E3 2012: Fieldrunners 2 Preview

It's Finally Back and Bigger Than Ever

Fieldrunners was one of the first big iOS original sensations, delivering a slickly animated and well-executed take on tower defense strategy, but it's been nearly four years since its 2008 release, and we're only now talking about a sequel. Why the lengthy wait?

Luckily, Fieldrunners 2 looks to have been well worth the wait. I had a chance to scope out and briefly play the game this week at E3, and not only does the game build upon its predecessors most successful elements while incorporating other tower defense titles' best qualities, but it also makes some innovations of its own along the way.

Giving the follow-up a sense of progression was essential for the studio, and it shows in the new world map, which depicts a series of challenges spread across four distinct environmental designs. The familiar grid-based approach is retained, in which you'll spend in-game cash for offensive towers, all with the hopes of keeping swarming enemies from reaching your base; and like in the first game, you can pause the action to precisely place towers without the threat of incoming foes. But while the original was built with open-area maps, Fieldrunners 2 also experiments with forced-path designs at times, as well as a mix of the two and hazardous terrain (like heat panels), all of which give you a lot of choice in how you direct and attack the invading forces.

Moreover, there's plenty more variety in the missions themselves, aside from the layout changes. In survival mode, the goal is simply to amass the stated number of kills, with foes pouring in nearly from the word "go." Elsewhere, a puzzle mode delivers a unique new twist on the genre by giving you a limited number of towers to place to reroute the invaders into a death trap. Add in new towers and optional power-ups, as well as smarter foes (which react to each other instead of just passing through one another), and Fieldrunners 2 just seems like a monstrous leap ahead of its predecessor.

Gotch says their experienced testers take upwards of 16 hours to clear everything in the game, so expect plenty to do in the package, as well. And it looks fantastic, with the series' trademark hand-drawn aesthetic receiving an ample boost in detail--one that's sure to shine on Retina displays in both the initial iPhone version, due out late this month, and the soon-to-follow iPad iteration. Fieldrunners 2 has been a long time coming, but for fans of strategic enemy slaying, this tower defense entry looks like one of the best to enter the genre in quite some time.

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Original Page: http://www1.maclife.com/article/games/e3_2012_fieldrunners_2_preview

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Regards,

Derik Chan