Zoo Wars Reviews

[h1]Preamble[/h1] There is a certain sub-genre of Tower Defense that does not really play like "Traditional" Tower Defense at all. Assuming you know nothing about this sub-genre, its gameplay is similar to Real-time Strategy except you don't directly control the units or even build anything. You select your desired units to spawn them with auto-generating resources and they will run to enemy base while fighting opposing units along the way. They are simple kind of games that had been on the Internet since the era of Flash games but they still have some rooms for tactics and skills. Zoo Wars is not as famous as Battle Cats and Clash Royale or even to the lesser known games like Metal Slug Attack and Minion Masters but it does represent the specific design scope of this sub-genre that is worth taking a look at least. [h1]On Minimalism[/h1] Zoo Wars is perhaps the smallest game of this sub-genre in every way which could be good or bad based on what you are looking for. You can only use 6 out of 18 things which is already smaller than other similar games. There is only the one round of 2 minutes fight. Not to mention barely minimal graphic, music, and story. So, to be considered as at least the decent game, you have to implement the gameplay pretty well. [h1]On Battle[/h1] Zoo Wars is all about a single quick battle with a random AI or human opponent and unlike many other games, there is no raising unit level and no way to increase the resource generation speed. Instead of the large variety as seen in most games, Zoo Wars roster is more focused on the coverage and possibilities which affect on how you build your team and formulate the game plan. Due to resources and unit slots being more constrained, the screen is less crowded and you can see how units perform more clearly. The game of this sub-genre often becomes opaque when you reach the point that you can mostly spam anything not in cooldown. In Zoo Wars, the dynamic is more resembling the card game which how you spend the resource and the timing can make differences more often than not. [h1]On Balance[/h1] Zoo Wars is more rigid than others because of the small rosters and predicable game flow. You are not going to surprise the opponent with gimmicks and you can clearly see how units interact with each others. Building your roster in Zoo Wars is more like how you build the flexible toolbox than other similar games. You want to have something that help cover your weaknesses or if your roster can shift to the different game plan that can swing the battle in your favor quickly. Because of how you can utilize most cards in the wide range of situations, there are less incentives to modify more than 1-2 slots especially when you becomes familiar with using 3-4 slots of the deck. The game can becomes repetitive and stale at some point. Game balance is already a very subjective matter and unlike turn-based games, you are more likely to win against bad match-up if you happen to spawn units at the right time while your opponent over spent their resources. The ideal balance for me would be that both players have equal power to win with a completely different deck so the only deciding factor would be their timing skill and mind games while all 12 cards being used effectively in the battle. Does the game close to that point yet? I don't know but I would be interested to see how it goes. Perfect balance might be impossible but I think it is good enough if every cards can serve their purpose well. [h1]Epilogue[/h1] Zoo Wars is very cheap and you can even play the game cross-platform with friend who doesn't own the game. It is a fine game that deserve more attention.