Road Defense: Outsiders
- May 28, 2023
- Minicactus Games
- 4h median play time
Get on Steam"Road Defense: Outsiders" is a tower defense game where players must protect their road from incoming enemies using a variety of turrets and abilities. The game features multiple levels with increasing difficulty, as well as a crafting system to upgrade your defenses. With multiple enemy types and strategies to employ, Road Defense: Outsiders offers a challenging and engaging experience for fans of the tower defense genre.
Nintendo Switch
PC
Playstation 4
Playstation 5
Windows
Xbox One
Xbox Series X|S
PlayStation
Xbox
Reviews
- Road Defense: Outsiders offers a fun blend of roguelike and tower defense elements, providing an enjoyable gameplay experience for fans of the genre.
- The game features a unique art style and solid mechanics, making it a great value for its low price, with many players appreciating its straightforward and addictive nature.
- The developer is responsive to player feedback and actively updates the game, showing potential for future improvements and additional content.
- The game suffers from a lack of content, with only a few levels and limited weapon variety, leading to a repetitive gameplay experience.
- Many players find the tower defense mechanics ineffective, as the towers do not significantly contribute to gameplay, making it feel more like a shooter than a true tower defense game.
- Balancing issues and difficulty spikes, particularly in later levels, can lead to frustration, with some players feeling that the game requires excessive grinding to progress.
- graphics26 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a retro CRT art style that many players find aesthetically pleasing, contributing positively to the overall experience. However, some critiques highlight that the graphics are rudimentary and the static world design, along with the similarity in enemy appearances, detracts from the visual engagement during gameplay. Overall, while the art style is appreciated, it may lack depth and variety.
“I really like the art style.”
“Good graphics add a lot to my enjoyment of the game, and they usually mean a sophisticated game.”
“It's got a really solid foundation, 2D isometric twin-stick shooter but with tower defense added in, topped off with an aesthetically pleasing retro CRT art style.”
“The graphics are rudimentary.”
“Art style also has a big con, where every enemy pretty much looks the same in the heat of the battle.”
“Not only do the enemies pretty much look the same thanks to the art style, they are just designed to home in on you from every corner of the map.”
- gameplay20 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The gameplay is straightforward and enjoyable, offering about 5 hours of solid tower defense and shooter mechanics, enhanced by a unique turret feature. While the core concept is promising and the art style is appreciated, many reviewers feel the game requires balancing and deeper mechanics to stand out in a crowded indie market. Overall, it shows potential but risks being perceived as a cash grab without significant improvements.
“The gameplay is straightforward but effective, and for the price, it’s a great deal.”
“At first you don't know what is going on, but you quickly learn and the turret mechanic is really a cool addition that adds a bit of strategy to the levels.”
“Hopefully EA provides direction and a chance to add sophistication to the mechanics, because at present there's nothing here that can't be found better elsewhere.”
“Overall, it feels like a cash grab at this point unless there is significant gameplay balancing and creative input.”
“Expect about 5 hours of gameplay before you finish it, and while it’s not overly complex, it delivers a solid and enjoyable experience.”
- grinding10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that grinding in the game is a mixed experience; while some players enjoyed the resource collection and upgrade mechanics, others found the grinding tedious and unoriginal, particularly due to artificial difficulty spikes that forced unfun tactics. The overall playtime for completing the game, including grinding, is around 5 to 7 hours, but many felt that the lack of creativity and innovation made the grinding feel repetitive and uninspired.
“Dev didn't make level 6 feasibly beatable thanks to artificial difficulty, making you resort to unfun tactics after hours of grinding to progress.”
“The price reflects the content included, that's to say, not a lot; it will only take about 5 hours to complete the 5 levels, including the grinding that needs to be done to power up in order to handle later levels.”
“Total play time takes 5 hours to upgrade everything so that you can kill everyone. I feel like whoever made this game was extremely lazy, since the game is not fun, inventive, or creative, and just follows the typical grinding, die, earn points, upgrade abilities, repeat cycle.”
- optimization6 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is mixed; it runs well on the Steam Deck despite a questionable performance rating, but struggles with frame rates during intense combat scenarios, indicating potential limitations within the Unity engine rather than hardware issues. Players express a desire for further development and improved performance.
“The game runs perfectly fine on the Steam Deck despite having a questionable performance rating.”
“I would love to see this develop further with more content if the dev wanted to, plus with better performance (as best as Unity will allow, anyway).”
“Performance isn't fantastic when there's a lot of enemies coming onto the screen, and it has nothing to do with hardware.”
- story4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game is not explicitly detailed in the reviews, but players appreciate the engaging gameplay loop that combines elements of tower defense and escort missions. The focus seems to be more on gameplay mechanics rather than a narrative, suggesting that the story may take a backseat to the action and strategy involved.
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its compelling post-apocalyptic atmosphere, which effectively immerses players in a desolate and haunting world.
“I love the post-apocalyptic atmosphere in the game.”
- character development2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
The reviews indicate a significant lack of character development, with multiple users expressing disappointment over the absence of both world-building and character growth throughout the game.
“No world or character development.”
“No world or character development.”
“No world or character development.”
- music2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is praised for its unique and lovely aesthetics, contributing positively to the overall experience.
“The graphics style and sound/music aesthetics are unique and quite lovely.”
