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How we count
Five checks, twenty marks each, one honest number. Here is exactly what goes into it.
Five checks, twenty marks each
Every game is played to the end of its campaign, or for at least twenty hours where there is no end, and then marked on five things. Each check is worth up to twenty marks; the five added together make the count out of 100 you see on every report and card.
Towers
The kit you build with. How many towers there are, how different they feel, whether upgrades are real choices or a straight line, and whether the late-game kit is as interesting as the early one.
Lanes
The maps. Pathing, chokepoints, how much the terrain asks of you, and whether a map rewards a plan or just a wall of the strongest turret.
Waves
The pressure. How the difficulty climbs, how readable the enemy is, whether the hard modes are hard in a fair way, and how often a loss teaches rather than annoys.
Economy
The money inside the game. Whether earning and spending in a level is a puzzle in its own right, and whether the game pushes you to spend real money to keep up. Pushy monetisation loses marks here, every time.
Longevity
What is left after the credits. Endless or sandbox modes, co-op, challenge runs, community maps, and the state of the updates.
What the count means
| Count | Stamp | In plain words |
|---|---|---|
| 85 to 100 | Hold at all costs | Buy it at full price and clear the weekend. |
| 75 to 84 | Worth the garrison | A very good game with one or two checks that fall short. Buy it when the price suits you. |
| 65 to 74 | Reinforce first | Good ideas, uneven delivery. Read the report, then wait for a sale or a patch. |
| Under 65 | Breach | We would not spend your money on it. Nothing on the current list sits here; games that did were cut. |
How a game gets on the list
It has to be a tower-defence game first and something else second, it has to be sold in the UK on Steam or GOG, and it has to be playable on a mid-range PC today. We also check each game for any mechanic that works like real-money play: paid random items, paid chance draws or anything of that kind. A game with one of those is not reviewed here, whatever its quality, and we say so in the report of any game that sails close.
Prices
The price on each report is the Steam UK list price in pounds, including VAT, read on the date printed at the top of every page. Where the game is also on GOG we show that price too. If a sale is on we show both the sale price and the usual price, so you can see what you are really saving. We never quote a key reseller as the price of a game.
Changing a count
Counts are not frozen. A big update, a price change or a new mode can move a check up or down; when that happens the report says what changed and when. Older reports keep the date of their last review at the bottom.