Towers & Powers: Review

This game was reviewed on the Meta Quest 3s.

Reviewed by: David Cameron

Towers & Powers, developed by JetDogs Studios and published by VRKiwi, is an ambitious VR tower defense game that seeks to offer a dynamic and immersive strategy experience. Available on the Meta Quest 3, the game presents players with a mix of classic tower defense mechanics and a hands-on, VR-driven approach to managing defenses. While it shines in several areas, including its creativity and immersive atmosphere, Towers & Powers ultimately falls short in certain aspects, leading to a more mixed experience overall. Here's an in-depth look at what the game offers and where it could improve.

Gameplay and Mechanics

At its core, Towers & Powers is a tower defense game, but with a twist: it brings the traditional genre into the VR space, making you feel like you're actively controlling the battlefield. The concept is simple—enemies attack in waves, and your job is to place and upgrade towers, strategically deploying defenses to prevent their progress. What sets this game apart is the way VR is used to heighten the experience. You're not just clicking a button to place a tower; instead, you physically move, reach out, and position your defenses using the Meta Quest 3's controllers, creating a sense of immersion you can't get from traditional tower defense games.

The controls, while relatively intuitive, can feel a bit fiddly at times. Placing towers feels natural enough, but the hand tracking occasionally struggles with more precise actions, such as rotating or positioning towers in tight spaces. This can occasionally break the immersion and lead to frustration when you're in the heat of the action. The act of managing and upgrading towers, however, is satisfying, as it requires a level of attentiveness and quick thinking to keep up with increasingly difficult waves of enemies.

In addition to building and upgrading, Towers & Powers also lets you actively participate in the defense of your towers by using special abilities. You can cast spells, activate traps, or even directly attack enemies with your own weapons. This gives the game a slight action-RPG feel, blending traditional tower defense strategy with more hands-on combat. Unfortunately, while these mechanics are fun in concept, they don't always feel as polished as the core tower defense elements. Spells and abilities can sometimes feel underwhelming or difficult to use effectively in the heat of battle.

World Design and Exploration

Tower & Powers takes place in a series of vibrant, fantasy-inspired environments. The game world is colorful and filled with dynamic maps that change with each new level. While the game doesn't offer true "exploration" in the traditional sense, each level is designed to challenge your strategy in new ways, forcing you to adapt to the terrain, the layout of the map, and the strengths and weaknesses of different enemy types.

The design of the levels is solid, but it lacks a sense of variety or true innovation as the game progresses. Each stage introduces different enemy types and new environmental challenges, but the visual layout of the maps begins to feel repetitive after a while. The fantasy settings, while visually pleasing, don't offer much in terms of narrative or emotional investment, making it hard to get truly immersed in the world beyond the gameplay itself.

That being said, the maps are cleanly designed with clear pathways for the enemies and ample space for you to place and manage your towers. You're also given plenty of time between waves to plan and strategize, which allows for thoughtful decision-making rather than the frantic pace you might find in other VR games.

Graphics and Atmosphere

Graphically, Towers & Powers is a solid VR experience, though it doesn't push the boundaries of what the Meta Quest 3 can do. The visuals are clean and colorful, with cartoonish character designs that fit the lighthearted tone of the game. The environments are bright and varied, with everything from lush forests to medieval castles, and the towers themselves are well-rendered and distinct, allowing for easy identification during fast-paced gameplay.

While the game's art direction is charming, there are moments where the visual fidelity feels a bit basic. The textures are decent but don't stand out as particularly detailed, and there's an overall lack of polish in some areas—such as the animations of the towers or the characters that occasionally look stiff. This isn't a major issue but does make the game feel less immersive when compared to more visually advanced VR titles.

The sound design does a good job of supporting the action, with ambient music that sets a lighthearted tone and effects that bring the battle to life. The sound of towers firing, enemies clashing, and spells being cast is satisfying, though the soundscape can become a bit repetitive, especially during long sessions.

VR Comfort and Performance

On the Meta Quest 3, Towers & Powers performs well for the most part, with minimal lag or frame rate drops. The game's VR mechanics are fairly standard, involving lots of hand movements and occasional arm extension to interact with the towers or cast spells. There's a good amount of physical movement, but it's not so demanding as to cause discomfort for most players, especially with the option to adjust comfort settings. The hand-tracking is responsive, though not flawless—there are occasional moments where it can struggle to detect more intricate hand gestures, especially when placing towers in tight spots.

While the game doesn't feature any teleportation mechanics or free locomotion, the stationary nature of the gameplay doesn't lead to motion sickness, as you're mostly staying in one place managing your defense from a fixed viewpoint. This makes Towers & Powers relatively comfortable for most players, though those who are sensitive to VR may still experience mild discomfort with the extended hand movements.

Puzzles and Challenges

The core challenge of Towers & Powers lies in its strategic elements. As the waves of enemies get progressively harder, you'll need to adapt your tower placements and make use of your special abilities to fend off different types of invaders. The enemy variety is decent, with a range of different units that require distinct strategies to defeat. Some enemies might be quick, others might be heavily armored, and you'll need to place towers with specific capabilities to take them down efficiently.

The difficulty curve is well-balanced in the early stages, but as the game progresses, you may find yourself repeating levels multiple times to figure out the most effective strategies. While this adds replayability, it can also feel tedious, especially if you're stuck on a particular level due to a lack of effective tower combinations or spells.

The lack of truly innovative gameplay mechanics can make the later stages feel repetitive, and the absence of any meaningful narrative or story progression means that the core gameplay is all that's driving you forward. For those who enjoy mastering tower defense strategy, this will likely be a rewarding challenge, but for others, the repetition may start to wear thin.

Replayability and Progression

While Towers & Powers does offer a variety of maps and enemies, the gameplay loop doesn't evolve much beyond the core mechanics of placing towers and casting spells. The lack of deeper progression systems, such as tower upgrades that span across levels or a more extensive narrative-driven campaign, may limit long-term engagement for some players.

The game offers plenty of opportunities for replay, particularly for those who enjoy improving their tower defense strategies and optimizing their placements. However, once you've figured out the optimal strategy for each map, there's not much else to pull you back in. It's a game you'll play in short bursts, rather than something you'll return to for extended sessions.

Final Thoughts

Towers & Powers by JetDogs Studios and VRKiwi brings a fresh take to the tower defense genre in VR, offering an immersive experience where you can physically interact with the game world. Its charming visuals and lighthearted gameplay make it an enjoyable option for those who enjoy strategy and tower defense games. However, the game falls short in areas such as long-term replayability and depth of mechanics, and the occasional control issues with the hand tracking prevent it from being a truly polished experience.

Though it's enjoyable in short bursts, Towers & Powers lacks the depth or narrative hooks to keep players deeply invested for the long haul. That said, it's a solid choice for fans of the genre who are looking for a fun, immersive VR tower defense game with a moderate level of challenge.

Towers & Powers is a fun and competent VR tower defense game, but it lacks the innovation and polish required to elevate it into something exceptional. Its charm and strategic depth make it worth a try, but the lack of significant progression or variation may leave some players wanting more.

Reviewed by: David Cameron