Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance review - "The best of both worlds!"

• The newest game in the Kingdom Rush saga!
• Control both the forces of good and evil against a bigger evil
• Tower, heroes, items, and upgrades make for a good challenge and replayability

Back in the early days of the Flash era, one series got its start as Kingdom Rush. This was one of the original tower defense games and has grown to the point where Ironhide Game Studio has reached Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance. Our little cartoon warriors have come a long way from simply defending their kingdom from the Dark Army of Vez'nan and now find themselves in quite a predicament.

You'll be returning to the 2D tower defense gameplay of the series with all new towers to build, powers to wield, and heroes to command. But let's see what this supposed "alliance" brings to the table.

What is Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance?

The Kingdom Rush games have always been quite straight-forward in their storytelling: You're on the defense for one side trying to hold off the offense of another. Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance is the same way, but with a bit of a twist. During the last major battle, Vez'nan managed to find King Denas in a portal to places unknown.

Loyal to their king, the champions and forces of the kingdom Linirea set out to rescue their king. During their expedition, they face a new threat and meet Vez'nan himself, who proposes an alliance with his Dark Army. He believes that a much greater threat is on the rise and only through the two sides' combined efforts can they hope to fight back. With good and evil now under your control, this opens up a whole new realm of strategy.

Leading the Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance

The longer a series goes, the more challenging it can be to keep it fresh and avoid falling into a predictable formula. Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance has worked to keep this new entry fresh while keeping everything else that made the series great. As such, the stylized visuals and the comical tone return while improving their overall level of quality. The environments are much more vibrant and lively, with the towers having more detail and sharpness. With heroes now being standard, the units' animations and designs are more dynamic and smoother which is great considering how often you'll send them into battle.

The alliance concept seems like a natural progression for the series and aims to combine the feeling of controlling the good guys and bad guys. Aside from the heroes and towers having looks distinct enough that you can tell their origins from a glance, you also get a feel for their overall strengths and strategies.

---

• Best Heroes in each Kingdom Rush game

---

For example, the Linirean forces have a preference for defensive and positive support abilities while the Dark Army is all about offensive and negative support abilities. It also comes down to how their heroes perform with Linireans trying to affect the field and other units while Dark Army champions focus on boosting their stats so that they can last longer and deal more damage. The game is designed so that mix up your towers and forces with both sides to figure out the best and most useful parts of each.

Now, onto the challenge, which perseveres even after all this time. The Kingdom Rush series is not what you would call easy, having always tried to have a balanced difficulty. Though the early missions are low threat, they throw enough enemy numbers and types to quickly teach you the kinds of challenges you can expect.

---

• Basic Kingdom Rush strategies that you should employ

---

You start to see that no one tower is ever the solution and you need to be prepared to make sacrifices on a dime to confront enemy groups. You're always examining the roads and trying to make the most of the limited tower positions so that you can build up a healthy pool of resources. You must decide which towers are more permanent than others and whether it's worth building new ones, upgrading what you have, or deciding on what abilities to buy them. 

Additionally, the presence of permanent upgrades and usable items gives you more options and increases the replay value. If one level didn't go so well, keep it in mind for later so that you can back to it when you're stronger and destroy all of its challenges.

Cracks in the Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance

Even though Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance has a solid foundation based on its predecessors, some problems have managed to break through. The most notable is the increase in in-game purchases. Previous entries gave you the option to unlock new heroes and towers through progression and by getting stars/medals by completing levels efficiently, now they're more of a novelty.

---

• Crystal Knights review - "A Lackluster Idle RPG"

---

You'll earn upgrade points, gems, and hero experience simply by playing, but a large number of interesting towers and heroes will be locked behind a paywall. Since the game is relatively short compared to the other entries, you'll have unlocked most of the base game sooner than you expect.

And even though the replay aspect is expected and a point in its favour, it also works against it in terms of player experience. Like with any good puzzle or battle scenario, it should be possible to get a perfect score on the first attempt. This game is not like that and expects you to come back when you have more towers, heroes, and upgrades to thwart the threats that posed too much of a problem the first time around.

Aiding the Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance

Kingdom Rush 5: Alliance is the latest entry in the Kingdom Rush series that has you returning to tower defense to fight back an otherworldly threat with good and evil working together. The visuals and humor remain solid with noticeable improvements here and there, balanced difficulty levels, and plenty of reasons to play each level more than once.

It has been bogged down by locking some of its content behind paywalls and reducing the value of getting high scores in levels, but this may be a small price to pay for fun. If cultists and horrors from another dimension come batting down the door, you'd better rush to the kingdom to join the alliance.