Caldera Legends

Caldera Legends Editor's Review

Caldera Legends is a game set in the medieval period (as the loading screen, menu screen and pretty much every other screen in the game), specifically medieval fantasy Europe, and is somewhat a tower defence mixed with a strategy game.  The objective of the game is to protect the left side of the screen from the enemies which come from the right side of the screen.

Although this sounds like a pretty basic concept, there are quite a lot of twists on it which make it fun and strategic. First of all, you place units using mana, a resource which recovers very slowly (or through the use of certain units). You units must then be placed in one of three lanes, and there is a very slow cool down time between placing multiple of one unit. So choosing which lane you put your first few units in is another key strategic decision. So overall, the basics of the strategy in the game is pretty solid.

Winning an individual battle is only half of the strategic element of the game, however. Upon winning a battle, you are awarded gold based on how many enemies you defeated. This gold can then be used to purchase new units, new unit slots and extra abilities, to help you win future battles which get progressively harder. The campaign also branches at points, letting you choose between an easier mission and a harder mission, which seems a little pointless when you have to defeat both anyway and defeating the easier one will make the harder one easier with the gold you obtain.

Despite this branching in the campaign, the campaign was still a lot shorter than you would expect from a game that attempts to be this epic in scale, you unlock all the units about five missions in, a few more missions after that and then the game is over. Another problem with the way the campaign is structured, is the only way to beat some levels first go without grinding previous levels for gold is to memorise the enemy spawns so you can start placing your units and be ready before the enemies even arrive on screen.

Despite this minor flaws, the game is still incredibly fun, and the battles themselves, when not being tediously hard are actually strategic and entertaining, there are a few different routes you can take as far as upgrading goes and its nice to know your playing experience took place in an entirely different way to another player. The game is all round very nice, and worth a download for anyone into strategy games.
4/5

Caldera Legends Publisher's Description

Enemies are invading your kingdom, and the defense is your army of mages! Armed with wisdom, you’ll need to think fast and change strategy faster to stop dozens of types of enemies, including biggest danger for your people – huge Cyclops!

Free download from Shareware Connection - Enemies are invading your kingdom, and the defense is your army of mages! Armed with wisdom, you’ll need to think fast and change strategy faster to stop dozens of types of enemies, including biggest danger for your people – huge Cyclops!