Wild Defense HD Review

Our Review by Kevin Stout on February 21st, 2012
Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: WILD
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Wild Defense HD is a tower defense that uses tribal villagers as towers and features an item shop. An iPhone version also exists.

Developer: Activ8 Game Studios
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.5
Device Reviewed On: iPad 2

Graphics / Sound Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar
Game Controls Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Gameplay Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Replay Value Rating: starstarhalfstarblankstarblankstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar

[img id="Photo-Feb-14-5-51-44-PM-300x225.png"]Upon first glance, Wild Defense HD looked like an interesting enough tower defense. After a bit of time with the game, I would list it in my top five favorite tower defense games on iOS.

Once I started playing it, I was reminded of an experience I had with another tower defense game called Dofus: Battles HD months ago. Dofus is, to date, my favorite iOS tower defense. I've sunk more time into that tower defense than any other. As a side note: I don't spend much time with any mobile games. I played Dofus: Battles HD for probably a little over ten hours. I've gotten close to that much time with Wild Defense HD.

In Wild Defense HD, the player progresses through various tower defense levels by placing 'towers' on the pre-approved squares of the map to destroy waves of mobs. I emphasize 'towers' because the units in this game are tribal-looking humans. This humans-as-towers theme along with the ability to buy items to upgrade characters is what reminded me of Dofus when I played Wild Defense HD.

Like many games with currency or experience to gain, I replayed many of the levels to gain more. There's more of a replay value to Wild Defense HD's campaign than expected. It's quite challenging to get through some of the levels without losing any 'life.' As a result, I replayed some levels once I purchased items for my units in order to finish the level perfectly and receive three stars (Angry Birds really has influenced all of mobile gaming.).

One of the only problems that I experienced when playing Wild Defense HD was that I didn't realize I'd unlocked the ability to upgrade my units (for more damage and other stats) until a few levels after I had done so. At the end of a level, I unlocked the ability to "upgrade my warriors to level two." Either at that point or soon after, I was able to upgrade all of my units to level three. I had no idea. A simple pop-up would've made that more clear.

My other problem with Wild Defense HD was that the currency took way too long to save up. It took many levels to save up for item upgrades for my units. I believe the reason for this is that the game sells more currency as in-app purchases. I have no problem with in-app purchases for any games. But in-app purchases to make a game easier isn't something that I enjoy. I refused to buy the eagle in Angry Birds and I refuse to buy more currency to upgrade my units in Wild Defense HD.

Wild Defense HD is a game any tower defense fan should enjoy. An iPhone version is also available slightly cheaper at $0.99.


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