About This Game "Hydraulic Empire looks to be that entry into the genre that I have been waiting for." - indiegames.comWhat is it?Hydraulic Empire is a Tower Defense game with RPG elements focusing on strategy, interactions between mobs, and persistent upgrades. What we are doing with Hydraulic Empire is taking the best of what we have experience over the years, and then we are adding elements that are unique.How much Content is there?We have over 20 levels (21 at launch and we will continue to add more as time goes on), 10 mobs, 10 towers, a builder that levels as you play, and tons of mob interactions. All in all at launch there is about 15 hours of gameplay.Whats Different about our TD?Tower Defenses are not new, and they are not evolving much anymore. We aim to change that by adding in a variety of unique mob interactions. We are also adding in tons of RPG elements and we have a hero/builder that will allow you to take part in more of the battle. Mob interactions are our major innovation. Where as they are not 100% new to the tower defense genre, they are typically simple or not very interesting. We have taken this to the next level, and centered our game squarely around them. Mob interactions will take place all over a level, and will change where and how you choose to build in a level. The interactions vary greatly based on which mob die in which order. This aspect of the game has given the game almost endless replay ability. Most of our mobs will interact with at least 2 or 3 other mobs. Some interactions open up new interactions, and others will lock out some interactions. A Taste of the Story"Peace had been a dream, and the light of its hope has been overshadowed by a new enemy. My own people have turned on me. For what reason, I do not yet know. But there is no option but to fight, if for nothing else but the undying dream of peace at least. I am the First Lieutenant General of the Great Mech Army, but you may call me the Keeper, for I protect the dreams of many. And I call to you for aid. The mobs close in, thirsty for the land we won through fearsome attrition. And I am the only one who now stands in their way." 1075eedd30 Title: Hydraulic EmpireGenre: Action, Casual, Indie, RPG, Simulation, StrategyDeveloper:Batholith EntertainmentPublisher:Batholith EntertainmentRelease Date: 31 Jul, 2015 Hydraulic Empire Key Serial Number This could have been a cool tower defense game, but as others have already mentioned, the balancing is way off. Some maps are literally impossible to solve unless you select the exact tower placement (and thus force the enemies on the specific path) that is required. No matter if you have ultra-upgraded towers or not, you simply will not win unless you get the path correct. While some may find this challenging, I found it tedious in the extreme - playing a level over and over. Note also that this is based on the "medium" difficulty setting. There are two settings higher than this. I doubt I will explore them.The other issue with this game is the glitches. After playing 3 or 4 rounds, the sound begins to skip and distort. This gets worse the longer you play, until after about 45 minutes the sound is painful to listen to. At this point your only choice is to close the game and then reload it. The same thing happens with the video - especially if you have lots of enemies on the screen at once. The frame rate will suddenly pause, and then when it resumes everything runs really fast to "catch up". Frustrating doesn't begin to describe the experience. (Note that this is with a 4-gig GTX 960 graphics card, which should be more than enough for a sprite-based tower defense game!)A final nit-pick I'd like to share is with the system used to upgrade the tower abilities, your starting money, etc: It is PAINFULLY slow. You get between 40 and 60 "coins" from each completed level, and those can be used to build little machines that will provide upgrades. But these upgrades are almost non-existent. 1.2% increased damage... 0.8% reduced purchase cost... That sort of thing. And the upgrades get expensive - fast! A level 2 upgrade is 60 coins. Level 3 is 80 coins. And so on... Each time you're getting a tiny, almost imperceptible improvement. To say that it's a grind to upgrade the towers has got to be the understatment of the year. Plus you have a limited number of squares available to build these upgrade machines, so you have no hope of upgrading everything. TL;DR: Unbalanced game play, glitchy sound and graphics, and a frustrating grind to obtain needed upgrades all add up to a lousy experience. I'd rather play Defence Grid: The Awakening, or DG2: Defence Grid 2, or even Tower Wars. Anything but this game. Don't waste your money.PS: I wrote this review quite a while ago and then waited to post it to be sure I wasn't just having a bad day. I've checked back several times and each time I looked over the text I agreed that yes, this is accurate. So today I decided to finally post my review.. This could have been a cool tower defense game, but as others have already mentioned, the balancing is way off. Some maps are literally impossible to solve unless you select the exact tower placement (and thus force the enemies on the specific path) that is required. No matter if you have ultra-upgraded towers or not, you simply will not win unless you get the path correct. While some may find this challenging, I found it tedious in the extreme - playing a level over and over. Note also that this is based on the "medium" difficulty setting. There are two settings higher than this. I doubt I will explore them.The other issue with this game is the glitches. After playing 3 or 4 rounds, the sound begins to skip and distort. This gets worse the longer you play, until after about 45 minutes the sound is painful to listen to. At this point your only choice is to close the game and then reload it. The same thing happens with the video - especially if you have lots of enemies on the screen at once. The frame rate will suddenly pause, and then when it resumes everything runs really fast to "catch up". Frustrating doesn't begin to describe the experience. (Note that this is with a 4-gig GTX 960 graphics card, which should be more than enough for a sprite-based tower defense game!)A final nit-pick I'd like to share is with the system used to upgrade the tower abilities, your starting money, etc: It is PAINFULLY slow. You get between 40 and 60 "coins" from each completed level, and those can be used to build little machines that will provide upgrades. But these upgrades are almost non-existent. 1.2% increased damage... 0.8% reduced purchase cost... That sort of thing. And the upgrades get expensive - fast! A level 2 upgrade is 60 coins. Level 3 is 80 coins. And so on... Each time you're getting a tiny, almost imperceptible improvement. To say that it's a grind to upgrade the towers has got to be the understatment of the year. Plus you have a limited number of squares available to build these upgrade machines, so you have no hope of upgrading everything. TL;DR: Unbalanced game play, glitchy sound and graphics, and a frustrating grind to obtain needed upgrades all add up to a lousy experience. I'd rather play Defence Grid: The Awakening, or DG2: Defence Grid 2, or even Tower Wars. Anything but this game. Don't waste your money.PS: I wrote this review quite a while ago and then waited to post it to be sure I wasn't just having a bad day. I've checked back several times and each time I looked over the text I agreed that yes, this is accurate. So today I decided to finally post my review.
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