Idun - Frontline Survival

In Idun - Frontline Survival, the first game from Idun Interactive, massive waves of enemies will be fought. The game brings a new dynamic to the tower defense genre.

Idun - Frontline Survival is a real-time strategy game where players can move turrets (and heroes) around at will, which sets it apart from many other tower defense games and makes it much more dynamic. Heroes and turrets can be moved around quickly depending on which units are attacking where, allowing players to react quickly to the truly gigantic swarms of enemies. Players will also have to react to environmental effects, such as lightning strikes, and quickly move towers or units away from them. Despite the onslaught of units, pathfinding works really well and is reminiscent of later Creeper World games. It's quite action-packed and hectic, but fortunately the number of units players usually command is fairly manageable, even if the battlefield could be a little easier to read (art design) despite the contour lines. The pause function also helps to keep track of the mission. And then there are the rogue-lite choices within the missions, giving a choice between more units and more powers.

Missions are chosen on a 3D planet and have different objectives, such as defending the collection base, escorting nuclear vehicles and protecting mining carts. It is important to collect resources to improve and strengthen almost everything in the tech tree, and to upgrade the space platform (home base) to gain access to new units and more tactical options for the next battle. The basic gameplay concept works well, and the battles against large swarms of units are particularly strong, but the overall UI/UX is a little lacking. All the menus, dialogues and space platforms feel a little sparse and sterile. The game features AI-enhanced visuals and AI-generated text-to-speech audio - and unfortunately this is particularly noticeable in the audio. Even the story/writing in the too many dialogues is not as good as the action-packed battles.

"One of the elements our early testers have really enjoyed about Idun is the ability to control and move units dynamically, rather than just placing static towers and letting them run automatically. We wanted to create a more hands-on experience that combines the best of tower defense and RTS elements, giving players more agency and strategic control over their defenses. We know this approach might not feel like a traditional tower defense game for everyone, but we hope its unique twist resonates with players looking for something fresh." - Henry Zeng, Director, Surefire.Games

The game is being developed by Stockholm-based Idun Interactive. It's the first game from the studio founded by Gustav Hagerling, former Chief Visual Effects Director for the Battlefield series. Idun Interactive focuses on open development with the community and short development cycles with small, flexible teams. The publisher is Surefire.Games, which describes itself as a one-stop publishing service that connects global games to the Chinese market and helps indie developers reach a global audience. In Idun's case, the latter is true. Otherwise, the company specialises in localising and publishing games for China. Its partners include PlayStation, Xbox, Ubisoft, CD Projekt Red and Koei Tecmo.

Idun - Frontline Survival is available on PC via Steam for €14.79, with full English voice-over (AI) and text localisation for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. Although the game was not released in Early Access, which might have been the better move, the developers are responding quickly to user feedback and have already released five updates in ten days, ranging from bug fixes and balance tweaks to new features.

Conclusion

An action-packed real-time defense strategy game that pits players against intimidating swarms of enemies. Outside of combat, however, the game tends to fizzle out.

Features

• Huge crowds of enemies
• Action and dynamics thanks to movable towers/heroes
• Lots to progress and unlock