Sol Survivor

[Zak33]

Well I've not written any kind of review material for a very long time, but I thought this little beauty was well worth a few kind words.

Sol Survivor
http://store.steampowered.com/app/45000/
Turret Defense is the phrase that the developers use for this, and I think it's pretty accurate. For the un initiated, here goes.

Space ship will land in a certain place on a map. It will unload aliens.
Aliens will walk along a certain road, and try to get to the human settlement and kill them.

Our job: to spend credits on gun turrets along the route to kill them before they get there.

The route that the aliens will travel is often twisty, and they don't deviate from it. The places you can mount guns are all easily identified with a grid on the 3d map. We move around the map with keys and mouse movement, select which gun we want to place, and click the map. The gun is delivered, set up and ready to fire quite fast.

Once the monsters are shot, we earn credits for more guns. We can then place them where we want again, or wait to save up credits for better guns.

The monsters arrive in waves, and you have notice that they're on the way.

Some monsters can fly or jump, so some guns need to be anti air. Some guns slow monsters to assist in the other guns wiping the aliens out.

and so the intrigue increases as the quality of guns get better, you can upgrade them, or clear them from their site, regain some credit, though not all... and put something else there.

It is simple... old school genius.

But the lovelyness is in the music and the game balance.

Some maps have 2 or 3 landing sites.. but they all converge in one choke point. So gun placement is key. Others have 2 landing sites.. and 2 settlement targets.... so you need to spread your guns.

It is a worthy worthy game, that can take 20 minutes before work.... or 5 or 6 hours ... your choice. You can beat them, and crack onto the next one.. or.. more like me.. work out how to become more efficient and re run the challenge, chaning small things to see how fast certain things can kill certain aliens and what weapon combo's work best.

Try it... it's lush

[pipTheGeek]

Sol Survivor was the second PC game I ever bought. (The first being the Orange box becuase I wanted Portal) 'tis a good game. Might need to go play it some more.

[kalniel]

But is it better than Defense [sic] Grid: The Awakening?

[Ferral]

He hasnt said anything about that one, gifted that with its DLC to Zak also.

[kalniel]

He hasnt said anything about that one, gifted that with its DLC to Zak also.

Good man. It's an amazing game, especially when Valve start playing with it and hiding secrets for new game reveals etc.

[directhex]

They're both good in different ways. Sol Survivor's magic lies in the highly restricted turret choice depending on character - can completely change how you approach a map.

[Zak33]

I daren't play Defense Grid yet.. I wanna get good at this one first.
In fact I've MADE time tonight to put half an hour in to play it