Fortify… the name says it all. It’s a an apt title because that’s exactly what you do; you fortify your keep against the blood sucking legions of monsters and minions sent forth by an evil wizard hell-bent on world domination. The game itself falls within the tower defense genre but adds a few refreshing changes to the age-old recipe. It throws out the standard tower building routine in favour of recruiting and positioning of soldiers. It also incorporates resource management as a way to diversify what a player needs to survive. The real stars are the enemies, bringing some unique mechanics into the game to spice things up. All things said, it is a breath of fresh air for a genre that doesn’t tend to see much change.
A notable thing Fortify does that many other tower defences fail to do is engage the player throughout all the phases of the game. You will very seldom find yourself waiting for a round to end with nothing to do. The game requires you to shuffle troops atop your castle walls, managing their arcs of fire to mount an effective defence against wave upon wave of enemy minions. In between waves you have some time to conduct maintenance and develop resource outposts using gold collected from killing enemy soldiers. These outposts, which are located far from the castle, generate other basic materials such as wood, stone, and iron. These items are used to advance through the upgrade tree. The decision to place the outpost outside of the castle’s defenses is one of the ways the developers strive to engage the player in the game. To be successful the player must be proactive in their defense and send out parties of soldiers to protect their outpost from marauding enemies. Everything in the game has a purpose; a clear sign of how much thought was put into the gameplay. Fortify is in a league of its own when compared to the standard, more passive gameplay of other tower defense games.
The game is not without its faults however. It is relatively rough in its initial release state, with a lack of meaningful graphics options. The audio quality could also use more work to truly be a pleasant listening experience. Some of the sound effects have high levels of treble which makes for uncomfortable listening over prolonged periods. Another glaring issue for me is the inability to adjust the screen resolution. If you want to play in full screen on your standard 1920×1080 monitor it may cause the UI elements to blur a bit due to the stretching. The user interface is somewhat bulky and takes up a large amount of screen space but is well thought out and functional. After testing on multiple types of headphones and external speakers it was found that, surprisingly, the audio sounded best on a less expensive set of headphones. Overall, these issues are minor and can be remedied with a few tweaks from the developers.
Fortify is a solid tower defense game that alters the definition of what the genre is all about. It is engaging and interesting, but still challenging to both casual and hardcore gamers alike. With it’s robust and additive gameplay system, Fortify is a welcome addition to any game library and certainly worth the $5.49 price tag.
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