Congratulations to all ten winners.

Please do write a review over on Steam once you've played the game for a while.
Even if it's only a short one, the dev's will appreciate it; thank you.

Good luck to all who have entered.

Whiterabbit's opinion: If you like side scrolling tower defense games, The Last Roman Village is definitely a game you'll want to have a chance at winning. I received this free from the developer the last time it was in a limited giveaway several months ago HERE, where it received a positive 87% from 15 votes. I found it quite challenging and different from your usual tower defense games. If you want to sample the game play you can download a demo via Steam HERE.

You can see several Steam community reviews of The Last Roman Village HERE. you can also see a few videos of game play HERE (early version), HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (developer input) and HERE.

The Last Roman Village

In Brief

The Last Roman Village is a strategy defense game that gives freedom to develop a whole Roman city from scratch and to wisely choose the way to defend it. The game allows players to experience variety of options and creativity.

The game was released on Steam on the 26th July. Side scrolling defense games are one of my favorite types of games (next to Breakouts, Shmups and top down TD games)

You can also see a few videos of game play HERE (1min), HERE (28mins), HERE (1hr 12mins) and HERE (18mins). The third link is worth checking despite its length, however the first link from the developers intro video of just over a minute gives an overall picture of the game. Personally I'll probably buy this if I don't get one free to review (depending on the release price), as I do like these rare (compared to the usual top down variety) side scrolling TD games.

The Game:

I love Tower Defense games, but side scrolling TD games on Steam are quite rare compared to top down versions (there are loads of cheaper side-scrolling TD games via the browser sites such as Kongregate and 84 Play and some android versions (which I don't play), but they tend to be flash games with little content, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this game released on Steam. If you don't win the game, as mentioned above, there's still a demo available via the Steam page HERE and until the 12th April it's got a discount of 75% off making it dirt cheap at only £1.58/$1.97/€1.64.

On booting up the game you get a configuration window that allows you to select from a range of resolutions from 640x480 up to 3840x2160. There’s also a drop down menu for selecting the graphics quality; ranging from low, medium, height, very high and ultra and there's an option that allows you to select which monitor your game will appear on if you have a multi monitor display and there’s a checkbox for selecting windowed mode. The game starts in full screen by default. After several game story boards the main menu will appear. This comprises of three buttons, PLAY, OPTIONS and QUIT. The options menu allows you to re configure your game, basically mirroring the initial configuration window, apart from the multi monitor selection menu which is not included.

There's lots to do, with loads of different buildings to build that help defend the Village from invaders. There are prettier looking games of this type on Steam, but I actually love the cartoon like graphic. It looks simple, but you'll need your wits about you, especially if you aren't that familiar with side scrolling TD games.

The main aim of the game is to defend your Emperor from invaders that attack from both the left and the right. You start the game with a small village, but can expand by building various building, which all give different advantages to the defense of the village. For example building an house will give you an extra villager every third wave.

As successive waves of enemies invade, you can spend your earned gold on various buildings that either earn you more gold or more villagers, spear-men or archers; all of which are upgradeable and necessary if you are to protect your emperor. Villagers are useful because they repair broken walls after each wave (+1 HP per second), but can also be upgraded to soldiers to help in the defense of the village; whereas the spear-men, archers and the main character 'General Aurelius' defend the Emperor. There are different categories of buildings; for example, houses, these can be upgraded to level 2. When upgraded homes will create two extra villagers per turn. Building a forum increases your gold income by +4 coins every wave. Other useful buildings include Blacksmith (swords), Mill (food for health), Armory (Stronger Armor for protection), Roman Barracks (creates level 1 - Spear-men, level 2 - Legionnaires and level 3 - Praetorian's), Archery Range (train archers), Ballista Factory (creates powerful Roman ballista), Stone Mine (produces +2 Gold and +1 Spears per wave), Tent (healers levels 1 to 3) and a Woodcutters cottage (produces +2 Gold and +1 Spears per wave). Buildings such as the defensive towers and walls help to keep out or attack the invaders from fixed positions, whereas other buildings such as the Woodcutter and Stone mines earn extra gold and also add extra spears to Aurelius's arsenal. Other buildings, such as the Archery Range and Roman Barracks create more soldiers (archers and spear-men respectively) and where you can upgrade them if you have earned enough gold. There are also buildings that help to heal and others that create more powerful weapons (Mill, Healing Tent and Ballista Factory). You can see a more detailed description of the buildings via one of the images below.

There is also an arena which at the start of the game is in the process of being built and doesn't become active until wave 45 when it has been fully built, and at which point it will also be upgradeable. There are three difficulty levels; Easy, Normal and Hard. Apart from the defenders there are three magic attributes that can also be summoned when they are activated i.e. Arrow Rain, Summon Warrior and Wrath of God. However, these and the pet dog can only be summoned via the wheel bonus round, which involves a spinning wheel with 24 slots each slot having different items such as the pet dog and the three magic abilities. As this is a random spin, you may be lucky enough to get all three abilities, or none a tall throughout the duration of the game. I've never seen this included in a TD game before.

You need gold to upgrade or activate various buildings, for example to gain gold you need to build a woodcutter and stone masons abode, once these are built you also gain a +1 for Aurelius’s spear throwing. Other ways to gain gold are via the Gold Goblin and the Wheel of fortune (an innovation I’ve never seen in a tower defense game before) as well as surviving successive waves of enemy attacks.

To throw a spear use the F key (or if using a game controller use RB). If you have enough gold you can upgrade your soldiers using the T or controller Y buttons.

Once you’ve built up your defenses by building walls and defensive towers you’ll require villages who can repair damaged walls. To create a villager you need to build houses. Every three waves a new villager will be created. These can also be re-trained as soldiers if required

Key Bindings:

M = next information panel or call archer while in game (or Red controller B)
N = Call Infantry (or blue controller X)
I = Encyclopedia/Pause
K = Skip to Wave
T = Train (Upgrade) Soldiers (or Yellow controller Y)
A = Forward
D = Backward
E = Build or upgrade building
1 = Magic 1 (Arrow Rain)
2 = Magic 2 (Summon Warrior)
3) = Magic 3 (Wrath of Gods)
F = Spear Throw
Esc = Exit

Conclusion

This conclusion is based on my original game play before the game was actually released while the game was still a work in progress, so additional features may have been added in the interim.

If you enjoy side scrolling TD games, this one is certainly a challenge and a worthwhile purchase. The graphic may look a little dated, but I like the cartoonish look. There's no blood or gore, so this would also be a more appropriate game for younger children in a family, though I reckon it may be a little too challenging without help from an adult.

I've been played this game for several hours so far and have still not managed to get past level 4. It's quite a challenging TD game. My only issue with the game so far is the slow pace. Each wave is preceded with a 60 second grace period, which you can use to decide where you want to spend your money. You can bypass this safe period by clicking on the K button, which summons the next wave, but it can take over a minute before the enemies reach your emperor even when you double click the K button to speed up the next wave.

The game definitely takes some thinking 'strategy-wise'; especially at the beginning of the game. It's taken me almost a week, playing at least two or three times a day to get to the fourth wave and realised that upgrading the emperor to the max and building a barracks, then a the Woodcutter and Stone Mine, which give you an extra two spears for Aurelius to throw each wave. Then a Defensive Tower on the left hand side of the emperor. With those buildings and upgrades accomplished you should at least get to level 5. The next upgrade needs to be spent on the defensive tower or the wall next to the defensive tower. After that a house, so that you get a villager to repair the wall.