Broken Banners Reviews

As a long time Tower Defense devotee and compared to other more popular games in the genre, Broken Banners is so under-rated, under-played and a true hidden gem. The graphics are fantastic, the SFX and music good, and though there are possibly some balance issues, it's definitely worth the price of admission. I am hoping the developer continues to add, refine and expand on this as well as hopefully even offer additional TD games in the future. I'll be the first in line to buy and encourage others who like INDIE, unique games to give it a run through (or two,... or three,.... as I haVE.

(Steam Deck Review) Got to say, you can see from the hours put in that I've enjoyed it - it's absolute classic tower defence but with the card / RNG twist. And what a twist! Yes, it does make gameplay random, and it 'can' be a factor in your success... but what makes this game so worthwhile is the fact that it's that constant risk / reward every round... Do I save my money to add another tower, or do I spend it trying to get the towers I want? Do I focus on cash generation or attack!?!? It's very very clever.. It took me 40 hours to find that 'winning strategy' - you know every tower defence has that 'winning strategy' - that correct placement of certain towers that you know will kill everything... I have to say though it took me long enough to find it! (it is there!) and there's some really excellent and original towers on offer (some are super effective, others as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike..) But that's half the fun! Figuring it out! Absolutely worth your money - plays like a dream on the Steam Deck (zero issues, and not a battery hog at all - you can play it on the Deck for HOURS... perfect title if travelling, holiday, just watching TV, etc.) the mouse pad on the Deck is built for this! 

Refreshing take on Tower Defence games. The added mechanics from Auto Battlers makes it feel very exciting! Not too big of a game but enough content to warrant the price. Took me around 13 hours to get all levels done with max stars. Definitely enjoyed the challenge and the ingenuity the game offers. Recommended for sure! Would love to see this expanded in future games since I think it could revitalise the Tower Defence genre.

A fun game that lacks variety. There's no progression in the game, so right from the start you have access to all the towers and see all the enemies. The map layouts barely provide variety once you know what you're doing. The challenge and fun of it comes from figuring out what tower combos are the best, learning the meta mechanics (cash management, wave makeups, etc), and trying to craft a winning build from the random towers you're dealt. If you look online you can find the best tower combinations and the game will seem easy and very short. If that's how you prefer to do things then you should probably skip this game. Figuring out the systems through trial and error was fun and rewarding for me, even though I usually prefer some sort of progression via skills or unlocks etc. Also once I'd figured out a combo that could 4-star any map, things felt easy and repetitive and I did not feel the need to play further. Only recommended if you don't mind the lack of progression and you do want to figure things out on your own.

Good tower defence title, things to like - lots of towers and upgrades, game is hard, has a sort of deckbuilder vibe. Things not so good - rng can break your run, no meta progression. Devs if you read this please make the economy towers common towers not rare

I note the negative comments about this game, but I will blowed if I have ever played a more compelling Tower Defense title (even when I am regularly losing). Something keeps bringing me back, possibly the attempt to find the right mix of units and the hope that the various "drops" (RNG in nature) aid me in my efforts. Up to 7 stars at the moment and it has been hard, but enjoyable work! Any "improvements" as suggested (apart from any bugs), will hopefully not detract from the title.

The level at which you can get screwed over in this game by shear bad luck is to the point that it just ruins the joy of many runs.

There are some great ideas in this game but until they fix the glaring balance/randomness issues it is never getting a positive review from me no matter what. The upgrade system requires 2 of the 3 towers used in the upgrade to be UNUSED in the bottom inventory bar (which is limited to 8 slots) and this is singularly the stupidest idea in a game I have ever seen in my entire life. Think about it: You want a tier 3 tower? You have to get 3 level 1 of the tower and then 3 level 2 of the tower, and you CANNOT USE 2 of the 3 in each upgrade, the MUST be in the bottom bar UNUSED, a bar which has only 8 slots. Are you getting the picture? The art style is nice, the sounds are not too annoying, there are some GREAT roguelite concepts implemented to keep the rounds flowing, and the game is cheap. But the bad ideas are CRIPPLINGLY BAD. Avoid this one until these are addressed.

I could say that i am an TD veteran, so i believe that my knowledge about the genre is good enough. Broken Banners looks interesting, with pleasing visuals and good idea, however everything is ruined by few extremely bad design decisions. - the is a lot of RNG involved. Sometimes you won't receive option to build good tower no matter how much gold you waste refreshing them (towers that can be build are random). Sometimes you won't be able to find something that can handle even the first wave!!! - resources received are way too low. You can raise the quantity of gold, spending either item selection or tower places (both are really limited). - tower damage is too low. AOE towers are way stronger than the single ones, however their damage is again too low and they are shooting too slow to handle the last waves - the places where you can place towers are too limited as well. Most of them are in locations where most of the tower range can't be used effectively - the only way to update your towers is to collect three of the same. Based on the rng, this may never happen. This is plain stupid. So after i spend 4 hours trying to get to the end of the FIRST and "easiest" level, i uninstalled the game and won't return ever again.

The game is super fun. I believe it has a lot of potential and even as it is now I enjoy my time with it a lot. That being said it could do with a few tweeks. Game breaking issues imo: Randomly towers will just stop attacking for the rest of the round. It seems to happen when a valid target walks out of range. The tower will just freeze and not attack anything else even if other valid targets are in range or walk into range. Happens most often with the slower attacking towers. Making everything but the spam archer strategy completely fall apart when the speedy dog enemies appear because half your towers will stop functioning. Being able to combine towers already played. For instance I had two 2 star towers in play and a two star in my hand. Couldnt combine. Also couldnt combine when I played the one in my hand and had all three 2 stars in play. Towers that place DOT like cultist alter need a targeting option to not reapply the poison to the same mob over and over. Even when placing it on strongest it applies the debuff again before the first damage tick. Finally, Even when you win you get the defeat screen. More game balance stuff: The balance of the towers seem pretty good but because of how the waves come out attack speed and aoe is a lot more effective than single target. The unique towers are too unique/weak to be useful i.e the tower that ignores armor attacks too slow and lacks aoe to actually be useful vs armored enemies because they usually come in packs. DOT in general feels very underwhelming mostly because of how reapplying the DOT works and how little time it actually stays on the creeps. Currently human is the only tribe that has a super worthwhile tribe bonus and its capstone bonus is game winning. Getting extra experience every round is equivalent to an equal amount of gold gained. Human is pretty much the only tribe that can reach level 10 before wave 40. On top of that having an extra tower is worth so much when the tower count is so limited. Other races need to be brought up in power. It would be neat if the other races or towers gave capstone bonuses as well. Some of this would be mitigated if passive income scaled past 3 without getting a rare item card. As it is currently most of the bonuses are linear so from a math standpoint the first tier is worth a lot more than the final tier is which doesnt seem right for the amount of investment required. In tower defense games usually attack speed is more of a premium over other stats because overkill damage is pointless unless there is a mechanic that states otherwise. As such it is weird that the attack speed bonus for archer towers goes up by 30% attack speed and most of the other bonuses are 20% damage. Currently because of how few towers are shown a turn, how low the income is, how little the upgrades on the towers matter for most towers, and how expensive it is to level; the best strategy is just saving all your money and only buying from what you see each round unless you know the next level will kill you. Which isn't as fun as trying to make a build work. Instead you just sorta have to use what you are given or you just lose at level 32/33 from being too underleveled. I think it would be more fun and probably more balanced if the shop showed 4 or 5 towers and you were either shown more items outside of levels 5/15/25/35 or could buy them. A bigger pool of towers or more rounds that scaled in difficulty slower could also fix this but right now it feels like you are forced into a single play style to succeed. Because of all the above the only strategy I have found to beat wave 40 multiple times is human with a focus on the t2 human infantry that can pretty much solo most aoe requirements. Then transition into elven archers once you have the human stronghold and the t4 elven archer/stronghold hybrid. While pumping most of your gold into levels over towers to be able to afford the t4 aoe elf slow tower and its two t5 towers. This strategy usually can clear the final wave consistently without the boss getting halfway where as atm any other strategy struggles to get past round 32. With that said its still a blast to try other strategies and lose to the real final boss, stage 30. Everything past that is bonus rounds... right?