The gameplay is pretty difficult unless you're playing cooperatively, which makes it a bit easier as you can actually synergize a bit.

Map design is seemingly designed against the player, many maps are multi-layered with only a few seconds to understand pathing via a tiny almost transparent line that travels. One map straight up punishes you for not forseeing a lane change, not very play friendly of you map. Most maps give you a very narrow room for traditional tower defense placement, usually requiring you to just use the snowman to stall them. Infact the snoman is actually overpowered for defense when using healing heaters and thin walls, most of the time the snoman got me to wave 20-25 without really trying. Also on some maps there are stairs or ladders, putting walls near these without covering the entire edge to edge can result in them walking around, very funny of you game.

UI design is artistic, and I mean artistic. In that its not designed to really be readable until you know what you're looking at. Many ui buttons are unlabeled and symbol only, I like reading to know what I'm about to press instead of guessing. Also the worst sin of game uis, you cant press escape to exit menus.

Cutscenes/transitions are nice, but they are no skippable. This isn't a problem but when I don't care for a moment you have to just wait through maybe 10-15 seconds of transition everytime you get an item or unlock someone. Please just let me skip the cutscenes.

Enemy balance is a bit funky since up to wave 20 is decently easy but then after that you are essentially boned if you do not have solid DPS and defense since it introduces a guy who will kill everything instantly in a 3x3 area after wave 20 something. While it is an upgrade of the previous version of him, the damage going from manageable to entire defense line shattered in seconds in like a few waves was a bit funny. Theres also the artillery guys who appear around wave 20 and so on that can do massive backline damage, keep in mind you cannot directly repair buildings so those buildings are essentially just damaged forever annoyingly.

As for characters or vessels as they're called, the only one I found useful was the snoman with the other being the starter guy. When used together they are pretty solid for resource gathering and just building a solid defense. I've found some usage with the catman on some specific maps but didn't really like him that much. The knight you get later who can arm their knights with guns seems useful as a support but doesn't have many wall healing options despite getting a so called modular wall. My other minor complaint is that the current vessels seem lacking, theres like 1 generalist and 4 supports really, I've found only the starter guy to be good at collecting resources but I haven't done extensive testing since the game gives you no info.

As for towers and upgrades, probably the most annoying part of the game. Unlike many other tower defenses, this game does not tell you what the next upgrade does, requiring you to waste resources to see if it will even help you at all. Ontop of that you cannot undo or swap upgrades, so you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up trying to upgrade multiple towers now you have to sell it and start again. Also there is no tower copy and paste or upgrade path blueprint, so upgrading a million things gets a bit tedious. Another complaint is the snoman's sno launching requires you to individual re-aim each one... like please add a button to aim all or a select to aim a few cause re.

Overall, I am neutral about it, mostly because of how little information the game gives you. I'm all for experimentation but like experimentation is punished with how slow resource gain can be. If I'm going to experiment I don't want to just be killed for a mistake I can't really ta
If you are going to play have a second person and be prepared for verticality cause many maps are multi-layer jungle gyms.

Its a good TD game, originally was looking for a Co-op TD to burn some hours on, but the gameplay is engaging unique for each character. Initially I did have a hard time navigating and understanding what I was suppose to be doing. The starting character does a good job at explaining the basics of gathering and spending recourse.

I have played in Solo/Duo/Trio and Quads and have had a great experience in them all. A lot of the reviews I've seen complain at the "complexity" of the IN GAME map design. I guess it would be if you never played anything requiring you to be challenged and make use of some form of thought. But all the maps I've experienced add a great gimmick that makes each map unique. Why would I want to use the same strategy every time?

My only complaint with the characters is the lack of towers, 4 is a good way to form the identity of each unit but feels like more can be added to create real synergy within itself.

I will agree although, the UI/UX is horrible. I would prefer a menu with map select compared to the navigation in the overworld.

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