izigame.me

TLDR; Very good game with a lot of potential, an example where release as EA is a good thing.
THE POSITIVES;
First of all, the game is surprisingly very polished for an EA game, I encountered no bugs or crashes during my time with the game and completing the campaign.
The art style and general presentation of the game is superb. The enemy designs are nicely grotesque and creepy but there is enough difference between the different types of mob that you can quickly identify the risks to your fortress and adapt your troops accordingly. They look awesome as a swarm and the AI works well as they react to chokepoints and attempt to break through your defences.
The building system is flexible and easy to use, There are some slight caveats to this, but overall you can build some really cool and impressive structures. There is a good variety of blocks which require you to think and work with the structural integrity systems, ensuring your buildings actually make sense and aren't just defying the laws of physics by existing.
The troop variety is pretty good and each unit has their own strengths and weaknesses, plus they also have their own ideal height/distance indicator to min/max their effectiveness in battle. This integrates well with the building system, as you will find yourself adjusting and adapting your structures to meet the requirements of your available units to get the most dps from them.
The map design is very good - I was pleased to see the Endless mode has procedurally generated terrain which really helps with replayability. The campaign maps really look handcrafted, and it is really cool that most of the levels have ruins of previous cities/fortresses which you can either build off as inspiration for your defences, or ignore as part of cool scenery - while you create your own vision of a fortress that will stand the test of time better than their predessors. Also, the presence of ruins sometimes provided some light puzzling elements, as you need to rebuild areas to reach new terrain or objectives, and offered a nice element of environmental storytelling.
The lore so far seems interesting. I did find myself gripped by the cut-scenes and the way the narrative was told. The developers interestingly added a time-travel mechanic, which contributes nicely to the story and also means there is no shame in save-scumming, which some of us may feel guilty for doing when it all goes wrong!
Overall there is plenty of content to get your money's worth already and I would definitely recommend getting involved at this stage, From what I have seen, the developers are responsive and open to feedback, and their prior games show they have a very good track-record when it comes to creating fun games.
THINGS TO CONSIDER/"NEGATIVES"
While I already praised the building mechanics, it can take some getting used to. Adjusting the interiors of buildings can be a bit of a pain with the camera and while there is a transparency setting you can use, this can still lead you to misplacing or deleting the wrong blocks in the wrong place when you are adjusting some of the finer details to your fortress. Also, the menu can be a little awkward to navigate when you are rapidly switching between block types, and the implementation of hotkeys would help with this.
The structure system is cool in principle but can be a little bit confusing. Building a ceiling/roof can be a nightmare as sometimes you cannot easily see why a block cannot be placed as there is not enough structural support. The default is to use wood blocks, which are much more flexible, but those are extremely weak. There is a certain mob later which can AoE your structures and the wooden floors tend to be destroyed instantly, which can leave your troops trapped in the stone shell that was left and essentially useless for the rest of the fight - unless you can quickly rebuild around them. I also wish the toughness cap was hit a bit earlier - as this can be quite limiting. Your fortresses quickly turn into monstrosities to reach the required level of toughness late game but I think this is counter-intuitive to building a fortress which is aestheticly pleasing and fits the map well - surrounding your settlement with GoT-level walls is cool at first but I'd like to create forts which look realistic and don't need to be ridiculously tall to not be easily destroyed. This is also why I would like to see melee/hybrid units so we can lean more into the RTS element of the game which I will go on to.
The troop variety, while cool, feels a bit lacking still. I would really like to see melee units implemented which could hold chokepoints/courtyards with aerial support from other units. This would lead to players having to decide whether they risk sacrificing troops or structures if the horde overwhelms your ranged units, as currently there are only traps to deal melee dps. Melee troops would open up nice options around army diversity and could play around weather systems or certain types of horror that could be added later. It would also be nice to have mage units who may be very expensive but offer options such as group buffs, heals or targeted CC effects like a fire wall or ice storm. I would enjoy a troop levelling/rank system, where seasoned troops fight better if you are good at protecting them in the early stages/waves and help with the current difficulty curve and make unit losses feel more impactful.
To build on the aforementioned idea more, I would like to see more meaningful interactions from weather systems. Currently there is rain, which reduces the accuracy of your units if they are not covered by your buildings. I would love to see more weather systems which might randomly cycle in Endless - with a "forecast" so you know what is coming a day or two prior to prepare. Cold weather/snow might reduce attack/movement speed and/or require torches/firepits to prevent your units suffering the effects, but have passive effects like reduced oxygen consumption. It may also slow horrors so it is not an outright negative. Rain might not effect melee troops, meaning they are a good option if you do not want to adjust your fortress too much if you would otherwise rely on ranged. Sunny weather might increase ranged troops but fatigue melee units in their heavy armour, but also cause horrors to gain an additional effect. Maybe make effects on the night too, such as a "full moon" which make horrors appear in greater numbers or mutate on the field.
Lastly, there are a couple levels which are Tower Defence. I think these are a great proof of concept but could use a little balancing - currently the best way to win seems to be to stack all your units near the start and then move a few back to pick off the stragglers. Perhaps in this mode there could be an "overcrowded" mechanic which reduces unit efficiency if they are too close to each other, this would encourage players to actually use the whole map and think more carefully about unit placement throughout. I think this looks awesome but just needs some balancing.
The lack of co-op will put some people off but I really don't think it would add much. Some games are just best played single-player. I think there's an attitude with gaming nowadays that everything should be multiplayer for some reason, but the only way I see that working is if players get their own fort on a large map, like in AoE for example. The constant pausing to build will probably lead to frustration between players so I think removal of pauses, but longer days to allow for preparation in real-time, could work. Also the rewind mechanic would obviously have to be removed in that as well to prevent bad blood from lost progress!
Lastly I know the devs are looking to add more rogue-like mechanics to the game. This would be a great addition and I know from Moonlighter that they already understand what makes the genre enjoyable and how it adds value.
Anyway, great game with lots of promise. Buy it!