No Creeps Were Harmed TD review

Perfectionism is a rare quality in the tower defense genre. When playing, it can take multiple attempts to build a network of turrets that can repel waves of persistent enemies. And stopping every last invader, especially on an elevated difficulty level, can feel like the equivalent of a hole-in-one in golf.

Likewise, few tower defense games get all of the nuances right. Some TD games can feel like restrictive puzzles, with a single solution to each stage. And once you’ve solved a stage, there’s little incentive to revisit it.

Other efforts neglect tuning – resulting in disheartening difficulty spikes or an overpowered weapon that you end up relying on. And while its meteor towers are probably a bit too potent, Hidden Path Entertainment’s DG 2: Defense Grid 2 remains one of my favorite tower defense titles nearly a decade after the original release.

Up There with the Best

Defense Grid 2 is a game that understands the allure of autonomy. You’re free to set your own level of challenge, devise different policies, and come up with our strategies. And that ‘play it your way’ approach feels gratifying.

With the possible exception of 2020’s Gemcaft – Frostborn Wrath, it’s a quality that’s missing from many contemporary tower defense games. Yet, if you’re the kind of player who appreciates this kind of approach, the release of No Creeps Were Harmed TD is worth seeking out. Save for controller support that’s fiddly (Creeps is playable on Steam Deck but could use some additional button assignments to move around the user interface), DG2 might finally have a 3D rival.

Creeping Across the Z-Axis

Yes, much like Defense Grid 2, No Creeps Were Harmed conflicts take place on sprawling battlefields that can be rotated, spun around, and zoomed in on. Typically, all it takes is a few rotations of your mouse’s scroll wheel or a drag with the right-button held to snap to another perspective.

And you’ll definitely need to shift the point-of-view since there’s an abundance of curves across the game’s multiple maps. This means you’ll fight processions of creeps who walk up vertical inclines or around cubes. Smartly, stages avoid feeling gimmicky, providing plenty of opportunities to construct intricate labyrinths of abuse. And figuring out different ways to take advantage of the environment is at least half the fun. Although there are translucent orbs that seem to show three-dimensional turret ranges, some of your defensive turrets can fire far further.

Stages Suited for Replay

Pleasingly, Creep’s maps are easy to ‘read’, with enemy pathways that can be toggled on and off and distinct identifiers for junk that can be shot at or a plot of land that can be cleared and built upon. On the left side of the screen is a panel detailing all your unlocked turrets and abilities. For better or worse, the weapons don’t veer far from TD tradition, with everything from short-range zapping, medium range guns, and long-range artillery. But as you unlock additional pieces of technology, the possibility for synergy expands.

You’ll get quite a bit of control over upgrades, spending credits to see ‘cloaked’ creeps, increasing damage and firing rate, the number of projectiles, widening the blast radius, as well as a multitude of other variables. If you like tinkering with your set-ups, you can freely pause the game to change tower behavior, targeting tough, adjacent, or damaged adversaries. Notably, you’ll also be able to augment the health of some of your battlements, which is imperative since some creeps explode when eliminated and your own guns can cause a bit of damage when they intermittently miss their targets.

Brian, Your New Best Fiend

But don’t trust the complaints about tower damage in the Steam discussion threads. Not only do all of your turrets heal after every wave, but you’ll also earn the ability to repair an entire area in a matter of seconds. One of No Creeps Were Harmed’s more remarkable innovations is a multipurpose drone, who builds, shoots, repairs, and even launches devastating area-of-effect assaults.

Like almost everything else in the game, “Brian Jar” (his default name) can be upgraded. Best of all, Brian is a reliable partner who doesn’t need constant supervision. He’ll stop machine-gunning foes, construct a new tower, then obediently return to where you placed him. And yes, while a tower tax sounds like another pain-in-the-ass, it’s a creative way to ensure a balance between building new turrets and upgrading existing ones. Since Creeps is generous with its rewards it’s not as punitive as it sounds. One last novelty: the creeps evolve during play, with mutations providing new abilities that will persistently keep you on your toes.

Conclusion

Across the last decade, the tower defense genre has been dominated by solid but safe series like Bloons and Kingdom Rush. With everything from dryly comic interludes and innovations like tower deprecation, enemy evolution, and taxation, No Creeps Were Harmed TD is a more stimulating experience than most of its contemporary peers. Best of all, Creeps offers a wealth of flexibility, with difficulties that range from push-over to unremittingly punishing. Nearly everything about the game has been meticulously designed, from the ability to tackle endless waves to meta-game incentivization. If you’re a fan of the genre, act like a creep, and don’t let anything stop you from giving this a go.

No Creeps Were Harmed TD was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.