Developed and published by indie developer Lasot Interactive, Rustic Defense is a tower-defense roguelike that requires clever tower placement and deep skill customization to win. If you are a fan of the tower-defense genre, you will already know that it normally follows the same traditional criteria, but there are a lot of indie games out there that not only capture the genre’s true soul but also introduce some twists to the gameplay. Rustic Defense is one such title that combines tower defense with roguelike mechanics. In our review of the PC Steam release of Rustic Defense, we will see how the roguelike mechanics fit into the tower-defense genre.
Rustic Defense follows the traditional tower-defense formula where you place towers, earn gold by killing enemies, buy more towers, and protect your fortress from falling. There is no narrative of any kind, and in the menu, you get straightforward modes where you can pick one and jump into the game without any complexities. The difficulty in the game is judged by the number of paths leading to your fortress and the total number of waves. Each time you jump into a mode, the map is randomly generated, so no two runs will feel the same. Unlike most games of the genre, where the map remains the same, Rustic Defense wants you to get better by learning strategic placement and progressing in the Skill Tree.
The gameplay loop remains the same for all runs. You start the game with a limited amount of gold, towers, and map visibility. Most of the map is hidden behind fog, which you must unveil to start enemy waves. Every time you click on an orange arrow, a fresh enemy wave will begin, and it does not matter which fog section you click; the wave spawns enemies from all of the available paths that you have unveiled so far. The towers you place on the sides of the path will attack and kill these enemies. If selected for a run, the Heroes will remain stationary on your Fortress and attack enemies that come close to it. The more you use the Heroes, the more powerful they become with XP. There is no restriction on where you can place the towers on the map. As long as there is an empty place, you can place a tower on it, even if it is not directly next to the path.
Certain positions benefit from placement like a tower or a hill, which give additional range bonus to towers placed on them. As you progress in a run, these towers gain XP and level up, or you can spend some gold to manually upgrade them. Each upgrade increases their reload speed and damage output. You also get a random deck of upgrades in the form of cards. These range from unlocking new towers, damage boosts, to other passive bonuses for your towers. You start a game with only your Arrow towers and must unlock the remaining through dealing a card. This introduces a new choice-based progression system that differs for every run. You can also select how a tower attacks the enemies, such as attacking closest or the weakest first.
You win a game by opening up the path to the Obelisk and destroying it. Certain paths lead to enemy encampments, and as you continue to open up paths, you will eventually start uncovering different biomes like the mountains, desert, or icy alps. Each biome will send unique enemies to your fortress, and mixed in with these normal waves are boss waves, where a boss will accompany normal enemies. Upon defeating these bosses, you will not only gain huge amounts of in-game gold but also unlock new content, such as heroes and bonus game modes to play. Once unlocked, you can try defeating these advanced levels like the Ice Age, where your towers freeze over time, or Totems, where enemies are immune to poison damage, and you have to destroy totems. These modes offer additional challenges while providing a change of pace from the regular tower-defense modes.
Despite its difficulty being on the higher side, I had a good time with the game because its gameplay loop is engaging and fun. Once you invest some XP into the Skill Tree and unlock some upgrades, you start seeing progress in your runs, and eventually, you start mowing down enemies that were giving you a tough time at the start. You just need to commit a few initial hours to the game and not give in to the frustration of dying again and again. Since it is a roguelike, it is pretty common for this genre to be challenging initially and then highly satisfying after some hours spent in it.
The roguelike nature also means that sometimes a map is easier or harder in the same game difficulty. For example, during some of my runs, the path leading to my fortress was twisted enough to give a single tower multiple chances of hitting the same enemy, but in some games, a straight path meant that the enemy could just cross swiftly before giving the towers ample time to take it down. This meant that your luck comes into play in the randomly-generated levels, and even on the easy difficulty, the game can feel tough if the map paths are less curvy. This results in interesting scenarios where you must adapt and change your strategy to suit the map design.
Rustic Defense is an impressive feat by its indie developer, and since its launch, the game has received multiple updates already. These updates have added not only new content but also visual improvements and balancing to the game. Future updates are also in the pipeline, which are promising new chapters and difficulty balance for new players. While it already offers hours of gameplay time, the new updates are going to increase its lifespan even further with additional content and improvements. The regular updates indicate the game will continue to grow thoughtfully over time, promising fresh ways to play for fans
Final Verdict:
Rustic Defense delivers a smart twist on the tower-defense formula, blending roguelike progression with meaningful skill customization. The core loop is satisfying, and the deep skill tree allows for flexible, strategic builds. However, real momentum only comes after some grinding to unlock stronger towers and upgrades. A diverse enemy list and thoughtful design keep each run engaging, making this a rewarding experience for players who enjoy long-term progression and strategic depth.
Final Score: 8.5/10
Disclaimer: A PC Steam review code for Rustic Defense was provided by Lasot Interactive for this review. Read our Review Policy.
