5/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance TD.

One of the most anticipated games of the year has arrived... or maybe even of all time by me. A long-awaited sequel, especially after the disappointment caused by the previous game in the series. "Kingdom Rush 5", made and published by "Ironhide Game Studio" is one of the best Tower Defense games of all time and the best of the last decade. Unlike "Kingdom Rush Vengeance" (the 4th game in the series), Kingdom Rush 5 has offered us everything since its release. We can already see from the subtitle that the studio decided to change the direction of the story once again, this time we were playing for both camps. After the sudden end of "Kingdom Rush Vengeance", we all expected that in the next game we will have the "Overseer" as the main villain, a legendary enemy that has been talked about since the beginning of the series. The studio finally has delivered us this threat of a level equivalent to "Thanos" from the "Avengers. The game starts with the protagonist, but also our favorite antagonist, "Vez'Nan", after he managed to finally conquer the kingdom of King Denas, "Vez'Nan" decides to make a pact with the commander "Vesper", one of the king's most loyal warriors. The pact consisted mostly in the release of the king, but "Vez'nan" has bigger plans that he keeps secret. When it comes to the gameplay, the game won absolutely everything, especially in its genre. For the most part, it presents itself the same as "Kingdom Rush Vengeance".. having a large variety of towers which you can unlock by advancing in the story and completing internships. I was pleasantly surprised to see that many towers returned from the previous games, my heart stopped when I saw that I can unlock the "Necromancer" tower, being one of the most overpowered and unique towers in the whole "Kingdom Rush" series, making its appearance for the first time in "Kingdom Rush: Frontiers" like a mage tower. True, it felt much more balanced here, in fact, all the towers are much more balanced here, something that makes me very happy. Besides that, the upgrade system with "stars" works mostly the same as in Vengeance, the only thing changed is that now you have 2 types of upgrades.. the good ones and the bad ones, ah, yes, I forgot to specify.. probably the coolest addition that the developers have implemented in the game is that, from now on, you can play with 2 heroes in a single stage, which is f#*ing awesome! The game has 12 heroes in total, each hero is classified in a certain category, some are good, some are bad, they all have a very well written lore, extraordinarily good voicelines and some spectacular skills. The trend is still running, the game launched with 2 dragons, both are equally Overpowered and the best heroes in the game, however, they are not as Overpowered as the other dragons in the series such as "Bonehart", but.. let's not forget that the game will have a Halloween content update, which will add "Bonehart" as a hero for the 3rd time in the series. Leaving that aside, I want to talk about the bosses and the variety of enemies.. I can't say that I was very disappointed by the bosses, they're somewhere around 50/50, they weren't wow, like in Vengeance, but they weren't as bad as those in "Origins" (the 3rd game in the series). The variety instead, I think that it's a pretty good one, some stages were very difficult only because of the buffs that the enemies gave each other, sometimes i forgot what each enemy is doing, this is clearly a good sign for variety, if I can call it like that. I ​​have reached the graphics part, where the game clearly should not disappoint me. From what I have noticed, the game still has a different style compared to the first 3 games in the series, with all of them that runs on the same engine, still, it's different from Vengeance and that makes me quite happy, I'm one of the few haters of the Vengeance art style, It is not necessarily that it's bad, but I'm not a big fan either, a massive downgrade compared to the first games. Leaving Vengeance aside, the style here is really nice, I don't think there's any point in talking about the graphic fidelity considering that it's a 300MB 2D tower defense that also runs on mobile. The heroes have a spectacular design, the splash art as well as in the game , the enemies, the bosses, the comics, I love everything about the art style in this game, I congratulate all the team behind, that managed to deliver us such a piece of art when it comes to it's appearance. One part where I can't criticize much is the SOUND AND MUSIC.. although the sound is very good, at some point it becomes annoying and makes you open a jazz playlist on Spotify, that's just from what I've noticed in most Tower Defense games. In general, I could put the music in the same spot, it's very good, perfect for the game, it merges perfectly with the aestethics of the game and the scenes from the gameplay, but at a certain point it is taken away from you. The story of "Kingdom Rush Alliance" is still not complete, it left us with a ton of questions and a very interesting post ending scene, but to which we still don't have an answer, maybe we won't have it too soon, but I hope we don't have to wait another 6 years for the next game that will only answer a few questions. That aside, the story itself is pretty cool, I could say that the side stories matter more than the main story, considering that all the lore of the heroes leaves you fascinated. With great gameplay, gorgeous heroes and an absolutely stunning art style, "Kingdom Rush 5" is a massive upgrade over the previous game in the series. I was not disappointed by even one level, they all had the right difficulty and were perfect for all the tactics I had in mind. Besides that, we had some unique and gorgeous heroes, the new mechanic of adding 2 heroes per level is a delightful one and I can't wait to see what "Ironhide Games" delivers next with the Halloween update. 10/10 Made by DanteHR