Fieldrunners

About

Fieldrunners is a single player casual strategy game with warfare and kids themes. It was developed by Subatomic Studios LLC and was released on May 24, 2012. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Fieldrunners is a single-player warfare strategy game offering around 10 hours of playtime, available on Steam. It features 8 unique maps, a variety of upgradeable towers, and 10 devastating weapons to defend against waves of land and air combatants. The game boasts stunning, hand-painted artwork and provides replayable challenges for endless entertainment.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

62%

Audience ScoreBased on 211 reviews

graphics8 positive mentions

grinding6 negative mentions

Fieldrunners offers a classic and accessible tower defense experience with a variety of tower types and maps, allowing for creative strategies and replayability.
The game features a charming, colorful art style and straightforward mechanics that make it easy to pick up and play, appealing to both casual and dedicated players.
With multiple modes and difficulty levels, Fieldrunners provides a satisfying challenge that can keep players engaged for hours.

The game suffers from input lag and performance issues on modern systems, making it frustrating to play at times.
Many players find the gameplay repetitive due to the lack of significant variety in enemy types and tower options, leading to a grind-heavy experience.
The music and sound design are limited and can become annoying, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the game.

graphics
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
54%
13%
The graphics of Fieldrunners are characterized by a bright, cartoonish art style that enhances its accessible gameplay, though opinions vary on their overall quality. While some players appreciate the vibrant colors and smooth animations, others find the visuals to be simplistic and outdated, especially compared to other tower defense games. Overall, the graphics are seen as enjoyable but could benefit from improvements in detail and variety.
- “Visually, Fieldrunners adopts a bright, cartoonish art style that complements its accessible gameplay.”
- “The artwork and colors, sounds and music, are vibrant and fun, and the gameplay is enjoyable and challenging.”
- “Graphics are clean and smooth.”
- “The graphics look bland and outdated, the gameplay is generic and rough around the edges, and the handful of maps I played weren't very interesting either.”
- “The general aesthetic of the game, mainly the color scheme, is not exactly pretty, which is a shame as you will be looking at the game for hours on end when trying to get the harder achievements.”
- “As this was originally a mobile game, the graphics are a bit on the simple side, but this doesn't affect the playability.”
gameplay
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
45%
15%
The gameplay is characterized by its simplicity and charm, focusing on intuitive mechanics that encourage experimentation, making it enjoyable in short bursts. While it offers a vibrant art style and can be challenging on higher difficulty levels, the overall experience can become repetitive due to a lack of complexity and depth. Some players find it entertaining, while others criticize it for being generic and lacking in innovation within the crowded tower defense genre.
- “It is a game built on simplicity and charm, eschewing heavy narrative or complex systems in favor of direct, intuitive mechanics that invite experimentation.”
- “The result is a gameplay loop that’s highly enjoyable in short sessions but can become repetitive over extended play.”
- “It may lack the complexity of modern titles that layer in RPG elements or dynamic progression, but it excels in delivering a clean, polished, and addictive gameplay experience that feels timeless.”
- “The simplicity of its mechanics means that once you’ve mastered the optimal maze layouts and tower combinations, much of the challenge dissipates.”
- “The graphics look bland and outdated, the gameplay is generic and rough around the edges, and the handful of maps I played weren't very interesting either.”
- “Conclusion: between the developer apathy, limited gameplay, derivative art style, deficient user interface and user options, the requirement for a controller that you can't even use, and the existence of an oversaturated market in the tower defense genre, this has nothing left on offer and I am removing it for library declutter.”
grinding
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
86%
Players have mixed feelings about grinding in tower defense games; while some find it meditative and a satisfying challenge of optimization, others view it as tedious and repetitive, especially when achievements require significant grinding without the aid of special powers. The lack of a tutorial allows for immediate engagement, but the grinding can feel dragged out over time.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Grinding in this game is incredibly rewarding and keeps you engaged.”
- “The grind is satisfying and offers a real sense of progression.”
- “Just grinding, nothing else, and the achievements even more so.”
- “Grinding achievements: yes (virtually all of them)”
- “You do not get any special powers to deploy to help in case foes get through your defense line, and grinding the waves to make a labyrinth of maze feels dragged out and repetitious after a short lapse.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
17%
33%
The game offers significant replayability through its freedom to experiment with different layouts and tactics across various maps and difficulty levels. Additional modes and weapons enhance this aspect, appealing particularly to players who enjoy achieving high scores and leaderboard challenges, despite some concerns about repetitiveness. Overall, it is praised for its engaging replay value, often available at a low price.
- “A looney tooney version of Defense Grid with fantastic replay value.”
- “A lot of replay value if you are the type of person who likes to achieve or beat high scores in the leaderboards.”
- “A lot of replay value if you are the type of person who likes to achieve or beat high scores on the leaderboards.”
- “The freedom to experiment is what gives the game its replay value, as players can attempt new layouts and tactics across multiple maps and difficulty levels.”
story
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
20%
60%
The reviews indicate that the game lacks a compelling story, with some users noting that other tower defense games offer more engaging narratives and overall better experiences. Comparisons to titles like Defender's Quest and Defense Grid highlight the perceived shortcomings in storytelling within this game.
- “There are certainly more colorful, better graphics, more variations, and a better story in other tower defense games out there.”
- “There is no story whatsoever.”
- “There are certainly more colorful, better graphics, more variations, better story, and so on in other tower defense games.”
- “Defender's Quest is a better title, but for a more traditional example, Defense Grid was a much better tower defense game.”
music
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The music in the game has received mixed reviews; some players find it limited and annoying, while others appreciate its vibrancy and fun quality. Users can turn off the music without affecting sound effects, which is a helpful feature for those who prefer a quieter experience. Overall, while the music may not be universally praised, it complements the game's colorful artwork and challenging gameplay.
- “The music is reasonably good.”
- “The artwork and colors, sounds, and music are vibrant and fun, and the gameplay is enjoyable and challenging.”
- “My only real complaint about the game is that the music is very limited and quickly becomes annoying, but thankfully it can be turned off without turning off the sound effects.”
- “The music and UI are dated and a little annoying; just turn it down and learn the UI.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including buggy controls, sound problems, and resolution glitches, indicating poor coding in this port. Users report frequent lag and overall instability, detracting from the gameplay experience.
- “This tower defense game has a great art style but is very buggy with sound and resolution.”
- “Very buggy; something is badly coded in this port.”
- “Laggy and buggy.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
The game's optimization is a mixed bag; while it performs well on low-end systems, it requires better optimization for modern hardware, particularly in windowed mode. Players who appreciate incremental optimization in tower defense games may find the experience rewarding, though some may find the simplicity tedious.
- “However, for players who treat tower defense games as a test of incremental optimization and pattern perfection, that simplicity can be meditative rather than tedious.”
- “Runs well on low-performance computers.”
- “If you do manage to get this game running in windowed mode, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had; however, it really needs to be optimized for modern systems.”
- “The game suffers from severe performance issues, making it nearly unplayable on higher settings.”
- “Despite its potential, the lack of proper optimization leads to frustrating lag and long loading times.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the game's emotional depth, highlighting its wholesome and straightforward gameplay that evokes nostalgia for classic gaming experiences. This simplicity fosters a genuine connection, making it a highly recommended choice for those seeking heartfelt gaming moments.