defenses deal with enemies. I can move around the battlefield, attack targets and react when something gets through my defenses. That makes the game feel more like an action game while still keeping the planning side of tower defense. I like having that extra control because a bad situation does not always mean the whole setup is finished. I can get involved and try to save it myself.

The tower system is where things get more interesting. Instead of simply choosing exactly which upgrades I want every time, towers are acquired through a random system with different rarity levels. That means I have to work with what I get and change my plan around the towers available to me. I like the idea because it gives each run some variety, although it also means I cannot always build the exact defence I had in mind. The random element can make a run feel different, but it can also make the strategy feel less consistent when I am looking for a specific type of tower.

The biggest weakness for me is that the game is still quite small. It has a good central idea, but there is not enough here yet for me to treat it like a huge tower defense game with loads of different systems. The random tower system is interesting, but it needs enough towers and meaningful combinations behind it to stay exciting over a long period. The same goes for the enemy waves. Surviving increasingly difficult attacks works well, but the basic structure can start feeling repetitive when I have already seen what the game is built around.

I do like the fact that Tide supports different ways of playing. There is single player, online co op, LAN co op and local multiplayer for up to four people, so I am not forced into one particular format. The pirate and steampunk theme also gives the game some personality instead of making it look like another generic modern military tower defense game. The presentation is not what I would call a major selling point, but it does enough to support the gameplay and gives the battlefield a distinct style.

The free price is probably the biggest reason I am willing to overlook some of the limitations. I can try the complete basic concept without paying anything, and the game is clearly designed around short wave based matches rather than a massive campaign. I think that works in its favour because I can jump in, play for a while and leave without feeling like I have to make a huge commitment. At the same time, the game is still early in its life, so I would want more content and more depth before putting it alongside the strongest strategy games I have played.

Overall, Tide has a good idea and I think the combination of third person combat, tower placement and randomised tower choices gives it a reason to stand apart from a standard tower defense game. I enjoy being able to fight alongside my defences rather than just watching everything happen, and the different multiplayer options give the basic wave system some extra flexibility. The limited amount of content and reliance on random tower selection hold it back, but the core gameplay is promising and the fact that it is free makes it easy for me to give it a chance. For me, it is a decent little strategy action game that has room to become much better if the content and systems grow.

Rating: 6.7/10

Cool tech demo so far, has a few bugs like enemies forgetting about the chest after they have seen the player but i can see this being fun after a few patches