Glory Defenders

Real-time strategy games are not very friendly with beginners, especially not nowadays when they seem to assume that you already know all there is to know about the interface and the gameplay mechanics. However, it’s still possible to make them accessible to anyone and still retain the same complexity, because a good tutorial is more than enough in such situations.

Glory Defenders is a small RTS in which your goal is to destroy the enemy base and nothing more, which means that you do not have to play for hours on end until one of the sides wins. In fact, you can be done in a matter of minutes, especially if you understand how everything works and you rush a little. On the other hand, there’s not a lot of room for expansion anyway.

To begin with, the main idea is to gather resources and use them to create troops. These troops then automatically start marching toward the enemy base, which means that there’s not much you can do strategy-wise. Even so, you can try to change the outcome by toying with the unit composition, since each warrior has different stats and abilities.

Besides units, it’s also wise to invest some of the resources in multiple facilities, because you won’t be able to keep up with the AI later on. Hence, you can build lumber mills, iron mines and gold mines, although they need to be placed near a forest/ore deposit. You also have a limit on them, so you still have to manage your income carefully even in the late game.

Speaking of which, repetition might become annoying after a while, especially since you are limited to so few types of units. Granted, you can unlock two more later in the game, but they don’t change the gameplay that much. The maps are pretty different as well, but no extra resources make an appearance, and it’s annoying that you have no control over the units.

When it’s all said and done, Glory Defenders is more than capable to keep you busy for a while, but it lacks the depth to remain a favorite. However, it only needs a bit more work to become a lot more than it is.