Infinitode is a free tower defense game on iOS that boasts huge maps, a large skill tree with tons of upgrades, and a good number of tower and enemy types. I think the core idea is pretty interesting, but the monetization system kinda ruins the whole thing and makes it an extremely grindy endeavor that could’ve been better served in the game design sense if the game had been premium with tweaked balance. I had an okay time with it, but I just couldn’t see any light out of the grinding tunnel - and the progression was just so slow - that I stopped.
The first thing that hit me when I started playing Infinitode was the skill tree. It’s a massive snowflake shaped web of upgrades that encompass the life you have, unlocking towers, starting money and plenty of tower upgrades. I think it could’ve been designed differently, in some easier to visualize fashion, a list of towers with their stats and another list of misc upgrades could’ve probably worked better. You unlock new towers and boosts by spending premium currency that can be bought with real money or by playing the game. These upgrades often look like bonuses of 0.01 to fire rate or damage, so they are not very interesting. I’m not entirely sure of exactly how the game is balanced, but if you have to dole out boosts in such small increments to make it seem like there are a ton of them to unlock, it’s a bit of a shame.
The maps themselves are fairly simple - as is the art style of the game - just a path where enemies go from start to finish and spots where you can place your towers. These spots will have specific boosts to certain stats, so an ice tower might slow down enemies more if placed at a specific location. The maps range from small to huge, and you need to pay increasing amounts of premium currency to unlock them. I wish the game had a more structured approach to its levels where you would need to reach a certain wave in a map to unlock another map. As it is, you try to beat your own high score and get rewards at certain wave milestones - but these rewards are extra tiles you can use to build your custom level, something that had no interest to me.
The gameplay is fairly standard, you have twelve types of towers each with their own special trick (slowing down enemies, poisoning them, splash damage, etc.) and enemies have weaknesses and resistances to these towers, something that is kinda tough to keep in mind as you’re playing and pretty tough to plan around. Towers gain experience as they defeat enemies up to a certain cap and you can upgrade four of their stats - range, attack speed, attack effect and rotation speed - in order to try and prevent enemies from reaching the end of the level.
There is no real balance here, everything goes on forever and you just play maps to get currency to upgrade your towers to play maps marginally better again. It’s a bit aimless and quickly grows stale, even if the core look and ideas of the game are interesting in theory. In some respects, this almost feels like an idle/incremental game, and that’s not really what I want from my tower defense. It’s free, so if you enjoy tower defense games it wouldn’t hurt to try, but I know I can’t stick it with.
