Tower defense titles are really the ultimate thrill for defensive-minded gamers. If you like to play real-time strategy games or even 4X turn-based ones by throwing up walls, defenses, fields of fire, traps and even more walls, then tower defense titles can give you as much of that as you can probably handle. That said, for a long while, most of these types of titles being released kind of played follow the leader a little bit, maybe changing the setting or the types of towers and enemies, but not really innovating the genre.
There has been some recent innovation. Artisan TD added a really artistic element to the genre that was so aesthetically pleasing that it could have almost been part of one of those meditative games. Meanwhile, Thronefall gave players a fully controllable hero unit who could zip around the battlefield adding new defensive elements, leading charges and directly fighting enemies at choke points or wherever else they could do the most good.
But as fun as those games are (with both getting very good scores in their GiN reviews), their actual innovation compared with the classic tower defense formula was kind of minor. Enter The King is Watching, however, and you start to see some real innovation that will require a shift in defensive strategy in order to stay alive and survive the waves of bad guys heading towards your castle. The King is Watching is available right now on the Steam platform for under $15, making it a really good deal for those who enjoy tower defense with a twist.
The objective of The King is Watching is the same as in other similar titles in that waves of bad guys keep coming towards the castle over time, and if they are able to breach the walls then its game over. However, instead of putting up elaborate labyrinths to expose those attackers to lengthy bombardments as they march forward, you instead generate troops and send them down the road as well, which basically turns the game into an auto-battler. That is interesting, but the real innovation stems from how you generate those defensive troops.
When you build resource squares like fields or forests, or troop-generating ones like barracks, nothing happens at first, even though you need to expend resources to construct them. To actually activate those squares, you have to move a highlighted area over them that represents the king’s gaze. You see, in this kingdom nobody moves or does any work unless the king is watching them. Without direct royal supervision, everyone goes on a coffee break.
The king’s gaze mechanic adds a really interesting level of strategy and challenge to The King is Watching. Your town’s buildable area might be 25 squares (five down and five across), but at first your king’s gaze is only going to be a few squares, maybe four by four.
So, if you want to build a peasant’s barracks, which produces the lowest level of troops, you first need to construct a field for food, a well for water and a forest for wood. Then once you have the required materials, you can build a peasant’s house to generate troops. Now, if your gaze is four by four, then you can do all that within the highlighted area and start making troops. But what if you need another house to generate more troops? At some point you will need to shift the gaze to highlight both barracks to generate troops, which means you are not going to be collecting key resources at the same time.
Managing and banking resources gets complicated fast when new troops or castle upgrades require new resources like stone, coal, silver, magic crystals, gold or other elements. Even with your king’s gaze leveling up to simultaneously cover more squares, you can’t do everything you need all at once.
You will often feel frustrated because you are not actively collecting some key resource that you need because your gaze is needed elsewhere. That makes building placement just as important as anything else in The King is Watching.
The battles themselves are challenging, especially because you have no direct control over them. You might be able to indirectly affect the outcome using magic, but your troops will attack whoever they want, generally the closest enemy. This makes mounted troops pretty powerful because they can (and often do) race past the front line to attack support troops in the back, although every unit has its uses. There is a lot to learn about how to successfully defend your keep, from building placement to troop strategies.
The King is Watching is also packed full of special events where you will get a story-based choice about some amazing events happening in your kingdom. Your choices in those can radically change the outcome of a run, opening up new opportunities or powers, or maybe making things a bit more difficult. This tends to add to the replay value too although every game is going to be different even without those random events.
This is also a roguelike game meaning that even if you fail a run, which will surely happen as you learn the ropes of this unique title, you can earn powers and special abilities that will carry over into future plays. That makes subsequent runs a bit easier and helps to flatten out the learning curve at the cost of quite a bit of grinding.
The King is Watching breathes fresh life into the tower defense genre by forcing players to juggle both resource management and battlefield strategy under the watchful eye of a very literal king’s gaze. Its mix of auto-battler mechanics, roguelike progression and an innovative “only work when watched” twist that creates a tense but rewarding experience that keeps players coming back for just one more run. For fans who think they’ve mastered every possible tower defense tactic, The King is Watching proves there’s still room for surprise, and plenty of opportunities for defeat before finally achieving victory.