Why aren’t there more tower defence games on Facebook? Is it because they tend to be more difficult than the normal Facebook fare, or because they aren’t particularly social? Arcadelia challenges both of those notions with Apoteos: Steam Wars, a competitive multiplayer tower defence and attack game aimed squarely at the hardcore audience.
With its atmospheric steampunkart style, Apoteos is certainly easy on the eyes. It’s not nearly as easy on the impatient unwilling to spend the time to master the intricacies of unit management and deployment needed to excel in this strange little hybrid of multiplayer online battle arena and tower defence.
The goal is to protect or abscond with resources from a steam plant, which produces the vital energy that makes steampunk steampunk. The defending player places their units, upgrading them as attackers are taken out. The attacking player deploys waves of units in the hopes of overwhelming/destroying defenses, clearing a path to the prize.
The twist here is hero characters. Like mobile battle arena games, players can deploy heroes with upgadeable statistics and special powers that can be activated in battle. One character protects units she’s grouped with. Another snipes at attacking or defending units from afar. Players can form teams, giving teammates access to their preferred heroes in battle.
There’s a single-player story mode, introducing players to core concepts and game mechanics, but the real challenge is in mutliplayer. Choose to defend or attack and battle against the heroes and resources of another player. Winning earns money that can be used to purchase new units and heroes, or you can just spend a little cash on some special in-game currency.
Apoteos: Steam Wars is currently in beta, so there’s only a handful (by Facebook standards) of people playing. Ultimately its success will depend upon the community of players that springs up around it. Might as well get started early, right?
Apoteos: Steam Wars [Facebook]
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