Harvest: Massive Encounter Demo

There are very few new ideas one can come up with for tower defense games, because there are probably millions of variations out there, each one of which features a twist one way or the other. Surprisingly, you can still stumble into something interesting if you search well enough, such is the case with the game at hand, which does manage to raise a few eyebrows.

Harvest: Massive Encounter is not exactly special when it comes to the towers, the content, or even the underlying theme. The action takes place on some sort of alien planet and you are tasked with defending yourself against unending hordes of alien spaceships, which is neither original, nor particularly inviting at a first glance. However, if you do happen to give the game a chance, it has the potential to change your mind.

To start off with, the major gimmick is represented by the fact that you can create and arrange energy networks, because every building needs to be connected to the network in order to function. Solar power plants produce energy pulses at regular intervals, which can be bounced and transmitted around using a system or relays. Whenever a pulse reaches a building that needs it, it is consumed and it stops circulating through the network.

Naturally, there are towers as well, which fire lasers or missiles at the enemy UFOs. The sad part is that the variety of towers is very disappointing, so you don’t get to admire too many models. On the other hand, laser towers can combine their beams and obtain impressive boosts, not to mention the fact that there is no limit to this, other than practicality.

Speaking of which, the maps themselves are somewhat endless, even if they appear rather small when you start playing. In fact, they grow as you keep on expanding, which theoretically means that you can keep playing for as long as you survive the constant onslaught. Thanks to the simple graphics, the game should be able to run smoothly even when the screen is filled with buildings, special effects, and enemy ships, which is definitely good news.

Harvest: Massive Encounter can become a tad too repetitive after a while, if you do not change your tactics and try out new things. However, even so, there are many different game modes to choose from and a satisfactory number of planets to exploit, each with different environments.