Fieldrunners: iPhone’s Tower Defense Granddaddy

By: Nathan Andrews, Editor

I’ve had an iPhone for a little over a year now, and I’ve found that the most use it’s gotten has been in the gaming space. Of the gaming I’ve done on my iPhone, the vast majority of that has been playing one particular type of game called ‘Tower Defense. The concept is simple: keep the bad guys from getting through your gate by building towers with particular weapons or defense capabilities.

Fieldrunners is widely considered one of the best of this genre, and many (myself included) consider it one of the best iPhone games available. A simple concept, paired with great graphics and sound, plus a good variety of play modes makes this a game anyone should check out.

In the beginning, Fieldrunners was a very simple game. No sound, one game mode, and one map. As the updates started coming through, the game really fleshed out into what it has become today. Sound, multiple maps, new weapons, the ‘Endless’ game mode, and fast forward mode, have all be added via updates as they came available. What started out for me as a ‘Meh, it looks like it could be cool if they did x, y, and z, turned into a great game that I still play for hours at a time.

The Object:

Your objective is simple: Stop the invading army from crossing the field and reaching your gate. As you progress from level to level, the type and number of enemies increases, making the task more difficult. Killing enemies gives you money, which you can then use to build more weapons. Choosing the right weapons, and finding the most effective pattern for placing your towers is the only way you can survive. Oh, and don’t forget about the helicopters, planes, and blimps that don’t follow your patterns of towers.

Game Modes:

There are three ways to play the game: Classic, which gives you 4 types of towers to defeat your enemies over 100 rounds; Extended, which gives you 2 additional weapons; and Endless, which provides you with all 6 weapons and an unlimited number of opponents. If you really sit down and dig into it, you can get through all 100 rounds in a Classic or Extended mode game in about 2-3 hours using the fast-forward option (really handy for certain rounds, as they can take a very long time at normal speed). An Endless mode game can last as long as you can take it (my own personal best got me to round 111).

Maps:

Originally, the Grasslands map was the only option for playing. Featuring one entrance and one exit, you are given an open field to place towers wherever you like in order to stop the charging armies. Updates have pushed down two additional maps, Crossroads and Drylands, which have 2 entrances and 2 exits, and 3 entrances and 3 exits, respectively. Mastering Crossroads and Drylands takes a lot of careful planning, as enemies could be coming from any of the available entrances.

Weapons:

There are six types of towers to choose from, each with their own capabilities. Choosing the right combination of towers in the right patterns can quickly make the difference between success and failure. Your available towers are: Gatling, a minigun (upgradable to three guns) turret; Goo, spray your enemies to slow them down (upgrades increase the recycle speed and the extent of the slowdown); Missiles, if you can’t shoot them, blow them up (upgrades increase the recycle speed and damage effect missiles fired); Flame, if you like your enemies well-done (upgrades increase the intensity of the firestorm); Tesla, if you can’t cook them with fire, cook them with voltage (upgrades increase recycle speed and power); Mortar, rain down fire from above (upgrades increase effectiveness and recycle time).

Enemies:

There’s nowhere near enough time for me to go over each and every enemy you will be presented with, but I’ll give you the main categories

• Foot Soldiers: Several types of these guys ranging from small to large, and fast to slow. Easily put down with any of the available weapons.
• Ground Vehicles: There are a wide range of wheeled enemies, anywhere from small foot soldiers on motorcycles, through jeeps, tanks, and eventually: Giant Killer Robots. Some of these move very fast, so using a goo tower to slow them down periodically is a good strategy. Tanks and killer robots are very tough to kill, so the longer they can be exposed to gun and missile fire, the better.
• Air Vehicles: Helicopters, planes, and blimps. They don’t follow the pattern of towers you build, because they’re above them. Defeating waves of these enemies takes very careful planning along flight paths. Every time I’ve failed a mission, it was because a helicopter or plane got through. Slowing them down and exposing them to as much missile and mortar fire as you can is the only way to stop them.

Overall Conclusions:

If you have a lot of time to kill, and don’t mind getting completely sucked into a game, Fieldrunners is definitely something you will enjoy. I can’t count the number of times I’ve pulled the iPhone off the charger, fired up Fieldrunners, and not looked up until I got the 20% battery message. It’s a fun, engaging game that keeps you wanting to come back for more.