Fortified is a new third person shooter tower defense hybrid from developer Clapfoot. It’s a tale as old as sci-fi – Martians are invading! They want something from us, and only a small group of American 1950s stereotypes can help save us! The US government has recruited a rocket scientist, a secret agent, a space-man, and a captain to fight against hordes of aliens in an attempt to defend the Earth! Or at least, the rocket ship that will save the earth. This will be a familiar formula to anyone who has played Orcs Must Die: you start on a level with limited paths for creeps (or in this case, aliens) to traverse, you place turrets and obstacles to prevent them from getting there, and supplement those turrets with your shooter skills. At no point does this game do anything that we haven’t seen before in tower defense shooters. You get money for killing enemies with lets you build more defenses, which gets you more money, which after several waves of enemies leads to the end of the level. After each level, you are rewarded with upgrade points, which you can spend on better turrets, guns, and NPCs. One unique modifier that I have not seen before in tower defense is that as you increase the difficulty, the number of defenses you can use is lowered as well the time you have to place them.
The game features a wonderful 1950s take on technology – think Tommy guns and Tesla coils. I love the way it works in ’50s Americana with classic tower defense. Placing Tesla coils or star branded machine guns feels awesome. Fortified has also added another layer of depth from other tower defense with NPC characters you can place and command. There are several types of these characters, ranging from basic grunts to snipers, each of which has their own advantages and disadvantages. You can also command these troops to do simple tasks like rush to your rocket to defend it, and return to their positions.
