Full Review of ‘Defend The Rook’ for PS4

“It’s game mechanics are complex and there is plenty of depth to them.”

Defend The Rook is roguelike strategy game with tower defence elements. It was first released in 2021 and is already available on both the Switch and PC. The game is out on PlayStation and Xbox this month. In this review, I am covering the PS4 version of this title.

Gameplay

Defend the Rook has 5 main stages. These levels are composed are multiple stages and waves of enemies. It is necessary to defeat all of them by using, not only your heroes, but also towers, traps and other assets that the game gives you all while defending the rook. I was impressed with the overall complexity of the battle system. There are many ways defeat your foes and advance through the game. After the end of each wave, you also get powerups for your main heroes, further adding to the complexity of the game’s mechanics. I did have a lot of fun planning what moves to take next and it was rewarding when I managed to progress. As you get further into the game, the enemies increase in power but you have the opportunity to enhance your towers and traps as you progress in between the stages. I really appreciated the added element of towers and traps as it makes the title stand out more from classic roguelike, turned based games. It is also worth mentioning that the game also has a very in-depth tutorial. It progressively introduces you to all the towers, traps and spells and is something I welcomed very much when playing for the first time.

Premise

The main premise of the game is that you (The Magister) have been hired by the gold clad-queen Jezebel to stop some kind of awful event that she fears may come to be. The plot is quite basic and I would have enjoyed there being more story elements throughout the game. Nevertheless, I feel that what this game lacks in story, it makes up for with the entertaining gameplay.

Graphics

The visual style of the game is appealing overall. It seems to run flawlessly and the graphics look crisp and pleasing to the eye. I had no real complaints concerning this aspect of the game.

Verdict

Defend the Rook is a entertaining title and I would definitely recommend it to fans of roguelike, strategy games. It’s game mechanics are complex and there is plenty of depth to them. This makes for a rewarding experience overall, and one that remains worth checking out despite the fairly basic story and the, at times, unnatural controls on console. Lastly, the addition of tower defence elements really helped it to stand out from the crowd. This along with the the gameplay in general left me with a largely positive impression.

Final Score = 8.0/10

Thanks go to Klabater for providing me with a review copy of this game.

The Video Review can be found below

Defend the Rook – Full Review – YouTube