For fans of tower defense, this game is a MUST PLAY! For all others this game provides addicting fun.
First off, I was personally drawn into the World War I theme, but the charm of the miniature figurines gives this game a wonderful twist. Just as you get caught up in the heat of battle, protecting your toy box from waves of approaching enemies, you catch a glimpse of an enemy foot soldier exploding into several stiff, plastic pieces, or a tank being reduced to a pile of loose cogs and springs. This back-and-forth between realistic and cartoon/toy styling keeps the player engaged in the battle while lending an amusing tone.
The single player campaigns of this game provide hours in which to test your tower defense skills. The first campaign follows the allied powers through 12 maps through which to repel the central powers. The second campaign features many of the same maps that are in the first campaign, though conditions such as weather and time of day vary. The maps are very well designed, allowing for multiple paths for oncoming enemies to filter through, whether they be soldiers, tanks, cavalry, or aircraft. While some of the routes may come as a surprise (though few do), they never feel cheap. Much of the environment also is destructible as many buildings and trees will fall to your artillery shells which reinforces the sense of power your defenses wield. Being able to take control of any unit on the field at any time is also a great mechanic that avoids pitfall of many tower defense games in which you feel powerless to stop the oncoming hordes if you place your units poorly. The upgrades to your units are usually important investments and their improvements are noticeable to say the least. An unfortunate bit is that some unlockables in the rations dump seem nearly impossible to get (at least with the amount of time I have spent with the game), which can be a big thorn in the side of completionists like myself; although they do provide a large incentive to run through maps again. Survival gameplay modes also provide a frantic and fun alternative to larger campaign battles and it is a lot of fun to see how long you can last.
The multiplayer component of the game is a fair amount of fun, but its implementation is lacking. While the ability to finally control offensive units is satisfying, but the gameplay online can suffer from framerate issues. Another con is that the only way to manually select a map and its particular options is by playing with a friend, playing online against a random opponent in a ranked match only allows you to play on a random map with default settings. Unfortunately the tanks in these matches are overpowered and you can quickly lose the units you place against an opponent who is aware of this. These bouts are still very fun as testing your wits and offensive skills against a human mind is a necessary break from the defense oriented single player modes.
Overall, this game is a great package for a great price. I score it around a 9.25 because there was such great care given to a downloadable title. I hope this gem is discovered by many a gamer whether they favor tower defense, shooter, RTS, action, or any other genre.