Contrary to what I thought, I won’t be reviewing Savage Moon. I was excited to, since I adore tower defense games, but it just isn’t happening. It’s not for lack of trying, though. Savage Moon won’t be getting a proper review from me because I’m simply done with it, and I’m only a few levels in.
It’s not for lack of quality, however. The game is a damn fine addition to the PlayStation 3′s slowly growing collection of incredible tower defense games. Though the drab colors and generic sci-fi setting might put you off, there’s a ton of depth, variety, and fun to be had. It’s too bad, though, that the game is so horrifically balanced.
In just a few levels, my enthusiasm for Savage Moon skyrocketed as I went about purchasing new tower types and dropping cash on turret enhancements, as well as sacrificing armor in favor of an increased cash flow and a healthy damage boost. But a sudden spike in difficulty took hold of my excitement and drowned it in a toilet bowl. Progression is key, particularly in a tower defense game where you’re constantly balancing your money between new units and upgrades to accommodate for an increasing amount of highly empowered enemies.
Do you build more machine gun towers to get the quick kill on the creepy-crawlies, or would it be more worthwhile to boost that mortar tower a couple of levels to take down the swarm of super-strong scarabs in the next wave?
But the tipping of the scales goes too far toward the end of the first planet, where a wave of aggressive enemies is not only able to resist damage dealt from fully upgraded towers of all types, but can also instantly slaughter your structures. It doesn’t take long for the first of a set of seemingly impassable waves to completely destroy your entire collection of killing machines, and the following batch of stronger, faster baddies only adds to the heartbreak.
I can barely get past the halfway point of this particular stage, which demands a specific starting layout to prevent immediate defeat. I’ve never been so frustrated while playing a tower title, and I don’t plan to be again. The unfairly powerful enemies put me off from an otherwise excellent game. If I’m going to play one of these games, I’ll play PixelJunk Monsters, which offers a more popping visual style, equal substance, and similar structures to Savage Moon. When both games are sharing a space, side by side, on the PlayStation store, there’s only one logical choice: the perfectly balanced, wonderfully challenging, and endlessly charming Monsters.
Again, Savage Moon isn’t a bad game. It’s a great game, and I’d love to see more planets with diverse layouts and space-themed aesthetics, but when a mission becomes so difficult that I can’t complete it after six solid hours of repetition, well, that’s when it’s time to stop. If you think of yourself as a hardcore tower-nut whose strategy is unmatched, $10 for Savage Moon is a worthwhile investment that will probably prove addictive. Most folks, however, will be disgusted with the difficulty’s inconsistency. I hope it doesn’t stretch beyond this stage, but I’ll never find out.
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