You may not be aware of it, but the Tower Defense and Real-Time Strategy (oft referred to as RTS) have quite a bit in common. In fact, the entire subgenre of Tower Defense was almost non-existent before 2007, except as mini-games in bigger, decidedly non-strategy titles. The genre started to stand on its own once massively popular mods for Warcraft III started spreading like wildlife, kickstarted a venerable cornucopia of freeware games that aped the style, and began an all new gaming craze that lasted through the twilight years of the late 2000s. However, as a result, there are certain expectations for the genre. Because Tower Defense games have been mostly distributed as freeware, it’s tough for developers to justify the development for them since people are generally not all that willing to start paying for something when they’ve gone years without.

Comet Crash 2: the Kronkoid Wars attempts to rectify that cost of entry problem by taking the Tower Defense genre back to its RTS roots. It plays by classic Desktop Tower Defense rules of enemies always taking the shortest possible route to attack your base, so you have to construct your units carefully to guide your foes as long as possible while you whittle down their strength and wipe them out before they have the chance to attack. However, what makes Comet Crash 2 unique is that, rather than going for an arcade-y type of experience where you just keep playing a map over and over again until you die, your enemy has their own base that you have to destroy, so you’ll need to make sure to leave some space for mini-bases that build the units you’ll need to attack an enemy base, in addition to the normal defense units found in these sorts of games.

The plot, according to the website, revolves around humanity discovering new ways to mine Thorium out of comets, which has allowed for self-repairing machines. This has advanced space travel to such a degree that for the past few centuries, humans have been able to stretch out across the galaxy and have lived in peace for centuries. However, Kronkoids were discovered near Planet Kulin, and they’ve managed to claim several comets and send them hurling towards several different settlements. You’ll be tasked with stopping each comet individually and saving the galaxy from Kronkoid destruction.
This is actually more story than you’ll find in Comet Crash 2. Upon starting the campaign, you’ll be immediately thrown into a tutorial and then select your first mission. The story is mainly there to justify the gameplay mechanics, such as why you need to collect Thorium and why towers will upgrade instantly upon supplying them. The game doesn’t want to distract you from the core game, which is perfectly fine.

The core strength of Comet Crash 2 comes from the way the game eases you into its mechanics. RTS games tend to be fairly complex just by the nature of the genre, so actually getting a player to learn the mechanics can be a tricky ordeal. Comet Crash 2 allows the player to first get acclimated to the central mechanics of building, upgrading, and creating “walls” of towers to stall enemies from arriving at your base before introducing new building and unit types in the single-player campaign. Even after unlocking new units, though, you can still generally squeeze by up to a point before the game introduces a scenario that forces you to rethink your strategy. It keeps you from getting totally overwhelmed by trying to figure out which units you should be using at any individual moment by slowly introducing them to the player over the course of play.

It also helps that by giving the player on screen a character they control, it frees up some of the concerns one might have with playing this game with a controller. It’s similar to what the Sega Genesis classic Herzog Zwei attempted way back in 1989, yet for some reason, no major company has attempted to replicate it in a modern game. It frees up the player so that they aren’t simply limited to commanding their units and giving instructions by giving them an active role in the game. You’ll collect stray meteoroids and comets to harvest Thorium for your own units and scout out enemy territory. In fact, you have to be careful about getting too close to enemy territory, as they can actually shoot you down! You’ll eventually be respawned, but while you’re down, you can’t take any action; while your enemy is free to attack as they like. It adds a unique and fun dynamic thinking of how to scope out a map that you don’t really find in other RTS games.

However, this is also a double-edged sword. The game has a grid-based structure, and on the squares where there is free land, you can build whatever you’d like. Player movement, however, is not grid-based, so the game will determine where you build something based on whichever grid square you’re more “occupied” with. Control is a bit floaty to replicate the feel of a spacecraft, so while it actually feels satisfying to control, sometimes you’ll be quickly trying to build something, thinking you’re about to stop and hit the button to set down a building, only to have it spawn in the wrong position. It may not seem like a big deal, as you can always tear it down and build again. However, this is a waste of resources since you’ll only regain half the Thorium cost. There’s something to be said about this adding to the tension of the game and making absolutely sure about positioning. That being said, mistakes are often made due to physics and movement and not your actual strategy (which is the core of Comet Crash 2), so these moments can feel like it’s the game’s fault and not your own at times.

Comet Crash 2 also does fall into some trial-and-error pitfalls as well during the course of the campaign. Often times, the game will introduce a new unit before you’ve actually acquired it for your own use. This is most likely done to show the player how it can be used. This is an interesting method, but unfortunately, because maps can get so hectic at times, it can be hard to tell exactly what the new unit or building is doing simply because you can’t quite pay attention to it when you’re focused on upgrading other structures or getting some much needed Thorium to build more. Frequently, what these new units do is so minor that you might not even notice what the effect is or immediately understand what needs to be done to more effectively fight against them.

One final note is on online play. We were only able to get in a couple of matches, but when we did, it generally ran fairly smoothly. However, it generally took us over 10 minutes to find a single one. This is mostly likely due to the game being a new release and the player base being rather small at the moment, but keeping that in mind we might not recommend grabbing the game for the online play alone, unless you have friends who live far away that would be interested in playing with you.

Comet Crash 2: The Kronkoid Wars should be a fun game for anyone stuck on console who wants a solid RTS experience. Even people who would prefer to play these sorts of games on PC with a mouse and keyboard might get something out of it thanks to the unique blend of RTS and Tower Defense gameplay. It actually feels satisfying to play with a controller, which is rare for either genre on a console. That alone might be worth the price of admission. Just keep in mind that even with the unique workaround for the controls, you might still run into some precision issues and that if you don’t have anyone to play with, your experience is most likely going to be limited to the campaign mode, which, while fun, doesn’t have much more meat to it beyond the core gameplay.

Even if you’re not into RTS games, you’d probably be able to find something you like about Comet Crash 2: The Kronkoid Wars. It plays smooth, has a lot of depth to its strategy, and doesn’t overwhelm the player too much with different kinds of units. However, the core gameplay is all there really is to the game. If you’re not the type of player who can appreciate mechanics just for mechanics’ sake, then the lack of story and many features is going to hurt. The game does boast some robust online features, but the tiny player base will make it difficult to justify jumping into it much, at least at the begining. If you can look past that though, you’ll find a great strategy game.

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