Hexguardian

About

Hexguardian is a single-player strategy game with excellent mechanics and two ways to play: Standard Mode, where you unlock new content with points earned from runs, and Challenge Mode, which features weekly changing challenges and leaderboards. The game features randomly generated hexagonal tiles that affect enemy paths, allowing you to shape your realm and control the battle. With approximately 100 hours of gameplay, Hexguardian offers depth and replayability. Part of the Yogscast Games catalog, Hexguardian brings a unique twist to the tower defense genre.

Genres & Tags

Strategy

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

81%

Audience ScoreBased on 315 reviews

gameplay21 positive mentions

optimization3 negative mentions

Hexguardian offers a unique blend of tower defense and roguelite mechanics, allowing players to build their own maps with hexagonal tiles, which adds depth and strategy to gameplay.
The game features a large talent tree and a variety of towers, units, and spells, providing significant replayability and customization options for players.
The aesthetic and design of the game are appealing, with colorful graphics and a fun, engaging gameplay loop that keeps players coming back for more.

The game suffers from severe performance issues in the late game, with frame rates dropping significantly after wave 30, making it nearly unplayable for some players.
Many players have noted that the tower and unit mechanics can feel repetitive and lack distinctiveness, leading to a sense of sameness in gameplay.
The reliance on RNG for tile placement and tower upgrades can lead to frustrating experiences, as players may find themselves at the mercy of luck rather than strategy.

gameplay
61 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
34%
61%
5%
The gameplay of Hexguardian is a mixed bag, featuring a unique hex-based map-building mechanic that adds depth and strategy to the tower defense genre, but suffers from issues like restrictive tower placement and a lack of diverse mechanics. While some players appreciate the engaging and addictive gameplay loop, others find it repetitive and hindered by RNG elements and a poorly executed skill tree. Overall, the game shows potential for improvement, particularly in enhancing tower diversity and addressing gameplay balance.
- “The roguelike map and tower mechanics, plus the huge tech tree allow for a great amount of variation and play styles.”
- “Hexguardian provides players with a delightfully simple but addictive gameplay loop.”
- “A fun tower defense game with a surprising amount of depth, that stands out amongst the crowd of its genre, due to the mechanic of creating the map as you play using tiles.”
- “Instead, the game doesn't really use that pathing mechanic because the scaling of how much towers cost and how tanky the enemies are raises too quickly for you to really take advantage of it.”
- “The way you can place towers is quite restrictive and the gameplay feels repetitive.”
- “While I can appreciate the attempt at strategy with the mechanic of building out your own grid, it feels underdeveloped and loses novelty very quickly.”
graphics
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
64%
12%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the colorful art style and aesthetic, while others find it bland or unappealing. Many users express a desire for improved graphical quality settings and performance optimization, noting that the visuals can feel repetitive across different maps. Overall, while the graphics are deemed adequate for the gameplay experience, there is a consensus that enhancements and more customization options would significantly improve player satisfaction.
- “Amazing aesthetic & original concept 👍 will be playing much more”
- “Graphics are good for what the game is trying to achieve, tons of different enemies and even different styles for whatever map you are currently playing, great little detail.”
- “And while the graphics or art design isn't my favorite ever, it looks more than good enough to go along with the great gameplay :)”
- “This game desperately needs graphical quality settings or performance optimisation.”
- “The only thing that is keeping me from playing more is the art style, which is kind of meh and not catching my interest for some reason.”
- “You unlock some more interesting options going through, but the overall visuals and visual progressions are pretty bland (and even a little hard to discern the difference between a level 1 and level 3 tower at a glance).”
optimization
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
75%
15%
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, particularly in the late game, where players report drastic drops in frame rates (down to 1-10 fps) that render it nearly unplayable. While the core gameplay is enjoyable, these performance problems hinder progression and enjoyment, leading many to call for urgent improvements and graphical settings to enhance performance. Overall, optimization remains a critical area that the developers need to address to retain player engagement.
- “Great tower defense game, has some optimization issues when things get a little crazy and a few minor things.”
- “This game desperately needs graphical quality settings or performance optimization.”
- “Great game, however, after level 40 it's almost unplayable due to low performance (1-5 fps).”
- “Tldr: this is a fun take on the tower defense genre, but it's hamstrung by major performance issues that make the mid-game to late-game literally unplayable.”
- “So in the game's current state, the performance issues here are really not okay and still need a lot of work.”
replayability
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47%
33%
20%
Overall, the game is praised for its high replayability, driven by a combination of meta-progression systems, unique gameplay mechanics, and randomization elements that keep each run fresh. While some players note a lack of variety in towers and upgrades, many appreciate the creative gameplay and the potential for future content to enhance replay value further. The inclusion of weekly challenges and a robust tech tree also contributes to its appeal for casual and roguelite fans.
- “Beyond unlocking everything there is to unlock in the talent tree (the game’s meta-progression system), the main driver of replayability is attempting to beat your previous runs' high scores.”
- “Truly, this is an infinitely replayable game and is a must-have for casual, tower defense, and roguelite enjoyers.”
- “This, along with different weekly challenges, a big tech tree to accomplish, and a roguelike mode, allows for endless replayability.”
- “The only real problem that the game has is a lack of variety for long-term replayability.”
- “It is fun for some time, but the lack of interesting towers and upgrades makes for almost no replayability.”
- “Would love multiplayer and workshop content to increase replayability but understand both could be hard to implement.”
music
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
38%
The music in the game is generally well-received, with an enjoyable soundtrack and effective sound design that enhances the experience, though it lacks innovation. While some find the music relaxing and fitting, others note it can be misleading in a challenging gameplay context. Overall, the variety in music across different maps and levels contributes positively to the game's atmosphere.
- “The music is just great, and the variety across maps, towers, and difficulties will keep me playing for many more hours for sure.”
- “The art style and music are fantastic.”
- “Tough game, so do not let the relaxing music lull you into a false sense of security.”
- “The soundtrack and sound effect design both meet the mark, but neither do anything to push the boundaries.”
- “It has music that puts babies to sleep.”
- “Tough game, so do not let the relaxing music in the game lull you into a false sense of security.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a double-edged sword; while it offers a satisfying sense of progression, it can also lead to a challenging and somewhat repetitive experience, especially in the early stages. Overall, the grind is considered enjoyable, albeit noticeable.
- “This does provide a good sense of progression, but also means the game is very difficult at the start, and can feel a bit grindy at times.”
- “You will be farming this a lot for progression.”
- “Quite enjoyable if slightly grindy.”
story
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The story aspect is not explicitly detailed, as the focus is primarily on gameplay mechanics, including a tutorial mission that introduces tower placement and map expansion. The narrative seems minimal, with an emphasis on challenging missions that are shorter in duration compared to other tower defense games.
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its lack of microtransactions, which is seen as a significant positive aspect by users.
- “No microtransactions is a bonus!”
- “No microtransactions.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is consistently praised, with users finding it genuinely funny and enjoyable.
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The game experiences some graphical glitches on the Steam Deck, which detracts from the overall experience; however, it's worth noting that the developers have not officially supported this platform.
- “There are frequent crashes that disrupt gameplay, making it hard to enjoy the experience.”
- “The game suffers from significant frame rate drops, especially during intense scenes.”
- “I encountered several bugs that caused the game to freeze, requiring a restart.”