Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis Preview: Back To The Medieval

I guarantee that I was going to love Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis, and, to save you reading a further five or six minutes of this preview – I did love it. Alas, it’s only a demo, so there’s a limited number of stages to play, yet just enough for you to look at the clock and start to wish your wife – sorry, life away in anticipation of the release date. That’s right, Iron Hide Game Studio have done it again.

There’s bound to be some fans a bit tired of the series and looking for something innovative, but we had Legends of Kingdom, which was fine. Let’s stick with the tried-and-tested formula of this fantastic tower defence title. It’s essentially the same as all though before it: colourful, varied, and ongoing selection of heroes that will be familiar from the get-go. Come on – it even has an underlying story!

In Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis, we begin with the familiar battle against that wrong ‘un Vez’nan, only our initial hero, Gerald, gets sent back in time. This isn’t completely back to basics, but you return to your kingdom to thwart that horrible bastard by recruiting your ancestors. This isn’t anything like Age of Defence as it’s still a fantasy/medieval setting, and to be honest, it’s not that noticeable that you’ve gone back an era or two.

The same types of towers exist: arrows, cannons, magic, barracks and so on. Besides the heroes, the units are revamped with new armour and varying upgrades. Again, because it’s a demo, you’re quite limited to anything advanced and will typically upgrade roughly four times until the tower is maxed out. With half a dozen types of towers and two heroes that can be used at the same time, it’s pretty decent.

If you’re new to the Kingdom Rush series and gaming in general, you effectively have to fend off waves of attacks from enemies. You can’t speed up the play, but you can be brave and trigger the next wave if you’re prepared. Enemies will follow a set path, but because this is Kingdom Rush, there are set pieces where the map changes up, and enemies will approach from locations you might not have perceived.

I could happily play Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis again and again. The star rating is always an incentive to do better, though with only a handful of levels, there’s only so much you might be willing to play. Personally, I can’t fault this series and am looking forward to the next instalment, which will be released in ‘to be announced’. Whenever that may be… Keep your eyes peeled for a demo on the Steam store page, as this is great fun.