I purchased this game after playing and liking the demo, but I'm disappointed to say that the full game doesn't change in any meaningful way.

There are things to like about this game: the art direction works well and is well made, the UI is simple to understand at a glance, and despite how many enemies are on screen in the later levels the screen rarely feels cluttered, and I encountered no bugs besides some audio clipping in the last few levels. The core gameplay is solid, the game just fails to iterate on it and take it anywhere interesting.

The first and last levels play much the same: hold your cursor over enemies until you die, or you survive long enough to kill the level boss. There is no real way to express yourself as a player, as you are more or less required to take all the upgrades you can in order to progress to the next level. There are no builds or alternative playstyles. Every level is a big empty field, the only thing that changes between them is that it gets slightly larger, and more enemies appear at once.

Spells are cast automatically on a timer in a set order, every enemy behaves roughly the same, most upgrades boil down to "bigger number". The last part is especially annoying since every new level is seemingly tailored to make your last set of upgrades pointless. Upgrade damage? Now enemies are tankier. Upgrade spell radius? Now the map is bigger, so relatively there's no difference. Upgrade health? Now you passively take more damage.

This game is like a skeleton: solid foundation, but there's just no meat to sink your teeth into.

You control a mage on one side of the battlefield while hordes of enemies approach from the other. The mage automatically fires projectiles at intervals, and your job is to position the targeting circle so that it hits as many enemies as possible. Timing and placement are important, as enemies are constantly moving and projectiles follow an arc and not a straight path. However, since everything within the targeting circle takes damage, you don’t need to be particularly precise.

Your mage loses health whenever an enemy reaches you and attacks, but there’s another problem to deal with. A mechanic called blight gradually drains your health, meaning you’ll eventually die even if you manage to keep every enemy at a distance. This is a familiar part of the genre, as every enemy you kill rewards you with currency that is spent on upgrades in a skill tree.

The skill tree follows a typical incremental structure, starting with a single upgrade connected to a few other nodes, while the rest remain hidden behind question marks. Purchasing an upgrade reveals the nodes directly connected to it, showing exactly what they offer, while further branches extend into new question marks. Each node can only be purchased once, but the same types of upgrades appear repeatedly throughout the tree, making some paths fairly predictable. The main path going upward focuses on increasing damage, one branch improves the targeting circle’s size, and another increases your health.

Fortunately, there are plenty of more interesting upgrades further along the tree. These include a chance for projectiles to split and jump to another target, freezing enemies, casting fireballs, and hiring friendly units to help defend your position. Many perks also have additional upgrades that improve their effectiveness, such as increasing the chance of triggering an effect. Others unlock entirely new abilities, with the health branch eventually leading to a perk that restores health after each kill, while the lightning upgrades allow your attacks to hit more targets. There are other surprises as you move up across the tree.

Progression takes you through several battlefields that mostly differ in appearance, with environments ranging from forests to icy landscapes and deserts. To advance, you must survive for a set amount of time before defeating the stage’s boss. Enemies continue spawning while the boss is present, so you need to manage the entire horde. Fortunately, killing the boss instantly eliminates all remaining enemies and allows you to move on to the next stage.

Each new battlefield is larger, allowing more enemies to spawn simultaneously. This can actually work in your favor, since tightly packed groups make it easier to hit multiple enemies with a single attack. Bosses from previous stages also return as regular enemies with reduced health, though they reward you with more coins when killed. Regular enemies provide more currency as well, but the blight mechanic becomes increasingly punishing, draining your health at a faster rate.

Progression is smooth, as you generally need only a few runs on each stage to collect enough currency for the upgrades required to survive the next challenge. Completing the entire game takes several hours, and you’ll eventually need to purchase every available upgrade to withstand the final stage. Despite the repetitive nature of the battles and upgrade paths, the game manages to keep you engaged thanks to its charming pixel art and steady sense of progression. There’s usually enough currency to purchase something new after each run, giving you a reason to jump back in and keep going until you finally beat the game.

Nothing says peak tactical gameplay quite like a giant invisible middle finger called "blight" constantly draining your health bar for no reason. There is no strategy. There are no builds. Gameplay loop is the same and goes something like this:

- Murder skeletons as fast as humanly possible while your health bar ticks down like an eviction notice
- Die from pure boredom without enemies reaching you
- Buy a node on a massive skill tree that that will make you survive 2 seconds longer
- Repeat on a slightly larger field

No decision you make actually changes anything. You follow the exact same linear upgrade track and survive for 2 extra seconds just to repeat the cycle. There’s more strategic depth in choosing which sock to put on first in the morning.

Excellent game if you enjoy dying on a schedule.