Sentinel - Interactive Music Tower Defense Madness. Pay what you want ($0.25+)
- Thread starter Toma
- Start date
faceless007
Member
Bought.
Motorbreath
Member
Tried the game and it is fun so far, I agree, it's fresh looking!
Well to be fair, its not a game everyone will like since its "different" than other TD games, but I really think its worth supporting because the game concept is really well executed. I am sure quite a few people will be frustrated by the difficulty, but hey, I did warn about that
Starwolf_UK
Member
So I hear mentions of it being hard. Is it due to low margin of error or relentless pressure and one enemy getting through=loss the last (not counting Revenge of the Titans as that is more RTS) hard TD game I played (My life as a darklord) had the latter elements in.
It sounds interesting how this game extends the resource management from the usual map placement and financial constraints in any case though.
It sounds interesting how this game extends the resource management from the usual map placement and financial constraints in any case though.
OT, If you are after Escape Goat it should be in the Greenlight bundle coming out later today (source)
Its hard because the levels require sometimes rather precise power management juggling. A level becomes a lot easier if you write down the exact successful steps you did to make it, but even then you need to stay on your toes because just having the correct tower placement down isnt enough to win in a level. The combination of sometimes seemingly impossible waves (that give it a sort of puzzle element on how to approach them), small room for errors and power juggling makes for a very challenging game experience.
KodeAndGame
Member
Should be picking this up today. Also been wanting to try soul aster so may go for the 3 game bundle
Dr Zhivago
Member
I love the look of this, but from the demo I found the gameplay a bit fiddly and frantic and I expect I'd end up hating the harder levels.
Also, there is only one Sentinel
Also, there is only one Sentinel
I love the look of this, but from the demo I found the gameplay a bit fiddly and frantic and I expect I'd end up hating the harder levels.
Also, there is only one Sentinel
If its a bit too frantic, using the pause function helps a lot during hectic sections if you need to a few seconds to think about how to adjust the power levels. I definitely agree that its not for everyone, but its certainly too good to not get any attention at all. Once you played the game for a few hours, the "fiddling" will also become quite natural to you. I can play the first few levels pretty relaxed now, just enjoying the music.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=641531
..I'll gift out another 10 keys for the 1$ version of Sentinel (meaning no OST, but you will get keys when it releases on Desura/GoG/Steam).2 requirements:
a) Quote this post and answer in this thread
b) Please try the game before the deal expires and post some impressions here!
No Email and PM required anymore.
No keys left.
dave is ok
aztek is ok
Sure, I'll give it a shot.
I'd appreciate 1 if still available. Thanks
I'll give it a shot
YianGaruga
Banned
I think I'll try it.
Really need to stop doing that. Giving out keys by the dozen becomes expensive... eventually. Might stop at 23 key gifts then. If I cant convince anyone to play it and post a bit here in the thread with 23 gifts, I give up.
All got a PM with the key/link to activate it on IGS.
5 keys left!
That would be much appreciated. Would be cool to find a few others who'd be interested in actually conquering the game through this. We'll see I guess.
Man-is-Obsolete
Member
I like tower defense, so I will play it and post impressions.
JoseOle5990
Member
me too plz?
Adam Blade
WWKC
Me please?
I'll give this a shot if there's still a key left.
UnluckyKate
Member
I love the idea. The music and the price. Will buy and never play it (I suck at TD) but will feel good for supporting indies, as usual (I think I have a problem with these bundles/name your price thing)
I want one too, please!
(if its still avaliable by now xD)
And sent PMs too. No Keys left!
Oh and guys, dont forget to give the thumbs up on Greenlight.
Well 1,50$ gives you the soundtrack at least if its more likely you'll listen to it instead of playing the game.
Adam Blade
WWKC
Thank you kindly, good sir/madam.
A wallet broken sire.
But ah well, maybe it helps the game a bit. Its definitely too good to just be completely forgotten.JoseOle5990
Member
Firstly, thanks to Toma for posting the thread and then going the extra mile with the gift keys! Keep on shining, you crazy indie-loving GAFfer!
Alrighty then, I've played the first two levels (about 15 minutes) and I'm diggin it. I'm a fan of "active" tower-defense games -- meaning that you can do things (like man a laser tower!) as the round progresses. Obviously you manage resources, upgrade towers, etc during waves but actually participating in the fight is a nice touch. I really like the idea of shared power. Each tower can give or receive power from another tower and this is like a player-controlled instant upgrade instead of the traditional resource-controlled upgrade. Don't worry traditionalists, random(?) falling gems will permanently upgrade towers but the shared power bonus is a welcome tweak to the tower-defense formula. More player activity!
The music goes great with the simple geometric visuals. I love how the beat syncs up with the towers (I'm a sucker for that kind of effect). It's got that Lumines feel to it, where the music dictates how the rhythm echoes throughout the playing field. I'm thinking that I should have actually paid above average to get the soundtrack, hopefully I can buy it later.
My only quibble is that sometimes things get lost in the mix, be it towers, enemies, or falling resources. It doesn't help that each level uses a singular color for the grid and for every icon. When things get hectic it's easy to lose track of an inactive tower or falling resources. I know that's usually a problem in most TDs, but maybe giving each icon class a unique outline would help? Upon re-checking, it kinda already does that so it's probably just me. Either way, it's not a huge deal.
Two thumbs up! I like my time with it so far, here's to blasting more viruses!
Alrighty then, I've played the first two levels (about 15 minutes) and I'm diggin it. I'm a fan of "active" tower-defense games -- meaning that you can do things (like man a laser tower!) as the round progresses. Obviously you manage resources, upgrade towers, etc during waves but actually participating in the fight is a nice touch. I really like the idea of shared power. Each tower can give or receive power from another tower and this is like a player-controlled instant upgrade instead of the traditional resource-controlled upgrade. Don't worry traditionalists, random(?) falling gems will permanently upgrade towers but the shared power bonus is a welcome tweak to the tower-defense formula. More player activity!
The music goes great with the simple geometric visuals. I love how the beat syncs up with the towers (I'm a sucker for that kind of effect). It's got that Lumines feel to it, where the music dictates how the rhythm echoes throughout the playing field. I'm thinking that I should have actually paid above average to get the soundtrack, hopefully I can buy it later.
My only quibble is that sometimes things get lost in the mix, be it towers, enemies, or falling resources. It doesn't help that each level uses a singular color for the grid and for every icon. When things get hectic it's easy to lose track of an inactive tower or falling resources. I know that's usually a problem in most TDs, but maybe giving each icon class a unique outline would help? Upon re-checking, it kinda already does that so it's probably just me. Either way, it's not a huge deal.
Two thumbs up! I like my time with it so far, here's to blasting more viruses!
Now those are impressions to my liking!
And you cant buy the soundtrack itself, not sure how IGS would let you pay more to raise the money spent on your copy. However, you can get the soundtrack by beating every level in the game. Have at it ;p
I also recommend using the Pause function sometimes to get an overview of what you missed or how the power levels are divided currently. Once you play with 10+ towers, keeping tabs on the power levels without pausing the game gets really taxing. You might as well get used to taking a break to get an overview already.
Man-is-Obsolete
Member
Got a chance to play the first few level and a bonus level, and I like what I have played so far. It's a very active Tower Defense where you will constantly need to manage and redistribute power or even manually control a tower. Because of this I think this will appeal to a lot of people that find Tower Defense games boring, but it also runs the risk of putting too much on some gamers plate. Luckily there is a pause button lol.
I love that a tower can be sort of upgraded by turning down or off towers to give another tower more of a shared power pool. The first bonus level is actually a really good excercise in this in that you only have 2 squares to place a tower to attack creeps (one for each lane), however, at the bottom of the grid is several open spaces for you to place cheap towers. Placing those cheap towers adds a power unit to your pool and so then turning off that cheap tower gives you a unit of power to add to the laser towers to kill creeps. It's a hectic excercise, but it does a lot to teach you how mastering power levels can work in your favor. Only thing I didn't like about that level is that there is a tower in that level that I couldn't figure out what it was for, but I am guessing it is meant to only attack the second enemy type that shows up towards the end. There just wasn't any info that I saw that made that known, so a bit of trial and error may be involved with the game. Not much hand holding, both positive and negative depending.
The dynamic music is cool as well. Overall well worth your cash and vote for greenlight. Also give it a go even if you don't like Tower Defense much, it is much more active than most games in the genre, which typically are place towers, wait for waves, upgrade, wait, build, wait.
I love that a tower can be sort of upgraded by turning down or off towers to give another tower more of a shared power pool. The first bonus level is actually a really good excercise in this in that you only have 2 squares to place a tower to attack creeps (one for each lane), however, at the bottom of the grid is several open spaces for you to place cheap towers. Placing those cheap towers adds a power unit to your pool and so then turning off that cheap tower gives you a unit of power to add to the laser towers to kill creeps. It's a hectic excercise, but it does a lot to teach you how mastering power levels can work in your favor. Only thing I didn't like about that level is that there is a tower in that level that I couldn't figure out what it was for, but I am guessing it is meant to only attack the second enemy type that shows up towards the end. There just wasn't any info that I saw that made that known, so a bit of trial and error may be involved with the game. Not much hand holding, both positive and negative depending.
The dynamic music is cool as well. Overall well worth your cash and vote for greenlight. Also give it a go even if you don't like Tower Defense much, it is much more active than most games in the genre, which typically are place towers, wait for waves, upgrade, wait, build, wait.
Man-is-Obsolete
Member
If anyone continues playing, please continugne posting your progress or something
I plan on playing it more today. I wanted to get some initial impressions down for fear of forgetting to post anything at all later lol.
It's good though, kinda makes me wish this was on Android or even Vita as well. Tower Defense fits mobile platforms extremely well. Though I am not sure how they would handle turning down and up power on each tower.
Yeah, that could be really fiddly, not sure it would translate well to touch devices.
It plays great too. Most people who actually tried it seem to agree with me as well.
YianGaruga
Banned
First of all thanks again to Toma for gifting me this game.
I did not have a lot of time with it yet but I wanted to get some impressions in before the deal expires. If I manage to play more I will post again. I generally don't like (i.e. totally suck at) TD games, so I don't think I would've even noticed the game, weren't it for the fact that I LOVE rhythm games, or generally games that are enhanced by and play with music.
I already found the first few levels to be difficult (at least going for a perfect rating) but that was partially because I was struggling with the controls at first because the game doesn't explain itself very well. But once I managed that I had a lot of fun so far. While most TD games become kind of boring to me after some short time, the music really kept me going and motivated me to play more.
Really looking forward to play more of it, hopefully I can go more into detail then.
If you either have some interest in TD games or just like electronic music, you can't really go wrong at $1.
I did not have a lot of time with it yet but I wanted to get some impressions in before the deal expires. If I manage to play more I will post again. I generally don't like (i.e. totally suck at) TD games, so I don't think I would've even noticed the game, weren't it for the fact that I LOVE rhythm games, or generally games that are enhanced by and play with music.
I already found the first few levels to be difficult (at least going for a perfect rating) but that was partially because I was struggling with the controls at first because the game doesn't explain itself very well. But once I managed that I had a lot of fun so far. While most TD games become kind of boring to me after some short time, the music really kept me going and motivated me to play more.
Really looking forward to play more of it, hopefully I can go more into detail then.
If you either have some interest in TD games or just like electronic music, you can't really go wrong at $1.
Man-is-Obsolete
Member
That's the thing that is nice, they give your base plenty of health that you can allow many creeps through and still beat a level, but going for perfect in this game is going to be difficult. Even the first 4-5 levels don't mess around in this sense. In order to get a perfect score you are going to have to manage your power constantly and redistribute power where needed.
The second bonus level has been kicking my butt for the last 30 minutes and I finally was able to clear that. Very challenging game, but rest assured the main levels are fairly easily beaten if you don't mind a few creeps getting through.
Oh and like you said very little is explained, which is both good and bad. Perhaps for the general public when this game hits Steam it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least let people know what towers can hit what enemies, and even what those enemies look like. I can figure it out myself just fine, but it does lead to some head scratching and frustration for a few minutes trying to sort it all out.
You eventually need to perfect the levels to unlock more levels though. You'll see what I mean when you progress a bit and get to the locked road blocks. Oh and I love those bonus levels, they are so smartly designed and every level challenges your thinking quite a bit.