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Review: CastleStorm: Definitive Edition

Zen Studios’ CastleStorm: Definitive Edition marks a departure from what they typically produce. The studio has carved an impressive niche in the electronic pinball genre, with  titles like Pinball FX2, Marvel Pinball and Star Wars Pinball always focusing on quality and uniqueness. When I first heard about CastleStorm being a tower defense style game I was curious, but also a little hesitant; I’ve never played a tower defense game before. So, what is CastleStorm? The answer may not be as easy and straightforward as it may sound.

Fundamentally, CastleStorm could be called a tower defense game, but it’s so much more than that. It’s part tower defense, part beat ‘em up, part Angry Birds and part strategy. It would do the game a great disservice to try and shoe-horn it into one simple genre. You can play it any way you like and still be successful, but varying up your strategies will not only make it more enjoyable, it will give you a better chance of routing your foes.

You play the game as Sir Gareth, a noble knight dedicated to keeping the realm safe from the Vikings. The story starts with a raid by the Vikings who take the knight’s magic gem. The loss of the gem forces Gareth and his companions to try to recover it by waging all-out war on the Vikings. The narrative of the story is told in brief cutscenes in between battles or challenges. The cut scenes have a very light, humorous feel to them, which perfectly fits the overall theme of the game. Zen Studios obviously took great pains to make the game fun and engaging, while at the same time not taking itself too seriously.

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We have all heard the phrase, “it’s easy to pick up, but takes a life time to master.” CastleStorm is one of those games. From the first mission the controls are intuitive and easy to understand. However, the deeper you get into the game, the more you understand that there are, in fact, several small nuances that can quickly turn the tide of battle. As I mentioned before, you get to choose how to play. Do you want to sit back and use your ballista to pick away at the enemy castle? Do you want to deploy ground troops to batter down the enemy’s front gate and steal their flag? Perhaps a combination of both? It’s just as rewarding to see your enemy’s castle fall as it is to see your troops bringing back the enemy’s flag.

Where CastleStorm really shines is the level of customization in almost every aspect of the game. For starters, as you progress through the campaign you will unlock new projectiles to use with your ballista, new troops that you can spawn, and new spells that can aid you in battle. Throughout your adventures you earn gold that can be used to level up all those things I mentioned, making them stronger, have a faster cool down rate, and overall better stats.

However, the thing that really makes CastleStorm stand out is the level of customization for your castle. Like I mentioned above, you unlock all those gadgets through progression, but you also unlock new and unique rooms for your castle. These rooms provide you all sorts of bonuses, from being able to have more troops in battle, to troops doing more damage, all the way to earning more gold. I will freely admit this is the one area of the game that took some time to fully understand. Yet, once you understand how the rooms work, you can even customize your castle to protect your most important rooms in case your castle takes damage during a battle. Taking the time and effort to understand how this all works will definitely pay off in the end.

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The single player mode offers a rich and rewarding campaign, but it is complemented by other single- and co-operative modes – side missions, boss battles, flocks of viscous turkeys. However, where players will be the most surprised is the multiplayer modes. It is one thing to play against the computer by yourself and be unstoppable. It’s another thing entirely when you are humbled by the skill, ingenuity, and craftiness of another online player. There are also a couple of local multiplayer modes as well, which is a decidedly nice touch and one many developers seem to be going away from.

To say CastleStorm is merely a tower defense game would be doing it a great disservice. It succeeds in being a deceptively complex game that will appeal to a variety of gamers. This is one of those quirky games that, on the surface, may look simplistic, but the true rewards are there for those willing to learn the intricacies of the game and not be lured in to a false sense of security with the whimsical graphics and catchy soundtrack. For those looking for something a little different, and a great change of pace from all the mainstream titles out there, CastleStorm is one that should be at the top of their list.

For those who played the first iteration of CastleStorm on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, the Definitive Edition on Xbox One and PS4 offers up the original game plus both DLC packs: “From Outcast to Savior” and “The Warrior Queen”. This current-gen offering also comes with the requisite 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second.
 

CastleStorm: Definitive Edition

The good

  • Play the way you want.
  • Variety of modes.
  • Quirky humor and fantastic art style.

The bad

  • At times camera angles can be tricky.
  • Can become a bit grindy at times which disrupts the flow.

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About the author

Andy Gray

From the frozen land of Minnesota, I was the weird kid that begged my parents for an Intellivision instead of an Atari. My love for gaming has only grown since. When I’m not gaming I enjoy ice hockey and training dogs. I’m still trying to get my Elkhound to add to my Gamerscore though, one day this will happen.