Fail-Deadly

I came across Josh Sutphin‘s rapid-fire RTS Fail-Deadly thanks to a high-score challenge competition on Eurogamer.  As it’s a Unity game, it runs nicely in a web browser without the need to download anything.. so trying it out is a no-brainer really 😉

The game has two opposing factions at war, and you.  You’re a sly third party with secret agents hidden within both factions, and your goal is the destruction of both factions!  Every five seconds, a building or power-up appears in the build queue, for you to deploy to the map.  It then belongs to whoever’s side of the map you placed it on, and produces units for that faction, or provides a boost for them.

This turns into a balancing act, as you don’t want either side to win.. instead, you want them to keep fighting until you can force them into nuclear war, where mutual destruction is assured!  The longer you can get them to hold out, the higher your score 🙂

However, in pursuit of a very high score, I found a slight flaw.  The boosts stop coming once each faction has three of each, which makes the game easier.. and the longer you last, the less each new item matters in the balance.  I guess chasing silly high scores wasn’t quite expected! 🙂

I also had a quick look at the developer’s blog, and I found this.. a quick overview of the techniques he used in making the game.  It’s not a beginner’s tutorial.. those can actually be found on the Unity forums, but I love it when developers share info like this.. the more people learn, the more awesome games we’ll end up with 🙂

3 Million Dwarfs!?

It’s over 3 million!

Hopefully now the end of my obsession.. though my work PC won’t handle much more.. so now maybe I’ll get on with the challenges instead 😉

Obsession..

There’s something obsessive in me that always wants to get a higher score in Tower Defense games..

Dwarfs!? Base Defense mode has turned out to be something I keep coming back to, and despite so far being unable to really improve on my score, I keep.. on.. trying..

I usually always get up to Armageddon Wave 1 or 2.. but I’ve seen much higher scores than the sub 2 million scores I’ve been getting, which just makes me want to keep trying.. not too healthy..

Red Faction: Armageddon

I didn’t actually complete the Red Faction: Guerrilla campaign, as I was distracted by the free-roaming possibilities.. buildings to destroy, vehicles to steal.. and the ever-respawning EDF to kill.

Red Faction: Armageddon is linear rather than open-world, which means there will be less to distract me from the story’s objectives.  I started this game on the PS3, and I’m not sure whether it’s the console controls, or the rather close-view that I’m not so comfortable with.. I felt that the player character took up far too much room on the screen at first too.

The destruction is fantastic, as expected, with plenty of explosive barrels and fuel tanks around to aid in wiping out as much as possible in an area.  My favourite weapon so far is the Magnet Gun which is great for destroying enemies and buildings.. or more accurately, destroying enemies with buildings!  The Nano Forge is a nice addition in this game, allowing the repair of buildings you actually want to leave standing.. maybe for cover, maybe to blow up again 😉

As in the last game, salvage is available everywhere, and here you use it to purchase new abilities.  Abilities and upgrades for abilities are presented on a tier system, allowing you to choose the ones you think are most useful or just coolest.. I quite like the Impact upgrade as it allows you to blast away enemies and anything else in your path.. very useful when swamped!

Leaving the campaign unfinished for now, I’ve had a quick go on Ruin Mode, chasing down a friend’s high-score..

The first map is Junction, and to unlock the next maps you need to.. destroy everything! 😀

I have indeed nabbed the top spot on the Junction map.. though I imagine it’s going to get stolen back fairly soon!