Thronefall review

I'm wary whenever I come across games like Thronefall. This tower defense game promises a lot of "replayability" primarily in the form of modifications you can apply to levels to make them play a bit differently. To me, designs like this can (and often do) start to fall into a category of game I generally don't like: the "hey here's a bunch of stuff, make your own fun" variety. While I wouldn't say Thronefall completely avoids dipping its toes into these waters, there is enough intentional design in its levels that make it more than just a tower defense sandbox.

Thronefall doesn't really deal in things like story. You just enter levels with direct control over a king who rides around on horseback. With your few starting coins, you build a base, maybe some defenses or economic structures, and then you wait for nightfall to see if you survive whatever enemies wish to attack then.

During these attacks, you can freely ride around and contribute to your defenses, using weapons, drawing the attention of enemies, or commanding troops around. If your base survives, you receive coins from enemies and economic structures which you funnel into upgrading or building more defenses to fend off the next, stronger wave. At the end of a dozen nights of this, you win the level and can move on to another one.

Moving to a new level in Thronefall is often a fun surprise. The terrain changes, as do the kinds of structures that are available to build, the enemies you face, and some of the tactics you need to employ. Even when not advancing levels (or if you just want to mix things up more than usual) every session with Thronefall awards you with experience points that unlock various different kinds of modifiers. These modifiers can change your king's weapon, the way certain structures work, or even the difficulty and scaling of enemies.

The sheer number of these modifiers is intimidating, as before each new level you get shown both what available modifiers you have and the number of ones you don't, and it's a lot! You can't just turn all of them on, though. Things like weapons you can only choose one of, the "perks" that grant advantages you have a cap of five, but the "mutators" which basically make the game harder are unlimited.

If Thronefall solely relied on these modifiers to create fun across levels, I would be very disappointed with it. I very quickly found weapons and perks I liked, and didn't particularly feel like making the game harder in some specific way, so if the game was counting on my willingness to experiment, I was not particularly willing to indulge it. Thankfully, there is enough directed level design in Thronefall that even entering each stage with essentially the same tools leads to a fresh and fun experience.

The ways in which stages vary is also exciting. Different, mysterious structures become available, geographic features emerge that require some additional planning for your defense layouts, and later on in the game there are epic showdowns with special enemies unique to that stage. All of that? Well, that's what they call the good stuff.

When I play a game, I want to be taken on a journey. I want a designer to make me experience the thing they want me to experience, and I want that something to be specific. This is why I shy away from games that seem to put all of the agency on deciding how to have fun at my own fingertips. Thronefall is a half-step in this direction, but luckily it is not so open-ended so as to feel like I have to author the experience myself.