Starcraft x Kingdom Rush. Iron Marines Review

As I played Iron Marines at some point I thought that I am playing a PC game, until incoming call interrupted my playthrough. Thats how good Iron Marines is.

Iron Marines is an actual RTS game for the mobile devices and PC. You take role of a commander of special forces, that protects humanity from aliens that are trying hard to kill and eat everyone.

Gameplay

Gameplay consists of 2 parts: Strategic map and Tactical combat. On Strategic map you upgrade your troops, decide which hero to take with you, get consumables for the run and such. When you are ready, you select the level you want to play and the fun begins.

In Tactical combat things are totally different. Its an actual RTS game, where you will command several squads of units and your hero. Enemies will come for your base, most likely in numbers, so be ready for enemy zerg. You will be able to construct and upgrade defensive structures, train more units if you have extra squad slot and explore the map for enemy buildings. If you are lucky you can build expansion base, that will help you to harvest resources even faster, but in most cases you will have to fight for it.

Combat in Iron Marines is pretty chaotic. Your units will automatically attack enemies that come in their range, but you cant pick specific targets. Some units prefer to attack specific targets though, so it can be used to focus down something you dont like.

There are a lot of Enemies in Iron Marines, and some of them can be very dangerous. Enemies have armor type, their priority targets and special features. Like some of the enemies can drain your resources from the storage and you wont be able to build anything. Anyway its better to learn your enemies and their abilities to counter them effectively.

Controls are pretty good for a mobile game, although not perfect. sometimes when you want to select one of the units you select another, or accidentally send them somewhere they are not supposed to go. But its the best you can get on the sensor mobile device, maybe playing it on the tablet instead of small phone will eliminate that. Moreover those mistakes are on user, and they are not happening often, so its not that much of a problem.

Progression isnt that complex. You have a pretty big research tree that allows you to upgrade your troops and buildings. Although the progression is pretty linear. You can also level up your hero and give them specific perks, but thats about it. But the game is fun even with that low amount of upgrades.

Gameplay Score: 9/10

Difficulty

Since you can select difficulty when you start the game and change it during gameplay between the missions its not a major issue. I played on normal, and as a seasoned RTS player I had a lot of fun and some challenge in several encounters. Its so good that you can balance difficulty to your own expectations. So on normal the game is a bit challenging, thats good.

Difficulty Score: 6/10

Graphics

Iron Marines have cartoonish graphics, and overall it doesnt hurt the game too much. Everything seems balanced well, character design and enemies are unique and interesting. Personally I miss a little bit of details, and graphics looks too simple.

As a bonus we get a lot of easter eggs everywhere, so look closely and enjoy the small things.

Graphics Score: 7/10

Sounds and Music

Iron Marines have some nice soundtrack and sound effects. Music isnt interfering with gameplay and fits the game nicely. Troops commands are voice overed, which is a nice touch. And sounds of battle are nice to the ear, so there is nothing to complain about.

Sounds and Music Score: 8/10

F2P or P2W

Iron Marines in a paid game, and it costs 5 USD. I think its a good amount of content for 5 USD, and its definitely worth it. Atm the game is free for me in Play Market, so getting something like this free of charge is a fantastic offer, but I'd gladly pay for it.

One thing that surprised me, that even though that the game is paid, there are still ingame shop, where you can buy resources, more heroes, and other stuff. I dont like the idea of microtransactions in the paid products. Moreover atm I have only 3 heroes available, and others are priced. I just hope they are not behind the paywall and will unlock as I play the game (which is unlikely).

F2P Score: Game costs 5 USD.

Overall scores and Conclusion

Gameplay 9/10

Difficulty 6/10

Graphics 7/10

Sounds and BGM 8/10

F2P - paid game

If you liked Kingdom Rush series you wont be disappointed with Iron Marines. This is basically evolved Tower Defense game, that is now an RTS. Familiar mechanics, which I honestly missed a lot. So yeah, overall there are not that many bad things I can say about this game, just ingame shop and I want more progression.

Overall score: 8/10