Starbunker: Guardians 2 Review

Starbunker Guardians 2 is a sci-fi military take on the popular tower defense genre. Players place various space soldiers and vehicles with various weapons and armaments around different maps in an attempt to keep the advancing alien forces from breaching the bunkers in each level. These buildings that the player's troops are defending are located at the end of paths of trenches that increase in complexity with each level.

As players defeat enemies, they acquire resources that they can use to generate new units to be placed in defensive positions around the map. These resources can also be used to upgrade existing units to increase the power and range of their weapons and other abilities. Players also gain crystals that can be used to purchase tech tree items that will increase the overall stats of the player's units and open up new units for the player to use. With these tech tree options, the game takes an interesting departure from many other tower defense games. Unlocking the new units and abilities through access to new production facilities in the tech tree makes Starbunker: Guardians 2 feel more like a real time strategy game at times.

The individual visual elements in Guardians 2 are all top notch, however there is a stitched together quality about how they are all combined. The character models and animations are all very unique and varried, but the background environments seem a little bland and muted by comparison. The basic tower defense gameplay doesn't vary much from level to level and the enemies don't offer much variation either. While they are different enough to create some strategic challenges, enemy types often become repetitive, showing up several times in the same level. This becomes especially bothersome during the game's longer levels which can sometimes last up to 30 waves.

While Starbunker: Guardians 2 is a great looking game in many ways, it lacks a lot of the detailed design that goes into a truly memorable game. It also lacks engaging gameplay and only offers a few unique features to keep players interested. It's a competent tower defense game with a great sci fi feel, but it won't have the staying power to keep players playing again and again.