New to doing this, I have never actually sat down and attempted to review a game, so when my friend came to me wondering if I would be interested, I wasn’t too sure how it would go and decided to give it a shot.  Admittedly, finding out the first game to review was a game of the casual genre, I was very apprehensive and somewhat turned off by the idea.  But keeping in the mindset that I already said I would, and the game code was already sent to me, I followed through.  Thankfully, to my surprise, after playing it for a while and beating a few levels I found myself quite captivated by this reverse tower defense game by the name of Fortix 2.  To the point that I just lost track of time and almost forgot to actually type up a review for the game.  With that said, let’s get reviewing.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suOE3Ds8qxk&feature=player_embedded

To start, the primary goal of the game is quite simple; capture the flags and destroy the towers to beat the level.  A task that at the beginning of the game is rather easy, but gradually as you pass levels becomes much harder to do.  This is done by cutting out portions of the map as you traverse the terrain.  With that said your character Sir Fortix, stands upon two different types of lines.  The first is the baseline that surrounds the entire border of the map.  On this line Sir Fortix can’t be harmed, well at least not as first.  The second is the line that is created by Sir Fortix as he cuts through the map.  When on this line, you are left vulnerable to attacks from towers, dragons (lots of dragons), ogres, cannon balls, flaming arrows, fireballs, and the list goes on.  Basically, if any of these enemies touch the line before you can close it up (reconnect) with the baseline, you lose a life.  Thus, as you cut portions of the map out your baseline begins to change and your playing area becomes smaller while your safe area becomes larger.

To eliminate the mass of enemies that are trying to prevent Sir Fortix’s quest to defeat the evil Xitrof and the curse that he has put on the land, it is up to your ability to maneuver the playing area and trap or capture enemies by cutting out the portion of land they are on.  This gives you points towards your main score and also is a way to unlock achievements in the game.  This also leads into the basis of controlling Sir Fortix.  As with the primary goal the controls are pretty simple.  There are three choices, either movement by keyboard, by mouse, or by combining the two.  The keyboard is pretty standard with either using WASD, or by using the arrow keys.  With the mouse, by left-clicking you can select a point on the baseline that Sir Fortix will automatically walk to, and by holding down the left-click to navigate through the play area.  In the end after doing both for a while I found myself relying mainly on the keys and sometimes using the mouse to automatically navigate the baseline by a single click.  Though the controls do come very fast, I do have an issue with holding the left-click to move, especially if your sensitivity is turned up on your mouse.  At times it seems pretty sporadic and hard to control, which lead to a lot of dying.  Furthermore, even though the automatic click walking is nice, it becomes less useful as you encounter the bats…..  Man those bats are pesky creatures that roam the baseline, kind of leaving autopilot obsolete after a while.

Gameplay wise, in almost every level there is something new to add to the difficulty.  This adds an almost puzzle like feel to the game which definitely made it more enjoyable as you progressed.  While adding new monsters and enemy weapons and defenses, the game also presents different types of terrain witch can decrease your movement speed as you walk around the play area.  There are also walls that are impassable and gates that you must capture keys to open.  This helps to give it a strategic feel and aids in taking away from the repetitiveness that many casual games are cursed with.  Another nice addition is special star items that you can capture to aid you in defeating the game, including extra lives, speed bonuses, enemy stopping and projectile stopping to name a few.  Granted they don’t always spawn in some of the best areas, as they are randomly spawned on the map, but when you can manage to capture one they tend to always help in some way.  Not to say that they are eternal add-ons, as they do expire after a certain amount of time.  Not only does the game start to pull you in with its normal gameplay, the developers have also added additional difficulties, achievements and unlockable avatars.  But, I think that one of my most favorite aspects is the addition of a very fun hidden zombie mode, of which I very much enjoyed ^_^.  Along with it’s nice selection of music giving it a nice adventure feel and with it’s simple but very crisp and clean graphics and visuals, I find this to be probably one of the best casual games I’ve played in a very long time.

In the end I would have to give this game some great praise in the casual genre, and would definitely recommend it to help relieve some stress, and kick back for a few minutes.  Though personally, I feel that the cost of $9.99 on Steam is a little steep, maybe a little lower would be nice, it wouldn’t really be that bad of a purchase.  It keeps you captivated and focused on what’s coming next, and it doesn’t bore you with the monotony that a lot of casual games do, and although there isn’t a lot of story depth too it, hell they at least give a story feel to all the descriptions at the beginning of levels when encountering new obstacles, which is a major plus in my book.

Final Rating: 8.5/10

CBR Break Down:
Console Played On: PC – Steam
Approximate Time to Completion: ~1.5 Hours
Gamer Score Earned: N/A
Price Bought at: N/A – Review copy furnished by Nemesys Games
Current Price: $9.99 on Steam
Recommend Purchase Price: A couple bucks lower would be nice, $7.99.

What is even better than getting the game for $7.99, how about free?  That’s right, we are going to be hooking up two of our readers with a steam code for a free copy of the game.  Yes, we really do rock that much.

First entry: In the comments below simply tell us what your favorite exclusively PC game is, and you’ll have one entry for the contest! That simple.

Second entry: Follow us on twitter and send the following tweet:

@ClearanceBinRev is giving away 2 copies of Fortix 2 on #PC (#Steam) and they can be yours! Details: http://bit.ly/iQAIUL

Remember that you have to follow us; any winner we attempt to DM via Twitter who isn’t, automatically forfeits their win. If you enter via Twitter include your twitter name in your post below, winners who have their twitter listed will receive their codes immediately after winning.

Third Entry: Like our Facebook page and then simply like the post on our wall for this article.  Simple as that. (Keep in mind the article may be lower on the Facebook page towards the end of the contest and it may take a minute or two to post on FB)

Contest will go until Monday at 8pm CST.  A pool of all eligible entries will then be randomly selected from and the winners will be notified. CBR reserves the right to disqualify any entry we feel either violated the rules or spirit of the contest, including attempts at duplicate entries. Winner selected with no twitter name provided will be notified by email and have 24 hours to respond.  We do not announce the names of contest winners, but do encourage them to post