Fortified

About

Fortified is a single player and multiplayer shooter game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Siege Camp and was released on February 3, 2016. It received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.

Fortified is an explosive strategy shooter where players will defend the Earth against a menacing Martian invasion in the 1950s. Play as one-of-four pulp inspired heroes as they fight swarms of terrifying robots with an arsenal of Cold War era weapons and experimental technology. Protect the city by building a network of defensive structures, commanding an army, and jumping into battle against dan…

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69%

Audience ScoreBased on 772 reviews

graphics52 positive mentions

story11 negative mentions

Charming retro 1950s comic book aesthetic with vibrant visuals and fitting soundtrack
Engaging third-person tower defense gameplay with a mix of strategic tower placement and action-packed shooting
Supports up to four-player co-op which significantly enhances fun and replayability

Game feels unfinished with lack of depth, poor balancing, and limited content
Solo mode is challenging and often frustrating due to the game being designed primarily for co-op play
Persistent bugs, frequent crashes, and developer abandonment leading to broken achievements and lack of support

graphics
135 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
39%
57%
4%
Fortified features a distinctive 1950s retro sci-fi and comic book art style that many find charming and visually appealing, creating a strong atmospheric identity. While the graphics and animations are generally praised for their aesthetic and thematic cohesion, some note they can feel simplistic, occasionally janky, or slightly outdated compared to modern standards. Overall, the game's graphics stand out as its key strength, elevating the experience even when other aspects receive mixed feedback.
- “Charming retro aesthetic with vibrant visuals and a fitting soundtrack.”
- “The golden-age comic art-style and the retro 50's sci-fi look were instant likes for me.”
- “The graphics in Fortified are exquisite and of top quality for an indie game.”
- “The cutscenes are cute but the graphics just look too simplistic and again it looks like a game that is 60% done.”
- “-graphics and animations like the running aren't the best and can look a bit weird or old.”
- “Both of them is hardly average for game released 2016, our graphics more like looks made in 2012 or something.”
gameplay
122 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
57%
13%
The gameplay of the game blends third-person shooting with tower defense mechanics in a 1950s sci-fi setting, offering smooth, fast-paced, and accessible action that is fun and moderately challenging, especially in co-op. However, it suffers from simplicity, repetitive levels, limited weapon and trap variety, occasional balance issues, and lacks depth compared to similar titles like Orcs Must Die, which can reduce long-term engagement despite its solid core mechanics.
- “Fortified blends third-person shooting with tower defense mechanics, set in a retro 1950s sci-fi world.”
- “Engaging co-op gameplay that encourages strategy and coordination.”
- “The gameplay is balanced and challenging enough.”
- “Gameplay mechanics are inferior to Orcs Must Die; it's not detailed enough or enjoyable.”
- “The gameplay gets repetitive very soon.”
- “You don't need to aim, think about structure placement, or dodge; gameplay is trivial and reduces the player's role to pre-placing structures and idly clicking.”
story
78 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
78%
14%
The game features a brief 12-mission campaign with minimal story, primarily conveyed through short comic-style cutscenes centered on a simple plot of Martians invading Earth. Reviews consistently note the lack of a meaningful or engaging narrative, describing the story as filler with little depth or progression, which may diminish the single-player experience. While the art style and comic presentation hint at potential, the story remains underdeveloped and overshadowed by repetitive mission structure and gameplay grind.
- “You are given a choice of 4 comic book heroes, each with a unique power, weapon and defense type then you blast robots in a 12 mission story mode.”
- “The story is that Martians come to Earth, with people thinking they came in peace, until the Martians attack a year later.”
- “The game combines both a 2D and 3D version of the characters and background by using a comic strip for the story and the 3D mode for the game.”
- “There is a campaign with 12 levels that has basically no story, just a couple of very short cutscenes.”
- “The campaign is short, has no variety, no story, and levels are unbalanced.”
- “"Story" is just filler; there is nothing memorable about it, and the same goes for the soundtrack.”
music
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
67%
22%
The game's music features a charming, retro-inspired soundtrack that complements its 1950s sci-fi and comic book aesthetic, adding intensity and atmosphere. However, many users find the music repetitive and sometimes annoying, which can detract from the overall experience despite its fitting style.
- “Charming retro aesthetic with vibrant visuals and a fitting soundtrack.”
- “Great soundtrack, great visuals and a lot of fun, especially with a friend.”
- “The comic book, pulp fiction, cut-scenes and music are done so well and translated into a 3-dimensional world so nicely!”
- “The soundtrack gets very repetitive.”
- “The music grinds your ears, as it's not fun or memorable to listen to, and the graphics - especially the animations - look so amateurish that it feels like you're playing someone's student project.”
- “Animations seem stiff, music is annoying, and the game gets repetitive really fast.”
replayability
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
60%
20%
Replayability is generally seen as decent due to multiple character classes with distinct abilities, varied enemy types, and extensive waves, offering different play experiences. However, some find the content limited and missions repetitive, suggesting additional secondary objectives or more diverse class roles could enhance replay value further. Overall, loadout customization and leveling add meaningful variety, making the game enjoyable to revisit despite some criticisms.
- “It maintains its value in replayability - leveling up always brings new content and the myriad of strategies bring loads of new ways to play the same level.”
- “A single playthrough of the game using one character took me just under four hours to complete; the game has tons of replayability with three more characters to use, which will make for a different experience each time due to their variety in abilities.”
- “Four individually leveled classes add more replayability.”
- “Limited content and repetitive missions can reduce replayability.”
- “I've not come across any secondary objectives either, and I think for some upgrades it might have been wise to take a leaf from X-Com and make a secondary objective to capture 'x' number of enemies to obtain some upgrades where the players would end up having to defend both the base and the alien they wanted to capture; this would give more meaning for co-op play and make levels a little more replayable.”
- “Replay value: 2.5/10”
humor
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is generally light-hearted and family-friendly, featuring quippy one-liners, funny death animations, and retro sci-fi charm that some players find amusing, especially in co-op play. However, it can be repetitive and a bit cheesy with dry, predictable jokes that may wear thin over time. Overall, the humor adds a quirky, casual fun element but is not a standout feature.
- “Fortified has pretty good graphics and sound, humorous audio and quippy one-liners in the vein of Borderlands 2 characters, just way more family friendly.”
- “Fortified 2, with some crazy tech traps, death rays, and some funny death animations.. you could actually have a 'retroscifi' Orcs Must Die on your hands.”
- “+ Dialog and phrases are funny to listen.”
stability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
92%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent bugs, freezes, and occasional crashes, compounded by a lack of developer support and balance problems. While the core gameplay and character abilities can be enjoyable, these technical flaws often hinder the overall experience.
- “Buggy and abandoned by developers, possibly containing potential spyware.”
- “Clapfoot, the developer, left this game unbalanced, buggy, with broken achievements.”
- “Can't find any players and the game freezes now and then, which results in being killed.”
grinding
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
18%
55%
The game features a significant amount of grinding, often feeling tedious and repetitive due to high enemy durability and challenging difficulty. Progression requires considerable time investment, as failure yields no XP and cooperative play with well-upgraded teammates is often necessary.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “A lot of grinding.”
- “A bit grindy sometimes.”
- “As with all games that involve increasing amounts of XP to level, there was grinding involved and eventually that grinding wasn't worth the time.”
- “You can knock enemies over with your blast, but you have to shoot the same enemy about 10 times to kill it, making it feel really tedious.”
- “The difficulty in this game is outrageous, you need to have a full team of 4 people who have most of their upgrades unlocked in order to complete any of the maps beyond 1-5. Not only is it hard and grindy, but if you fail a mission, which will happen, you don't get any XP, no matter how hard you tried or how many kills you got.”
optimization
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
30%
30%
The game's optimization receives mixed feedback, with some users experiencing performance issues even on high-end hardware, while others report smooth gameplay and good optimization. There are calls for tweaks to improve performance and gameplay balancing, as well as criticism regarding the game's abandonment affecting ongoing optimization.
- “It just needs some tweaking in the performance, but other than that it's great.”
- “Other than this problem it's a lot of fun, runs smoothly, and a completed package and not questionable early access stuff.”
- “Game runs smooth in and out of combat and is well optimized.”
- “The game has performance issues even on a high-end Nvidia RTX 4070, despite looking like it should run perfectly on much less powerful hardware.”
- “This game is extremely unoptimized and appears to have been abandoned by the developers since 2016.”
- “The game could use significant optimization improvements to enhance gameplay experience.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The atmosphere is generally praised for its fun, light-hearted tone and strong 1950s comic-inspired style, with distinct characters and well-crafted graphics enhancing the retro feel. However, some users note it could benefit from more varied enemies and additional lively dialogue to further enrich the experience. Overall, the game effectively captures a nostalgic, humorous vibe reminiscent of the "Martian Madness" era.
- “It nails the general atmosphere, including graphics, writing, and cheesy dialogue that normally comes with 50s comics.”
- “Graphics, effects, and overall atmosphere are beautiful; the game has all attributes of the Martian Madness era.”
- “The good: fun, light-hearted atmosphere, distinct characters, interesting towers (if unbalanced), and interesting enemies (but needs more kinds).”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional impact of the game varies widely among players, with some feeling deeply moved and nostalgic, while others find it dull and depressing. Overall, it evokes strong reactions, either positive or negative, depending on individual engagement.
- “Tears welled up in his eyes when he realized what exactly was at stake.”
- “My god this game is so amazing, it actually hits you emotionally rattled, excited to once again relieve those good old days!”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development in the game is visually strong, featuring unique 1950s-inspired designs and high-quality animation that effectively bring the characters to life. However, the focus appears more on aesthetic presentation than on deep narrative growth.